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Black in Blues: How a Color Tells the Story of My People Hardcover – January 28, 2025
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NAMED A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK BY: Time, USA Today, People, AARP, Harper's Bazaar, Today.com, BookRiot, Bustle, LitHub, BookPage, The Millions, Ms., Our Culture, Electric Literature, W, and Vulture
A surprising and beautiful meditation on the color blue—and its fascinating role in Black history and culture—from National Book Award winner Imani Perry
Throughout history, the concept of Blackness has been remarkably intertwined with another color: blue. In daily life, it is evoked in countless ways. Blue skies and blue water offer hope for that which lies beyond the current conditions. But blue is also the color of deep melancholy and heartache, echoing Louis Armstrong’s question, “What did I do to be so Black and blue?” In this book, celebrated author Imani Perry uses the world’s favorite color as a springboard for a riveting emotional, cultural, and spiritual journey—an examination of race and Blackness that transcends politics or ideology.
Perry traces both blue and Blackness from their earliest roots to their many embodiments of contemporary culture, drawing deeply from her own life as well as art and history: The dyed indigo cloths of West Africa that were traded for human life in the 16th century. The mixture of awe and aversion in the old-fashioned characterization of dark-skinned people as “Blue Black.” The fundamentally American art form of blues music, sitting at the crossroads of pain and pleasure. The blue flowers Perry plants to honor a loved one gone too soon.
Poignant, spellbinding, and utterly original, Black in Blues is a brilliant new work that could only have come from the mind of one of our greatest writers and thinkers. Attuned to the harrowing and the sublime aspects of the human experience, it is every bit as vivid, rich, and striking as blue itself.
- Print length256 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherEcco
- Publication dateJanuary 28, 2025
- Dimensions5.5 x 0.84 x 8.25 inches
- ISBN-100062977393
- ISBN-13978-0062977397
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Editorial Reviews
Review
“This prismatic volume finds the National Book Award-winning Princeton professor meditating on skin color and the indigo trade, Louis Armstrong’s music and Toni Morrison’s writing, in short, lyrical chapters.” — New York Times
“An affective investigation into the many roles of blueness in Black life. . . it is full of archival gems – but it is also a lyrical [work]. . . . What unites its disparate contents is a mood, which is just as valuable as an argument. It is a contrapuntal document, musical and moving, and no less rich for its tumbling abundance.” — Washington Post
“As Imani Perry illuminates in a new book that swirls and flicks like an actual marble, [blue is] inextricable from the Black race. . . . Reading Black in Blues is like putting on a pair of those special Kodak 3-D viewfinders that make objects and issues leap suddenly into focus. . . . Its chapters are tide pools: quite short, but deep and teeming. . . . It will have you looking afresh even at your corner mailbox.” — New York Times Book Review
“One of those books that slips the boundaries . . . . ‘Ask the right questions,’ [Perry] insists, ‘and you’ll move toward virtue and truth.’ Words to live by, especially in a nation where a large swatch of the population seems intent on disavowing the better angels of our nature.”
— Los Angeles Times
“Touching on a range of historical, artistic, musical, and literary references—from the color’s significance in Yoruba cosmology to the blue candles used in hoodoo rituals to the ‘tremor’ of the “blue note’—Perry illuminates how the color has been variously associated with mourning, spiritual strength, and forces of freedom and oppression.” — New Yorker, "Briefly Noted"
“Revelatory. . . .[Black in Blues] is attuned to the high, the low, and the blue notes that compose Blackness—and we would all do well to listen.” — Omari Weekes, Atlantic
“It is clear from reading Imani Perry’s Black in Blues: How a Color Tells the Story of My People why she is adept at chronicling the history of the Black diaspora: She weaves stories like a village griot or a grandparent sitting on the porch recalling the past. . . . From Africans dressed in blue as if it were ceremonial garb to a tiny house in Alabama and a cloth of remembrance for a loved one, black and blue are brilliant and so is Black in Blues.” — Christian Science Monitor
“Vast, multifaceted and enchanting. . . . Black in Blues also gave me a renewed sense of direction, a clarity of purpose. Here it is: Hold fast to beauty. It has everything you need. It has everything we need.” — Minnesota Star Tribune
“A meditative and healing introspection on Black history presented through a fresh and innovative lens. . . . Innovative, melancholic, and expansive, Black in Blues achieves its goal to bring Black history to life.” — Atlanta Journal Constitution
“In [Perry's] writing, the familiar transforms into the unfamiliar, or the supposedly quotidian gains new depth, and because she commits to the reshaping of the familiar, her work insists upon you, the reader, joining in on that commitment. This strength is at its height in Black in Blues, an exploration not necessarily of the color blue itself, but the color blue as it appears in concert and contrast with black (black people, black history, the color black). . . . Black in Blues . . . is the best Perry has ever been, for me, on a sentence level.” — Hanif Abdurraqib, 4Columns
“Each impressionistic chapter carries us into a distinctive, colorful world, and together, the sections weave a cultural richness that no traditional history could achieve. While Perry is a renowned Harvard academic who grounds her explorations in scholarship, here, she feels more like our private guide for a vast cultural voyage, her voice beautifully echoing those of her muses Toni Morrison and Zora Neale Hurston. By composing a story that unifies many generations of Black history and is experienced through a single color, Perry herself becomes a master blues artist.” — Oprah Daily
“Perry writes to harness a complex story of shifting blues, offering us an open-ended gift.” — Chloe Bass, Hyperallergic
“[Perry] exemplifies the best of interdisciplinary analysis and storytelling, weaving together the threads of history and culture to point out common threads and trends that people may never have noticed otherwise. As a historian, she writes in a conversational tone about the atrocities that are often left out of high school textbooks. As a cultural critic, she’s insightful and artfully intentional about the details she draws readers to.” — The Advocate
“Perry asks us to see Black people’s relationship to the color blue in its spiritual and material specialness, and though blue carries immense tragedy inside of it, neither black nor blue is wholly defined by the cruelty that links them. Like a blues song, the beauty is found when you tune into its complex frequencies on the backbeat.” — New Republic
“Suggestion is the modus operandi of this brilliant book. The alternative – conclusions that operate as a kind of curfew on ideas – feels immeasurably worse. That’s not the case here: the blue notes and bones sing on even after closing the book.” — Frieze
“National Book Award winner Perry offers surprising revelations about the connection between the color blue and Black identity as she explores myth and literature, art and music, folklore and film. . . . An innovative cultural history.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“An impressionistic cultural history of the African diaspora through its connections to the color blue, from the Congo to Haiti, Jamaica, and the American South, in music, dance, folklore, art, and literature. . . . Packed with cultural references to Nina Simone, Zora Neale Hurston, Miles Davis, and Picasso’s African-inspired Blue Period, this is a fascinating and creative work of popular anthropology . . . Original and affecting.” — Booklist (starred review)
“A lyrical meditation on ‘the mystery of blue and its alchemy in the lives of Black folk.’ . . . In direct and intimate prose, Perry synthesizes an impressive range of research into a sinewy, pulsing narrative that positions the past as an active, living force in the present. Readers will be swept up." — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Imani Perry's work is brilliant and lyrical as ever! How clearly she assesses the history of Black and Blue, knitting them together with language both precise and haunting. This book is a great gift, in that it allowed me to see the world anew with Perry's clear-eyed insight. How Perry allows me to understand my Blue better, too!” — Jesmyn Ward, author of Let Us Descend and Sing, Unburied, Sing
“Black in Blues is a stunningly original journey in search of the historical origins of the very soul of African American life and culture. Along the way, Perry shows, with telling detail and in engaging prose, how ‘The Blues’ became Black, and how Black people became ‘Blues People.’” — Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
“With Black in Blues,Imani Perry establishes herself as the most important interpreter of Black life in our time. With intellectual skill, an artist’s eye, and the beauty of her pen, she powerfully tells the story of our people through the color blue. This is an extraordinary book.” — Eddie S. Glaude, Jr., author of Begin Again and We Are the Leaders
“Imani Perry's Black in Blues is a masterful convergence of literature, history, and culture—where color itself becomes the field for reflection and revelation. The sheer span of Perry’s thinking, like the sweep of a great sky, stirs the most breathtaking of elusive emotions: awe.” — Evan Osnos, author of Wildland and Age of Ambition
About the Author
Imani Perry is the National Book Award–winning author of South to America, as well as seven other books of nonfiction. She is the Henry A. Morss Jr. and Elisabeth W. Morss Professor of Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality and of African and African American Studies at Harvard University, and is a 2023 MacArthur Fellow. Perry lives between Philadelphia and Cambridge with her two sons.
Product details
- Publisher : Ecco (January 28, 2025)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 256 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0062977393
- ISBN-13 : 978-0062977397
- Item Weight : 11.9 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.5 x 0.84 x 8.25 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #7,112 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
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Imani Perry is the Henry A. Morss, Jr. and Elisabeth W. Morss Professor of Studies of Women, Gender and Sexuality and of African and African American Studies at Harvard University and the Carol K. Pforzheimer Professor at Harvard Radcliffe Institute. She previously served as the Hughes-Rogers Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University and a faculty associate with the Programs in Law and Public Affairs, Gender and Sexuality Studies and Jazz Studies. Perry is a 2023 MacArthur Fellow and received the 2022 National Book Award for Nonfiction for South to America: A Journey Below the Mason Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation. She is also the author of Looking for Lorraine: The Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry, which received the Pen Bograd-Weld Award for Biography, The Phi Beta Kappa Christian Gauss Award for outstanding work in literary scholarship, the Lambda Literary Award for LGBTQ Nonfiction and the Shilts-Grahn Award for nonfiction from the Publishing Triangle. Looking for Lorraine was also named a 2018 notable book by the New York Times, and an a honor book by the Black Caucus of the American Library Association. It was a finalist for the African American Intellectual History Society Paul Murray Book Prize. Her book May We Forever Stand: A History of the Black National Anthem, winner of the 2019 American Studies Association John Hope Franklin Book Award for the best book in American Studies, the Hurston Wright Award for Nonfiction, and finalist for an NAACP Image Award in Nonfiction. Her 2019 book, Breathe: A Letter to My Sons (Beacon Press, 2019) which was a finalist for the 2020 Chautauqua Prize and a finalist for the NAACP Image Award for Excellence in Nonfiction.
Perry is a scholar of law, literary and cultural studies, and an author of creative nonfiction. She earned her Ph.D. in American Studies from Harvard University, a J.D. from Harvard Law School, an LLM from Georgetown University Law Center and a BA from Yale College in Literature and American Studies. Her writing and scholarship primarily focuses on the history of Black thought, art, and imagination crafted in response to, and resistance against, the social, political and legal realities of domination in the West. She seeks to understand the processes of retrenchment after moments of social progress, and how freedom dreams are nevertheless sustained. Her book: Vexy Thing: On Gender and Liberation (Duke University Press 2018) is a work of critical theory that contends with the formation of modern patriarchy at the dawn of capitalism, the transatlantic slave trade, and the age of conquest, and traces it through to the contemporary hypermedia neoliberal age. Her book More Beautiful and More Terrible: The Embrace and Transcendence of Racial Inequality in the United States (NYU Press, 2011) is an examination of contemporary practices of racial inequality that are sustained and extended through a broad matrix of cultural habits despite formal declarations of racial equality.
Customer reviews
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- Reviewed in the United States on February 16, 2025Dr. Perry is a great writer. She does an excellent job writing about how history influences the present. We need to study history in order to know how impacts the present. As we continue to learn from history we can improve the future but better serve us all in the present. This book is truly a learning experience and was fun to read all the way through. This book is a joy to read and I thank Dr. Perry for sharing this book with us.
- Reviewed in the United States on February 14, 2025A great book that shows and tells the correlation between music and my people. I heard an interview on NPR that this most acclaimed author conducted. It immediately outraged my interest and I couldn’t wait to receive and read this book. A great book for anyone who has ever wanted to know what moves and motivates an entire segment of the population.
- Reviewed in the United States on February 18, 2025“How a Color Tells the Story of My People”
A rich, meaningful telling of the idea that intertwine colors themselves. Black and Blue. As well as
the connection to and the meaning of that connection to Black history and Black culture. Weaving together
these connections Imani introduces art, music, history and literature in a thought-provoking manner.
"Throughout history, the concept of Blackness has been remarkably intertwined with another color: blue. In daily life,
it is evoked in countless ways. Blue skies and blue water offer hope for that which lies beyond the current conditions.
But blue is also the color of deep melancholy and heartache, echoing Louis Armstrong’s question, “What did I do to be
so Black and blue?” In this book, celebrated author Imani Perry uses the world’s favorite color as a springboard for a
riveting emotional, cultural, and spiritual journey—an examination of race and Blackness that transcends politics or ideology.”
Imani’s work “Black in Blues: How a Color Tells the Story of My People” is an important addition to Black history, particularly at this time
when parts of society are trying to negate importance and even its existence. Another injustice. Audio book read by the author. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
- Reviewed in the United States on February 27, 2025Well written and researched
- Reviewed in the United States on February 18, 2025this is a history book unlike anything that i've ever read. through a series of essays that cartograph a journey through history, we're treated to stories of how the color blue correlates with Blackness. imani perry weaved these tales so delicately and pinpointed the blueness in each so cleverly that i'm now convinced that there has to be some cosmic being doing this by design.
through this book i've learned more about Black history more than i have ever learned in a history class; i think this book should be required reading for that reason alone. for example:
- in the 1800s, political leaders encouraged free Black people to immigrate to liberia. here, perry speaks of what it's like to be both colonized and colonizer. later, she goes on to say that ultimately, different diasporas realized there was a universality to their Blackness: "Even when we don't care for each other, we know we have something to do with one another."
- slavery has literally changed the environment. so many enslaved people jumped overboard into the ocean after capture that blue-green tiger sharks developed a taste for humans.
- the periwinkle flower isn't native to north america, so if it's seen growing in the wild, there are likely to be human remains of enslaved people near - since they weren't permitted the option of headstones, they used the flower to decorate the resting places of their loved ones.
- the song "jimmy crack corn" is actually an antebellum anthem. i didn't know this at all. turns out, it's about an enslaved man batting away blue tail flies from his master and his horse. one day, he misses a fly and the fly bites the master's horse, killing the master when the horse bucks him. i sobbed when perry summarized: "But it is also fascinating because the tiny, bothersome, inconsequential fly had a mortal impact. It might have been a warning about the meek of the earth." this tied in to perry's later discussions of the resiliency of Black people.
we also learn about blue bottle trees meant to ward off evil spirits - brought to the american south by enslaved africans. we learn about hoodoo and the blue used to keep the haints away. we learn that police uniforms are blue because union uniforms were repurposed and given to them. we learned about the blues. george washington carver is known for peanuts, but to diminish him to just peanuts is to severely undersell his contributions to society and the breadth of his humanity.
i cannot explain how well researched and special this book is - reading it felt like being introduced to a new world. perry's writing does an excellent service to these rarely told histories; her prose is compulsively readable and addictive, even, written less like an educational, technical work and more like sitting with a storyteller. (in fact, all of perry's books read this way; she's a must-read author.)
highly, highly recommend.
- Reviewed in the United States on February 12, 2025My only complaint is that I waited so long to listen and read this book. I will have to get a physical copy, and do a re read because there was so much nuggets and gem throughout this book. And listening to the audiobook was so informative. And when i see post on social media asking what books should people have physical copies of in their personal libraries due to the current administration and their policies, this book will be top on the list. I had an arc of the audio and kindle version, and both were good, I will still need a physical copy. It has easily become one of my favorite books of the year.
I received a copy of the book via the publisher and am voluntarily leaving an honest review of my own thoughts and opinions
- Reviewed in the United States on February 1, 2025This compilation features a series of short essays, some of which are deeply personal to the author, while others are grounded in Black history. Each piece is original, distinct, engaging, and beautifully crafted. Perry links the color blue to Black history worldwide, exploring the essence of Blackness as expressed through art, music, dance, and literature.
I appreciate how each essay focuses on a different aspect related to blue, whether it's the importance of indigo, hoodoo traditions, or blues music, among others. Perry has done an outstanding job of interweaving these seemingly unrelated subjects to illuminate the experiences of Black lives, both past and present.
- Reviewed in the United States on January 30, 2025A novel way to write about Black History through the lens of the color blue. It is a poetic and lyrical collage. Imani Perry is a genius.