Twisted: My Dreadlock Chronicles
In Twisted: My Dreadlock Chronicles, professor and author Bert Ashe delivers a witty, fascinating, and unprecedented account of black male identity as seen through our culture's perceptions of hair. It is a deeply personal story that weaves together the cultural and political history of dreadlocks with Ashe's own mid-life journey to lock his hair. Ashe is a fresh, new voice that addresses the importance of black hair in the 20th and 21st centuries through an accessible, humorous, and literary style sure to engage a wide variety of readers.

After leading a far-too-conventional life for forty years, Ashe began a long, arduous, uncertain process of locking his own hair in an attempt to step out of American convention. Black hair, after all, matters. Few Americans are subject to snap judgements like those in the African-American community, and fewer communities face such loaded criticism about their appearances, in particular their hair. Twisted: My Dreadlock Chronicles makes the argument that the story of dreadlocks in America can’t be told except in front of the backdrop of black hair in America.

Ask most Americans about dreadlocks and they immediately conjure a picture of Bob Marley: on stage, mid-song, dreads splayed. When most Americans see dreadlocks, a range of assumptions quickly follow: he's Jamaican, he's Rasta, he plays reggae; he stinks, he smokes, he deals; he's bohemian, he's creative, he's counter-cultural. Few styles in America have more symbolism and generate more conflicting views than dreadlocks. To "read" dreadlocks is to take the cultural pulse of America. To read Twisted: My Dreadlock Chronicles is to understand a larger story about the truths and biases present in how we perceive ourselves and others. Ashe's riveting and intimate work, a genuine first of its kind, will be a seminal work for years to come.


Supplemental educator materials are available from the publisher.
1120974399
Twisted: My Dreadlock Chronicles
In Twisted: My Dreadlock Chronicles, professor and author Bert Ashe delivers a witty, fascinating, and unprecedented account of black male identity as seen through our culture's perceptions of hair. It is a deeply personal story that weaves together the cultural and political history of dreadlocks with Ashe's own mid-life journey to lock his hair. Ashe is a fresh, new voice that addresses the importance of black hair in the 20th and 21st centuries through an accessible, humorous, and literary style sure to engage a wide variety of readers.

After leading a far-too-conventional life for forty years, Ashe began a long, arduous, uncertain process of locking his own hair in an attempt to step out of American convention. Black hair, after all, matters. Few Americans are subject to snap judgements like those in the African-American community, and fewer communities face such loaded criticism about their appearances, in particular their hair. Twisted: My Dreadlock Chronicles makes the argument that the story of dreadlocks in America can’t be told except in front of the backdrop of black hair in America.

Ask most Americans about dreadlocks and they immediately conjure a picture of Bob Marley: on stage, mid-song, dreads splayed. When most Americans see dreadlocks, a range of assumptions quickly follow: he's Jamaican, he's Rasta, he plays reggae; he stinks, he smokes, he deals; he's bohemian, he's creative, he's counter-cultural. Few styles in America have more symbolism and generate more conflicting views than dreadlocks. To "read" dreadlocks is to take the cultural pulse of America. To read Twisted: My Dreadlock Chronicles is to understand a larger story about the truths and biases present in how we perceive ourselves and others. Ashe's riveting and intimate work, a genuine first of its kind, will be a seminal work for years to come.


Supplemental educator materials are available from the publisher.
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Twisted: My Dreadlock Chronicles

Twisted: My Dreadlock Chronicles

by Bert Ashe
Twisted: My Dreadlock Chronicles

Twisted: My Dreadlock Chronicles

by Bert Ashe

Paperback(New Edition)

$17.00 
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Overview

In Twisted: My Dreadlock Chronicles, professor and author Bert Ashe delivers a witty, fascinating, and unprecedented account of black male identity as seen through our culture's perceptions of hair. It is a deeply personal story that weaves together the cultural and political history of dreadlocks with Ashe's own mid-life journey to lock his hair. Ashe is a fresh, new voice that addresses the importance of black hair in the 20th and 21st centuries through an accessible, humorous, and literary style sure to engage a wide variety of readers.

After leading a far-too-conventional life for forty years, Ashe began a long, arduous, uncertain process of locking his own hair in an attempt to step out of American convention. Black hair, after all, matters. Few Americans are subject to snap judgements like those in the African-American community, and fewer communities face such loaded criticism about their appearances, in particular their hair. Twisted: My Dreadlock Chronicles makes the argument that the story of dreadlocks in America can’t be told except in front of the backdrop of black hair in America.

Ask most Americans about dreadlocks and they immediately conjure a picture of Bob Marley: on stage, mid-song, dreads splayed. When most Americans see dreadlocks, a range of assumptions quickly follow: he's Jamaican, he's Rasta, he plays reggae; he stinks, he smokes, he deals; he's bohemian, he's creative, he's counter-cultural. Few styles in America have more symbolism and generate more conflicting views than dreadlocks. To "read" dreadlocks is to take the cultural pulse of America. To read Twisted: My Dreadlock Chronicles is to understand a larger story about the truths and biases present in how we perceive ourselves and others. Ashe's riveting and intimate work, a genuine first of its kind, will be a seminal work for years to come.


Supplemental educator materials are available from the publisher.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781932841961
Publisher: Agate
Publication date: 06/09/2015
Edition description: New Edition
Pages: 250
Product dimensions: 4.90(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.90(d)

Table of Contents

Confession (i) 1

Origins 5

Intentionality (i) 7

Going Outside (i) 9

Art, Science, Religion (i) 13

Going Outside (ii) 19

American Joker 23

Dreadlocks, My Favorite Hairstyle 29

Advertisements for Our Selves 31

Internationality (ii) 36

Growth 45

Original Dread (iv) 47

Barely Avoided Spit-Take 51

"Professorial." (i) 54

Art, Science, Religion (ii) 60

Tied Up/Tied Down (i) 69

Cousins 77

Twisted 81

Nature vs. "Nature" (i) 83

Veteran Responses/Rookie Responses 95

The Pure (i) 99

Style-ish 102

Golden Age 109

"A Symbolically Aggressive Profusion of Kinks" 111

Border Patrol (i) 115

A Thick, Matted Rorschach Test 119

Fuzzy Phase (i) 130

Nature vs. "Nature" (iii) 138

Against "Dredloc" 146

Five Charged, On-Screen Seconds 154

Border Patrol (ii) 165

Inscrutability (ii) 170

Dread Lit Syllabus (v) 176

Locked 183

Closer 185

The Pure (vi) 193

Open Letter to a Dread-Lord 204

Inscrutability (iii) 207

Confession (II) 221

Dreadlocks Is Dead 223

Dreadlocks for Life 232

Bibliography 239

Acknowledgments 241

About the Author 243

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