Erasure by Percival Everett
How has this helped you reconnect?
Connecting to the culture of contemporary Black American artists, particularly those refusing to be defined by white conceptions of monolithic black identity.
So Erasure is one of my favorite books of all time, it's an experimental novel I read in a class in college. It just received a fantastic movie adaptation called American Fiction!The book focuses on a black experimental novelist who finds himself unable to detach his artistic identity from the version thrust upon him by America. It's biting satire, it's bitter parody, and it's so powerfully resonant with the Faustian bargain I'd always recognized that comes with being a BIPOC artist in predominantly white space. The bargain is one where you neatly package your identity in a way mainstream American audiences can easily consume, at the expense of your dignity and personal integrity.
Submitted by: Alex Beige
Connecting to the culture of contemporary Black American artists, particularly those refusing to be defined by white conceptions of monolithic black identity.
So Erasure is one of my favorite books of all time, it's an experimental novel I read in a class in college. It just received a fantastic movie adaptation called American Fiction!The book focuses on a black experimental novelist who finds himself unable to detach his artistic identity from the version thrust upon him by America. It's biting satire, it's bitter parody, and it's so powerfully resonant with the Faustian bargain I'd always recognized that comes with being a BIPOC artist in predominantly white space. The bargain is one where you neatly package your identity in a way mainstream American audiences can easily consume, at the expense of your dignity and personal integrity.
Submitted by: Alex Beige