One Book One Bronx is excited to present thought-provoking explorations of two influential texts that pushed the boundaries of the hip-hop genre: When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost: A Hip-Hop Feminist Breaks It Down by Joan Morgan and Everything But the Burden: What White People Are Taking From Black Culture by Greg Tate. The discussions examine the far-reaching impact of misogyny and racism on the American narrative. Readers are invited to join this journey of self-discovery and enlightenment as the group delves into the complex themes ’ complex themes and ideas.

When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost: A Hip-Hop Feminist Breaks It Down by Joan Morgan
Award-winning journalist Joan Morgan offers a provocative and powerful look into the life of the modern Black woman: a complex world in which feminists often have not-so-clandestine affairs with the most sexist of men, where women who treasure their independence frequently prefer men who pick up the tab, where the deluge of babymothers and babyfathers reminds Black women who long for marriage that traditional nuclear families are a reality for less than forty percent of the population, and where Black women are forced to make sense of a world where truth is no longer black and white but subtle, intriguing shades of gray.

Saturdays, 12-1:30pm, October 28, November 4, 11, 18, & 25
BronxArtSpace, 700 Manida St.
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Tuesdays, 7-8:30pm, October 31, November 7, 14, & 21
on Zoom
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Everything But the Burden: What White People Are Taking From Black Culture by Greg Tate
White kids from the ’burbs are throwing up gang signs. The 2001 Grammy winner for Best Rap Artist was as white as rice. And blond-haired sorority sisters are sporting FUBU gear. What is going on in American culture that’s giving our nation a racial-identity crisis?

Following the trail blazed by Norman Mailer’s controversial essay “The White Negro,” Everything but the Burden brings together voices from music, popular culture, the literary world, and the media speaking about how from Brooklyn to the Badlands white people are co-opting black styles of music, dance, dress, and slang. In this collection, the essayists examine how whites seem to be taking on, as editor Greg Tate’s mother used to tell him, “everything but the burden”–from fetishizing black athletes to spinning the ghetto lifestyle into a glamorous commodity. Is this a way of shaking off the fear of the unknown? A flattering indicator of appreciation? Or is it a more complicated cultural exchange? The pieces in Everything but the Burden explore the line between hero-worship and paternalism.

Saturdays, 12-1:30pm, December 16, 23, 30, January 6, & 13
BronxArtSpace, 700 Manida St.
(The gallery entrance is around the corner on Spofford Ave.)
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Wednesdays, 7-8:30pm, December 20, 27, January 3, & 10
on Zoom
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER