Binding: Hardcover
Description: For readers of Kiese Laymon's Heavy and Hanif Abdurraqib's A Little Devil in America a beautiful painful and soaring tribute to everything that Black men are and can be Growing up in the Bronx Jo l Leon was taught that being soft being vulnerable could end your life. Shaped by a singular view of Black masculinity espoused by the media family and friends and society he learned instead to care about the gold around his neck and the number of bills in his wallet. He absorbed the facts that white was always right and that Black men were either threatening or great for comic relief but never worthy of the opening credits. It wasn t until years later that Jo l understood he didn t have to be defined by these and other stereotypes. Now in a collection of wide - ranging essays he takes readers from his upbringing in the Bronx to his life raising two little girls of his own unraveling those narratives to arrive at a deeper understanding of who he is as a son friend partner and father. Traversing both the serious and the lighthearted from contemplating male beauty standards to his decision to seek therapy to the difficulties of making co - parenting work Jo l cracks open his heart to reveal his multitudes. In this book crafted like an album each essay is a single that stands alone yet reverberates throughout the entire collection. Pieces like How to Make a Black Friend consider challenging delightful and absurd moments in relationships while others like Sensitive Thugs You All Need Hugs and All Gold Everything ponder the collective harms of society's lens. With incisive searing prose Everything and Nothing at Once deconstructs what it means to be a Black man in America.
Title: Everything And Nothing At Once A Black Man's Reimagined Soundtrack For The Future
Author(s): Leon Joel
Publisher: Henry Holt & Company Inc
Barcode: 9781250887108
Pages: 304 Pages
Publication Date: 6/4/2024
Category: Black & Asian Studies