Description: The Black Public Sphere examines the significance of the black public sphere as manifested in African American contributions in film, literature, music, and political culture. To think the black public sphere we have to be willing to rethink the relationship between markets and freedom, commodity and identity, property and pleasure. The essays in this collection provide more sophisticated approaches to matters historically consigned to inadequate rubrics - "the Negro problem", "subcultures", "minorities", "inner city", and "multicultural". While these rubrics constrict and stereotype, the analytic potential of the black public sphere is that it facilitates new approaches to discussing democratic values and citizenship. This multidisciplinary approach to African American cultural politics demonstrates ways that scholars are challenging and reformulating the concept of the public sphere.

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