Under a Black Star

Uncovering the spirit of freedom and self-determination in New Orleans

In Under a Black Star, Amari Johnson explores what he defines as the “maroon impulse” among the BlackStar Community in the Algiers neighborhood of New Orleans. This community sought autonomy for Black people facing systemic marginalization through denied employment, insufficient education, and a housing crisis following Hurricane Katrina, establishing initiatives such as Kamali Academy, a homeschool collective, and BlackStar Books and Caffé, a bookstore and gathering place. Instead of appealing to the city, they built the community they desired by employing legacies of marronage: disengagement, flight, and reengagement.

An active participant in the physical and ideological development of these autonomous spaces, Johnson provides nuanced insights into the community’s work toward liberation and self-determination. Demonstrating that marronage is a cultural tradition throughout the African Diaspora, he focuses on the transtemporal maroon process to show how it is central to the pursuit of autonomy, community, and freedom.

From the swamps of southeastern Louisiana, across urban obstacles, and into BlackStar’s creative spaces, Johnson’s path leads him to ask: How did the New Orleans community mobilize the tradition of marronage to create autonomous spaces amid gentrification? What forms might the maroon impulse take in the twenty-first century? This dynamic ethnographic memoir ultimately illuminates marronage as a potent form of liberatory potential, offering strategies for similar communities across the country and around the world.

Amari Johnson is an independent scholar, musician, and filmmaker based in Philadelphia.