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Blackness Thirteen Ways
Art, Life, & the Revisions of a Mulatta Lesbian
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Blackness Thirteen Ways
Narrated by:
J. Vanessa Lyon
Buy Now for ₹667.71
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Narrated by:
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J. Vanessa Lyon
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Written by:
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J. Vanessa Lyon
About this listen
The daughter of the WASP mother who raised her and a Black father she has never known, J. Vanessa Lyon delivers a candid memoir across thirteen uniquely structured chapters in conversation with enduring, often damaging, mis/representations of so-called race mixing in fine art and popular media. Reflecting on a lifetime of being “dis-read,” she examines insidious cultural tropes of White passing beginning with art from the era of transatlantic slavery—from Rembrandt and Rubens, Gentileschi and Stubbs, to Manet—before moving on to Br’er Rabbit, Louise Nevelson, 1950s melodrama, and Adrian Piper. Original analysis of a broad chronological range of visual art parallels the unfolding of Lyon’s sense of self as animated by the interiors and geographies—not to mention the challenging and remarkable women—that have figured in her life. Through her investigations, she comes to terms with long-withheld information and the seemingly unalterable reality of being an out lesbian who, legally Black, may never be viewed by Whites or other African Americans in the ways she experiences her own raced and gendered personhood.
By turns scholarly and intimate, Blackness Thirteen Ways reveals surprising connections between the art Lyon teaches and the woman she has become, challenging history to accommodate an unapologetic image of herself and other “impassably” Black women.
* This audiobook edition includes a downloadable PDF containing images from the book.
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Critic Reviews
“Lyon spends her professional life studying how race has been painted, framed, and quietly written out of the canon, and in this hybrid memoir she turns that same attention on her own reflection. Across 13 chapters that move from old master paintings to contemporary film, she reads how racial mixing has been hidden, distorted, or made picturesque on canvas and screen, and lays that history alongside her own.” —Electric Literature
"A powerful, absorbing read. . . . [Lyon] has skillfully and effectively mixed insightful artistic analysis with intimate introspection." —Allison Escoto, Booklist
“Bracing, nuanced and moving, Blackness Thirteen Ways is one of those books that will echo long past its final pages. Lyon’s essays are revelations and reckonings, and an unflinching account of one gifted writer’s necessary and urgent journey towards family and self.” —Maaza Mengiste, MacArthur Fellow and author of The Shadow King, Finalist for the Booker Prize
“An intimate and honest meditation on a historically charged subject. I’ve been waiting for this book my entire life.” —Isabel Strauss, Architecture professor and independent curator
“Blackness Thirteen Ways is a work of chiaroscuro genius. J. Vanessa Lyon’s prose is as pleasurable as it is inimitable.” —Myriam Gurba, author of Poppy State: A Labyrinth of Plants and a Story of Beginnings
“[Mingling] personal introspection with analyses of art and culture [Lyon] explores what black female ‘impassibility’ has meant for her and the many Western artists she has studied. . . [turning] her critically astute eye to renderings of the ‘passing problem’ . . . . A sharp-eyed book.” —Kirkus Reviews
“A poignant account of finding personal truth and 'hopeful futurity' reflected in the art of the past.” —Publishers Weekly
"A powerful, absorbing read. . . . [Lyon] has skillfully and effectively mixed insightful artistic analysis with intimate introspection." —Allison Escoto, Booklist
“Bracing, nuanced and moving, Blackness Thirteen Ways is one of those books that will echo long past its final pages. Lyon’s essays are revelations and reckonings, and an unflinching account of one gifted writer’s necessary and urgent journey towards family and self.” —Maaza Mengiste, MacArthur Fellow and author of The Shadow King, Finalist for the Booker Prize
“An intimate and honest meditation on a historically charged subject. I’ve been waiting for this book my entire life.” —Isabel Strauss, Architecture professor and independent curator
“Blackness Thirteen Ways is a work of chiaroscuro genius. J. Vanessa Lyon’s prose is as pleasurable as it is inimitable.” —Myriam Gurba, author of Poppy State: A Labyrinth of Plants and a Story of Beginnings
“[Mingling] personal introspection with analyses of art and culture [Lyon] explores what black female ‘impassibility’ has meant for her and the many Western artists she has studied. . . [turning] her critically astute eye to renderings of the ‘passing problem’ . . . . A sharp-eyed book.” —Kirkus Reviews
“A poignant account of finding personal truth and 'hopeful futurity' reflected in the art of the past.” —Publishers Weekly
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