RA TOOLBOX – Nonfiction: Inside the Book

Abstract

The inspiration for this article came to me as I was in my car listening to Hanif Abdurraqib’s Carnegie winning essays: A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance (2021). Nearly every chapter is brimming with fascinating characters of American history, and I was continually sending text messages to myself, including, “Look up Josephine Baker,” “Early Black magicians,” “Watch the Chappelle Show,” “Don’t watch the Chappelle Show.”