Signifyin(g), Sanctifyin', and Slam Dunking

A Reader in African American Expresive Culture

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Edited by Gena Dagel Caponi

University of Massachusetts Press

Due/Published August 1999, 464 pages, paper

ISBN 155849183X

Is it legitimate to talk about a distinct African American aesthetic, or is this simply a vestige of an outmoded racial essentialism? What makes a particular form of cultural expression "black" other than the fact that some African Americans may practice it? Each essay in this collection explores a different aspect of the role of black style in American culture, from the communal ritual of the ring shout to the evolution of rap to the improvisational genius of Michael Jordan. Together they reveal a set of creative principles, techniques, and practices--a cultural aesthetic--that is remarkably consistent and resilient.

Contributors: James Weldon Johnson, Robert Farris Thompson, Marshall and Jean Stearns, Albert Murray, Christopher Small, Samuel Floyd Jr., Olly Wilson, Portia K. Maultsby, Tricia Rose, Jacqui Malone, Joel Dinerstein, Bertram D. Ashe, Zora Neal Hurston, Claudia Mitchell-Kernan, Grace Sims Holt, William D. Piersen, Jeff Greenfield, Gerald Early, John Edgar Wideman, Michael Eric Dyson, Shane White and Graham White.