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About Vershawn Young

NBN Episodes hosted by Vershawn:

African American Studies February 17, 2014

The Sovereignty of Quiet

Beyond Resistance in Black Culture

Kevin Quashie

Hosted by Vershawn Young
Musician James Brown is famous for his civil rights slogan, "Say it loud; I'm Black and I'm proud," illustrating the argument that Kevin Quashie makes in his new book The …
African American Studies February 5, 2014

Alex Haley's Roots

An Author's Odyssey

Adam Henig

Hosted by Vershawn Young
Alex Haley's 1976 book Roots: The Saga of an American Family still stands as a memorable epic journey into the history of African Americans during the enslavement period and after …
African American Studies January 29, 2014

Conflict

African American Women and the New Dilemma of Race and Gender Politics

Cindy Hooper

Hosted by Vershawn Young
Cindy Hooper is a veteran of various local, state, and national political campaigns. She is the founder of a national organization for African American women that is headquartered in Washington …
African American Studies August 9, 2013

White Bound

Nationalists, Antiracists, and the Shared Meanings of Race

Matthew W. Hughey

Hosted by Vershawn Young
Whiteness studies has confirmed that race is a social construction, even for whites, and that the identity we understand as white is also a social invention. Those who benefit from …
African American Studies July 18, 2013

Vernacular Insurrections

Race, Black Protest, and the New Century in Composition-Literacies Studies

Carmen Kynard

Hosted by Vershawn Young
You know you are not going to get the same old story about progressive literacies and education from Carmen Kynard, who ends the introduction to her book with a saying …
African American Studies July 11, 2013

PHD to Ph.D.

How Education Saved My Life

Elaine Richardson

Hosted by Vershawn Young
Elaine Richardson recounts the Jamaican mother wit that her "mama dished out...in artless artful sayings" but that Richardson "tried to desperately dismiss" in her new literacy narrative. Yet, it is …
African American Studies July 8, 2013

A Most Stirring and Significant Episode

Religion and the Rise and Fall of Prohibition in Black Atlanta, 1865-1887

H. Paul Thompson Jr.

Hosted by Vershawn Young
The American Temperance Movement remains an interesting and important topic. Considering the various attitudes that influenced laws about alcohol sale and consumption of the past are often referred to when …
African American Studies June 23, 2013

The Radical Fiction of Ann Petry

Keith Clark

Hosted by Vershawn Young
What do you do if you accompany a friend on her research trip to Boston University's Gotlieb Archival Research Center and end up finding a treasure trove of letters, news …
African American Studies May 8, 2013

Dividing Lines

Social Class Anxiety and Postbellum Black Fiction

Andre Williams

Hosted by Vershawn Young
Andrei Williams' provocative new book on African American class divisions in Post-Reconstruction and Jim Crow America is sure to spark spirited debate among those interested in how the interplay of …
African American Studies January 30, 2013

The Will of a People

A Critical Anthology of Great African American Speeches

Richard W. Leeman and Bernard Duffy, eds.

Hosted by Vershawn Young
The Will of a People: A Critical Anthology of Great African American Speeches (Southern Illinois University Press, 2012) is a compendium of 22 orations delivered by African Americans over a …
African American Studies January 11, 2013

Clearly Invisible

Racial Passing and the Color of Cultural Identity

Marcia Alesan Dawkins

Hosted by Vershawn Young
Performance queen RuPaul once famously quipped that "we're born naked; the rest is drag"--meaning everyone dons identity, performs one's concept of self within our social networks, e.g., family, community, work …
African American Studies December 20, 2012

Pulling Scabs

Curtis Crisler

Hosted by Vershawn Young
Curtis L. Crisler is a prolific poet, novelist, and mix-genre author who writes about the American experience. In his work, Crisler turns a particularly keen eye toward the Midwest, masculinity …
African American Studies December 13, 2012

Moral Combat

Black Atheists, Gender Politics, and the Values Wars

Sikivu Hutchinson

Hosted by Vershawn Young
Sikivu Hutchinson's book Moral Combat: Black Atheists, Gender Politics, and the Values Wars (Infidel Books, 2011) is a brave examination of African American religious perspectives vis a vis progressive racial …
African American Studies August 15, 2012

In the Cause of Freedom

Radical Black Internationalism from Harlem to London, 1917-1939

Minkah Makalani

Hosted by Vershawn Young
Minkah Makalani is the author of a new intellectual history on the efforts of early twentieth century black radicals to organize an international movement, one that would address both racial …
African American Studies July 30, 2012

This Fragile Life

A Mother's Story of a Bipolar Son

Charlotte Pierce-Baker

Hosted by Vershawn Young
When a mother listens to the beats of her own heart, where angst, fear and fortitude compete, and then beautifully weaves emotion into a story about her ongoing journey to …
African American Studies June 29, 2012

Charisma and the Fictions of Black Leadership

Erica Edwards

Hosted by Vershawn Young
Picture the familiar scene: the visiting pastor thanks the local pastor for granting him the use of his pulpit; he sends out the call ("Can I just speak with you …
African American Studies June 29, 2012

Living with Lynching

African American Lynching Plays, Performance, and Citizenship, 1890-1930

Koritha Mitchell

Hosted by Vershawn Young
Koritha Mitchell's Living with Lynching: African American Lynching Plays, Performance, and Citizenship, 1890-1930 (University of Illinois Press, 2012) is, as described on the publisher's webpage, "the first full-length critical study …
African American Studies May 29, 2012

Prove It on Me

New Negroes, Sex, and Popular Culture in the 1920s

Erin Chapman

Hosted by Vershawn Young
Whoever states the old adage, "A picture is worth a thousand words" grossly underestimates. So Erin D. Chapman shows in Prove It On Me: New Negroes, Sex, and Popular Culture …
African American Studies March 19, 2012

Hellfightin'

Makalani Bandele

Hosted by Vershawn Young
There is no better description of poet Makalani Bandele's debut book Hellfightin' (Willow Books, 2012) than the one found on his comprehensive website: "Derived from the nickname the French …
African American Studies March 9, 2012

Dorothy West's Paradise

A Biography of Class and Color

Cherene Sherrard-Johnson

Hosted by Vershawn Young
One lesson that the ever-present trickster figure in African American folklore teaches is how to use signifying to protect one's intimate self. A challenge of writing Dorothy West's life is …
African American Studies February 16, 2012

Keepin' It Hushed

The Barbershop and African American Hush Harbor Rhetoric

Vorris Nunley

Hosted by Vershawn Young
Vorris Nunley's Keepin it Hushed: The Barbershop and African American Hush Harbor Rhetoric (Wayne State University Press, 2011), uses the black barbershop as a trope to discuss black talk within …
African American Studies January 24, 2012

!Venceremos?

The Erotics of Black Self-Making in Cuba

Jafari S. Allen,

Hosted by Vershawn Young
Jafari S. Allen's !Venceremos?: The Erotics of Black Self-Making in Cuba (Duke University Press, 2011) is a meticulously researched and exquisitely theorized ethnography that begins with a queer speculation of …
African American Studies November 17, 2011

Street Shadows

A Memoir of Race, Rebellion, and Redemption

Jerald Walker

Hosted by Vershawn Young
Jerald Walker's critical autobiography, Street Shadows: A Memoir of Race, Rebellion, and Redemption (Bantam, 2010), is a sheer pleasure to read. A book-length series of vignettes, reflections that alternate between …
African American Studies November 1, 2011

The Invisible Line

Three American Families and the Secret Journey from Black to White

Daniel Sharfstein

Hosted by Vershawn Young
Daniel Sharfstein's The Invisible Line: Three American Families and the Secret Journey from Black to White (Penguin Press, 2011) is the latest and perhaps best book in the growing genre …