Aiken Lecture: Yuval Taylor and Jake Austen, Darkest America: Black Minstrelsy from Slavery to Hip-Hop

Yuval Taylor and Jake Austen investigate the complex history of black minstrelsy that was adopted in the mid-nineteenth century by African American performers who played the grinning black face fool to entertain black and white audiences.

Although minstrelsy is now an embarrassing relic, it was once considered a black art form and embraced as such by blacks and whites. As Taylor and Austen reveal, black minstrelsy remains deeply relevant to popular black entertainment, particularly in the work of contemporary artists like Dave Chappelle, Flavor Flav, Spike Lee, and Lil Wayne. Darkest America: Black Minstrelsy from Slavery to Hip-Hop explores the origins, heyday, and present-day manifestations of this tradition, exploding the myth that it was a form of entertainment that whites foisted on blacks, and shining a controversial light on how these incendiary performances can be not only demeaning but also, liberating.

Yuval Taylor is senior editor at Chicago Review Press, is the co-author of Faking It, and the editor of I Was Born a Slave. Jake Austen is editor of Roctober magazine. Both authors live in Chicago.

Yuval Taylor is senior editor at Chicago Review Press, and is the co-author of Faking It, and the editor of I Was Born a Slave.

Jake Austen is editor of Roctober magazine.