From Powells.com
Book Recommendations for Asian Pacific Heritage Month
Synopses & Reviews
"The smartest book of the year" The Washington Post
In these provocative, powerful essays acclaimed writer/journalist Jeff Chang (Can't Stop Won't Stop, Who We Be) takes an incisive and wide-ranging look at the recent tragedies and widespread protests that have shaken the country. Through deep reporting with key activists and thinkers, passionately personal writing, and distinguished cultural criticism, We Gon' Be Alright links #BlackLivesMatter to #OscarsSoWhite, Ferguson to Washington D.C., the Great Migration to resurgent nativism. Chang explores the rise and fall of the idea of "diversity," the roots of student protest, changing ideas about Asian Americanness, and the impact of a century of racial separation in housing. He argues that resegregation is the unexamined condition of our time, the undoing of which is key to moving the nation forward to racial justice and cultural equity.
Review
"Its topics are so current, its tone so raw, that readers might wonder if Chang finished it minutes before it was due to the printer." The Rumpus
Review
"With eloquence and urgency, We Gon' Be Alright reveals a country whose deepening racial oppression and inequality is shrouded by myths of colorblindness and postracial triumphalism..." Robin D. G. Kelley, author of Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original
Review
"Collectively, Chang creates a chain-linked manifesto arguing for an end to racially charged violence and discrimination and urging global open-mindedness to the struggle of the oppressed.…A compelling and intellectually thought-provoking exploration of the quagmire of race relations" Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)
About the Author
Jeff Chang is the author of Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation and Who We Be: A Cultural History of Race in Post-Civil Rights America. He has been a USA Ford Fellow in Literature and the winner of the American Book Award and the Asian American Literary Award. He is the executive director of the Institute for Diversity in the Arts at Stanford University.
Jeff Chang on PowellsBooks.Blog
The common arc of an artist proceeds from discovery to mimicry, curves up to craft and experimentation, and then, through that strange alchemy of experience, mentorship, labor, and luck, falls into the self-possession (if not always confidence) that delivers a unique voice toward its fullest powers of expression...
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