So 'The Deep' was already a collectively conceived narrative before acclaimed speculative-fiction writer Rivers Solomon assumed authorship - with all due credit to their predecessors - of the novel of the same name. The song, which was written at the request of the producers of This American Life, sketched out the story of Yetu and her plight even as it drew from the mythos created 20 years earlier by Drexciya, an obscure techno group from the mid-'90s who littered their work with references to a race of aquatic people descended from drowned slaves. the experimental rap group made up of William Hutson, Jonathan Snipes, and original Hamilton cast member Daveed Diggs. It began as a song titled ' The Deep,' one of the highlights of Splendor & Misery, the Hugo Award-nominated science-fiction concept album by clipping. It is at once a condemnation of environmental destruction, a meditation on slavery and its long-lasting impact on the descendants of displaced African peoples across the globe, a harrowing fantasy epic of hate and war, and a gentle, nervous love story. Immersive, gut-wrenching, and poetic, The Deep did not come into being the way most novels do its origin is beautifully convoluted. The Deep packs a variety of genres and morals into its novella-sized package. With their invasion comes the realization of a brutal truth: Yetu and her people are in fact descendants of the two-legs, the offspring of the thousands of captives thrown overboard to drown during the height of the transatlantic slave trade. She rebels against the duty that's been thrust upon her, even as that rebellion parallels a much more perilous threat - the surface dwellers, called two-legs, who have begun to encroach on the idyllic existence of the wajinru in their rapacious search for oil. Historians suppress their own personal desires, identity, and memories in service of their fellow wajinru - but Yetu is not happy about this arrangement. As such, she must gather their ancestral memories, and bear them in pain until the annual ritual of sharing, called the Remembrance. A member of the mermaid-like, undersea race called the wajinru, the main character of The Deep has been chosen as the newest historian of her people. Your purchase helps support NPR programming. Close overlay Buy Featured Book Title The Deep Author Rivers Solomon, Daveed Diggs, et al

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