bk. 1. Elsewhere. The shadow book
How not to be a slave : on the Black art of escape
Chorus one : steal away : slavery and its discontents
bk. 2. Strange fruit. Broken tongue : Paul Laurence Dunbar, his descendants, and the dance of dialect
Chorus two : it don't mean a thing : the blues mask of modernism
"If you can't read, run anyhow!" : Langston Hughes and the poetics of refusal
bk. 3. Heaven is Negro. Chorus three : ugly beauty : postmodernism and all that jazz
Broken giraffe : Bob Kaufman, the song, and the silence
Chorus four : moanin' : soul music and the power of pleasure
bk. 4. Cosmic slop. Interstellar space : toward a post-soul poetics
Final chorus : Planet Rock : the end of the record: The third coming ; 100 guns ; 36 chambers ; 99 problems
