LITERATURE IN REVIEW
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its multifaceted voice , which ranges from close personal memoir to deep historical analysis , and from rigorous academic exposition to the language of contemporary Black experience .
Perry ’ s range of interest and understanding is remarkable . She can write about renowned black painters , such as Romare Bearden , and the little-known Montgomery street artist Bill Traylor ; or the compositions of James Weldon Johnson , “ erudite , multilingual ,” who “ testified to the beauty of Black vernacular culture and incorporated it into his poetry and music ,” and the popular songs of B . B . King and Bobby Blue Band . (“ When you hear Bobby Blue Band sing , you understand why they called him Blue . His voice is like daybreak . It cracks , but with sweetness .”) In one chapter she is conversing about her research with her Princeton department chair , Eddie Glaude , and in another describing her panel discussion “ with the Philadelphia-native rapper Black Thought about the political undercurrent to all creative work .”
South to America takes as its subjects the entire range of Black experience , from the “ high culture ” of literature , the visual arts , and political history to the everyday realms of music , food , family structures , and so-called folkways . She notes , for example , that “ When I entered higher education , I was taught to treat Richard Wright with skepticism ” because he was allegedly “ not a vital force in the African American
... I believe I learned as much or more about slavery , racism , and Black life from Perry ’ s book than from any half dozen other books I ’ ve read .
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literary tradition ,” but asserts “ I ’ m glad I studied him earlier ” in high school .
As a white American from the Northeast , I ’ m aware of how little I know of the South , despite many visits and frequent work with schools in at least ten of the states where Perry traveled . But I believe I learned as much or more about slavery , racism , and Black life from Perry ’ s book than from any half dozen other books I ’ ve read .
To take just a few examples , I had no idea how the jobs done by enslaved people , and later by Southern workers , mostly of color , were destructive of their health : tobacco fields “ that cramped your fingers and made your head swim with nausea as the potent crop passed across the barrier of skin and into nasal passages ,” cotton , whose “ fiber cuts fingers . Wearies souls ,” and chicken factories , where “ work was
Page 28 Summer 2022 CSEE Connections