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Black Folk Could Fly: Selected Writings by Randall Kenan
A personal, social, and intellectual self-portrait of the beloved and enormously influential late Randall Kenan, a master of both fiction and nonfiction.
Virtuosic in his use of literary forms, nurtured and unbounded by his identities as a Black man, a gay man, an intellectual, and a Southerner, Randall Kenan was known for his groundbreaking fiction. Less visible were his extraordinary nonfiction essays, published as introductions to anthologies and in small journals, revealing countless facets of Kenan's life and work.
Flying under the radar, these writings were his most personal and autobiographical: memories of the three women who raised him—a grandmother, a schoolteacher great-aunt, and the great-aunt's best friend; recollections of his boyhood fear of snakes and his rapturous discoveries in books; sensual evocations of the land, seasons, and crops—the labor of tobacco picking and hog killing—of the eastern North Carolina lowlands where he grew up; and the food (oh, the deliriously delectable Southern foods!) that sustained him. Here too is his intellectual coming of age; his passionate appreciations of kindred spirits as far-flung as Eartha Kitt, Gordon Parks, Ingmar Bergman, and James Baldwin. This powerful collection is a testament to a great mind, a great soul, and a great writer.
Virtuosic in his use of literary forms, nurtured and unbounded by his identities as a Black man, a gay man, an intellectual, and a Southerner, Randall Kenan was known for his groundbreaking fiction. Less visible were his extraordinary nonfiction essays, published as introductions to anthologies and in small journals, revealing countless facets of Kenan's life and work.
Flying under the radar, these writings were his most personal and autobiographical: memories of the three women who raised him—a grandmother, a schoolteacher great-aunt, and the great-aunt's best friend; recollections of his boyhood fear of snakes and his rapturous discoveries in books; sensual evocations of the land, seasons, and crops—the labor of tobacco picking and hog killing—of the eastern North Carolina lowlands where he grew up; and the food (oh, the deliriously delectable Southern foods!) that sustained him. Here too is his intellectual coming of age; his passionate appreciations of kindred spirits as far-flung as Eartha Kitt, Gordon Parks, Ingmar Bergman, and James Baldwin. This powerful collection is a testament to a great mind, a great soul, and a great writer.
9 pages, Audible Audio
First published August 9, 2022
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About the author
Randall Kenan
25 books272 followersRandall Kenan's first novel, A Visitation of Spirits was published by Grove Press in 1989; and a collection of stories, Let the Dead Bury Their Dead, was published in 1992 by Harcourt, Brace. That collection was nominated for the Los Angeles Times Book Award for Fiction, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, and was among The New York Times Notable Books of 1992. He was also the author of a young adult biography of James Baldwin (1993), and wrote the text for Norman Mauskoff=s book of photographs, A Time Not Here: The Mississippi Delta (1997). Walking on Water: Black American Lives at the Turn of the Twenty-First Century was published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1999, and was nominated for the Southern Book Award.
He was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1963, and spent his childhood in Chinquapin, North Carolina. He attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he received a B.A. in English in 1985. From 1985 to 1989 he worked on the editorial staff of Alfred A. Knopf, Inc, publishers. In 1989 he began teaching writing at Sarah Lawrence College and Columbia University. He was the first William Blackburn Visiting Professor of Creative Writing at Duke University in the fall of 1994, and the Edourd Morot-Sir Visiting Professor of Creating Writing at his alma mater in 1995. He was the John and Renee Grisham Writer-in-Residence at the University of Mississippi, Oxford (1997-98),Visiting Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Memphis, and held the Lehman-Brady Professorship at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University. He has also taught urban literature at Vassar College.
He was the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Whiting Writers Award, the Sherwood Anderson Award, the John Dos Passos Prize, and was the 1997 Rome Prize winner from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Kenan passed away in August 2020, just after his short story collection "If I Had Two Wings" was published.
He was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1963, and spent his childhood in Chinquapin, North Carolina. He attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he received a B.A. in English in 1985. From 1985 to 1989 he worked on the editorial staff of Alfred A. Knopf, Inc, publishers. In 1989 he began teaching writing at Sarah Lawrence College and Columbia University. He was the first William Blackburn Visiting Professor of Creative Writing at Duke University in the fall of 1994, and the Edourd Morot-Sir Visiting Professor of Creating Writing at his alma mater in 1995. He was the John and Renee Grisham Writer-in-Residence at the University of Mississippi, Oxford (1997-98),Visiting Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Memphis, and held the Lehman-Brady Professorship at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University. He has also taught urban literature at Vassar College.
He was the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Whiting Writers Award, the Sherwood Anderson Award, the John Dos Passos Prize, and was the 1997 Rome Prize winner from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Kenan passed away in August 2020, just after his short story collection "If I Had Two Wings" was published.
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
July 27, 2022
Randall Kenan was a great writer with a great soul. You left me wanting more.
Flying under the radar, these writings were his most personal and autobiographical: memories of the three women who raised him-a grandmother, a schoolteacher great-aunt, and the great-aunt's best friend; recollections of his boyhood fear of snakes and his rapturous discoveries in books; sensual evocations of the land, seasons, and crops-the labor of tobacco picking and hog killing-of the eastern North Carolina lowlands where he grew up; and the food (oh the deliriously delectable Southern foods!) that sustained him. Here too is his intellectual coming of age; his passionate appreciations of kindred spirits as far-flung as Eartha Kitt, Gordon Parks, Ingmar Bergman, and James Baldwin. This powerful collection is a testament to a great mind, a great soul, and a great writer. Highly recommend.
Flying under the radar, these writings were his most personal and autobiographical: memories of the three women who raised him-a grandmother, a schoolteacher great-aunt, and the great-aunt's best friend; recollections of his boyhood fear of snakes and his rapturous discoveries in books; sensual evocations of the land, seasons, and crops-the labor of tobacco picking and hog killing-of the eastern North Carolina lowlands where he grew up; and the food (oh the deliriously delectable Southern foods!) that sustained him. Here too is his intellectual coming of age; his passionate appreciations of kindred spirits as far-flung as Eartha Kitt, Gordon Parks, Ingmar Bergman, and James Baldwin. This powerful collection is a testament to a great mind, a great soul, and a great writer. Highly recommend.
January 23, 2023
Some really lovely essays in a wide variety of styles, with great stuff about Southern food, James Baldwin and Eartha Kitt. I'm going to look into his fiction now.
November 19, 2024
All about North Carolina, UNC, Blackness, food, the South, family, hogs, tobacco, Spiderman, Batman, comics, elementary school, basketball, New York, Eartha Kitt, James Baldwin, Gordon Parks, Star Trek, science fiction, magical realism, childhood and reflection, writing, computers and hacking, physics, ghosts, Granville Towers, death, and so much more ...
"For I remain,
Your loving self"
"For I remain,
Your loving self"
Read
November 22, 2022Kenan writings always have such a strong sense of voice, sense of place. that place is Chinquapin, North Carolina. I enjoyed all his muses: Southern Black culture, food (Kenan food writing goes under the radar), Blackness, James Baldwin, Eartha Kitt, and Ingmar Bergman for example.
"For I remain your loving self."
"For I remain your loving self."
September 20, 2022
It helps this guy is a North Carolina guy. Some of his writing contains lists of things that make him Southern, Black, a writer, a North Carolinian. I can relate to a lot of what he lists. He was raised by an aunt for which he had obvious love and great respect. The book is comprised of several short selections and in several of the pieces he refers to the woman that raised him that was just like a Mama to him. It's sweet. Nothing like a little distance from small town living to make you appreciate PART of small town living. It's good he saw the world from different perspectives and locations because I think it gave him a more full and interesting take and opinion.
Read
January 2, 2025like a love letter to the South and all its richness (among many many other things), appreciated the direct connection to UNC history and his vulnerable account of his identity development. thank you randall kenan 🙏🏽
December 20, 2022
Serious arguments and stories written with a tone of mischief. This book is disarmingly thought provoking and I'll be thinking about it for a while. Not to mention, Kenan gave me a dozen new book recommendations and thought trains to pursue.
February 1, 2024
I had not heard of this man until reading this book, which was on the New York Times 100 Notable Books for 2022 (as an aside, this list may be a little New York centric in places, but it is a very reliably good list of all things published in the year that has passed, and while not the only source of recommendation I use, and I am not able to get too deeply into the list some years, but I am rarely disappointed by it). He writes in a way that is personal, leaving you with a feeling that you would recognize him if you met him--which, sadly, will never happen because he died on pancreatic cancer a couple of years ago.
Kenan is very clear: he is black, he is southern, and he is gay. All of these things are important to him, and he wants the reader to remember them about him. Through a profound analysis of food, music, film and literature, he explores the many aspects of African American life in the American South. In doing so, he puts his own history up for observation; he bravely admitting that he, at times, has felt not Black enough, that there are things like prison that are common to the black American experience that he did not experience, but that he is keenly aware of the culture none-the-less.
Kenan is very clear: he is black, he is southern, and he is gay. All of these things are important to him, and he wants the reader to remember them about him. Through a profound analysis of food, music, film and literature, he explores the many aspects of African American life in the American South. In doing so, he puts his own history up for observation; he bravely admitting that he, at times, has felt not Black enough, that there are things like prison that are common to the black American experience that he did not experience, but that he is keenly aware of the culture none-the-less.
November 22, 2023
Randall Keenan, your writing is beautiful. And so is your personality. Kicked around from one family member to the next when he was young, somehow he remained buoyant. His essays, especially the early ones, explore love confessed through Southern gardening and cooking. What "blackness" really means. And how much he loves great artists/activists from James Baldwin to Eartha Kitt. He lost me a bit when he went on about his favorite avant garde directors. If you haven't seen their films, it's hard to appreciate his insights. Bang on, Kenan, you've made being black, gay and intellectual a celebration of love and life.
October 12, 2022
This is one of the best books about Black culture,specifically Black culture that I have read. I really enjoyed the history on how Black food brings us all together. I love the deep, rich history about Eartha Kitt’s influence on society and Kenan himself. I love the ending so much. The author ended the book with a visual description about Black folk hanging around other Black folk. I truly smiled and laughed hearing all of the typical sayings from my family. Will definitely read again!! I highly recommend the audiobook because the narrator definitely did a beautiful job!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 4, 2023
This collection of essays works like an intellectual memoir.
It lacks the structure of an actual memoir, but by the end, it’s done the good work of making you feel that you know Kenan to a deep depth.
What a great message of kindness and understanding wrapped in a lot of pop-culture criticism. I lack Kenan’s capacity for hero worship, but his reverence for James Baldwin, Gordon Parks, Ingemar Bergman, and Eartha Kitt (!) are really touching even if I can’t really relate those feelings to my own life.
It lacks the structure of an actual memoir, but by the end, it’s done the good work of making you feel that you know Kenan to a deep depth.
What a great message of kindness and understanding wrapped in a lot of pop-culture criticism. I lack Kenan’s capacity for hero worship, but his reverence for James Baldwin, Gordon Parks, Ingemar Bergman, and Eartha Kitt (!) are really touching even if I can’t really relate those feelings to my own life.
November 30, 2023
I came across by accident, in San Francisco I think, Randall Kenan's first novel shortly after it was published in 1989. I was curious about a Black, gay man writing about the US South. I remember very little about it now, but I do remember feeling perplexed, like I had somehow missed the point.
I never returned to him until last year, when a collection of his non-fiction was published shortly after his death. This time, however, his writing inspired me. Maybe my brief encounter with him in my youth was a clue to a buried treasure, which I found more than 30 years later.
Three things about his life and writing inspired me:
1) He treated life is a fragile gift, one that requires courage to tend to it, nuture it and experience all of it.
2) He worked hard to integrate all (many?) the parts of himself into a harmonious whole, while being open, real and self-aware of the tensions in himself. He was Black, gay, Southern, a sci-fi fan, a professor, a foodie, a writer, born into rural poverty, etc.
3) He believed that a good life comes out of dialog between the culture that surrounds us and our individuality. Becoming who we want to be takes a creative act, a "willed affirmation".
I never returned to him until last year, when a collection of his non-fiction was published shortly after his death. This time, however, his writing inspired me. Maybe my brief encounter with him in my youth was a clue to a buried treasure, which I found more than 30 years later.
Three things about his life and writing inspired me:
1) He treated life is a fragile gift, one that requires courage to tend to it, nuture it and experience all of it.
2) He worked hard to integrate all (many?) the parts of himself into a harmonious whole, while being open, real and self-aware of the tensions in himself. He was Black, gay, Southern, a sci-fi fan, a professor, a foodie, a writer, born into rural poverty, etc.
3) He believed that a good life comes out of dialog between the culture that surrounds us and our individuality. Becoming who we want to be takes a creative act, a "willed affirmation".
November 24, 2022
Let’s make this required high school 🏫 reading. 👏🏾
December 15, 2022
Randall Kenan contained multitudes and his writing reflected this. It is incredibly heartbreaking that he passed away while still searching to identify all of those multitudes.
December 24, 2022
To understand your future, you must know your past... this book does help with some of the history that puts the present into perspective and gives hope for the future.
March 26, 2023
Wow feeling the writer… words that bring about visuals, smells and feelings!!
April 1, 2023
I have never read anything from Kenan, but on. NY Times recommendation, I picked this up. I really enjoyed his writing style and thoughts. The make up of the book was a little strange, but enjoyable
April 23, 2023
Fantastic collection!
April 26, 2023
Grateful to North Carolina for giving us Randall Kenan.
June 3, 2023
The first half was amazing such good stories. I got lost with all the james Baldwin stuff in the second half
June 6, 2023
Really enjoyed this and the insight it gave me. Learned more about Richmond, my hometown, that I never would have otherwise.
August 31, 2023
It’s eerie to read writings just before an author’s death. I feel honored to have had that privilege with “Black Folk Could Fly.” Randall Kenan is sorely missed.
September 29, 2023
A little uneven. I most liked the author's reminiscences in Part 1 and was surprised to enjoy the hell out of Kenan's portrait of Eartha Kitt.
March 2, 2024
It felt like a random smattering of things he just wanted to talk about, and quotes from other people, and stories about barbecues
December 24, 2024
I am so glad to have read such authentic voices this year. This author delves into his personal history and shares real experiences which are accessible to readers from all backgrounds.
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews