Higher Flight, Refocusing Black/Africana Studies for the 21st Century

Higher Flight offers a much-needed critical assessment of the current state of Black/Africana Studies in order to chart a path forward. Three equally groundbreaking sections clarify and refine the distinctive approaches that currently define the field; show how creative production in particular can serve as a unique means of cultural analysis and political mobilization; and suggest how to restore the balance between intellectual inquiry and direct action in order to improve the actual lived experiences of people of African descent. Each section incorporates various forms of expression, including Stewart’s essays, speeches, and poems, and the book as a whole covers a vast range of figures, issues, and phenomena, from W.E.B, Du Bois to James Baldwin, from conscious hip-hop to the Black Lives Matter movement, from Hurricane Katrina to Covid-19, and very much in between.

Written with an accessible authoritativeness few Black/Africana scholar-activists can match, the book offers a must-read not only for researchers, but also for graduate students and advanced undergraduate students interested in Black/Africana Studies, Diaspora Studies, Ethnic Studies, Black Womanist/Feminist Studies, Black Male Studies, and American Studies, as well as in African American history, culture, politics, economics, literature, and philosophy.