Open Mike

by Michael Eric Dyson

Overview

Here, collected for the first time, are interviews and essays representing Michael Eric Dyson's most important thinking on race and identity. Exploring such topics as "whiteness" as seen through a black man's eye, modernism and postmodernism in black culture, and the emancipating role of black music from the plantation to the ghetto, Open Mike is a perfect introduction to Dyson's work and a must-have for students and scholars in African American Studies and Cultural Studies.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780465017652
Publisher:	Basic Books
Publication date:	12/24/2002
Pages:	448
Sales rank:	696,229
Product dimensions:	6.25(w) x 9.25(h) x 1.12(d)
Age Range:	13 - 18 Years

About the Author

Michael Eric Dyson has been named by Ebony as one of the one hundred most influential black Americans and is the author of fourteen other books. He is University Professor at Georgetown University and lives in Washington, D.C.

Editorial Reviews

This is a collection of interviews with Dyson (Race Rules; Making Malcolm; etc.), the professor, public intellectual and Baptist minister, on topics ranging from homoeroticism and the Bible to jazz and hip-hop. The most prominent emphases are contemporary critical theory and religion, which don't necessarily lend themselves to improvisation. However, the format makes Dyson's reflections more inviting than they might otherwise be to casual readers. If the fresh insights are only occasional, the book is still a useful collation of many contemporary issuesDthough the occasional selection, like the chapter on rapper Tupac ("Searching for the Black Jesus") suffers equally from excess and partialityDDyson's Holler if You Hear Me: Searching for Tupac Shakur has already argued the rapper's case. 12-city author tour. (Jan.) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Publishers Weekly