Shine Bright Botany ”—The New York Times Book

”—The New York Times Book Review“A story that kept me tied to the page

and haunting from its opening lines

Ramón Montez always achieves his goals

Warcross isn't just a game--it's a way of life

informing the people of Texas that all enslaved people were now free

Shine Bright Botany ”—The New York Times BookFrom one of the preeminent cultural critics of her generation, a radiant weave of memoir, criticism, and biography that tells the story of black women in music from the Dixie Cups to Gladys Knight to Janet Jackson, Whitney Houston, and Mariah Carey as the foundational story of American pop. Black women have borne a double burden of oppression in the United States from its founding but from the bottom of the country's punishing social hierarchy they