Imani Perry
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Imani Perry

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Imani Perry is the Henry A. Morss, Jr. and Elisabeth W. Morss Professor of Studies of Women, Gender and Sexuality and of African and African American Studies at Harvard University and the Carol K. Pforzheimer Professor at Harvard Radcliffe Institute. She previously served as the Hughes-Rogers Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University and a faculty associate with the Programs in Law and Public Affairs, Gender and Sexuality Studies and Jazz Studies. Perry is a 2023 MacArthur Fellow and received the 2022 National Book Award for Nonfiction for South to America: A Journey Below the Mason Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation. She is also the author of Looking for Lorraine: The Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry, which received the Pen Bograd-Weld Award for Biography, The Phi Beta Kappa Christian Gauss Award for outstanding work in literary scholarship, the Lambda Literary Award for LGBTQ Nonfiction and the Shilts-Grahn Award for nonfiction from the Publishing Triangle. Looking for Lorraine was also named a 2018 notable book by the New York Times, and an a honor book by the Black Caucus of the American Library Association. It was a finalist for the African American Intellectual History Society Paul Murray Book Prize. Her book May We Forever Stand: A History of the Black National Anthem, winner of the 2019 American Studies Association John Hope Franklin Book Award for the best book in American Studies, the Hurston Wright Award for Nonfiction, and finalist for an NAACP Image Award in Nonfiction. Her 2019 book, Breathe: A Letter to My Sons (Beacon Press, 2019) which was a finalist for the 2020 Chautauqua Prize and a finalist for the NAACP Image Award for Excellence in Nonfiction. Perry is a scholar of law, literary and cultural studies, and an author of creative nonfiction. She earned her Ph.D. in American Studies from Harvard University, a J.D. from Harvard Law School, an LLM from Georgetown University Law Center and a BA from Yale College in Literature and American Studies. Her writing and scholarship primarily focuses on the history of Black thought, art, and imagination crafted in response to, and resistance against, the social, political and legal realities of domination in the West. She seeks to understand the processes of retrenchment after moments of social progress, and how freedom dreams are nevertheless sustained. Her book: Vexy Thing: On Gender and Liberation (Duke University Press 2018) is a work of critical theory that contends with the formation of modern patriarchy at the dawn of capitalism, the transatlantic slave trade, and the age of conquest, and traces it through to the contemporary hypermedia neoliberal age. Her book More Beautiful and More Terrible: The Embrace and Transcendence of Racial Inequality in the United States (NYU Press, 2011) is an examination of contemporary practices of racial inequality that are sustained and extended through a broad matrix of cultural habits despite formal declarations of racial equality.
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South to America

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Featured Article: Listens on the identity, history, and future of the American South


The history of the American South is a complicated one. The region is marked by resilience and cultural depth in the face of adversity. From mountain folk celebrating their communities in southern Appalachia to the chefs working tirelessly to honor the South’s traditional cuisine, the culture of the South is vibrant, diverse, and wholly its own. This list presents the multifaceted identity of the South with listens that get to its heart.

Featured Article Listens on the identity, history, and future of the American South

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  • A Dangerously High Threshold for Pain Audiobook By Imani Perry cover art

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  • Sing a Black Girl's Song Audiobook By Ntozake Shange, Imani Perry - editor, Tarana Burke - foreword cover art

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  • Vexy Thing Audiobook By Imani Perry cover art

    • Vexy Thing

    • On Gender and Liberation
    • By: Imani Perry
    • Narrated by: Jo Sands
    • Length: 13 hrs and 27 mins
    • Release date: 02-15-22
    • Language: English
    • 5 out of 5 stars 4 ratings

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  • Breathe Audiobook By Imani Perry cover art

    • Breathe

    • A Letter to My Sons
    • By: Imani Perry
    • Narrated by: Imani Perry
    • Length: 4 hrs and 28 mins
    • Release date: 09-17-19
    • Language: English
    • 4.5 out of 5 stars 111 ratings

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  • South to America Audiobook By Imani Perry cover art

    • South to America

    • A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation
    • By: Imani Perry
    • Narrated by: Imani Perry
    • Length: 16 hrs and 32 mins
    • Release date: 01-25-22
    • Language: English
    • 4.5 out of 5 stars 434 ratings

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  • Looking for Lorraine Audiobook By Imani Perry cover art

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  • May We Forever Stand Audiobook By Imani Perry cover art

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  • Prophets of the Hood Audiobook By Imani Perry cover art

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