After Canaan: Essays on Race, Writing and Religion
After Canaan, the first nonfiction book by acclaimed Vancouver poet Wayde Compton, repositions the North American discussion of race in the wake of the tumultuous
twentieth century. It riffs on the concept of Canada as a promised land (or "Canaan") encoded in African American myth and song since the days of slavery. These varied essays, steeped in a kind of history rarely written about, explore the language of racial misrecognition (a. k.a. "passing"), the subjectivity of black writers
in the unblack Pacific northwest, the failure of urban renewal, black and Asian comedy as a counterweight to official multiculturalism, the poetics of hip hop turntablism, and the impact of the Obama phenomenon on the way we speak about race itself. Compton marks the passing of old modes of antiracism and multiculturalism, and points toward what may or may not be a "post-racial" future, but will without doubt be a brave new world of cultural perception.
Wayde Compton is a Canadian poet, essayist, and novelist. Alongside fellow authors David Chariandy and Karina Vernon, Compton co-founded Commodore Books, the first Black Canadian Literary Press. He is also the co-founder of the Hogan’s Alley Memorial Project, an organization that preserves Vancouver’s Black community history.
Other publications from this author include:
- THE BLUE ROAD (2019)
- THE OUTER HARBOUR (2015)
- The Revolving City: 51 Poems and the Stories Behind Them (2015)
- The Outer Harbour (2015)
- PERFORMANCE BOND (2004)
- BLUESPRINT (2001)
- Bluesprint: Black British Columbian Literature and Orature (2001)
- 49TH PARALLEL PSALM (1999)