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Black Boys Like Me: Confrontations with Race, Identity, and Belonging
by Matthew R. Morris&“Black Boys Like Me ignited parts of me I honestly didn't believe any book could ever know. . . . Seldom do incredibly titled books earn their titles. Matthew R. Morris earns this classic title with a classic book about our insides.&” —Kiese Laymon, author of Heavy Startlingly honest, bracing personal essays from a perceptive educator that bring us into the world of Black masculinity, hip-hop culture, and learning.This is an examination of the parts that construct my Black character; from how public schooling shapes our ideas about ourselves to how hip-hop and sports are simultaneously the conduit for both Black abundance and Black boundaries. This book is a meditation on the influences that have shaped Black boys like me.What does it mean to be a young Black man with an immigrant father and a white mother, teaching in a school system that historically has held an exclusionary definition of success?In eight illuminating essays, Matthew R. Morris grapples with this question, and others related to identity and perception. After graduating high school in Scarborough, Morris spent four years in the U.S. on multiple football scholarships and, having spent that time in the States experiencing &“the Mecca of hip hop and Black culture,&” returned home with a newfound perspective.Now an elementary school teacher himself in Toronto, Morris explores the tension between his consumption of Black culture as a child, his teenage performances of the ideas and values of the culture that often betrayed his identity, and the ways society and the people guiding him—his parents, coaches, and teachers—received those performances. What emerges is a painful journey toward transcending performance altogether, toward true knowledge of the self.With the wide-reaching scope of Desmond Cole&’s The Skin We&’re In and the introspective snapshot of life in Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates, Black Boys Like Me is an unflinching debut that invites readers to create braver spaces and engage in crucial conversations around race and belonging.
Black Buffalo Woman: An Introduction to the Poetry & Poetics of Lucille Clifton
by Kazim AliThis long-awaited and much-needed volume shines new light on one of America’s most beloved, and profound, poets—Lucille Clifton.Black Buffalo Woman is a deep, comprehensive dive into Clifton’s work through the eyes of celebrated poet and scholar, Kazim Ali. Collecting chapters of Clifton’s early manuscripts, late drafts, and integrating her books of children’s literature, Ali’s meticulously researched volume provides a brilliant and fresh perspective on Clifton’s life and work.Various chapters examine Clifton’s treatment of the body as a site of both joy and danger, spirituality, and interrogation of American history, politics, and popular culture. The result of Ali’s scholarship and care highlights a dazzling array of Clifton’s poetic techniques and forms that will continue to inspire poets for decades to come.
Black Cake, Turtle Soup, and Other Dilemmas: Essays
by Gloria BlizzardA diasporic collection of essays on music, memory, and motion.In this powerful and deeply personal collection, Gloria Blizzard uses traditional narrative essays, hybrid structures, and the tools of poetry to negotiate the complexities of culture, geography, and language in an international diasporic quest.These essays of wayfinding accompany anyone exploring issues of belonging — to a family, a neighbourhood, a group, or a country. Here, the small is profound, the intimate universal; the questions are all relevant and the answers of our times require simultaneous multiple perspectives.
Black Capitalists: A Blueprint for What Is Possible
by Rachel Laryea PhDA groundbreaking look at how Black visionaries—from Wall Street to Lagos and beyond—are reimagining capitalism to benefit the needs of Black people and, ultimately, everyone.&“Black Capitalists is a dive into the history of how money is made and our attitudes about wealth. A must read.&”—Vanessa Williams, singer, actress, author, producer, and former Miss AmericaTo many, the term &“Black Capitalists&” is oxymoronic. Black people were the labor force that built the infrastructure of American capitalism through the violent enforcement of legalized slavery, so they cannot, and should not, aspire to be the beneficiaries of it. But Wall Street professional and Yale-educated anthropologist Dr. Rachel Laryea poses a provocative question: What if there was a way to thrive within capitalism without diminishing someone else&’s life chances through exploitative practices? There is—and Black Capitalists are showing us how.Told through Dr. Laryea's own compelling narrative—growing up the child of a single mother who immigrated to the United States from Ghana and rose to the Ivy League and on Wall Street—with original on-the-ground reporting and rigorous historical analysis, Black Capitalists challenges readers to reconsider who gets to be the beneficiary of capitalism and reckons with the responsibility that comes with using the tools of our imperfect economic system to advance social good. Dr. Laryea reveals in detail how race profoundly shapes the way we participate in capitalism—and how understanding these differences can guide us toward a more inclusive and equitable future. From newly minted undergraduates who find themselves working twenty-hour days to prove their worth on Wall Street to Nigerian startup founders working to build global credit scores, spanning the streets of Accra to the boardrooms of Goldman Sachs, Black Capitalists&’ stories and analysis of innovators who are as ambitious as they are altruistic demonstrate the resilience, creativity, and ingenuity of Black people who have long been excluded from the full benefits of the American economic system. At its core, Black Capitalists shows a more productive, and more inclusive, way forward.
Black Cat 2-1: The True Story of a Vietnam Helicopter Pilot and His Crew
by Bob Ford&“This moving memoir about the gritty life of a military helicopter pilot fills a gap in the genre of Vietnam literature.&”—Foreword Reviews In the Vietnam War, 2,197 helicopter pilots and 2,717 crew members were killed. Black Cat 2-1 is the story of one pilot who made it home and the valiant men he served with who risked their lives for the troops on the ground. Bob Ford invites readers into the Huey helicopters he flew on more than 1,000 missions when he and his men dared to protect and rescue. For those whose voices were silenced in that faraway place or who have never told their stories, he creates a tribute that reads like a thriller, captures the humor of men at war, and resounds with respect for those who served with honor.An Oklahoma Book Award Finalist &“Bob Ford&’s account of his year in the command seat of his ship of salvation is a priceless contribution to the literary canon of that war.&”—David A. Maurer, Special Forces veteran, author of The Dying Place &“[Ford] brings to life his story so the reader can experience what it may have been like—and how the troops felt at the time. With moments that feel like they were written for a movie, Black Cat 2-1 will take you in the air over Vietnam and through some of the hardest missions you could expect.&”—Week99er &“This memoir is hard to beat.&”—Air & Space/Smithsonian &“Capably written.&”—Publishers Weekly &“Refreshing . . . evocative descriptions of combat flying.&”—The VVA Veteran
Black Chameleon: Memory, Womanhood, and Myth
by Deborah D.E.E.P. MoutonNamed one of The Root's 2023 Best Books by Black Authors It's often said that Black women are magic, but what if they really are mythological?Growing up as a Black girl in America, Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton yearned for stories she could connect to—true ones, of course, but also fables and mythologies that could help explain both the world and her place in it. Greek and Roman myths felt as dusty and foreign as ancient ruins, and tales by Black authors were often rooted too far in the past, a continent away.Mouton’s memoir is a praise song and an elegy for Black womanhood. She tells her own story while remixing myths and drawing on traditions from all over the world: mothers literally grow eyes in the backs of their heads, children dust the childhood off their bodies, and women come to love the wildness of the hair they once tried to tame. With a poet’s gift for lyricism and poignancy, Mouton reflects on her childhood as the daughter of a preacher and a harsh but loving mother, living in the world as a Black woman whose love is all too often coupled with danger, and finally learning to be a mother to another Black girl in America.Of the moment yet timeless, playful but incendiary, Mouton has staked out new territory in the memoir form.
Black Civil War Veterans in Washington State (American Heritage)
by Cynthia A. WilsonMen of ValorIn the late 1800s, the new state of Washington promised peace and prosperity to new settlers. At least thirty-three African American men who had served during the Civil War answered the call. Paul Barrows, a former legislator from Mississippi, established the Calvary Baptist Church of Spokane. Gideon H. Stump Bailey became the first African American Justice of the Peace in Franklin. Allin Alfred Hawkins, born into slavery, became one of the wealthiest African American farmers in the Yakima Valley.Author Cynthia A. Wilson uncovers the stories of these courageous men.
Black Country to Red China: One girl's story from war-torn England to Revolutionary China
by Esther Cheo YingBorn in pre-Revolutionary China and brought up in the Midlands, Esther Cheo Ying returned to China in 1949 after a traumatic childhood, convinced that there she would find the happiness and sense of belonging she longed for. Caught up in the turmoil of civil war and sympathetic to the Communist Revolution, she joined the Red Army and then stayed on to work in the new People's Republic. But despite her determination to make a new life in China could she truly be happy in a country which encouraged constant self-criticism and viewed her as a 'false foreign devil'? Black Country to Red China is an extraordinary account of life before the Cultural Revolution, but it is also a fascinating insight into one woman's struggle to come to terms with your own identity.
Black Dahlia, Red Rose: A 'Times Book of the Year'
by Piu Eatwell******* A TIMES 'BOOK OF THE YEAR' **********Shortlisted for the CWA Dagger for non-fiction***'A magnificent, meticulous and startling re-examination of a crime that haunts the world's imagination' Geoffrey Wansell, author of An Evil Love: The Life of Frederick West'Eatwell writes brilliantly . . . [she] has finally offered [Elizabeth] Short a type of belated justice. Her book reads like a thriller' Sunday Times'A compelling read, in both style and substance . . . A must-read for anyone with an interest in the Black Dahlia - or indeed any fan of the true-crime genre' Rod Reynolds, author of The Dark Inside'Compulsively readable, impeccably researched and heart-rending at times . . . Superb' Sarah Lotz, author of The Three and The White Road*************On 15th January 1947, the naked, dismembered body of a black-haired beauty, Elizabeth Short, was discovered lying next to a pavement in a Hollywood suburb. She was quickly nicknamed The Black Dahlia.The homicide inquiry that followed consumed Los Angeles for years and the authorities blew millions of dollars of resources on an investigation that threw up dozens of suspects. But it never was solved.Until now.In this ground-breaking book, Piu Eatwell reveals compelling forensic and eye witness evidence for the first time, which finally points to the identity of the murderer. The case was immortalised in James Ellroy's famous novel based on the case, in Kenneth Anger's Hollywood Babylon and Brian de Palma's movie The Black Dahlia.This is a dark tale of sex, manipulation, obsession, psychopathy and one of the biggest police cover ups in history.
Black Dahlia, Red Rose: A 'Times Book of the Year'
by Piu Eatwell'Eatwell writes brilliantly . . . [she] has finally offered [Elizabeth] Short a type of belated justice. Her book reads like a thriller' Sunday Times'A compelling read, in both style and substance . . . A must-read for anyone with an interest in the Black Dahlia - or indeed any fan of the true-crime genre' Rod Reynolds, author of The Dark Inside'Compulsively readable, impeccably researched and heart-rending at times . . . Superb' Sarah Lotz, author of The Three and The White Road*************On 15th January 1947, the naked, dismembered body of a black-haired beauty, Elizabeth Short, was discovered lying next to a pavement in a Hollywood suburb. She was quickly nicknamed The Black Dahlia.The homicide inquiry that followed consumed Los Angeles for years and the authorities blew millions of dollars of resources on an investigation that threw up dozens of suspects. But it never was solved.Until now.In this ground-breaking book, Piu Eatwell reveals compelling forensic and eye witness evidence for the first time, which finally points to the identity of the murderer. The case was immortalised in James Ellroy's famous novel based on the case, in Kenneth Anger's Hollywood Babylon and Brian de Palma's movie The Black Dahlia.This is a dark tale of sex, manipulation, obsession, psychopathy and one of the biggest police cover ups in history. (p)2017 Hodder & Stoughton Limited
Black Diamond: The Story of the Negro Baseball Leagues
by Patricia C. Mckissack Fredrick MckissackA stirring tribute to the human drama, legendary heroes, infamous owners, low pay, and long bus rides that were the Negro Leagues. A 1995 Coretta Scott King Honor Book now in a striking Polaris edition. Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.
Black Directors in Hollywood
by Melvin DonalsonThis book offers a first comprehensive look at the work of black directors in Hollywood, from pioneers such as Gordon Parks, Melvin Van Peebles, and Ossie Davis to current talents including Spike Lee, John Singleton, Kasi Lemmons, and Carl Franklin. Discussing 67 individuals and over 135 films, Melvin Donalson thoroughly explores how black directors' storytelling skills and film techniques have widened both the thematic focus and visual style of American cinema. Assessing the meanings and messages in their films, he convincingly demonstrates that black directors are balancing Hollywood's demand for box office success with artistic achievement and responsibility to ethnic, cultural, and gender issues.
Black Diva of the Thirties: The Life of Ruby Elzy (Willie Morris Books in Memoir and Biography)
by David E. WeaverWhile undergoing routine surgery to remove a benign tumor, Ruby Elzy died. She was only thirty-five. Had she lived, she would have been one of the first Black artists to appear in grand opera. Although now in the shadows, she was a shining star in her day. She entertained Eleanor Roosevelt in the White House. She was Paul Robeson's leading lady in the movie version of The Emperor Jones. She starred in Birth of the Blues opposite Bing Crosby and Mary Martin. She sang at Harlem's Apollo Theater and in the Hollywood Bowl. Her remarkable soprano voice was known to millions over the radio. She was personally chosen by George Gershwin to create one of the leading roles in his masterpiece, that of Serena in the original production of Porgy and Bess. Her signature song was the vocally demanding “My Man's Gone Now.” From obscurity she had risen to great heights. Ruby Pearl Elzy (1908-1943) was born in abject poverty in Pontotoc, Mississippi. Her father abandoned the family when she was five, leaving her mother, a strong, devout woman, to raise four small children. Ruby first sang publicly at the age of four and even in childhood dreamed of a career on the stage. Good fortune struck when a visiting professor, overwhelmed upon hearing her beautiful voice at Rust College in Mississippi, arranged for her to study music at Ohio State University. Later, on a Rosenwald Fellowship, she enrolled at the Juilliard School in New York City. After more than eight hundred performances in Porgy and Bess, she set her sights on a huge goal, to sing in grand opera. She was at the peak of her form. While she was preparing for her debut in the title role of Verdi's Aida, tragedy struck. During her brief career, Ruby Elzy was in the top tier of American sopranos and a precursor who paved a way for Leontyne Price, Jessye Norman, Kathleen Battle, and other black divas of the operatic stage. This biography acknowledges her exceptional talent, recognizes her contribution to American music, and tells her tragic yet inspiring story.
Black Dog Daze: Public Life, Private Demons
by Andrew RobbAndrew Robb lived with an unspoken fear that what he passed off as 'not being good in the mornings' was something darker: a black dog whose daily visit lasted longer as the years passed. Worried about stigmas and letting people down, he avoided confronting the problem for four decades, the adrenaline of high-pressure and high profile jobs offering the ideal antidote. Ultimately, realising his ambitions meant having to face up to this very private demon.Andrew Robb's battle with the black dog has touched a chord with many Australians. His memoir explores the challenges of managing depression, political ambition and life in the Liberal Party.Andrew Robb's career has been devoted to the Liberal cause—as Federal Director of the Liberal Party, as Executive Director of the National Farmers Federation, during seven years in the Packer business empire, and now in parliamentary politics. His memoirs document the private struggle and the public life of the Liberal Party's chief political strategist. It offers readers an insight into one man's lifelong battle with a private demon amidst the drama and tumult of contemporary Australian politics.
Black Dog of Fate: A Memoir
by BalakianIn this tenth anniversary edition of his award-winning memoir, New York Times bestselling author Peter Balakian has expanded his compelling story about growing up in the baby-boom suburbs of the ’50s and ’60s and coming to understand what happened to his family in the first genocide of the twentieth century—the Ottoman Turkish government’s extermination of more than one million Armenians in 1915. In this new edition, Balakian continues his exploration of the Armenian Genocide with new chapters about his journey to Aleppo and his trip to the Der Zor desert of Syria in his pursuit of his grandmother’s life, bringing us closer to the twentieth century’s first genocide.
Black Dog: The Dreams of Paul Nash
by Dave McKeanA new original graphic novel by DAVE McKEAN!Best known for his collaborations with Neil Gaiman, Dave McKean defied expectations with his stunning debut as writerand artist in Cages, winner of multiple awards for Best Graphic Album. Dark Horse proudly presents a new original graphic novel by the legendary artist based on the life of Paul Nash, a surrealist painter during World War I. The Dreams of Paul Nash deals with real soldiers&’ memoirs, and all the stories add up to a moving piece about how war and extreme situations change us and how we deal with the resultant pain—in Nash&’s case, by turning his landscapes into powerful and fantastical &“psychoscapes.
Black Eagle Child
by Ray A. Young BearStories of life on a Native American settlement during the 50s,60s and 70s. Told in poetry in prose.
Black Eagle Child: The Facepaint Narratives (Singular Lives Ser.)
by Ray Young BearMixing prose and poetry, ancient traditions and modern sensibilities, this brilliant, profane, and poignant coming-of-age story is a masterpiece of Native American literature At a Thanksgiving party held in a Bureau of Indian Affairs gymnasium, the elders of the Meskwaki Settlement in central Iowa sip coffee while the teenagers plot their escape. Edgar Bearchild and Ted Facepaint, too broke to join their friends for a night of drinking in a nearby farm town, decide to attend a ceremonial gathering of the Well-Off Man Church, a tribal sect with hallucinogenic practices. After partaking of the congregation's sacred star medicine, Edgar receives a prophetic vision and comes to a newfound understanding of his people's past and present that will ultimately reshape the course of his life. Set against the backdrop of the tumultuous 1960s, Black Eagle Child is the story of Edgar's passage from boyhood to manhood, from his youthful misadventures with Ted, to his year at prestigious liberal arts college in California, to his return to Iowa and success as a poet. Deftly crossing genre boundaries and weaving together a multitude of tones and images--from grief to humor, grape Jell-O to supernatural strobe lights--it is also an unforgettable portrait of what it means to be a Native American in the modern world.
Black Earth: Selected Poems and Prose
by Osip MandelstamRussia’s foremost modernist master in a major new translation Osip Mandelstam has become an almost mythical figure of modern Russian poetry, his work treasured all over the world for its lyrical beauty and innovative, revolutionary engagement with the dark times of the Stalinist era. While he was exiled in the city of Voronezh, the black earth region of Russia, his work, as Joseph Brodsky wrote, developed into “a poetry of high velocity and exposed nerves, becoming more a song than ever before, not a bardlike but a birdlike song … something like a goldfinch tremolo.” Peter France—who has been brilliantly translating Mandelstam’s work for decades—draws heavily from Mandelstam’s later poetry written in Voronezh, while also including poems across the whole arc of the poet’s tragically short life, from his early, symbolist work to the haunting elegies of old Petersburg to his defiant “Stalin poem.” A selection of Mandelstam’s prose irradiates the poetry with warmth and insight as he thinks back on his Petersburg childhood and contemplates his Jewish heritage, the sunlit qualities of Hellenism, Dante’s Tuscany, and the centrality of poetry in society.
Black Elk Speaks: Being the Life Story of a Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux
by John G. NeihardtThe most famous Native American book ever written, Black Elk Speaks is the acclaimed story of Lakota visionary and healer Nicholas Black Elk (1863-1950) and his people during the momentous, twilight years of the nineteenth century. Black Elk grew up in a time when white settlers were invading the Lakotas' homeland, decimating buffalo herds and threatening to extinguish their way of life. Black Elk and other Lakotas fought back, a dogged resistance that resulted in a remarkable victory at the Little Bighorn and an unspeakable tragedy at Wounded Knee. Beautifully told through the celebrated poet and writer John G. Neihardt, Black Elk Speaks offers much more than a life story. Black Elk's profound and arresting religious visions of the unity of humanity and the world around him have transformed his account into a venerated spiritual classic. Whether appreciated as a collaborative autobiography, a history of a Native American nation, or an enduring spiritual testament for all humankind, Black Elk Speaks is unforgettable. This special edition features all three prefaces to Black Elk Speaks that John G. Neihardt wrote at different points in his life, a map of Black Elk's world, a reset text with Lakota words reproduced using the latest orthographic standards, and color paintings by Lakota artist Standing Bear that have not been widely available for decades.
Black Elk Speaks: Being the Life Story of a Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux (Premier Edition)
by John G. NeihardtBlack Elk Speaks is widely hailed as a religious classic, one of the best spiritual books of the modern era and the bestselling book of all time by an American Indian. This inspirational and unfailingly powerful story reveals the life and visions of the Lakota healer Nicholas Black Elk (1863-1950) and the tragic history of his Sioux people during the epic closing decades of the Old West. In 1930, the aging Black Elk met a kindred spirit, the famed poet, writer, and critic John G. Neihardt (1881-1973) on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. The Lakota elder chose Neihardt to share his visions and life with the world. Neihardt understood and today Black Elk is known to all.
Black Elk, Lakota Visionary: The Oglala Holy Man and Sioux Tradition
by Harry OldmeadowBlack Elk (1863-1950), the Lakota holy man, is beloved by millions of readers around the world. The book Black Elk Speaks is the most widely-read Native American testimony of the last century and a key work in our understanding of American Indian traditions. In Black Elk, Lakota Visionary, Harry Oldmeadow draws on recently discovered sources and in-depth research to provide a major re-assessment of Black Elk&’s life and work. The author explores Black Elk&’s mystical visions, his controversial engagement with Catholicism, and his previously unrecognized attempts to preserve and revive ancestral Sioux beliefs and practices. Oldmeadow&’s lively and highly readable account also examines the controversies that have surrounded Black Elk and his collaborators, John G. Neihardt and Joseph Epes Brown. Oldmeadow judiciously explains why both Black Elk Speaks and The Sacred Pipe: Black Elk&’s Account of the Seven Rites of the Oglala Sioux are to be ranked amongst the most profound spiritual documents of the twentieth century. Black Elk, Lakota Visionary will command the attention of every reader who is interested in the American Indians, providing fascinating insights into their ancestral traditions prior to the reservation era, the subsequent destruction and revival of their traditional ways, and the vital lessons which the contemporary world might draw from their spiritual legacy.
Black Elk: The Life of an American Visionary
by Joe JacksonWinner of the Society of American Historians' Francis Parkman PrizeWinner of the PEN / Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for BiographyBest Biography of 2016, True West magazine Winner of the Western Writers of America 2017 Spur Award, Best Western BiographyFinalist, National Book Critics Circle Award for BiographyLong-listed for the Cundill History PrizeOne of the Best Books of 2016, The Boston GlobeThe epic life story of the Native American holy man who has inspired millions around the worldBlack Elk, the Native American holy man, is known to millions of readers around the world from his 1932 testimonial Black Elk Speaks. Adapted by the poet John G. Neihardt from a series of interviews with Black Elk and other elders at the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, Black Elk Speaks is one of the most widely read and admired works of American Indian literature. Cryptic and deeply personal, it has been read as a spiritual guide, a philosophical manifesto, and a text to be deconstructed—while the historical Black Elk has faded from view.In this sweeping book, Joe Jackson provides the definitive biographical account of a figure whose dramatic life converged with some of the most momentous events in the history of the American West. Born in an era of rising violence between the Sioux, white settlers, and U.S. government troops, Black Elk killed his first man at the Little Bighorn, witnessed the death of his second cousin Crazy Horse, and traveled to Europe with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show. Upon his return, he was swept up in the traditionalist Ghost Dance movement and shaken by the Massacre at Wounded Knee. But Black Elk was not a warrior, instead accepting the path of a healer and holy man, motivated by a powerful prophetic vision that he struggled to understand. Although Black Elk embraced Catholicism in his later years, he continued to practice the old ways clandestinely and never refrained from seeking meaning in the visions that both haunted and inspired him.In Black Elk, Jackson has crafted a true American epic, restoring to its subject the richness of his times and gorgeously portraying a life of heroism and tragedy, adaptation and endurance, in an era of permanent crisis on the Great Plains.
Black Elk: The Sacred Ways of a Lakota
by Wallace H. Black Elk William S. LyonBlack Elk writes about religion and mythology in the Lakota Nation and North American shamanism.
Black Empire: The Masculine Global Imaginary of Caribbean Intellectuals in the United States, 1914-1962
by Michelle Ann StephensIn Black Empire, Michelle Ann Stephens examines the ideal of "transnational blackness" that emerged in the work of radical black intellectuals from the British West Indies in the early twentieth century. Focusing on the writings of Marcus Garvey, Claude McKay, and C. L. R. James, Stephens shows how these thinkers developed ideas of a worldwide racial movement and federated global black political community that transcended the boundaries of nation-states. Stephens highlights key geopolitical and historical events that gave rise to these writers' intellectual investment in new modes of black political self-determination. She describes their engagement with the fate of African Americans within the burgeoning U. S. empire, their disillusionment with the potential of post-World War I international organizations such as the League of Nations to acknowledge, let alone improve, the material conditions of people of color around the world, and the inspiration they took from the Bolshevik Revolution, which offered models of revolution and community not based on nationality. Stephens argues that the global black political consciousness she identifies was constituted by both radical and reactionary impulses. On the one hand, Garvey, McKay, and James saw freedom of movement as the basis of black transnationalism. The Caribbean archipelago--a geographic space ideally suited to the free movement of black subjects across national boundaries--became the metaphoric heart of their vision. On the other hand, these three writers were deeply influenced by the ideas of militarism, empire, and male sovereignty that shaped global political discourse in the early twentieth century. As such, their vision of transnational blackness excluded women's political subjectivities. Drawing together insights from American, African American, Caribbean, and gender studies, Black Empire is a major contribution to ongoing conversations about nation and diaspora.