Black Is the Body

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An extraordinary, exquisitely written memoir of sorts that looks at race in a fearless, penetrating, honest, true way in twelve telltale, connected, deeply personal essays that explore, up close, the complexities and paradoxes, the haunting memories and ambushing realities of growing up black in the South with a family name inherited from a white man, of getting a PhD from Yale, of marrying a white man from the North, of adopting two babies from Ethiopia, of teaching at a white college and living in America s New England today From the acclaimed editor of Remember Me to Harlem The Letters of Langston Hughes and Carl Van Vechten A major contribution, Henry Louis Gates Magnificent, Washington Post I am black and brown, too, writes Emily Bernard Brown is the body I was born into Black is the body of the stories I tell And the storytelling, and the mystery of Bernard s storytelling, of getting to the truth, begins with a stabbing in a New England college town Bernard writes how, when she was a graduate student at Yale, she walked into a coffee shop and, along with six other people, was randomly attacked by a stranger with a knife I remember making the decision not to let the oddness of this stranger bother me I was not stabbed because I was black, she writes the attacker was white , but I have always viewed the violence I survived as a metaphor for the violent encounter that has generally characterized American race relations There was no connection between us, yet we were suddenly and irreparably bound by a knife, an attachment that cost us both him, his freedom me, my wholeness Bernard explores how that bizarre act of violence set her free and unleashed the storyteller in her The equation of writing and regeneration is fundamental to black American experience She writes in Black Is the Body how each of the essays goes beyond a narrative of black innocence and white guilt, how each is anchored in a mystery, and how each sets out to discover a new way of telling the truth as the author has lived it Blackness is an art, not a science It is a paradox intangible and visceral a situation and a story It is the thread that connects these essays, but its significance as an experience emerges randomly, unpredictably Race is the story of my life, and therefore black is the body of this book And what most interests Bernard is looking at blackness at its borders, where it meets whiteness in fear and hope, in anguish and love. Read Black Is the Body – kino-fada.fr Wow cracks knuckles this book y all The introduction and first essay is amazing So amazing that I had to put the book down and grasp for air After that, it seemed as though the book went downhill for me, for several reasons I have a lot in common with the author of this book I grew up in the south and moved to the North My mother s family resides on the same historical land that they have since the end of and during slavery I entered white Academia, and maintain a lot of close friends Wow cracks knuckles this book y all The introduction and first essay is amazing So amazing that I had to put the book down and grasp for air After that, it seemed as tho...This essay collection has pieces on Bernard s experiences as a black woman in Vermont, on her family history in Alabama and Nashville, on her experiences teaching African American literature, and on adopting twin girls from Ethiopia It s a strong collection, with a lot of interesting ideas and probing explorations of how we talk and think about race Some of the best pieces are on how her students respond to issues of race in the classroom, and I loved the way Bernard dwells on questions rather This essay collection has pieces on Bernard s experiences as a black woman in Vermont, on her family history in Alabama and Nashville, on her experiences teaching African American literature, and on adopting twin girls from Ethiopia It s a strong collection, with a lot of interesting ideas and probing explorations of ho...The earlier essays were good I could really relate to her thinking and experiences However as the book went on they felt repetitive I think overall it could ve been less Also worth saying This is a book filled with intimate small essays not essays on giant trauma It s not about the ...Profound, compelling, relatable, and full of purpose A new and important addition to the conversation of race and privilege going on in America right now Ms Bernard shares the story of her stabbing, her black physical body and also her black cultural body experience Her willingness to share her vulnerability is apparent and I appreciated it very much I was struck with a visceral reaction when she confessed to her internal struggles and beliefs about the feelings white people including her Profound, compelling, relatable, and full of purpose A new and important addition to the conversation of race and privilege going on in America right now Ms Bernard shares...I waited to rate this book as I wanted to think about itand I finally decided on 4 stars I really enjoyed the book.Rating 3.5 StarsA definite contender for my personal best books of 2019 list This book is a gift I savored every essay.Teen fantasy is my staple, so this is definitely a change of pace Also, this review is coming from a white woman who lives in the South, in a place that is 76% white, and racial tension and prejudices are fairly common.This book is written so well and felt so genuine After the first story which blew my mind , the essays taper off in pace But I was already captivated by her words I loved the contrasts and comparisons to her life in the south versus her life in Vermont You can tell she loves Teen fantasy is my staple, so this is definitely a change of pace Also, this review is coming from ...This has been my favorite book so far this year Bernard s essays gave me so much to think about, especially about the topic of race, in an honest, non judgmental way As an adoptive mother, I also loved reading about her adoption of twins from Ethiopia Bernard s essays are personal but not self pitying even the first in which she describes being stabbed for no reason in a co...Meh Obviously, this book wasn t written for me It was written for a non black audience The majority of the essays feature the author describing mundane interactions between her husband daughters family friends and trying to find some racial significance in them Maybe it was meant to be intimate and show what it is like to live as a black person in a white space instead, these moments felt shallow and forced Worse, in each of these moments, the author frequently came off as a snide instigat Meh Obviously, this book wasn t written for me It was written for a non black audience The majority of the essays feature the author describing mundane interactions between her husband daughters family friends and trying to find some racial significance in them Maybe it was meant to be intimate and show what it is like to live as a black person in a white space instead, these moments felt shallow and forced Worse, in each of these momen...

Black Is the Body
  • 13 July 2017
  • Hardcover
  • 240 pages
  • 0451493028
  • Emily Bernard
  • Black Is the Body