The ‘robust and eager curiosity’ of Hanif Abdurraqib

By Brian Braiker

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Hanif Abdurraqib wants to make sure everyone gets their roses while they’re still here. And he does so with words. Beautiful words, thoughtful words, compelling and surprising words. Occasionally challenging and always generous words.

“For a long time it was so much easier for me to be immense and articulate and most romantic when a person was no longer with us,” he says. “After that happens a few times, after we’ve lost a lot of people—and this was one of the many byproducts of the last two years—I found myself asking, ‘Well why can’t I tap into this all of the time, while people are still present? And why can’t I have a relationship with gratitude that extends towards the living?’”

A poet, essayist, and cultural critic, Abdurraqib is the author of numerous books, including 2019’s “Go Ahead in the Rain: Notes on A Tribe Called Quest,” which gives roses to the seminal hip hop group, and 2021’s “A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance,” a National Book Award finalist. It’s out now in paperback.

Abdurraqib, who is also a 2021 recipient of a MacArthur “genius” grant, is this week’s guest on “Brooklyn Magazine: The Podcast.” A lifelong Ohioan, he is the curator of Brooklyn Academy of Music’s spring music series, which is currently underway through the end of May (and which he’s commuting back-and-forth to attend). The series is an immersive, intergenerational storytelling experience that pairs genre-defying artists with each other, ranging from the up-and-coming to the legendary. Renowned poet Nikki Giovanni for example will perform with British rapper Lil Simz—who is incredible in her own right. Abdurraqib pairs gospel and soul legend Mavis Staples with singer-songwriter Amy Helm on another night.

“The real urgency I had [was] to celebrate these folks and give them their roses, so to speak, and get them in a place where people could celebrate their work,” he says on the podcast, explaining the impetus behind the series. “There’s a part of this that was selfish, in a way, where I’ve become very happily committed to being in my house. So, a big part of the question was: What are some things that would make me leave my house? What are the things that I want to see?”

On criticism
Beyond BAM’s music series, we discuss the role of curator and critic in 2022 and how the two practices overlap—especially from the standpoint of a music obsessive.

“The idea of criticism for me has always been and will always be, ‘How can I continually tap into and flesh out a robust and eager curiosity that has always haunted my life? … How do I get to be part of an obsession that I’m pursuing?’” he says. “How can we have an exchange? Is there anything that excites you the way that this might excite me? How can we get there together?”

On representation
It is an enthusiast’s approach to criticism, generous but not wholly devoid of teeth. In “A Little Devil in America,” for example, he explores the blurring of the line between performance and audience that can occur in Black culture. “It’s noble for Black people to react viscerally to work that is created for us and to respond in a language we know well,” he writes in his essay about Aretha Franklin’s breathtaking “Amazing Grace” concert video. And he chides a trend in movies, books and other stories that obsesses over and focuses exclusively on the suffering of Black people.

“There was an uptick in all forms of art-slash-media that was so fixated on Black people suffering,” he says on the podcast. “I think the idea was that if we show this to people there will be a sympathy, or there will be an understanding. Through that understanding we can heal or whatever. That’s actually not in my view how this works at all. I think that all the showing of suffering does is convince people that Black folks are a limited people and not an abundant people capable of a great many things.”

On grief
We also discuss grief. Abdurraqib, the youngest of four, lost his mother just before he turned 13, which naturally has colored everything else in his life. “Writing is generous for me because it keeps me in touch with the realities of grief being something more than just sadness, and grief being something that is emotionally propulsive,” he says. “That, too, is something I try to stick to.”

Check out this episode of “Brooklyn Magazine: The Podcast” for more. Subscribe and listen wherever you get your podcasts.