The Last "Darky"

“ [A] book that offers much to understandings of black-on-black minstrelsy and its histories in the U.S. and throughout the African diaspora.” - Jodi Brooks, Screening the Past

“[A] much needed and long overdue text that outlines the history of minstrelsy, the performance of ‘Blackness’ and the significance of the African American guise on the global stage.” - Marti Newland, Souls

“The chapter on In Dahomey makes a great contribution to discussions of the Williams and Walker company, and the book as a whole strongly argues that Bert Williams was far more complex than ‘Nobody.’” - Leslie Pasternack, Comparative Drama

“Louis Chude-Sokei’s The Last “Darky” offers a provocative study interweaving performance studies, postcolonial theory, and critical race theory to examine the black-on-black minstrelsy of Bert Williams . . . . [His] contributions offer exciting possibilities for further research on black modernism, and the unrealized significance of Williams and other West Indians of the black diaspora.” - Adrienne C. Macki, Theatre Journal

“Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.” - D.B. Wilmeth, Choice

“Louis Chude-Sokei’s innovative study not only brings overdue attention to Bert Williams. It deepens our understanding of black modernity and redirects the study of minstrelsy as well. A rich, wide-ranging book, it is filled with resonant insights and brilliant collocations.” - Nathaniel Mackey, author of Paracritical Hinge

“With theoretical verve and archival aplomb, Louis Chude-Sokei explores an open secret that we too often have preferred to ignore: the central role of black minstrelsy in the origins of the Harlem Renaissance. Starting with the simple fact of Bert Williams’s Caribbean origins, he finds the multiple layers of masquerade in any performance of ‘race.’ A timely, often profound portrait of the dynamics of intraracial difference in diaspora.” - Brent Hayes Edwards, author of The Practice of Diaspora