Inspired by the Catholic Saints Day Books, Ziggy curates his own list of Black Bottom’s venerable '52 Saints.' Among them are a vulnerable Dinah Washington, a defiant Joe Louis, and a raucous Bricktop.

But now the doyen of Black Bottom is ready to hang up his many dapper hats.Īs he lays dying in the black-owned-and-operated Kirkwood Hospital, Ziggy reflects on his life, the community that was the center of his world, and the remarkable people who helped shape it. Ziggy is also the founder and dean of the Ziggy Johnson School of Theater.

A celebrated gossip columnist for the city’s African-American newspaper, the Michigan Chronicle, he is also the emcee of one of the hottest night clubs, where he’s rubbed elbows with the legendary black artists of the era, including Ethel Waters, Billy Eckstein, and Count Basie. Doctorow's classic novel Ragtime and Marlon James' Man Booker Award-winning masterpiece, A Brief History of Seven Killings.įrom the Great Depression through the post-World War II years, Joseph “Ziggy” Johnson, has been the pulse of Detroit’s famous Black Bottom. An enthralling literary tour-de-force that pays tribute to Detroit's legendary neighborhood, a mecca for jazz, sports, and politics, Black Bottom Saints is a powerful blend of fact and imagination reminiscent of E.L.

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