History is a construction. What happens when we begin to consider stories at the margins, when we grant them centrality? How does that complicate our certainties about who we are, as individuals, as nations, as human beings? Through the lens of visual art, literature, film, and the author's lived experience, Out of the Sun examines the depiction of Black histories in art, offering new perspectives to challenge the accepted narrative.
In these groundbreaking, reflective and erudite essays adapted from her prestigious Massey Lecture series, Esi Edugyan illuminates myriad varieties of Black experience in European and global culture and history. Edugyan combines her examples with analyses of contemporary events and her own personal story in this dazzling first work of non-fiction.