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Insists on the importance of embodiment and movement to the creation of Black sociality
Linking African diasporic performance, disability studies, and movement studies, Falling, Floating, Flickering approaches disability transnationally by centering Black, African, and diasporic experiences. By eschewing capital’s weighted calculus of which bodies hold value, this book centers alternate morphologies and movement practices that have previously been dismissed as abnormal or unrecognizable.
To move beyond binaries of ability, Hershini Bhana Young traverses multiple geohistories and cultural forms stretching from the United States and the Mediterranean to Sierra Leone, Nigeria, and South Africa, as well as independent and experimental film, novels, sculptures, images, dance, performances, and anecdotes. In doing so, she argues for the importance of differential embodiment and movement to the creation and survival of Black sociality, and refutes stereotypic notions of Africa as less progressive than the West in recognizing the rights of disabled people.
Ultimately, this book foregrounds the engagement of diasporic Africans, who are still reeling from the violence of colonialism, slavery, poverty, and war, as they gesture toward a liberatory Black sociality by falling, floating, and flickering.
"Falling, Floating, Flickering demonstrates that Black sociality emerges from and can be reconsidered by foregrounding differential embodiment. Throughout the book, moments of tension, moving through rich theoretical ideas and difficult lived and performed embodiments, are followed by moments of relief, where Hershini Bhana Young offers not simply places to rest, but places to be invigorated. Reading this work is incredibly pleasurable, and I am grateful for its clarity and capaciousness."
"Young’s writing unfolds with precision, through buoyant close readings and lucid critiques of the false enticements of the normal. Falling rehearses the author’s now familiar move between the poetic and critical registers of things and happenings."
"Successfully weaves personal narrative, cultural analysis, and historical critique to propose new possibilities for identity, connection, and artistic expression in a world shaped by differential embodiment."