{"product_id":"9781555976071","title":"The Grey Album: On the Blackness of Blackness","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e*Finalist for the 2012 National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism*\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e*A \u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e Top 10 Literary Criticism and Essays Pick for Spring 2012*\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Grey Album, the first work of prose by the brilliant poet Kevin Young, winner of the Graywolf Press Nonfiction Prize\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTaking its title from Danger Mouse's pioneering mashup of Jay-Z's \u003ci\u003eThe Black Album \u003c\/i\u003eand the Beatles' \u003ci\u003eThe White Album\u003c\/i\u003e, Kevin Young's encyclopedic book combines essay, cultural criticism, and lyrical choruses to illustrate the African American tradition of lying—storytelling, telling tales, fibbing, improvising, \"jazzing.\" What emerges is a persuasive argument for the many ways that African American culture \u003ci\u003eis \u003c\/i\u003eAmerican culture, and for the centrality of art—and artfulness—to our daily life. Moving from gospel to soul, funk to freestyle, Young sifts through the shadows, the bootleg, the remix, the grey areas of our history, literature, and music.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Graywolf Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47055668838640,"sku":"9781555976071","price":25.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781555976071_p0.jpg?v=1763760701","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781555976071","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}