POST-SOUL?

The long-awaited "Post-Soul Aesthetics" issue of African American Review is now out, and as you can see here, the issue is as beautiful as it is provocative.  This cover art is by Ron Davis.

I was asked to write a prefatory piece for the collection, titled "Preliminary Postings from a Neo-Soul."  The guest editor for the special issue was Bertram Ashe, who also convened a discussion, reproduced in the issue, featuring Mark Anthony Neal, Crystal Anderson, Alexander Weheliye and Evie Shockley.  Contributing essays to the issue were Paul Taylor, Richard Schur, Crystal Anderson, David Jones, Marlo David, Malin Pereira, Brian Reed, Michelle Elam and William Ramsey.  Almost two decades have passed since Trey Ellis published his controversial essay on "The New Black Aesthetic" in Callaloo, and this  issue of AAR may be the most substantive response to the phenomena outlined by Ellis in the intervening years.