Words of witness : black women's autobiography in the post-Brown era / Angela A. Ards.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ards, Angela Ann, 1969- author.

Series:

Wisconsin studies in autobiography.

Wisconsin studies in autobiography

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

African American women--Biography--Political aspects.

African American women.

African American women authors--Biography--Political aspects.

African American women authors.

African American feminists--Biography.

African American feminists.

Autobiography--African American authors.

Autobiography.

Autobiography--Women authors.

Beals, Melba. Warriors don't cry.

Beals, Melba.

McNatt, Rosemary Bray. Unafraid of the dark.

McNatt, Rosemary Bray.

Jordan, June, 1936-2002. Soldier.

Jordan, June.

Danticat, Edwidge, 1969- Brother, I'm dying.

Danticat, Edwidge.

Davis, Eisa. Angela's mixtape.

Davis, Eisa.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (250 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Madison, Wisconsin : The University of Wisconsin Press, [2015]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

A literary and political genealogy of the last half-century, Words of Witness explores black feminist autobiographical narratives in the context of activism and history since the landmark 1954 segregation case, Brown v. Board of Education. Angela A. Ards examines how activist writers, especially five whose memoirs were published in the 1990s and 2000s, crafted these life stories to engage and shape progressive, post- Brown politics. Exploring works by the critically acclaimed June Jordan and Edwidge Danticat, as well as by popular and emerging authors such as Melba Beals, Rosemary Bray, and Eisa Davis, Ards demonstrates how each text asserts countermemories to official-and often nostalgic-understandings of the civil rights and Black Power movements. She situates each writer as activist-citizen, adopting and remaking particular roles-warrior, "the least of these, " immigrant, hip-hop head-to crystallize a range of black feminist responses to urgent but unresolved political issues.

Contents:

Introduction: Post-Brown political aesthetics

Beyond the strong black woman in Melba Beals's Warriors Don't Cry

Reclaiming the radicalism of social interdependence in Rosemary Bray's Unafraid of the Dark: A Memoir

Honoring the past to move forward in June Jordan's Soldier: A Poet's Childhood

Collective storytelling as diasporic consciousness in Edwidge Danticat's Brother, I'm Dying

Cultivating liberatory joy in Eisa Davis's Angela's Mixtape

Epilogue: Teaching "the people": bodies, material histories, and the project of black feminist autobiography.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780299305031

0299305031

OCLC:

933516760