'Grey' is the cultural black
April 3, 2012 By Dana Goldman
The latest Book|Report podcast features poet Kevin Young reading from"The Grey Album," an analysis in prose of American culture.
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Emory English and creative writing professor Kevin Young is perhaps best renowned for his poetry. But in "The Grey Album: On the Blackness of Blackness" (Graywolf Press, 2012) he leaves poetry for prose, and explores African American history and experience through the lenses – or "choruses" – of different musical genres including the blues and hip-hop. The book makes the point that what is seen as African American culture is also American culture. Young, who has garnered several awards for his poetry, earned the Graywolf Press Nonfiction Prize for "The Grey Album," his first major work of nonfiction.
Discussion
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Reading
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