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“I immediately devoured this book.”—David ByrneFlyleaf will offer seating for up to 120 in-person guests, with priority access given to folks who purchase the book. Please indicate in the "Customer Comments" field (at checkout) if you’d like 1-2 seats held for you at the event!
If you do not plan to attend the event but would like a copy of the book signed for pickup or shipping, please use the comments field at checkout to specify your personalization preference (to your name, to another name, or just the author's signature).
Brazilian musician Tom Zé is one of the most inventive artists of the past century. His transformative music and poetic lyricism received critical acclaim in Brazil’s Tropicália, a countercultural movement that blended Brazilian music with global pop, psychedelia, and political critique. As many in the movement ascended to the mainstream, Tom Zé’s commitment to experimentalism kept him in outer orbit, drifting at the fringes of the Brazilian musical universe. At least, until his imaginative art and sound captured the attention of Talking Heads front man David Byrne, who propelled Tom Zé to global renown.
Taking readers inside Tom Zé’s remarkable seventy-year career, Tropicália expert Christopher Dunn draws on decades of conversation to decipher the musician’s unique genius, unraveling the cultural and political forces that have shaped Tom Zé’s life and work. Tom Zé conceives of his own performances and concept albums as sung journalism, confronting issues of poverty, authoritarianism, and corruption through irreverent and playful invention. Reminding us of the power of art amid political turmoil, Stray Dog in the Milky Way offers a critical retrospective of a visionary who transcends the constraints of the earthbound here and now.
Christopher Dunn is Professor of Spanish and Portuguese with a joint appointment in Africana Studies at Tulane University. He served as Executive Director of the Brazilian Studies Association from 2020 to 2026. His other books include: Brutality Garden: Tropicália and the Emergence of a Brazilian Counterculture (2001) and Contracultura: Alternative Arts and Social Transformation in Authoritarian Brazil (2016), both published by the University of North Carolina Press. He is co-editor with Charles Perrone of Brazilian Popular Music and Globalization and co-editor with Idelber Avelar of Brazilian Popular Music and Citizenship.
The 2019 North Carolina Piedmont Laureate, David Menconi was a staff writer at the Raleigh News & Observer for 28 years. He has also written for Rolling Stone, Billboard, Spin and the New York Times. He is also the author of Oh, Didn't They Ramble: Rounder Records and the Transformation of American Roots Music.
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Event venue
752 Martin Luther King Jr Blvd (Historic Airport Rd, Next to The Root Cellar), Chapel Hill, NC, United States, North Carolina 27514
Tickets
Concerts, fests, parties, meetups — all the happenings, one place.