I Ain't Yo' Uncle: The New Jack Revisionist Uncle Tom's Cabin

by Robert Alexander

69 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

Reviews

[Aaron Thomas · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is fun for a time, but... I don't know. It feels kind of like an extended bit. At its best I guess it's an interesting intellectual exercise. But the topics it is eventually invested in interrogating – the virtues of violent rebellion, the value of sacrifice, urban disaffection, the dishonesty of white folks – it scratches only the surfaces of these. None of these issues are investigated with any depth at all. It's as if the majority of I Ain't Yo' Uncle is designed to tell us things we already know. I will say that rewriting Topsy and transforming George into Nat Tuner both prove to be fascinating ideas, I just wish the play were more invested in thinking them through rather than simply presenting them to us.