Transatlantic Liverpool: Shades of the Black Atlantic

(Hardback)

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In Transatlantic Liverpool: Shades of the Black Atlantic, Mark Christian presents a Black British study within the context of the transatlantic and Liverpool, England. Taking a semi-autoethnographic approach based on the author's Black Liverpool heritage, Christian interacts with Paul Gilroy's notion of the Black Atlantic. Yet, provides a fresh perspective that takes into account a famous British slave port's history that has been overlooked or under-utilized. The longevity of Black presence in the city involves a history of discrimination, stigma, and a population group known colloquially as Liverpool Born Blacks (LBBs). Crucially, this book provides the reader with a deeper insight of the transatlantic in regard to the movement of Black souls and their struggle for acceptance in a hostile environment. This book is an evocative, passionate, and revealing read.

Reviews

"Transatlantic Liverpool: Shades of the Black Atlantic, by Mark Christian, is one of the most remarkable contemporary intellectual auto-ethnographies. Christian, a brilliant and insightful scholar, has integrated his theoretical, biographical, and critical observations to produce the most, to date, profound book on race and culture in Britain. Using the backdrop of his ancestry as the tapestry of color, rhythm, and dance on which he placed the abiding issue of white racial supremacy, Christian makes the pitch for a more human and a more humane construction of culture. With this work, and its strong Afrocentric understanding, Mark Christian has asserted his dominance in the field of race and culture in Britain, with implications for the rest of the world."

"Transatlantic Liverpool is a semi-autoethnography that draws on and analyzes the lived experiences of Mark Christian and connects those insights to an examination of Africana studies. Christian challenges Paul Gilroys black Atlantic which describes a cultural-political space that is not specifically African, American, Caribbean, or British, but is a hybrid mix of all of these. Transatlantic Liverpool disagrees with this approach. Christian contends that traditional African culture is different from Eurocentrism. An African centered framework encourages the preservation of African American culture which is manifested in language, cuisine, music, dance, and clothing. Transatlantic Liverpool is an enlightening, well-written, and lively analysis of Africana critical studies."

Author Bio

Mark Christian is professor in the Department of Africana Studies at the City University of New York.