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Top of the pile
85
/100
I Index Overall Rating
Readers
89/100Critics
81/100Scholars
Author:
Terrion L. Williamson, Jamala Rogers, Leslie Barlow, Joe Boyle, Gabrielle Civil, Tara L. Conley, Beverly Cottman, Curtis L. Crisler, Nia Easley, Lyndsey Ellis, Aaron K. Foley, Tanisha C. Ford, Kisha Nicole Foster, Brian G. Gilmore, Devon Ginn, Janice N. Harrington, Zenzele Isoke, Michelle S. Johnson, Ezekiel Joubert III, Kidiocus King-Carroll, Jamaal May, Phyllis May-Machunda, Edward M. Miggins, Gladys Mitchell-Walthour, Alexandra Nicome, Njaimeh Njie, Mikael Chukwuma Owunna, Mary Pattillo, Courtney Wise Randolph, Deva Rashed-Boone, Katherine Simóne Reynolds, Mark V. Reynolds, Terrence Shambley Jr., Wylliam Smith, Melissa N. Stuckey, Zuggie Tate, Vanessa Taylor, Rachel Elise Thomas, DeMar Walker, Kim-Marie Walker, David Weathersby, Jordan Weber, Tamara Winfrey-Harris, Jeffrey C. Wray, Kevin Young, Yvonne
Publisher:
Belt Publishing
Date:
September 1, 2020
Black in the Middle brings the voices of Black Midwesterners front and center. Filled with compelling personal narratives, thought-provoking art, and searing commentaries, this anthology explores the various meanings and experiences of blackness throughout the Rust Belt, the Midwest, and the Great Plains. Bringing together people from major metropolitan centers like Detroit and Chicago as well as smaller cities and rural areas where the lives of Black residents have too often gone unacknowledged, this collection is a much-needed corrective to the narrative of the region.
What The Reviewers Say
Within Black in the Middle, there is a horizon of experience that sits in the valley of uncomfortable realities. Through well-crafted essays, poems, photography and other musings on everyday life, the anthology shares the inner workings of some families who make due with what little they are given or build, with worn-out tools, a future on their own terms.
At just over 200 pages, Williamson’s book is slender but somehow feels bigger, sprawling and a little chaotic.
Williamson (Scandalized My Name), director of the Black Midwest Initiative, presents a timely and evocative anthology of essays, poetry, photographs, and interviews in order 'to make visible the struggle and the agony, yes, but also the diversity and richness of black Midwestern life.'.
