William Jelani Cobb

William Jelani Cobb
États-Unis
Biographie
DR
Mots-clés
> Guerre froide
> Afro-américains
> Guerre de Sécession
> Droits civils
William Jelani Cobb, historien, enseigne à l’Université du
Connecticut, où il est également directeur de l’Institut d’Africana
Studies. Il est spécialiste de l’histoire afro-américaine depuis la
guerre de Sécession, ainsi que de l’histoire de la guerre froide.
Il est l’auteur de plusieurs ouvrages, non traduits en français, parmi
lesquels The Substance of Hope: Barack Obama & the Paradox of
Progress (Bloomsbury, 2010) et To The Break of Dawn: A Freestyle
on the Hip Hop Aesthetic (NYU Press, 2007). Il a également publié
une anthologie des textes d’Harold Cruse, l’un des premiers à avoir
proposé un enseignement universitaire sur les questions afroaméricaines, dès les années 1970. William Jelani Cobb prépare
actuellement un ouvrage intitulé Antidote to Revolution: African
American Anticommunism and the Struggle for Civil Rights, 19311957.
Il collabore régulièrement à de nombreux titres de presse, comme le
New Yorker et le Washington Post, sur des thèmes liés à la politique,
à l’histoire, à la culture et aux questions raciales. Par ailleurs, il
intervient régulièrement à l’antenne de CNN, Al-Jazeera, CBS
News et d’autres radios d’audience nationale.
Ressources
Bibliographie sélective [en anglais]
Les publications de William Jelani Cobb dans le New Yorker :
The Substance of Hope: Barack Obama & the Paradox of Progress
(Bloomsbury, 2010) (208 p.)
To The Break of Dawn: A Freestyle on the Hip Hop Aesthetic (NYU
Press, 2007) (200 p.)
The Devil & Dave Chappelle and Other Essays (Thunder’s Mouth
Press, 2007) (336 p.)
The Essential Harold Cruse: A Reader, avec S. Crouch (St. Martin’s
Griffin, 2002) (320 p.)
http://www.newyorker.com/contributors/jelani-cobb
Les Idées en scène : un cycle de débats proposé par la Villa Gillet, l’Opéra de Lyon et le Théâtre de la Croix-Rousse
www.villagillet.net
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The Substance of Hope: Barack Obama & the Paradox of
Progress (Bloomsbury, 2010) (208 p.)
To The Break of Dawn: A Freestyle on the Hip Hop Aesthetic
(NYU Press, 2007) (200 p.)
For acclaimed historian William Jelani Cobb,
the historic election of Barack Obama to
the presidency is not the most remarkable
development of the 2008 election; even
more so is the fact that Obama won some
90 percent of the black vote in the primaries
across America despite the fact that the
established black leadership since the civil
rights era-men like Jesse Jackson, John
Lewis, Andrew Young, who paved the way for
his candidacy-all openly supported Hillary
Clinton. Clearly a sea change has occurred among black voters,
ironically pushing the architects of the civil rights movement
toward the periphery at the moment when their political dreams
were most fully realized.
With roots that stretch from West Africa
through the black pulpit, hip-hop emerged
in the streets of the South Bronx in the
1970s and has spread to the farthest corners
of the earth. To the Break of Dawn uniquely
examines this freestyle verbal artistry on its
own terms. A kid from Queens who spent
his youth at the epicenter of this new art
form, music critic William Jelani Cobb takes
readers inside the beats, the lyrics, and the
flow of hip-hop, separating mere corporate rappers from the
creative MCs that forged the art in the crucible of the street jam.
How this has happened, and the powerful implications it holds
for America’s politics and social landscape, is the focus of The
Substance of Hope, a deeply insightful, paradigm-shifting
examination of a new generation of voters that has not been
shaped by the raw memory of Jim Crow and has a different
range of imperatives.
Elegantly written and powerfully argued, The Substance of Hope
challenges conventional wisdom as it offers original insight into
America’s future.
The four pillars of hip hop—break dancing, graffiti art, deejaying,
and rapping—find their origins in traditions as diverse as the
Afro-Brazilian martial art Capoeira and Caribbean immigrants’
turnstile artistry. Tracing hip-hop’s relationship to ancestral
forms of expression, Cobb explores the cultural and literary
elements that are at its core. From KRS-One and Notorious
B.I.G. to Tupac Shakur and Lauryn Hill, he profiles MCs who were
pivotal to the rise of the genre, verbal artists whose lineage runs
back to the black preacher and the bluesman.
Unlike books that focus on hip-hop as a social movement or
a commercial phenomenon, To the Break of Dawn tracks the
music’s aesthetic, stylistic, and thematic evolution from its
inception to today’s distinctly regional sub-divisions and styles.
Written with an insider’s ear, the book illuminates hip-hop’s
innovations in a freestyle form that speaks to both aficionados.
The Devil & Dave Chappelle and Other Essays (Thunder’s Mouth
Press, 2007) (336 p.)
The Essential Harold Cruse: A Reader, avec S. Crouch (St.
Martin’s Griffin, 2002) (320 p.)
An unflinching collection of essays that takes
on the subjects of Biggie Smalls, Three 6
Mafia, The King Family, and what it takes to be
black at the turn of the twenty-first century.
In 1967, as the movement for civil rights was
turning into a bitter, often violent battle for
black power, Harold Cruse’s The Crisis of the
Negro Intellectual burst onto the scene. It was
a lacerating attack on integration, and set the
agenda for black cultural, social, and political
autonomy. A classic of African American social
thought, the book and its author went on to
influence generations of activists, artists, and
scholars. Cruse’s intelligence, independence,
and breadth of vision virtually defined what
it meant to be a black intellectual in modern
America. In this first anthology of Cruse’s writing, William Jelani
Cobb provides a powerful introduction to Cruse’s wide body of
work, including published material such as excerpts from Crisis,
as well as unpublished essays, speeches, and correspondence.
The Essential Harold Cruse is certain to become standard
reading for anyone interested in race in American society.
Les Idées en scène : un cycle de débats proposé par la Villa Gillet, l’Opéra de Lyon et le Théâtre de la Croix-Rousse
www.villagillet.net
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