Wannabe Reckonings With the Pop Culture That Raised Me

In nine lively, incisive essays, NPR Pop Culture Happy Hour co-host Aisha Harris reflects on the cultural touchstones that raised her-- contrasting these with past and present sensations to analyze the tropes that have shaped her heart and mind.Aisha Harris has made a name for herself as someone you can turn to for an engaging and incisive take on whatever new show or movie everyone is talking about, or should be taking about - first at Slate, then at the Times, and recently as a co-host of NPR's popular Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast. Here, she turns her analytical talents inward, reflecting on the culture that raised her into the person and thinker she is today. In essays that span the personal and political, the high-brow and low, she contrasts the formative touchstones of her 90s childhood with both iconic precursors and more recent sensations to analyze the various tropes that have shaped her heart and mind.Aisha's observations invite us into her family, her adolescence, her relationships, her work. In the opening essay, an interaction with Chance the Rapper prompts an investigation into the origin myth of her name that becomes an ode to Stevie Wonder, Roots, and her parents. In another, we return to the golden era of the Spice Girls as Aisha is urged by her friends to dress up as Scary Spice though she prefers Ginger, and how perfectly that feeling is later captured by an episode of Pen15. Elsewhere, she traces the evolution of the "Black Friend" trope from its Twainian origins through Clueless and She's All That to New Girl and the Sex and The City reboot. Later she zooms way out into the overlap of taste and identity in this era, arguing for us to let go of the patriarchal ethos that you are what you like, so we can all be free to just like what we like.Whatever the subject, Aisha's mind makes a terrific companion, as her many fans can attest. Sitting down with her book is like getting a chance to hang out with your smart, hilarious, pop-culture obsessed friend for longer than you've ever been able to before--and it's a real pleasure.

ISBN:	9780063249943
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Imprint:	HarperOne
Published date:	02 May 2023
Language:	English
Number of pages:	320
Weight:	644g
Height:	229mm
Width:	152mm
Spine width:	27mm

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