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A lyrical meditation on how Black Americans have envisioned utopia—and sought to transform their lives.

"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

How do the disillusioned, the forgotten, and the persecuted not merely hold on to life but expand its possibilities and preserve its beauty? What, in other words, does utopia look like in black?

These questions animate Aaron Robertson’s exploration of Black Americans' efforts to remake the conditions of their lives. Writing in the tradition of Saidiya Hartman and Ta-Nehisi Coates, Robertson makes his way from his ancestral hometown of Promise Land, Tennessee, to Detroit—the city where he was born, and where one of the country’s most remarkable Black utopian experiments got its start. Founded by the brilliant preacher Albert Cleage Jr., the Shrine of the Black Madonna combined Afrocentric Christian practice with radical social projects to transform the self-conception of its members. Central to this endeavor was the Shrine’s chancel mural of a Black Virgin and child, the icon of a nationwide liberation movement that would come to be known as Black Christian Nationalism. The Shrine’s members opened bookstores and co-ops, created a self-defense force, and raised their children communally, eventually working to establish the country’s largest Black-owned farm, where attempts to create an earthly paradise for Black people continues today.

Alongside the Shrine’s story, Robertson reflects on a diverse array of Black utopian visions, from the Reconstruction era through the countercultural fervor of the 1960s and 1970s and into the present day. By doing so, Robertson showcases the enduring quest of collectives and individuals for a world beyond the constraints of systemic racism.

The Black Utopians offers a nuanced portrait of the struggle for spaces—both ideological and physical—where Black dignity, protection, and nourishment are paramount. This book is the story of a movement and of a world still in the making—one that points the way toward radical alternatives for the future.

“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. Aaron Robertson reminds us that integral to Black struggle has been an unbreakable sense of hope, resistance, and joy.” —John Keene, National Book Award-winning author of Punks: New & Selected Poems and Counternarratives

"Ambitious and captivating . . . Robertson paints a vivid and beguiling picture of the indomitable human yearning for a safe and nurturing home. It’s a must-read." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

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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.

 

 

 

DeRay Mckesson is the Executive Director of Campaign Zero, a social justice organization leading nationwide structural change to create equity and justice in our criminal legal system. Beginning as a Youth Organizer in Baltimore as a teenager, he has been a community organizer, advocate, and activist on a range of issues impacting people of color for much of his life. DeRay frequently appears on national and cable television programs, including The Daily Show, NPR, MSNBC, CNN, among others. He has also been featured in Attitude Magazine, Vogue, Vanity Fair, Interview Magazine, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Baltimore Sun. He serves in board and advisory capacities for organizations including Teach for America, Council on Criminal Justice, Alliance For Justice, and Rock the Vote. 

 

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