Artists, Performers, and Black Masculinity in the Haitian Diaspora

Jana Evans Braziel examines how Haitian diaspora writers, performance artists, and musicians address black masculinity through the Haitian Creole concept of gwo nègs, or big men. She focuses on six artists and their work: writer Dany Laferrière, director Raoul Peck, rap artist Wyclef Jean, artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, drag queen performer and poet Assotto Saint, and queer drag king performer Dréd (a.k.a. Mildréd Gerestant). For Braziel, these individuals confront the gendered, sexualized, and racialized boundaries of America's diaspora communities and openly resist domestic imperialism that targets immigrants, minorities, women, gays, and queers. This is a groundbreaking study at the intersections of gender and sexuality with race, ethnicity, nationality, and diaspora.

Author: Jana Evans Braziel
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Published: 06/27/2008
Pages: 312
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.08lbs
Size: 9.21h x 6.29w x 0.99d
ISBN: 9780253219787

Review Citation(s):
Chronicle of Higher Education 11/21/2008 pg. 16

About the Author

Jana Evans Braziel is Assistant Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of Cincinnati and author of Diaspora: An Introduction and Caribbean Genesis: Jamaica Kincaid and the Writing of New Worlds.