Black Aliveness, or A Poetics of Being

Black Outdoors: Innovations in the Poetics of Study

by Kevin Quashie

In Black Aliveness, or A Poetics of Being, Kevin Quashie imagines a Black world in which one encounters Black being as it is rather than only as it exists in the shadow of anti-Black violence. As such, he makes a case for Black aliveness even in the face of the persistence of death in Black life and Black study. Centrally, Quashie theorizes aliveness through the aesthetics of poetry, reading poetic inhabitance in Black feminist literary texts by Lucille Clifton, Audre Lorde, June Jordan, Toni Morrison, and Evie Shockley, among others, showing how their philosophical and creative thinking constitutes worldmaking. This worldmaking conceptualizes Blackness as capacious, relational beyond the normative terms of recognition—Blackness as a condition of oneness. Reading for poetic aliveness, then, becomes a means of exploring Black being rather than nonbeing and animates the ethical question “how to be.” In this way, Quashie offers a Black feminist philosophy of being, which is nothing less than a philosophy of the becoming of the Black world.

Genres: Nonfiction, Poetry, Black Literature

236 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 26, 2021

About the author

Kevin Everod Quashie is Professor of English at Brown University and the author of The Sovereignty of Quiet: Beyond Resistance in Black Culture and Black Women, Identity, and Cultural Theory: (Un)Becoming the Subject.

Reviews

[S P · Rating 5 out of 5]

'Black aliveness is. It is. And the study in this book is an attempt to realize something about a sequence of writing that stirs (up) such aliveness of being.

Sigh: This is a book by one black person about reading (and) blackness. It is also a love letter to myself, made as if in a black world where the capacities of being can be taken for granted. Indeed “imagine a black world” is a love gesture that says to the one: Be as you are. You will become and you will undo. As you are, you are and are worthy—inhabit that and unfurl in and into the world. In this way, the invitation to imagine a black world requires enduring work. It is a call to relation that means it is a call to suspend in the heft of its work, an invocation of ethicality that resides in the capaciousness of one’s figuring through one’s oneness, discerning every day how to be in the world.'

(p147, 'Conclusion: Again, Aliveness')

[Codi · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books I've experienced in a long time. It taught me so much. Incredibly grateful to Kevin for this offering.

[Tia]

A bit more winding and abstract than his other books! Not sure if I understood the structure or how these chapters are really all that distinct from each other, but loved its warmth and vibrancy!

[Nicole Alexander · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s rare to read theory that feels this warm! I was impressed by how Quashie beautifully and fluidly builds upon his theory on black aliveness, which is essentially our ability (and right) to live in subjunctivity, to continuously become.

I love that he mostly pulls from—and gushes over—the work of black women writers (Clifton, Morrison, Lorde, Finney, etc), as it suggests that our aliveness is the instantiation of possibility and imagination and future. He references the same texts again and again throughout, which I found helpful to understanding his theory, especially as he goes deeper into it.

Also sooo grateful for all of the vocabulary I learned reading this. 10/10 would recommend

[Rosie]

Whew!!!!!! Quashie is brilliant. Sometimes things were worded confusingly, but this was absolutely lovely. “[…] blackness (not antiblackness) is totality: in such a world, black being is capacious and right— not more-right-than, just right-as-is. Life-as-is… to behold blackness as one’s ethical reckoning with being alive” (10).

[Saron Regassa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wish I could give this book a 4.75 star because it is literally my favorite book of all time right now. The writing style cannot be described as anything less than beautiful. In general, this book is a black feminist literary analysis of black literature, mostly poetry and novels, but Quashie has this way of analyzing in a repetitive and poetic way that really illustrates the world he is gesturing towards in the text.

I only take a quarter of a point off because his theoretical approach doesn’t adequately set up his argument. He argues that even though death surrounds Black people, there is still a life/worldmaking tradition in black text that can be instructive in understanding the ethical dilemma of being human. to adequately address the critiques of AP it would require like 100 pages I guess so it makes sense that it didn’t happen but shaky theory aside, the book was a joy to read!

[A · Rating 4 out of 5]

Spectacular close readings. The theory is a bit hard to follow (so many abstract nouns, one after the next). But the point? For me: studying, working (not in a capitalist sense) to feel how literary (& possibly visual) texts write of the (un)becoming of the Black one. How is one made, and unmade? This (un)becoming happens on the scale of the one, in relation. Not in relation to Others, but in relation to being, to emotion, to experience, to affect. Draws a lot from Lorde, Glissant, Sharpe, Morrison, Clifton to construct the theory.

[a · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is theory but I could see it appealing to a broader, non-academic audience. It's beautifully written and doesn't get bogged down in some of the obfuscatory tendencies of theory. A much needed corrective to the ongoing discourse that indexes Blackness to death. Essentially Quashie is saying that while structural forces DO index Blackness to death, there is value in carving out a world, through poetics, before structures of oppression in which simple Black being or aliveness is allowed to flourish.

[J]

I have nothing to say other than that this is a beautiful and brilliant book.

[Régine Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is everything.

[Sussie Anie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sublime. Revelatory. One to return to.

[Daisy Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read intro, 1, 2, 5 & conclusion for Love, Prophecy, and Social Criticism spring 2024.

[Emmy M · Rating 5 out of 5]

a very powerful book about the possibilities of a black world and the magnitude of what aliveness means. it is oneness (which is all) and relational (which is all).

[Maya · Rating 5 out of 5]

I took a class with Prof. Quashie’s in 2019 and it’s such a wonderful thing to continue that studying

[blaisdell · Rating 2 out of 5]

This analysis of Black women’s writing centers around an incredibly meaningful thought: imagine a Black world, where Black authors’ writing need not be interpreted through the lens of defending Black humanity, because to be Black is to be human just by virtue of being alive. In such a world, how beautiful Black literature can be: an exploration of Black being, of exploring the beautiful and the ugly of being human, of not having to solve every problem brought up in a work. That said, when you write so purposefully convoluted that you’re incomprehensible, that’s not good writing. That’s just gatekeeping. Sincerely, a scholar.