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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 …
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