Goin' Viral: Uncontrollable Black Performance (New Black Studies Series)

By: Gabriel A. Peoples

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Synopsis: Black virality refers to the spread of Black performance that becomes uncontrollable because of its rapid and ubiquitous circulation through popular media. Gabriel A. Peoples examines Black people and representations of Black people that have gone viral from the eighteenth century to today. Peoples’s analysis ranges from abolitionist and proslavery visual culture to Do the Right Thing to “Bed Intruder Song” and the cellphone video of Derrion Albert’s murder. After identifying these moments, he considers how performances go viral in Black ways. He also thinks through the ways Black virality circulates ideas that materially affect Black life. As he shows, an interacting person’s vulnerability to racialized gender and racialized sexuality knowledge inspires how they spread a performance. Non-iconic elements of viral moments reveal hard-to-find nuances of Black life while the artists and others represented in viral moments promote both collective and individual liberation by harnessing their visibility and audibility. Rigorous and expansive, Goin’ Viral uses Black virality as a new way to understand and frame Black performances.

Book Quality:: Publisher Quality
ISBN-13:: 9780252088742
Related ISBNs:: 9780252046643
Publisher:: University of Illinois Press
Date of Addition:: 07/22/25
Copyrighted By:: the Board of Trustees
Adult content:: No
Language:: English
Has Image Descriptions:: No
Categories:: History, Entertainment, Nonfiction, Art and Architecture, Social Studies
Submitted By:: Bookshare Staff
Usage Restrictions:: This is a copyrighted book.