{"product_id":"the-people-can-fly-by-joshua-bennett-9780316576024","title":"The People Can Fly","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eWhiting award-winning poet and Distinguished Chair of Humanities at MIT, Dr. Joshua Bennett creates a masterful synthesis of personal narrative and history that illuminates the promises and perils of being labelled a Black prodigy.\u003c\/b\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe outside world's perception of Black promise comes and goes. It does so in ways that are undeniably advantageous for Black children. Yet here, Dr. Bennett explores the rarely examined pitfalls of being a \u003ci\u003eBlack prodigy\u003c\/i\u003e in a society that has, too often, defined \u003ci\u003eBlackness\u003c\/i\u003e as the very absence of intellect. Bennett probes what it means to be \u003ci\u003eothered\u003c\/i\u003e, even if this othering is the same key to an individual's success in an unfair world, demanding that we build alternative futures that make space for the promise and hope of every child.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eThe People Can Fly\u003c\/i\u003e, Bennett shares his own academic journey—including spoken word performances at The White House and Sundance Film Festival, an NAACP Image Award, and a Guggenheim Foundation fellowship—which mirrors the ebb and flow between being deemed promising and \"a problem.\" He bolsters this personal narrative by observing how disability within his own family complicates society's perception of \u003ci\u003egenius\u003c\/i\u003e, and by diving into the under-examined history of young intellectuals like Oscar Moore, Thomas Wiggins, Stephen Wiltshire, and others. Together, Bennett lays out an arresting portrait of a world that obscures genius behind a disorienting facade of \u003ci\u003eotherness\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eexceptionality\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eWith arresting prose and grace, \u003ci\u003eThe People Can Fly\u003c\/i\u003e is an eye-opening reflection on what it means to be labelled gifted in today's world; and a personal history and love letter to all the Black prodigies who have disturbed the veil of racism, and the children who will continue to do so.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Hachette Aotearoa New Zealand","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47734634119404,"sku":"9780316576024","price":60.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9780316576024-the-people-can-fly.jpg?v=1781223118","url":"https:\/\/bookhero.co.nz\/products\/the-people-can-fly-by-joshua-bennett-9780316576024","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}