Dr. Imani Perry Is the Winner of the 2022 National Book Award for Nonfiction!
A cause for celebration!
Hello Family,
I’m sorry to be in your inbox so late (in least in Eastern Standard Time), but I wanted to share something with you:
DR. IMANI PERRY IS THE WINNER OF THE 2022 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR NONFICTION FOR HER INCREDIBLE, BREATHTAKING, EXTRAORDINARY BOOK, SOUTH TO AMERICA: A JOURNEY BELOW THE MASON-DIXON TO UNDERSTAND THE SOUL OF A NATION!
The reason why I had to wake y’all up to tell y’all this is because I believe Dr. Perry to be the most brilliant scholarly mind on the planet—like for-real, for-real. Every article, every lecture, every interview, every thought, every discussion, every book, every word is a thing so exquisite that it makes you shout and weep.
I’m serious. Whether it’s Prophets of the Hood: Politics and Poetics in Hip Hop, More Beautiful and More Terrible: The Embrace and Transcendence of Racial Inequality in the United States, Looking for Lorraine: The Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry, May We Forever Stand: A History of the Black National Anthem, Vexy Thing: On Gender and Liberation, Breathe: A Letter to My Sons, or South to America… She. Don’t. Miss. The Virgo energy is very real.
And on top of all of that, she’s also an exceptional human being. Kind and funny, warm and vulnerable, caring and don’t take no kind of mess from nobody. Plus, she raised two dope children that are poised to make the world a better place just like they mama. :)
I feel so privileged to have been invited to this year’s ceremony, live and in person. It is such a blessing to be a firsthand witness to someone receiving their much-deserved flowers. And on everything, Dr. Perry deserves these flowers and so many more.
My heart is so full. And my throat is so sore. Because I shouted my lungs out when they called her name (see the video below). But that’s how we do over here when the fam comes through and glows up. :P
That speech. Whew, chile! Ancestors Morrison, Baldwin, Angelou, Hurston, and Hansberry are beaming!
Congratulations, Dr. Imani Perry. You are goals. And I adore you.
Blessings upon blessings,
Robert