
Black Puerto Rican Studies
State University of New York Press
Will be published approx. on 1. December 2026
Book
Hardback
288 pages
979-8-8558-1069-1 (ISBN)
Description
Brings together scholars, thinkers, artists, and community leaders to question hegemonic notions of Blackness in Puerto Rico and throughout its diaspora.
Black Puerto Ricans have always been central, not peripheral, to Puerto Rican life and culture. Black Puerto Rican Studies puts forth dynamic ways of reading, writing, and researching Blackness in Puerto Rico and its diaspora. With essays and interviews spanning ecology, music, architecture, literature, reproductive health, art history, and media production, this volume interrogates national conceptions of Blackness that seek to reduce it to folklore or an ancestral past. In underscoring the interdisciplinarity of the field, Black Puerto Rican Studies celebrates a living lineage of thought, resistance, creativity, stewardship, experimentation, and vision.
Black Puerto Ricans have always been central, not peripheral, to Puerto Rican life and culture. Black Puerto Rican Studies puts forth dynamic ways of reading, writing, and researching Blackness in Puerto Rico and its diaspora. With essays and interviews spanning ecology, music, architecture, literature, reproductive health, art history, and media production, this volume interrogates national conceptions of Blackness that seek to reduce it to folklore or an ancestral past. In underscoring the interdisciplinarity of the field, Black Puerto Rican Studies celebrates a living lineage of thought, resistance, creativity, stewardship, experimentation, and vision.
Reviews / Votes
"A sound and very well-researched study of critical race theory and cultural studies that provides a groundbreaking theoretical and bibliographical tool for researchers of the discipline. It incorporates well-established voices of a diverse group of scholars and their perspectives on Afro Puerto Rican studies." - Mayra Santos-Febres, Afro Diasporic and Race Studies Research Center and Virtual Archive (Centro PRAFRO), University of Puerto Rico"A fascinating collection of material that highlights a wide range of scholarly, artistic, literary, and activist work in the field of Black Puerto Rican studies. It is this collaboration, especially the interviews with cultural workers and activists and the auto-ethnographies by artists and scholars, that makes it a unique contribution. These pieces are incredibly useful, in conjunction with one another and individually, in orienting a reader to what is happening in Black Puerto Rican studies from the perspective of various fields and artistic modes, especially visual and performance art." - Jesse Hoffnung-Garskof, author of Racial Migrations: New York City and the Revolutionary Politics of the Spanish Caribbean, 1850-1902
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Albany, NY
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
US School Grade: College Graduate Student and over
Product notice
Laminated cover
Illustrations
11 Halftones, black and white; 15 Figures
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 153 mm
Thickness: 15 mm
Weight
391 gr
ISBN-13
979-8-8558-1069-1 (9798855810691)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Chayanne Marcano is a writer and researcher born and raised in the Bronx, New York. Vanessa K. Valdes is an independent writer, scholar, speaker, and curator. Her books include Let Spirit Speak! Cultural Journeys Through the African Diaspora; Oshun's Daughters: The Search for Womanhood in the Americas; Diasporic Blackness: The Life and Times of Arturo Alfonso Schomburg; and Racialized Visions: Haiti and the Hispanic Caribbean, all published by SUNY Press.
Content
Acknowledgments
Introducing Black Puerto Rican Studies
Chayanne Marcano and Vanessa K. Valdes
Part One: Theoretical Interventions
1: Rendering Our Black Puerto Rican History
Vanessa K. Valdes
2: Limits and Possibilities of Theorizing Blackness in Puerto Rican Popular Music
Petra Rivera-Rideau
3: Everyday Racisms, Rabia/Rage Epistemologies, and Being Black in Urban Latin(@) America
Zaire Z. Dinzey-Flores
4: NEGRAS: AFROsororidades y suenos
Barbara I. Abadia-Rexach y Carmen Margarita Sanchez De Leon
5: NEGRAS: AFROsororidades y suenos (English)
Barbara I. Abadia-Rexach and Carmen Margarita Sanchez De Leon
Part Two: Artistic Disruptions
6: On Parentesis
Chayanne Marcano
7: Art Against the Margins: Introducing 20th Century Afro-Puerto Rican Aesthetics
Milagros Denis-Rosario
8: Making Puerto Rico Negrx
Chayanne Marcano, Maria Elena Ortiz, and Marina Reyes Franco
9: An Artist's Statement
Marcia X
10: Mayra Santos-Febres and Black Girl Futures in Sirena Selena
Wendyliz Martinez
Part Three: Community and Vernacular Practices
11: To Be Free, To Free Each Other
Chayanne Marcano, Paloma Del Mar Hernandez Quinones, Shaina Simmons, and Yamilin Rivera- Santiago
12: Living Proof: Visualizing Black Puerto Ricans
christopher colon
13: The Mangrove as Life: Why Afro-Puerto Rican Ecosystems Matter
Hilda Llorens and Carlos G. Garcia-Quijano
14: The Soil Cries Out
Chayanne Marcano and Rose Mary Florian Rodriguez
Part Four: Further Reading
A Select Bibliography of Black Puerto Rican Studies 1970-present
Vanessa K. Valdes and Chayanne Marcano
List of Contributors
Introducing Black Puerto Rican Studies
Chayanne Marcano and Vanessa K. Valdes
Part One: Theoretical Interventions
1: Rendering Our Black Puerto Rican History
Vanessa K. Valdes
2: Limits and Possibilities of Theorizing Blackness in Puerto Rican Popular Music
Petra Rivera-Rideau
3: Everyday Racisms, Rabia/Rage Epistemologies, and Being Black in Urban Latin(@) America
Zaire Z. Dinzey-Flores
4: NEGRAS: AFROsororidades y suenos
Barbara I. Abadia-Rexach y Carmen Margarita Sanchez De Leon
5: NEGRAS: AFROsororidades y suenos (English)
Barbara I. Abadia-Rexach and Carmen Margarita Sanchez De Leon
Part Two: Artistic Disruptions
6: On Parentesis
Chayanne Marcano
7: Art Against the Margins: Introducing 20th Century Afro-Puerto Rican Aesthetics
Milagros Denis-Rosario
8: Making Puerto Rico Negrx
Chayanne Marcano, Maria Elena Ortiz, and Marina Reyes Franco
9: An Artist's Statement
Marcia X
10: Mayra Santos-Febres and Black Girl Futures in Sirena Selena
Wendyliz Martinez
Part Three: Community and Vernacular Practices
11: To Be Free, To Free Each Other
Chayanne Marcano, Paloma Del Mar Hernandez Quinones, Shaina Simmons, and Yamilin Rivera- Santiago
12: Living Proof: Visualizing Black Puerto Ricans
christopher colon
13: The Mangrove as Life: Why Afro-Puerto Rican Ecosystems Matter
Hilda Llorens and Carlos G. Garcia-Quijano
14: The Soil Cries Out
Chayanne Marcano and Rose Mary Florian Rodriguez
Part Four: Further Reading
A Select Bibliography of Black Puerto Rican Studies 1970-present
Vanessa K. Valdes and Chayanne Marcano
List of Contributors