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A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance by
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Jen R.
is on page 68 of 320
If there is some kind of loophole in the rules of magic, it might be this: the one where a person is able to be invisible until they are desired. Where they are an echo of nonexistence until they can fulfill a need, or tell a story, or be a thread in the fabric of someone else's grand design. The flawed magic of desiring a body more than an actual person. (66)
— 3 hours, 14 min ago
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Jen R.
is on page 65 of 320
Ellen Armstrong kept performing in smaller rooms, to crowds without as much money or social capital. The idea, it seemed, was about offering a sense of wonder to those who may otherwise have been denied it. To make something small spectacular. Magic relies on what a viewer is willing to see, and what a viewer is willing to see relies on what the world has afforded them to be witness to.
— 3 hours, 22 min ago
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Jen R.
is on page 65 of 320
The magic of it all. The literal magic, that which exists to give a suspension to belief. That which exists to wash away the knowing of a wretched world and replace it with another. What appears when there was once nothing. What miracles a love for our people bends us toward.
— 3 hours, 30 min ago
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Jen R.
is on page 60 of 320
I say I love my people and I mean there is a language that is only ours, and within that language there is shelter. But when I speak that language into the world, I know how eager the world might be to bend it to its own desires.
— 3 hours, 50 min ago
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Jen R.
is on page 38 of 320
I think about the small but important distance between gospel as popular music and gospel as a vehicle for salvation: how it is possible to take in the music without much concern for salvation, but still be carried off to a place that feels holy.
— Feb 05, 2026 11:41AM
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Jen R.
is on page 30 of 320
because I think what Michael meant when he sang “Don’t stop 'til you get enough" is that a river must be built out of what the dancing can offer so that we might float once again off grief's island.
— Feb 05, 2026 10:54AM
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Jen R.
is on page 28 of 320
(On Black funerals) … It is continuing in the tradition of Black Americans attempting to protect and enlarge their own narratives. A tradition that has been present since being forced into America, knowing that there were stories and history and lives to be honored beyond this place.
— Feb 05, 2026 10:44AM
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Jen R.
is on page 21 of 320
I have claimed the fantasy of kinship with so many of you, my dear cousins from another life. I have watched your leather and your pearls spin down the rhythmic labyrinth of that immaculate nighttime. … Every time I take to a dance floor and can't keep up, I am looking back and praying you all will open up a path with some unbreakable light at the end.
— Feb 04, 2026 12:44PM
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Jen R.
is on page 12 of 320
It occurs to me now that this was the real joy of dancing: to enter a world unlike the one you find yourself burdened with, and mine your body toward nothing but a prayer that time might slow down.
— Feb 04, 2026 12:01PM
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Jen R.
is on page 10 of 320
& so it is safe to say that I only danced along the slick surface of my basement floor with the moon out & all the lights in the house out & the television playing hits & this wasn't exactly practicing dance moves as much as it was learning the different directions my limbs could flail in & there is no church like the church of unchained arms being thrown in every direction in the silence of a sleeping home (3)
— Feb 04, 2026 11:26AM
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Kisha
is 90% done
I am struggling thru this book. But I am determined to finish it.
— Feb 04, 2026 10:38AM
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