At the turn of the 21st century, the black body remains an object of discursive analysis, as material and symbol, inscribed by multiple levels of meaning and shaped by the past, the present, and ideas about imagined futures. Through the lens of different disciplines, this book considers how the black body is read polysemically in terms of social and political contexts and issues of power. The contributors to this text critically examine themes addressing the intersections of race, gender, body politics, representation in popular culture and media, aesthetics, policing and disciplining, and resistance. The book explores and interrogates the black body: how it has been historically produced and constructed as an object of desire, menace, literary trope, and political embodiment of the 'Other,' drawing examples from Europe, Africa, the US, as well as other places in the black diaspora. Through its examination of these and related issues regarding the black body, this book contributes to a dialogue across various disciplines about the black body, its meanings and negotiations as read, interpreted, and imagined in different frames of perception and imagination.