
Falling, Floating, Flickering
Disability and Differential Movement in African Diasporic Performance
Hershini Bhana Young(Author)
New York University Press
Published on 17. January 2023
Book
Paperback/Softback
320 pages
978-1-4798-1845-7 (ISBN)
Description
Insists on the importance of embodiment and movement to the creation of Black sociality
Linking African diasporic performance, disability studies, and movement studies, Falling, Floating, Flickering approaches disability transnationally by centering Black, African, and diasporic experiences. By eschewing capital's weighted calculus of which bodies hold value, this book centers alternate morphologies and movement practices that have previously been dismissed as abnormal or unrecognizable.
To move beyond binaries of ability, Hershini Bhana Young traverses multiple geohistories and cultural forms stretching from the United States and the Mediterranean to Sierra Leone, Nigeria, and South Africa, as well as independent and experimental film, novels, sculptures, images, dance, performances, and anecdotes. In doing so, she argues for the importance of differential embodiment and movement to the creation and survival of Black sociality, and refutes stereotypic notions of Africa as less progressive than the West in recognizing the rights of disabled people.
Ultimately, this book foregrounds the engagement of diasporic Africans, who are still reeling from the violence of colonialism, slavery, poverty, and war, as they gesture toward a liberatory Black sociality by falling, floating, and flickering.
Linking African diasporic performance, disability studies, and movement studies, Falling, Floating, Flickering approaches disability transnationally by centering Black, African, and diasporic experiences. By eschewing capital's weighted calculus of which bodies hold value, this book centers alternate morphologies and movement practices that have previously been dismissed as abnormal or unrecognizable.
To move beyond binaries of ability, Hershini Bhana Young traverses multiple geohistories and cultural forms stretching from the United States and the Mediterranean to Sierra Leone, Nigeria, and South Africa, as well as independent and experimental film, novels, sculptures, images, dance, performances, and anecdotes. In doing so, she argues for the importance of differential embodiment and movement to the creation and survival of Black sociality, and refutes stereotypic notions of Africa as less progressive than the West in recognizing the rights of disabled people.
Ultimately, this book foregrounds the engagement of diasporic Africans, who are still reeling from the violence of colonialism, slavery, poverty, and war, as they gesture toward a liberatory Black sociality by falling, floating, and flickering.
Reviews / Votes
"A stellar work of scholarship. Young is fearless in her questions and generous in her thinking, providing readers with the tools to imagine, critique, and speculate alongside her. She powerfully demonstrates the necessity of reading disability in context and transforms our understandings of disability and performance." (Alison Kafer, author of Feminist, Queer, Crip) "Falling, Floating, Flickering demonstrates that Black sociality emerges from and can be reconsidered by foregrounding differential embodiment. Throughout the book, moments of tension, moving through rich theoretical ideas and difficult lived and performed embodiments, are followed by moments of relief, where Hershini Bhana Young offers not simply places to rest, but places to be invigorated. Reading this work is incredibly pleasurable, and I am grateful for its clarity and capaciousness." (Keguro Macharia, author of Frottage: Frictions of Intimacy across the Black Diaspora) "Young's writing unfolds with precision, through buoyant close readings and lucid critiques of the false enticements of the normal. Falling rehearses the author's now familiar move between the poetic and critical registers of things and happenings." (Performance Research Journal)More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
17 b/w illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 230 mm
Width: 150 mm
Thickness: 22 mm
Weight
493 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-4798-1845-7 (9781479818457)
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
Other editions
Additional editions

Hershini Bhana Young
Falling, Floating, Flickering
Disability and Differential Movement in African Diasporic Performance
E-Book
01/2023
New York University Press
€23.49
Available for download
Person
Hershini Bhana Young is a Professor in the Department of African and African Diaspora Studies at University of Texas, Austin and author of Haunting Capital: Memory, Text and the Black Diasporic Body and Illegible Will: Coercive Spectacles of Labor in South Africa and the Diaspora.