Jabari Asim: We Can't Breathe

In eight wide-ranging essays, collected in We Can’t Breathe: On Black Lives, White Lies, and the Art of Survival, Jabari Asim explores such topics as the twisted legacy of jokes and falsehoods in black life; the importance of black fathers and community; the significance of black writers and stories; and the beauty and pain of the black body. What emerges is a rich portrait of a community and culture that has resisted, survived, and flourished despite centuries of racism, violence, and trauma. These thought-provoking essays present a different side of American history, one that doesn’t depend on a narrative steeped in oppression but rather reveals black voices telling their own stories. Asim is an author, poet and playwright. For this discussion he is joined in conversation by Boston Globe columnist Adrian Walker. Image: Book Cover