Encyclopedia of African American Popular Culture

Gr 6–9—The more than 600 articles in this ambitious encyclopedia cover African-American figures in, and contributions to, our country's music, fine arts, sports, science, literature, fashion, food, mass media, and cultural iconography. The alphabetically arranged articles range from "Cotillions and Botillions" and "Fish Fry" to such massive topics as "Africa and the African Diaspora" and even "African Americans in the U.S., 1619–2010." Each entry ends with a reading list of, usually, adult titles. A plethora of cross references joins lists of article titles by topic at the beginning of each volume and a massive set index in volume four to facilitate both quick reference and extended research. The final volume includes valuable lists of African-American films, TV and radio shows, and specialized popular culture collections—along with an immense book-list amusingly characterized as a "comprehensive selected bibliography." Though the depth of coverage is perforce uneven, survey articles on such topics as major civil-rights cases or African-American towns make convenient overviews, and students would have to look long and hard to find comparably detailed accounts of closely focused subjects such as African-American comedians or midwifery, the Million Woman March, or African Americans in New Orleans—not to mention Snoop Dogg, Cornel West, Aunt Jemima (who gets almost three dense pages of history and analysis), bling, funerals, cookbooks and megachurches. The murky and thinly scattered black-and-white illustrations are a weak link, but otherwise it's hard to imagine a collection that wouldn't be strengthened by this significant resource.—John Peters, formerly at New York Public Library