Poet, essayist, and culture critic Hanif Abdurraqib recently published A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance. The already highly acclaimed book highlights, honors, and explores the remarkable history of performance from Black creatives.
“I want to do the difficult, riskier thing,” Abdurraqib tells The Creative Independent.
Hanif Abdirraqib made a name as a poet and culture critic
Abdurraqib’s first poetry book, The Crown Ain’t Worth Much, debuted in 2016. It immediately received high praise and a nomination for a Hurston-Wright Legacy Award. Soon after, he released a limited edition chapter book called Vintage Sadness. Next, his first book of essays: They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us, was released in 2017. It shot him into literary stardom, named one of the books of the year by NPR, Oprah Magazine, The Los Angeles Tribune.
Abdurraqib also earned a place on the list of finalists for the 2019 Kirkus prize. This honor went to his book Go Ahead in the Rain: Notes to A Tribe Called Quest. That same year, he also released his second poetry collection, A Fortune For Your Disaster.
In addition to published books and poem collections, Abdurraqib publishes essays, poems, and more online in various spaces. See a compilation here.
The poet often plays with form. For example: The Summer That A Tribe Called Quest Broke Up, or the one included below, The Ghost of Marvin Gaye Sits In The Ruins Of The Old Livingston Flea Market And Considers Monogamy.
“The Ghost of Marvin Gaye Sits In The Ruins Of The Old Livingston Flea Market And Considers Monogamy” by Hanif Abdurraqib
Drawing on and pointing to Midwestern roots
“It’s important for me to say, ‘Yes, I am a Midwesterner second, but definitely an Ohioan first,’ Abduqarrib said in an interview. “It’s vital for me to track and build stories around voices here, and people here, and struggles here that are not the struggles that make the news.”
Abdurraqib grew up as the youngest of four children in a Muslim family. He was encouraged to pursue the arts since a young age. “I tried to play trumpet and was not very good at it,” he recalls with WVTF, “and also notoriously did not like practicing, which, you know, it turns out if you would like to get good at anything, you should practice.”
So Abdurraqib put down the trumpet and picked up the pen, to great success.
A Little Devil in America by Hanif Abdurraqib
Most recently, Abdurraqib published A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance. At face value, it is a series of profiles of legendary Black performers throughout American history. But more importantly, it offers an exploration of Black identity in the United States through the years. Although many of the personalities he writes about have passed away, Abduqarrib frames them through the lens of celebration and gratitude.
“The history of American music cannot be separated from the history of Black music. So much of what I see in the American pop culture landscape today – and growing up, through most of my life – can be traced back to and tied to Black innovation and invention,” Abdurraqib explains to the Christian Science Monitor. “But the country doesn’t always value Black people as it does Black art, or Black creation. And so I’m constantly thinking about how to honor those things.”
This intention drove A Little Devil in America, which has been well and widely received. Fellow author Clint Smith said of the book: “In A Little Devil In America, Abdurraqib brilliantly braids together history, criticism, and prose so stunning that it makes you want to read every word out loud just so you can hear its music.”
Purchase A Little Devil In America by Hanif Abdurraqib here.
