As the title suggests, this book specifically attempts to illuminate the communicative habits and expressive life-style of urban black Americans within the community setting. The volume consists of four sections: "Nonverbal Communication,""Vocabulary and Culture,""Expressive Uses of Language," and "Expressive Role B Behavior." Articles in the first section focus on time structures, kinesic interaction among Afro-Americans within the urban scene, the difficulties of re-creating an oral event through the printed word, expressive performance styles, and selected physical movements within a black audience. The second section recognizes that vocabulary embodies and reflects the cultural perceptions and preoccupations of its speakers. The articles reinforce this notion whether they are concerned with race, soulfulness, survival and power, names and being bad, or with movement, control, and contest. The third section reflects various aspects of verbal art that are part of the black oral tradition, such as preaching in the black church, street-corner parlance, "talking broad," and ritual insults. The last section examines in greater detail the role attributes of the gang-banger and the hustler. (HOD)