African American culture is often considered expressive, dramatic, and even defiant. In The Sovereignty of Quiet, Kevin Quashie explores quiet as a different kind of expressiveness, one which characterizes a persons desires, ambitions, hungers, vulnerabilities, and fears. Quiet is a metaphor for the inner life, and as such, enables a more nuanced understanding of black culture.

The book revisits such iconic moments as Tommie Smith and John Carloss protest at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics and Elizabeth Alexanders reading at the 2009 inauguration of Barack Obama. Quashie also examines such landmark texts as Gwendolyn Brookss Maud Martha, James Baldwins The Fire Next Time, and Toni Morrisons Sula to move beyond the emphasis on resistance, and to suggest that concepts like surrender, dreaming, and waiting can remind us of the wealth of black humanity.