Imani Perry writes a book about blue threading through the history of blackness and the concept of blackness. Perry roots the book in black America; she traces history all over the place from Africa to Latin America but she always comes back to Black American history.  She draws her own experiences and memories into the narrative running them into the history that she traces. 

 

The chapters are quite short. Perry’s chapters have a loose theme of blue but chronologically they bounce all over the place. It was jarring in places. They did not seem well connected but more a jumble of thoughts attempting to be coherent by the vague theme of blue. 

 

I wished Imani Perry cited or had a references page in the back. Even though this is not a strictly academic book because my academic mind kept wondering “where are we pulling this from?” 

 

However Perry’s writing is like water. It flows. It ebbs. It runs over you in a way that you feel like you have to keep reading. The blue theme covers not just material items, but also the environment around us, the mental and emotional blues, the musical blues among other blues. 

 

The Black in the Blues forces you to be more aware of the world around you. Perry weaves a narrative that forces you to be very imaginative.