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Thinking From Black: A Lexicon, published in 2026, gathers contributions from artists, poets, historians and scholars who reconsider words such as “world,” “water” and “care” in relation to Black life. A Hyperallergic review describes the book as a “diasporic glossary” that invites reflection rather than supplying fixed definitions.
Thinking From Black: A Lexicon, a 2026 book edited by six scholars associated with the Practicing Refusal Collective, brings artists, poets, historians and academics together to reconsider words including “world,” “water” and “care.” Rather than offering settled dictionary meanings, the contributors use the entries to open discussion about Black life across disciplines and diasporas, according to a review published by Hyperallergic.
The book is edited by Tina Campt, Kaiama L. Glover, Canisia Lubrin, Tavia Nyong’o, Christina Sharpe and Alexander Ghedi Weheliye. Its contributors choose words and develop responses to them, drawing on written and unwritten forms of knowledge. The source describes the entries as ranging from the “traditional” to the “speculative,” rather than following a single method or disciplinary framework.
Hyperallergic’s review says the book does not aim to provide easy explanations or definitive definitions. It characterizes the volume as a starting point for readers to think about the pressures and experiences shaping Black life internationally, including calamity, pleasure, ceremony and emergency. The review’s title calls the book a “glossary of possibility,” emphasizing its open-ended approach.
The editors are members of the Practicing Refusal Collective, a group of Black feminist academics that, according to the review, has convened since 2015. The collective’s stated goal for the project is to expand critical conversation about Black life across disciplines. The book brings that aim into a shared format without treating Blackness as a single experience or reducing its language to a fixed set of terms.
A Lexicon Built for Open Questions
The book’s significance lies in its approach to language as a site for inquiry, not just classification. A conventional glossary typically clarifies terms through concise definitions. Thinking From Black, as described in the review, instead uses chosen words as prompts for contributors to explore how meaning changes across histories, places and forms of expression. That distinction matters to readers interested in how scholarship and art can address Black life without claiming that one account speaks for everyone.
The project also connects contributors from different fields in one volume. Artists, poets, historians and scholars bring distinct methods to the same broad conversation, allowing a word such as “care” or “water” to carry meanings beyond a narrow disciplinary explanation. The source does not claim the book resolves disagreements or offers a unified definition of Blackness. Its contribution is to make room for multiple forms of thought and expression.
For readers, that makes the volume relevant both as a book of criticism and as an invitation to attend to how language is shaped by history and lived experience. The review presents its open structure as a way to consider Black life across international settings, while leaving the particular meanings of each entry to the contributors and readers.
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From Nation Language to a Diasporic Glossary
The Hyperallergic review places the book in conversation with Barbadian poet and scholar Kamau Brathwaite, whose 1979 Harvard speech examined Caribbean language and the limits of colonial English conventions. Brathwaite’s speech was later published as History of the Voice: The Development of Nation Language in Anglophone Caribbean Poetry in 1984. He used the term “nation language” for forms of expression shaped by African influences and creolized in the Caribbean.
Brathwaite’s account is relevant to the review because it challenges the idea that established literary forms can contain every community’s experience. He described nation language as an English “like a howl, or a shout or a machine-gun or the wind or a wave,” and also “like the blues.” The review says this work came to mind while its writer read Thinking From Black, connecting the earlier discussion of language to the new book’s interest in forms of knowledge that may be written or unwritten.
The collective’s work has a longer history than the book: its members have convened since 2015, according to the source. The 2026 publication brings that collaboration into a volume organized around words chosen by contributors, rather than presenting a chronological history of the group or a single, authoritative account of Black thought.
““The hurricane does not roar in pentameter.””
— Kamau Brathwaite, quoted in the Hyperallergic review
What the Review Does Not Specify
The supplied source is a book review, not a full catalogue of the volume’s contents. It identifies several example terms—“world,” “water” and “care”—but does not list every entry, name every contributor, or describe how each individual contribution is structured. It also does not provide the book’s page count, price, publisher details beyond the cover identification, or information about availability in particular regions.
The review presents the editors’ collective aim and its own interpretation of the book, but the source does not provide separate statements from the editors explaining how they selected words or organized the contributions. Nor does it establish how readers or scholars have received the book since publication. Those details should not be inferred from the review’s description of its approach.
Readers Take Up the Entries
The book is now available as a 2026 publication, according to the supplied material. The source identifies no scheduled launch events, further editions or upcoming projects by the collective. The immediate next step for readers seeking more detail is to consult the volume itself for its complete set of entries and contributor credits; the review offers an account of its approach, not a substitute for the full text.
Any assessment of the book’s reception or longer-term influence will depend on responses beyond the review. For now, what is confirmed is the publication’s collaborative, word-based format and its stated aim of widening discussion of Black life across disciplines.
Key Questions
What is Thinking From Black: A Lexicon?
It is a 2026 book edited by Tina Campt, Kaiama L. Glover, Canisia Lubrin, Tavia Nyong’o, Christina Sharpe and Alexander Ghedi Weheliye. Contributors from fields including art, poetry, history and scholarship respond to words connected with Black life.
Does the book define its terms in a standard dictionary format?
No. The Hyperallergic review says the entries do not provide easy or definitive explanations. It describes the book as a “diasporic glossary” intended to prompt further thought.
What kinds of words appear in the book?
The source names “world,” “water” and “care” as examples. It does not provide a complete list of the book’s entries.
Who edited the book?
The editors are Tina Campt, Kaiama L. Glover, Canisia Lubrin, Tavia Nyong’o, Christina Sharpe and Alexander Ghedi Weheliye, members of the Practicing Refusal Collective.
What is the Practicing Refusal Collective?
According to the Hyperallergic review, it is a cohort of Black feminist academics that has convened since 2015. The group’s goal for the book is to expand critical conversation about Black life across disciplines.
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