Poured Over: Hanif Abdurraqib on A Little Devil in America

“The book’s title comes from Josephine Baker’s speech at the March on Washington.…she was speaking to a crowd that was younger, and maybe did not know her from her heyday of p erformance. And she compels them to go and ask their parents and grandparents about her and the system, They’ll tell you that I was a devil and they’ll be right. I was a devil in other countries. And I was a little devil in America, too.” Hanif Abdurraqib­—MacArthur genius grant recipient, National Book Award finalist and winner of a Carnegie Medal from the American Library Association—joins us on the show to talk about his latest book, A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance, which is dedicated to the iconic Josephine Baker and just out in paperback. Hanif riffs on what joy sounds like to him, magician Ellen Armstrong, the line between consumption and affection, what performance means for himself and others, and more with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer.

Featured Books:

A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance by Hanif Abdurraqib

A Fortune for Your Disaster by Hanif Abdurraqib

Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. New episodes land Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional bonus episodes Saturdays) here and on your favorite podcast app.