Nonfiction: Black in Blues by Imani Perry

National Book Award-winning author Imani Perry's latest book, Black in Blues: How a Color Tells the Story of My People, is an exploration of how the color blue has an interesting presence in the history of Black people. After enjoying 2022's South to America, I was excited to pick this up book, especially with its interesting premise and description.

Genre, Themes, History: This is a nonfiction book in which Perry gives special focus to the color blue, along with its various iterations (indigo, cobalt, lapis, azure, etc.), and its connection to Black people. From the blue in her grandmother's bedroom, to the blue she continues to encounter in her research, and the blue that can simply be found everywhere in nature, Perry links it to commonly known, and also not-so commonly known, points in history. There are the more obvious connections such as rhythm and blues music, Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye, Miles Davis's Kind of Blue, and even the skin tone commonly referred to as 'blue-black.' But Perry reaches back in time to the indigo cloths of West Africa, moving through history, and includes much of her own personal history with the color.

My Verdict: This book is undoubtedly about the color blue and its link to blackness, but what comes out of it is an in-depth look at the black experience that weaves both history and Perry's personal experience into something that is educational, and interesting, and often eye-opening. I was not entirely sure what to expect when I first picked up the book, or just how Perry was going to organically bring the color into her explorations of the slave trade, politics, art, history, and the overall long history of the fight for freedom. But her examples are clear and specific, thoroughly researched, and certainly enlightening.

Favorite Moment: The book includes a variety of pictures that are mostly pieces of art, but my favorite is of a man dying cloth in the indigo dye pits of Nigeria.

Recommended Reading: I recommend Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye. But be warned, it is heavy and heartbreaking.