Birth of a notion; or, the half ain't never been told : a narrative account with entertaining passages of the state of Minstrelsy & of America & the true relation thereof (from the ha ha dark side) / as written by Bill Harris.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Harris, Bill, 1941-

Series:

Made in Michigan writers series.

Made in Michigan writers series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

African Americans--Poetry.

African Americans.

Minstrel music.

United States--Race relations--History--Poetry.

United States.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (232 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Other Title:

Birth of a notion

Half ain't never been told

Place of Publication:

Detroit, Mich. : Wayne State University Press, c2010.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

A critical look at black identity in American history and popular culture as told from a performative African American perspective. In Birth of a Notion, poet and playwright Bill Harris confronts contemporary stereotypes and prejudices by looking back to their roots in early American history. In a hybrid work of prose and poetry that takes its cues from nineteenth-century minstrelsy, Harris speaks back to preconceived notions about "blackness" through many different characters and voices. His narrative is at turns sarcastic, serious, wry, and lyrical, as he investigates the source of pervasive racist images and their incorporation into American culture. Harris takes readers on a tour of nineteenth-century American history, from the 1830s and the rise of the abolitionist movement, to Reconstruction and the Industrial Revolution in the 1860s, and to the beginning of the twentieth century. He considers cultural productions that gave rise to America's idea of the "new Negro, " including the development of minstrelsy as popular entertainment, the publication of Uncle Tom's Cabin, the museum curios of P. T. Barnum, and the exhibitions of "exotic" people at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. Along the way, Harris interjects a range of symbols, word-play, and famous personalities into his narrative, referring to everyone from Karl Marx, Uncle Sam, Charles Dickens, Buffalo Bill, and Walt Whitman. He ends with the development of jazz and the blues as cultural products that would become important vehicles for self-representation in the new century. Harris's fast-paced narrative interspersed with graphic elements shows the importance of point-of-view in creating history, which always contains some elements of fiction as a result. Anyone interested in poetry, American history, and African American studies will appreciate Birth of a Notion.

Contents:

Cover

Contents

Preface

Introduction: In the Beginning

Chapter 1 Treats of the Parallel Rise of the Industrial Revolution, the Blues, Radical Abolitionism &amp

Mechanical &amp

Martial Time

Chapter 2 Treats on the Parallel Rise of Radical Abolitionism, American-Born Blackface, Immigrant Upper-Lower &amp

Lower-Middle Classes, and Their Indoctrination in the Ways of American Life &amp

Free-Time

Chapter 3 A Brief Passage on the Emergence of the Democratic Party, Daddy Rice, Uncle Sam, Indians &amp

"Discovery," 1832

Chapter 4 Treats of Minstrels and Minstrelsy, Invention of the Common Man, the Jacksonian Era, and Indians Conceding Their Lands

Chapter 5 The Middle Passage: P. T. Barnum, History as Entertainment in Multi Voices, 1835-1842

Chapter 6 A Middle Passage, or Bridge: Traversed by Frederick Douglass, William Henry Lane, and a Sense of the Increased Speed of Things, 1843-1848

Chapter 7 Daddy Rice Runs the Doo Doo Down: Harriet Beecher Stowe and John Brown Turn Up the Heat, 1848-1870

Chapter 8 The Civil War &amp

Beyond Back to Where We Began: And Notions of High &amp

Low Culture

Dividing to Conquer, 186?-1871

Chapter 9 Reprise of the Bridge Crossing Theme: A Variation with a Blues Tinge

Chapter 10 Reconstruction &amp

Beyond: William T. Sherman, Eadweard Muybridge &amp

Syncopated Loco-Motion of Moving Images &amp

the Transcontinental Railroad, 1871-1877

Chapter 11 Jim Crow Crosses Over from Entertainment to Law, the Parallel Rise of Klan-Whiteface in White Face &amp

Black Faced Blackface &amp

Slave Spirituals

Chapter 12 W. E. B. Du Bois &amp

Booker T. Washington Step Up &amp

Step Out &amp

Black Minstrelsy Turns a Corner, P. T. Barnum Crosses A Bridge, Rag Kicks Up Its Heels &amp

Thomas Jefferson Shows His Dark Side, 1880s-1890s.

Chapter 13 Entering the White City: Shunted to the Shadowy Margins, but Tapping Out a Syncopated Meter, a New Tune, Whose Force Changed the Way the White City Denizens Go About Their Goings About &amp

the Freedom &amp

Dignity with Which They Go About It &amp

the Relative Positions They Assume in the New World A-Comin', Guest Starring Christopher Columbus, Eadweard Muybridge, Frederick Douglass, Ida B. Wells, Little Eva, Frank Baum &amp

Others, 1893

Chapter 14 The Buffalo Bill Show's Rough Ride Across the Bridge from Old History to New Myths, Featuring Annie Oakley, Sitting Bull, Queen Victoria &amp

Walt Whitman

Chapter 15 The Long March of Change Continues: Vaudeville Arrives, Booker T. Washington, W. E. B. Du Bois &amp

the Blues (at Their Beginning) Return &amp

Rag's Infection Rages, as We Consider Voodoo, Thermodynamics &amp

Continue to Hear Dead People &amp

Living Spirits, 1898-1900

Illustration Credits.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780814335277

0814335276

OCLC:

755620431