Why Black Female Writers?

By -
We breathe and culture comes out.

Our lips move and lyrics come out

We change our dress and designer fashion comes out

Our hands move and tomes of wonder come out

We are black female writers, literary queens

And we deserve to be read, to be read, to be read

More than the Saarjite Baartman of the publishing world, black female writers are oracles of truth, clarion calling sisters of social change.  My journey as a writer and book reviewer came in studying my craft and the great ones who went before me.  It matters, their voice matters, we are not Hotentot Venus in print only worthy of reading if a majority publishing house decides to sexualize our cover and urbanize gansta our fiction.  Our voices are richer and deeper than some print-quick, get-rich-quick demoralizing our womanhood.  We are mothers, nurturers, keepers, holders, and uplifters of truth.  We are black female writers and this is why.

http://rollingout.com/entertainment/influential-black-female-writers/2/

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Wench

By -
Image
Strong women, impossible situations. The women who took the journey from various parts of the antebellum south to the resorts of the north to be a "couple" with their slaveowners, endured beyond modern comprehension. Love, technically and in the purest sense, knows no color, culture, ethnicity, religion, color, economics.  In the purest sense, it is blind.  Yet, can it be pure when one is owned by the other and the reason for the "holiday" was the sexual exploitation of the other? My questions probably resonated with some of the women in the book like the oldest one who was given away to the resort owner for his depraved sexual exploits to the youngest who was confused by the promises of her "first and only" who fathered children with her and dangled freedom in front of them like a carrot, she being almost white herself, her children technically 1/8th white, the owner not wanting to lose his "property" and "investment." Througho
Read more

Pause For The Phenomenal Woman

By -
Image
The day was just waking up from her night rest when there was first a post, then another, and finally a flooded space of the news. Dr. Maya Angelou, poet, activist, memoirist, professor, feminist, mentor, silently and sweetly left the world she so changed with the magic of her pen. News reports, postings, pictures, quotes, connections, a lifetime of a generation or two fondly remember where they were when they first read her transformative words or heard that bass in her musical cadence. I first encountered her book, I know why the caged bird sings, when I was a young woman seeking to free myself from my own sea of questions.  Her words invited me to be authentic and encouraged me to find healing in the power of writing. Throughout my now 50 years, she, along with her literary sister, Toni Morrison, have been the black women literary giants at the background of my chorus, encouraging me to etch what I could not say and be released in what I could not sing. The feeling was a m
Read more

The Angel of Greenwood by Randi Pink

By -
Image
 Has your heart every skipped a beat? Had those flutters of possibility? Watched the blooming of what could be? That is how I felt reading The Angel of Greenwood. Set in the weeks before the fatal massacre of the Greenwood neighborhood of Tulsa, it gave a glimpse of what that idyllic life would have been like. It almost seems impossible to imagine now, a thriving all-Black/African American community that turned their dollar over so many times within their neighborhood that they didn't have much need for the outside world. For years, they built a dream, a promise for their future generations. Yes, all around them, as more of the world was grappling with the after-effects of the war, as cultural debates among Black people were happening (think Washington vs. DuBois), and as Black vets were being targeted in the south, this little Mecca seemed immune to it. What this book gave me, give us, is a gift. There are and will be plenty of remembrances and writings about the lives and busines
Read more