“Drake masterfully intersects the personal, political, and cultural in smart and useful ways, providing us with new critical models to negotiate discourses of black crisis/pathology that drive public policy, legitimize racist judicial/policing practices, and criminalize black bodies. She usefully moves us from the past to the present, highlighting the ways that different generations of black men have expanded the definition of masculinity, human agency, and self-determination, and by default challenged the white supremacist pathologizing of black men. This is an important and necessary intervention in black masculinity studies.”

David Ikard, author of Breaking The Silence: Toward a Black Male Feminist Criticism

“With When We Imagine Grace, Drake offers brilliant insight into the subjectivities that Black men craft for themselves, often against the grain of misrepresentation, and in the process establishes herself as an important critical voice.”

Mark Anthony Neal, author of Looking for Leroy: Illegible Black Masculinities

“When We Imagine Grace brings together diverse texts and rich modes of analysis, providing a necessary conversation about black men’s historical and contemporary creative imaginings of self. This book is a testament of the possible synergies between black feminism and black masculinity studies.”

Jeffrey Q. McCune, Jr., author of Sexual Discretion: Black Masculinity and the Politics of Passing

“Drake seeks to complicate this narrative of perennial black male ‘crisis,’ victimhood, and pathology by contemplating a ‘repair effort’ that is inclusive of black women’s experiences. She criticizes the notion of the singularity of black men’s victimization and the idea that in order to prove one’s manhood and ‘be a man,’ one must be a certain kind of man. Can there be progressive black masculinities? Imagining something different from patriarchy would involve imagination and self-love. Inspired by Baby Suggs in Toni Morrison’s Beloved, Drake calls this act of imagination ‘grace.’ Thought provoking. Readers who like literary criticism will enjoy this book. Recommended.”

Choice

“Crucial for readers of all races.”

Christian Century