“I wanted to master the craft purely of making movement speak, which is the hallmark of modernism: no to content, yes to form.”
—from Bill T Jones' “Sculpture in Flight”
TRANSITION 62: Table of Contents
POSITIONS____________________
Blacklash
It's time to renounce pious sloganeering about the
“resilient black family,” Orlando
Patterson argues, and face up to a record
of unstable marriages and abusive parenting. For when
it comes to the crisis of black America, both sexes
must be called to account.
Dissed and Disconnected
What are the possibilities of public art in an era
of privatization? B. Ruby
Rich makes the case for a prophetic aesthetics.
“The Original Paradise”
After the shock troops landed in Grenada, a second
strike force of psychological operatives has been
promoting feelings of warmth and bonhomie toward Uncle
Sam. Revisiting the island on the tenth anniversary
of the U.S. invasion, Jenny Sharpe wonders
what's really changed.
Gabo in Decline
Gabriel García Marquez may be the brightest
light of Latin American literature, but will he ever
escape the shadow of his own 25-year-old masterpiece?
Ilan Stavan reflects.
Romania: Philosophical Fragments
Memory, identity, revolution, and betrayal: all the
imponderables in one place and one time. Scott
L. Malcomson muses on the aspect of the revolution
that wasn't televised.
Against Power
Political theorists like to talk about power, but
what if the levers of leadership aren't quite attached
to anything? Emery Roe makes the case for a
paradigm downshift to the politics of complexity.
UNDER REVIEW____________________
Black & Jews Blues
The standard model of “black-Jewish relations,”
Jeffrey Melnick ventures, has provided a sort
of Whacky-Packs version of American ethnicity. But
at least it keeps at bay the lurking nightmare in
which blacks and Jews are having it out...and nobody
else cares.
White Mischief
Beryl Markham's claims to fame were as aviatrix and
author; but she started life a sort of honorary African.
Kwame Anthony Appiah follows the trajectory
of an unlikely feminist heroine.
Postcolonialism & Its Discontents
In the empire of cultural studies, Graham Huggan
argues, the discourse of postcolonialism is showing
some oppressive tendencies of its own. It's time to
consider what it leaves out.
Kaplan and Black History
Clarence Walker looks back on a pioneering
cultural historian of black America and his scholarly
legacy.
Caribbean Cundundrum
The Caribbean boasts one of the few world literatures
where the writers still outnumber the critics. On
the record so far, Bruce King suggests, that
may not be a bad thing.
CONVERSATIONS____________________
Paying the PiperGhana's president, Jerry Rawlings, tells documentary-maker Barbara Gullahorn Holecek about the paradoxes of dependency and the prospects of reform.
Niggas With Beatitude
Old-school rap performers Run-DMC and cultural
critic Amy Linden discuss religion, rap, and
other conversion experiences.
Sculpture in Flight
Dancer and choreographer Bill T. Jones talks
about art, politics, and identity with writer Eric
Washington.
EXCHANGES____________________
Black Conservatism & Its CriticsDavid E. McClean
U-Turn
Robert C. Smith and Walton Hanes, Jr.
The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight
Martin L. Kilson