Concepts of the underground in Black culture

"Concepts of the Underground in Black Culture" examines the underground as a multi-faceted concept in African American Culture. The literature of the Underground Railroad initiates the discourse on this topic and sets into motion the discursive acts that will follow this historical movement as its lineage. The pathways of this "study" reach across literary and musical boundaries in black expressive culture. So I interpret and analyze Richard Wright as much as I do KRS One. The theme is the underground. One point of departure is Richard Wright's "Big Boy Leaves Home" and a destination is KRS One's "Hol(d)." The narrator/main character in these two works share similar experiences with murderous outcomes. The underground's topical locomotive continues and makes stops at Houston Baker's Black (w)hole theory, Richard Wright's Black Boy and "The Man Who Lived Underground," Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man, Amiri Baraka's Dutchman, and The System of Dante's Hell, and the cover art from Thelonius Monk's Underground .;The relationships amongst these texts constitute the substance of the cultural tracery constructed in "The Concepts of the Underground." In general my focus is on particular manifestations of the underground and the attributes of said manifestations within the context of a more panoramic picture of African American expressivity.1.;1I am aware that the choices listed here do not include any women. That is a limitation of my research, not the theory that I am detailing. For ready reference see Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon and Jazz regarding what I've named the Memorial Underground.