The Audience for Your Essays

Hanif Abdurraqib is a poet, essayist, and critic whose work has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine and many other publications. His new book is A Little Devil in America: In Praise of Black Performance.

“I learn from hearing my elders tell stories. There’s an inherent knowing of yourself as a vessel for narration who also has to—is required to—hold the attention of others at all costs. And that’s essentially what I’m trying to do. The broader project of my writing is almost a constant pleading of: Don’t leave yet. Stay here with me for just a little bit longer.”

Show notes:

• @NifMuhammad
• abdurraqib.com
•  Abdurraqib on Longform
• 02:00 A Little Devil in America (Random House • 2021)
• 09:00 Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung (Lester Bangs • Anchor • 1988)
• 10:00 The Crown Ain’t Worth Much (Button Poetry • 2016)
• 14:00 They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us (Two Dollar Radio • 2017)
• 20:00 Go Ahead in the Rain: Notes to A Tribe Called Quest (University of Texas Press • 2019)
• 25:00 Stakes Is High (De La Soul • Tommy Boy, Warner Brothers • 1996)
• 33:00 Black Movie (Danez Smith • Button Poetry • 2014)
• 37:00 Abdurraqib's MTV News archive
• 39:00 "Mo Salah Is Ready to Make the Whole World Smile" (Bleacher Report • Jun 2018)
• 44:00 Red Dead Redemption (Rockstar Games • 2010)
• 47:00 The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Nintendo • 2017)
• 47:00 Elden Ring (Bandai Namco Entertainment • 2022)

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