THE BLACK UTOPIANS

How do the disillusioned the forgotten and the persecuted not merely hold on to life but expand its possibilities and preserve its beauty What in other words does utopia look like in black These questions animate Aaron Robertson s exploration of Black Americans efforts to remake the conditions of their lives Writing in the tradition of Saidiya Hartman and Ta Nehisi Coates Robertson makes his way from his ancestral hometown of Promise Land Tennessee to Detroit the city where he was born and where one of the country s most remarkable Black utopian experiments got its start Founded by the brilliant preacher Albert Cleage Jr the Shrine of the Black Madonna combined Afrocentric Christian practice with radical social projects to transform the self conception of its members Central to this endeavour was the Shrine s chancel mural of a Black Virgin and child the icon of a nationwide liberation movement that would come to be known as Black Christian Nationalism The Shrine s members opened bookstores and co ops created a self defence force and raised their children communally eventually working to establish the country s largest Black owned farm where attempts to create an earthly paradise for Black people continues today Alongside the Shrine s story Ro