Who Do With Words

Literary Nonfiction. African & African American Studies. Women's Studies. Art. Performance Studies. "In WHO DO WITH WORDS, poet, performer and critic Tracie Morris joyfully and instructively blerds out in her love letter to and lecture on Black speech acts. Riff-reading as philosophizing, she dialogues with J. L. Austin, Samuel R. Delany, and many others, dropping serious science in the process. A pocket-sized delight, and she keeps it tight!"--John Keene"With hip talk and logic, Morris lays some shine on the be in our being as Black folk, writes us a love song for our lingo and a manifesto for making it plain. She asks all of us to flip the script with finesse, to hold the bullshit of public discourse to a flame and make art from the funky embers. Finally, a philosophy we can get down to. Like a quilt full of codes to crack and spill. Like a cowrie on the divination board of Black genius."--Yolanda Wisher"'Who dis?'Y'all know her, or them.We've been there done that.What J. L. Austin try n think aboutWhat Jacques Derrida try n think more aboutTracie Morris just got it down--listen up yo this is it.Enof said, but ain;t it true, 'natural' language don't do neutral especially when it says it is.Taste this TM signature cocktail of 'Ebonic colloquialism' & rhapsodic perspicuity, n see how her spirited speech counteracts the Ivory colonialism of 'RP' to a stunning effect, blerdy cool."--Prof. Kyoo Lee