Benita Brown is professor in African dance and performance at Virginia State University.Dannabang Kuwabong is professor of Caribbean literature in the Department of English at University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus, San Juan.Christopher Olsen is associate professor of drama in the English department at University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus, San Juan. He is the author of Off-Off Broadway: The Second Wave, 1968–1980 (2011).

According to Kuwabong's introduction, myths 'are neither true nor false narratives, but [in this book] new revelations of the inner relationships of African Diaspora people with their non-African environments.' The three authors offer two chapters each on wide-ranging topics: historical dramas designed to counter Western imperialism; the presence of òrisà worship in dance; the reimagining of the female African body through the African American gaze; the codification of 'soul' in African-derived dance culture; trickster figures in Caribbean and Brazilian drama that engage myth performance through drama and dance; and mythic return journeys to the motherland that complicate rather than romanticize the relationship between the motherland and her distant children. Olsen's conclusion offers valuable contextualization of this 'series of journeys by writers and artists who strive to understand and embody mythical and historical figures from their reconstructed memory of the past in present Africa.' The strengths of the volume include its working across artistic disciplines; continual connection of identity, practice, and praxis in the diaspora to the motherland; and solid theorizing. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above.

Benita Brown is professor in African dance and performance at Virginia State University.Dannabang Kuwabong is professor of Caribbean literature in the Department of English at University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus, San Juan.Christopher Olsen is associate professor of drama in the English department at University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus, San Juan. He is the author of Off-Off Broadway: The Second Wave, 1968–1980 (2011).

According to Kuwabong's introduction, myths 'are neither true nor false narratives, but [in this book] new revelations of the inner relationships of African Diaspora people with their non-African environments.' The three authors offer two chapters each on wide-ranging topics: historical dramas designed to counter Western imperialism; the presence of òrisà worship in dance; the reimagining of the female African body through the African American gaze; the codification of 'soul' in African-derived dance culture; trickster figures in Caribbean and Brazilian drama that engage myth performance through drama and dance; and mythic return journeys to the motherland that complicate rather than romanticize the relationship between the motherland and her distant children. Olsen's conclusion offers valuable contextualization of this 'series of journeys by writers and artists who strive to understand and embody mythical and historical figures from their reconstructed memory of the past in present Africa.' The strengths of the volume include its working across artistic disciplines; continual connection of identity, practice, and praxis in the diaspora to the motherland; and solid theorizing. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above.

Benita Brown is professor in African dance and performance at Virginia State University.Dannabang Kuwabong is professor of Caribbean literature in the Department of English at University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus, San Juan.Christopher Olsen is associate professor of drama in the English department at University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus, San Juan. He is the author of Off-Off Broadway: The Second Wave, 1968–1980 (2011).

According to Kuwabong's introduction, myths 'are neither true nor false narratives, but [in this book] new revelations of the inner relationships of African Diaspora people with their non-African environments.' The three authors offer two chapters each on wide-ranging topics: historical dramas designed to counter Western imperialism; the presence of òrisà worship in dance; the reimagining of the female African body through the African American gaze; the codification of 'soul' in African-derived dance culture; trickster figures in Caribbean and Brazilian drama that engage myth performance through drama and dance; and mythic return journeys to the motherland that complicate rather than romanticize the relationship between the motherland and her distant children. Olsen's conclusion offers valuable contextualization of this 'series of journeys by writers and artists who strive to understand and embody mythical and historical figures from their reconstructed memory of the past in present Africa.' The strengths of the volume include its working across artistic disciplines; continual connection of identity, practice, and praxis in the diaspora to the motherland; and solid theorizing. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above.