Come home Charley Patton

“Motion is intrinsic to Lemon’s understanding of the world, and this graceful, meditative, and unveiling odyssey, told in dancing language and kinetic drawings and photographs, reframes and recharges still hidden, still painful stories of the perplexities of race and freedom.”―Donna Seaman, Booklist

“Critically-acclaimed choreographer and dancer Ralph Lemon’s new book is a memoir, an experimental art installation, and a rigorous critical study that resonates with power and showcases his gifts as a storyteller and cultural critic. Come home Charley Patton is a poignant and imaginative work that contributes to the growing field of scholarship on African American travel and critical journeys linked to excavating the political and socio-historical past. It is at once mysterious, enigmatic, and provocative.”―Daphne Brooks, professor of English, Princeton University

“Critically-acclaimed choreographer and dancer Ralph Lemon’s new book is a memoir, an experimental art installation, and a rigorous critical study that resonates with power and showcases his gifts as a storyteller and cultural critic. Come home Charley Patton is a poignant and imaginative work that contributes to the growing field of scholarship on African American travel and critical journeys linked to excavating the political and socio-historical past. It is at once mysterious, enigmatic, and provocative.”―Daphne Brooks, professor of English, Princeton University

“Come home Charley Patton floats between memoir and dream, history and fable, family and fantasy. Generous, informative, personal and shrewd, this is a compelling self-portrait of Lemon’s art and life, love and grief. Drawings, poems, maps, lyrics, and stories are all choreographed here to stage Lemon’s intoxicating life-dance.”―Peggy Phelan, professor of drama and English, Stanford University