The Black Utopians

‘Impressive … a meaningful contribution to the wider literature on American utopianism’ * New York Times *
‘An extraordinary work of history and memoir… mines the tension between “running from hell” and “racing toward paradise,” and finds beauty in seemingly impossible dreams.’ * Washington Post *
‘An entrancingly rich odyssey of observation and storytelling, The Black Utopians returns us to forgotten and unknown histories of the ongoing search for a fairer, more equitable America … reminds us that integral to Black struggle has been an unbreakable sense of hope, resistance, and joy.’ * John Keene, author of Punks: New & Selected Poems and Counternarratives *
‘An indispensable resource for all those who dream of horizons, and who imagine unimaginable worlds.’ * Alex Zamalin, author of Black Utopia: The History of an Idea from Black Nationalism to Afrofuturism *
‘At a time when signs of dystopia and despair abound, The Black Utopians takes us on a journey to a place—as much inside as around us—where stubborn hopefulness pushes back against the sirens of impossibility.’ * Ruha Benjamin author of Viral Justice: How We Grow the World We Want and Imagination: A Manifesto *
‘A richly braided and beautifully written account that combines history, personal memoir, and journalism … A deeply original and major contribution to the literature of utopia.’ * Akash Kapur, author of Better to Have Gone: Love, Death and the Quest for Utopia *
‘Robertson’s voice is exquisitely clear-eyed, searching, and expansive, offering a perspective as wise as it is intimate. From the postbellum settlement of Promise Land, Tennessee, to the radical social movements of Detroit, The Black Utopians unearths again and again crucial legacies of Black resistance.’ * Adrian Shirk, author of Heaven is a Place on Earth: Searching for an American Utopia *
‘At a time when signs of dystopia and despair abound, The Black Utopians takes us on a journey to a place—as much inside as around us—where stubborn hopefulness pushes back against the sirens of impossibility. In these pages, utopia is not fanciful and fleeting escapism, but the sweat-soaked soil of freedom dreams and fugitive imagination—nowhere and everywhere at once.’ * Ruha Benjamin author of Viral Justice: How We Grow the World We Want and Imagination: A Manifesto *
‘Compelling … Aaron Robertson sets himself the ambitious task of capturing the spirit and history of the drive to create a self-sustaining Black world within the US’ * TLS *

Aaron Robertson is a writer, an editor, and a translator of Italian literature. His translation of Igiaba Scego’s Beyond Babylon was short-listed for the 2020 PEN Translation Prize and the National Translation Award, and in 2021 he received a National Endowment for the Arts grant. His work has appeared in the New York Times, The Nation, Foreign Policy, n+1, The Point, and Literary Hub, among other publications. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

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