Harriet Tubman: Live in Concert

“She’s now standing just about a yard from me. I could reach out and touch her if I wanted to, but I don’t. Mostly because she looks like she could and would rip my hand clean off, but also, you just don’t go around touching national treasures.”

The author tackles weighty subjects in this novel, engaging with America’s fraught history of racism and racist policy. Nevertheless, he does so while also incorporating humor into his writing. In this scene, Darnell is nervous in the presence of one of the country’s greatest “super heroes,” but he describes his feelings with wit, bringing levity to the narrative.

“She sings as if Dr. Dre and Ella Fitzgerald had a daughter, angry, strong, and smooth all at once.”

Harriet Tubman’s character in this novel lives up to her legend, although sometimes in surprising ways. Darnell is thrilled to find that she is a beautiful singer and a natural performer, reflecting Hip-Hop and the Power of Storytelling. She has real presence and gravitas and manages to communicate that while sharing a message in song that has the power to resonate with people who came of age in an entirely new century. The characterization of her as sounding like the figurative daughter of “Dr. Dre” and “Ella Fitzgerald” once more reflects the novel’s interest in creating links between major Black figures across different eras, suggesting that what ties such diverse people together is their shared Black history and influence on Black culture.

“People think that because we work indoors we live like white folks or something. No! We break our backs cleaning up after not just children but grown-ass adults too.”

Odessa worked in the house rather than the fields, but she explains to Darnell that this did not make her life easier. She is a survivor. The insinuation is that she was sexually assaulted by her enslavers, but she also notes the difficulty of the work and the long hours enslaved men and women were forced to work each day. Her sharing of these important aspects of her experiences speaks to The Erasure of Black History.

“Being enslaved is not the kind of experience you can easily shake, at least it wasn’t for me.”

Darnell realizes through speaking with Harriet and the other members of her band that he has never truly understood freedom from the point of view of enslaved people. He was under the impression that the moment someone obtained their freedom, their history melted away and they felt reborn. He learns from Odessa and others that it was more complicated. Freedom was long-awaited, but also represented the unknown. It was further complicated by the loved ones and family who were still enslaved. It was difficult to truly appreciate freedom when so many people remained in bondage.

“And that was the main goal of the enslavers. To make you feel like this was normal and to make you feel scared. This why they worked so hard to keep us ignorant. You know we wasn’t allowed to read at all.”

Odessa explains enslavement to Darnell, causing him to think about enslavement and freedom in a more nuanced way. He realizes that there is much about the lives of his ancestors that he cannot understand because he did not live them. Odessa’s information gives him more understanding and helps him to figure out what exactly their album should say.

“I think I’m starting to see it now. Now I understand why it seems like such a big moment. To realize that there is more than one existence, that there’s more to life than being someone’s property. To realize that you are your own person, capable of your own actions, able to create your own dreams, and with them your own world.”

In order to make an impactful album, Darnell feels he needs to get inside of Harriet and her band’s stories. He asks them for details about their life. During a conversation in which Harriet and Odessa discuss the complexities of freedom for people who had known nothing but enslavement, Darnell begins to understand their perspective. He begins to see how difficult it was to even conceive of freedom after a life of subjugation.

“Since my career blew up in my face years ago, I’ve had a sinking feeling of dread in my stomach, a medium-sized stone in my gut, and I’ve gotten used to that weight, that dread, that I didn’t even realize its burden until it lifted.”

Darnell introduces Harriet and her band before himself, and this moment is one of the first in which his own characterization becomes the focal point. At the time that he meets Harriet, he feels washed up and without direction. Although he wants desperately to help Harriet and the Freemen produce their album because he believes in their message, the project will also help him too, reflecting Hip-Hop and the Power of Storytelling.

“I am so used to code switching that sometimes I don’t know who I am anymore. Harriet’s ability to be herself through it all is next level.”

One of the things Darnell admires most about Harriet is her strength of character and how comfortable she is with herself. She is strong-willed, decisive, and communicates directly, no matter the circumstance. Darnell, who has always looked up to her as a historical figure, now looks up to her as an individual as well, as he seeks to gain better comfort with and understanding of The Multi-Faceted Nature of Black American Identity.

“I’ve never been able to reconcile what it means to be Black, queer, and American all at once.”

Darnell struggles with The Multi-Faceted Nature of Black Identity. He feels ostracized by the Black music community because he is queer, but ostracized by America as a whole because he is Black. His family does not accept him, and he does not accept himself. He will gradually learn self-acceptance from Harriet, so he can embrace who he is without fear.

“I’ve been ostracized a lot by the Negro community because of my views on religion, therefore I tend to keep my thoughts and ideas to myself, Buck says.”

Buck’s views on religion are an important part of this novel’s nuanced engagement with the history of racism and enslavement in America. He argues that Christianity’s teachings on obedience, docility, and the value of hard work were used to justify enslavement and keep enslaved people subjugated. Darnell knows how important Christianity is to many African Americans, but he has also long shared Buck’s views, reflecting The Multi-Faceted Nature of Black American Identity.

“Harriet used to have to tell her story over and over just to make money and help other Black folks. She did the whole abolitionist circuit.”

Harriet returns to this portion of her story again and again. On the one hand, she acknowledges that it was first-hand accounts of enslavement that advanced the abolitionist cause, but she also notes that she was, at times, exploited. She is an intelligent character who is able to look at issues from more than one side. She shares this kind of critical thinking with Darnell, helping him to understand history in a more nuanced manner.

“It’s funny how they always skipped over the story of Moses when talking about Bible stories. Funny, sure, the story of a man following the will of God, freeing the slaves and punishing their enslavers. What could go wrong with that?”

This novel’s interrogation of the role of religion in both Black life and as a tool of oppression during the years of enslavement is a key part of its thematic project. Here, the group notes that Biblical figures of liberation, like Moses, were often left out of the lessons on scripture the enslavers provided to the enslaved. Instead, verses that extolled the virtues of servitude, obedience, and docility were highlighted.

“Would the walls of Jericho come tumbling down if someone found out I was gay?”

Darnell’s sexuality takes center stage during the second part of the novel. His backstory reveals the secret pain he’s been nursing and explains why Harriet seemed aware that Darnell wasn’t “free.” Coming to terms with his sexuality and his identity becomes one of his main focal points as the novel progresses, and he does so with the help of Harriet and the Freemans’ acceptance and support.

“Answer me are you gay or not? He finally looks up at me. ‘Because I am.’”

Slim speaks this line to Darnell. Their acquaintanceship is fraught, and speaks to the difficulty that many gay, Black men experienced in the Hip-Hop industry during the early 2000s. Darnell notes how hard it was to be gay in a world in which “softness” was perceived as weakness and conformity to normative standards of masculinity was often seen as a prerequisite for success. Here, Slim’s direct question puts Darnell into an uncomfortable position, leaving him feeling vulnerable and pressured.

“My defense mechanisms will not allow me to believe he has my back in any way. Part of my brain is telling me there is no way someone in this business could understand me, let alone stand up for me if anything ever got weird.”

Darnell is sure that he cannot trust even another gay man with his secret, and this truth speaks to how isolating it felt for him to be gay in an industry where it was not accepted. A large part of Darnell’s unhappiness at the beginning of the novel stems from the isolation that he feels, and it is not until he meets Harriet that he confronts himself, his past, and learns to let go.

“To deflect any suspicion, Christian would be the most homophobic, the most misogynistic, the most transphobic guy in the room. He had to be the hardest so no one would think he was soft.”

Darnell notes that gay men in the Hip-Hop world were often forced to overcompensate so that their sexuality did not come under suspicion, which is another aspect of The Erasure of Black History. This resulted in sensitive, accepting men pretending that intolerance was a key facet of their identities. Darnell now sees how difficult this must have been and wishes that the world could be easier on men like him, Slim, and his mentor.

“Hip Hop was more than music to him, it was the rhythm of our people, it was the soundtrack to our lives, it was our culture.”

The importance of Black art forms to tell Black stories is one of this novel’s key themes, Hip-Hop and the Power of Storytelling. Darnell realizes during the course of his time with Harriet and her band that part of the reason Black voices have been erased from history is that white voices have been allowed to speak for them. Using Hip-Hop to tell African American stories is important to Darnell both personally and in his career, because it is “our culture” and not dependent on white mediation.

“Do you want to be free? Harriet asks me with a pistol pointed in my face.”

Freedom is both literal and metaphorical in this novel. Harriet recounts her many experiences on the Underground Railroad, helping people to find literal freedom. However, here she also helps Darnell to liberate himself from the metaphorical bondage that he has long been in as a result of shame over his sexuality and confusion about where he fits into African American history as a whole.

“The biggest struggle in earning your freedom is feeling like you deserve it.”

The importance of self-love and self-acceptance is one of this novel’s most important subtexts. Darnell’s mentor and Slim struggle to accept who they are and never come to terms with their differences. Although Darnell does Harriet a service by producing her album, her gift to him is to help him to love and accept who he is in spite of how much judgment he has internalized over the years.

“It never even occurred to me that queer people existed back then, but when you stop to think about it, of course they did.”

The erasure of queer, Black voices is one of this novel’s key explorations of The Erasure of Black History. Darnell finds self-acceptance in part because he realizes that he is not so strange, that there is actually a long history of gay, Black men and women in America. Just because their stories aren’t typically included in history books does not mean they do not exist.

“[W]hen you Black, it’s for all the next generations to come. It ain’t never for us. You remember that.”

Darnell comes to realize that Black history unites him not only with the people who share his identity and experiences, but also with everyone who has come before him. He learns that Black history is itself a kind of legacy, a well from which he and others can draw strength even during the most difficult of circumstances and in spite of The Erasure of Black History in many mainstream institutions.

“Harriet insists the concert be free so she could make sure her people could see her.”

Harriet’s commitment always has been and remains to her fellow African Americans. As a conductor on the Underground Railroad and an abolitionist, she worked to help other individuals obtain their freedom and to end enslavement. Now, her work is more metaphorical, and she hopes to help her audience feel empowered and affirmed through her music, which is why she insists the concert should be “free” instead of for profit.

“This nation is sick and knowledge is the antidote.”

This line speaks to the power of Black art forms and storytelling, reinforcing Hip-Hop and the Power of Storytelling. Harriet is sure that her story can help contemporary people to better understand their nation’s history and their place within it. Storytelling and music, she argues, have the power to free people, providing the “antidote” to racism through knowledge and tolerance.