Black Chicago in the post–civil rights era was constantly refreshed by an influx of newcomers from the American South via the Great Migration. Chicago was a beacon, disseminating a fresh, powerful definition of Black identity primarily through music, art, and entrepreneurship and mass media. This book uses ruminations on oft-undervalued found ephemeral materials (like a fan club pamphlet or a creamy-white Curtis Mayfield record) and a variety of in-depth original and archival interviews to unearth tales of the aspiration, will, courage, and imagination born in Black Chicago. It also questions ... More

Black Chicago in the post–civil rights era was constantly refreshed by an influx of newcomers from the American South via the Great Migration. Chicago was a beacon, disseminating a fresh, powerful definition of Black identity primarily through music, art, and entrepreneurship and mass media. This book uses ruminations on oft-undervalued found ephemeral materials (like a fan club pamphlet or a creamy-white Curtis Mayfield record) and a variety of in-depth original and archival interviews to unearth tales of the aspiration, will, courage, and imagination born in Black Chicago. It also questions what vestiges of our past we choose to value in this digital age. These stories serve as homespun folktales of hope to counter darker popular narratives about the South and West Sides of the city. They also express the ongoing quest for identity and self-determination, a quest that fueled the earlier Black Arts Movement, and is again at the heart of the Black Arts renaissance currently blossoming in Black Chicago, from genre-spanning musicians like Chance the Rapper, Noname, the Juju Exchange, and Makaya McCraven, and from visual artists like Theaster Gates and Kerry James Marshall, and up-and-comers like Brandon Breaux. Meanwhile, many of the creative giants of previous generations are struggling (Ebony magazine and the groundbreaking DuSable Museum among them). But this text asserts that energy never dies, and creativity will live on beyond this juncture, regardless of the outcome.