Spectacular Blackness

The book delves into the interplay between the Black Power and Black Arts movements and their influence on postwar African American popular culture. It examines how the construction of "authentic blackness" emerged from a political reliance on oppositional imagery. Employing an interdisciplinary approach that combines cinema studies and music theory, the author highlights the development of a distinct Black aesthetic rooted in the visual iconography of the Black Power movement and the urban vernacular celebrated by the Black Arts movement.