1Myers’ book and exhibition makes us discover a vibrant place and period where history was made behind the invisible borders of the segregated U.S. From the College for Creative Studies to the Gallery of the Contemporary Studio, Detroit was, from the late fifties to the seventies, an intense greenhouse that made African American Art bloom. Choosing Harold Neal as the story arc for this compilation of African American Artists is not trivial. Not only he was an unknown artist, “his work is artistically excellent” and “available” (p. xi) but also, he provided for a complete view of the social momentum. The book reviews his eclectic origins, his life, his relations and influences and, above all, his conception of Art as a “respite” from an overwhelming injustice. Moreover, Neal was able to navigate through these troubled times, even under FBI surveillance, and make his art evolve and become recognised by both black pairs and audiences and by white patrons. These features make him a suitable figurehead for Myers’ analysis. Therefore, the book shows an array of his artwork, from early sketches during its education to more elaborated pieces, a panorama where fig. 22 stands out. This painting shows a young black mother holding up her dead 4-year-old girl (Tonya Blanding). This harrowing black Pietà sums up Neal’s approach to art: black beauty, black life, black grief. However, Neal is not the only subject in the book. Several other African American artists are depicted in inside addenda, marked with a different paper and in a shorter form, and their production puts colour and context to Neal’s main story. In this sense, both for him and for the coetaneous group, the concept of mask seems essential at one point or another. A mask that is a translation of several dimensions. In a Jungian vision, it is the symbol of oppression, of self-rejection and of self-concealing, in this case concerning black identity. Maybe this psychological mask is the invisible last link of slavery. But it is also a reminiscence from African ancestry, and thus a tool for revendication. The book is, consequently, a handbook to uncover and understand the Black Arts Movement and other African American Art currents from a different prospective of the classic Harlem approach. The prospective reader will be also satisfied by the lively writing, the division by topics and not exactly chronological and the excellent choice of subjects, art pieces and artists.