The book is here...
Book launch, preliminary thoughts on the new Kendrick, and more.
Reading Black Books is out and into the wild!
Thank you to all that have bought, shared, and supported this book as it makes its way into world.
I hope readers find the book stimulating, edifying, and transformative. I started working on this project in earnest in March 2020. While writing this book, my mom had a stroke, our two-year old daughter had a major surgery, our eldest son broke his arm and foot in a fall that could have been much worse, and we faced other challenges I’ll save for a future memoir.
It took a lot to get to the finish line. I’m thankful for the support of my wife, my kids, and my friends. This is their book, too.
We had a successful book launch event at The Haven in Charlottesville. Shout out to my friend and author Sean Rubin for helping this first-time author plan and pull that off. (Sean’s got several excellent books out for the kids and adults in your life that I heartily commend you to, including Bolivar and This Very Tree.)
UPCOMING GIVEAWAY FOR READING BLACK BOOKS
Stay locked in with Brazos Press on socials for a giveaway next week that is quite the bundle: You can win my book and the main novels I discuss therein. That’s a good haul.
I also have some audiobook codes for Reading Black Books. If y’all are interested in that, let me know and I can set up a giveaway for the people on my newsletter list.
In the meantime, please drop a review of the book on Amazon and Goodreads, if you’ve read it, and appreciated the work. Share about it with friends and enemies. And let me know what you think as you read. Would love to hear from y’all.
QUICK THOUGHTS ON KENDRICK’S ALBUM
After a five year hiatus, Kendrick Lamar returns with Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers. The album is masterfully crafted, brutally honest, and a fairly uncomfortable foray into the trauma, demons, and musings of one of the singular artists of our generations.
I’ll have some fuller thoughts on the album coming shortly in an article for Think Christian, but for now, I’ll mention what interests me most about the project since it’s deep and complex enough to generate analyses on lots of things: trauma, celebrity, spirituality, deconstruction, abuse, daddy issues, gender dysphoria, COVID, conspiracy theories, and more.
In my view, Lamar’s willingness to lay himself bare, unfurling his addictions and family trauma is most notable for its rarity in hip hop’s mainstream. Folks might point to Jay-Z’s 4:44 album as a counterpoint and catalyst for vulnerability in upper echelon mainstream (key word there) hip hop. But they would be wrong since Mr. Carter’s vulnerability on 4:44 was forced by Beyonce outing his infidelity on Lemonade. 4:44’s vulnerability is meaningful while also being reactionary.
Lamar’s feel more proactive, and the album suggests that he is leveraging his trauma for a communal purpose of healing. (There’s a fair amount of thematic connection to that motif and my chapter on Toni Morrison’s Beloved.) He announces his intent on “Mother I Sober” declaring, “One man standin' on two words, heal everybody.”
Lamar unveils his wounds in ways uncomfortable and uncommon to hip hop as a genre, celebrity as a platform, and masculinity as generally conceived. Author Dante Stewart offers insight on the wounds of black males that highlights the necessity of Lamar’s vulnerability. Stewart writes:
“We have been so used to running fast, jumping high, getting the grades, escaping the most painful parts of ourselves and what has happened to us. It is not our fault. We must face ourselves and this damage for us to heal. We are not okay. That’s okay. But we must confront the pain.”
Lamar has chosen confrontation over escape, arousing listeners to the same noble mission. Listening to Lamar’s new offering is like watching to a generational talent shed the skin of his trauma. It is inspiring, even as it takes earnest but misguided turns. Lamar’s example is something of an alternative to notions of manhood that hide pain, mask shame, and stuff trauma behind a tough exterior.
COME TO THE GLEN IN JULY
Join me at this summer’s Glen Workshop in Asheville, NC where I’ll teach a seminar on “Black Fiction & the Renewal of the Christian Imagination.” Learn more + register here.
