Longlisted for the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award
“Powered by masterful writing and storytelling,
A Mouth Is Always Muzzled
is an instant classic that grapples with the essential questions for artists and all societies that profess to be democratic.” —Sheryll Cashin, author of
Loving: Interracial Intimacy in America and the Threat to White Supremacy
A meditation in the spirit of John Berger and bell hooks on art as protest, contemplation, and beauty in politically perilous times
As people consider how to respond to a resurgence of racist, xenophobic populism,
tells an extraordinary story of the ways art brings hope in perilous times. Weaving disparate topics from sugar and British colonialism to attacks on free speech and Facebook activism and traveling a jagged path across the Americas, Africa, India, and Europe, Natalie Hopkinson, former culture writer for the
Washington Post
and
The Root
, argues that art is where the future is negotiated.
Part post-colonial manifesto, part history of British Caribbean, part exploration of art in the modern world,
is a dazzling analysis of the insistent role of art in contemporary politics and life. In crafted, well-honed prose, Hopkinson knits narratives of culture warriors: painter Bernadette Persaud, poet Ruel Johnson, historian Walter Rodney, novelist John Berger, and provocative African American artist Kara Walker, whose homage to the sugar trade
Sugar Sphinx
electrified American audiences.
is a moving meditation documenting the artistic legacy generated in response to white supremacy, brutality, domination, and oppression. In the tradition of Paul Gilroy, it is a
cri de coeur
for the significance of politically bold—even dangerous—art to all people and nations.