The people can fly : American promise, Black prodigies, and the greatest miracle of all time /
"What does promise cost in America? Especially when that promise is seen as grounds to separate us from the communities we cherish, and framed as the key to success, salvation, survival? In The People Can Fly, Dr. Joshua Bennett explores the complex position of Black prodigies in a society that...
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| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
New York :
Little, Brown and Company,
2026.
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| Edition: | First edition. |
| Subjects: |
| Summary: | "What does promise cost in America? Especially when that promise is seen as grounds to separate us from the communities we cherish, and framed as the key to success, salvation, survival? In The People Can Fly, Dr. Joshua Bennett explores the complex position of Black prodigies in a society that has, all too often, defined blackness as absence, as a lack of inner life. Through this hybrid work of memoir and cultural history, Dr. Bennett shares how his own academic journey reflected the ebb and flow of being seen as both promising and as a problem. He turns to the childhood archives of Malcolm X, Stevie Wonder, Gwendolyn Brooks, James Baldwin, Nikki Giovanni, and others to further explore this theme: highlighting the role of cultural institutions, and loving communities, in shaping the lives of leading lights within African American culture. What's more, Dr. Bennett clarifies how these spaces--these mentors, teachers, friends, and kin--helped defend young people from a world that sought to exclude them from its vision of promise and possibility."--Publisher description. |
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| Physical Description: | x, 261 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references (pages 241-246) and index. |
| ISBN: | 9780316576024 0316576026 |