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seeceeread's review against another edition
informative
reflective
4.5
๐ญ "I frequently sit down and give myself an assignmentโto find out what I know about this or that, to find out what I think about this or that when I am cozy with myself and not holding forth to a group or responding to someone's position." โToni Cade Bambara
๐๐ฉ๐ช๐ค๐ฉ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ต๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ข๐ณ๐บ ๐๐ญ๐ข๐ค๐ฌ ๐ธ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐ธ๐ณ๐ช๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด ๐ธ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ญ๐ฅ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ธ๐ข๐ฏ๐ต ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ด๐ฆ๐ฆ ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ข 2025 ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ท๐ช๐ด๐ช๐ต?
How lovely. Black women hold forth on their art as a reflection of their principles, a clarification of their lessons and values. These interviews contain innumerable pithy quips ... about well-lived lives, society's foibles, and their collisions under racial capitalism. This will stick with me for a long time, especially
โจ๏ธ "Zoralogical," from Kristin Hunter
โจ๏ธ the interviews with Toni Cade Bambara and Audre Lorde
โจ๏ธ Morrison's tips: Use simple words. Clarify adverbs without announcing them. Deliver an oral quality through intonation, volume and gesture
โจ๏ธ Margaret Walker Alexander lovingly taking Richard Wright to task
For language lovers and especially those who see themselves in Black women's artistry ๐ค
๐๐ฉ๐ช๐ค๐ฉ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ต๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ข๐ณ๐บ ๐๐ญ๐ข๐ค๐ฌ ๐ธ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐ธ๐ณ๐ช๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด ๐ธ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ญ๐ฅ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ธ๐ข๐ฏ๐ต ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ด๐ฆ๐ฆ ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ข 2025 ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ท๐ช๐ด๐ช๐ต?
How lovely. Black women hold forth on their art as a reflection of their principles, a clarification of their lessons and values. These interviews contain innumerable pithy quips ... about well-lived lives, society's foibles, and their collisions under racial capitalism. This will stick with me for a long time, especially
โจ๏ธ "Zoralogical," from Kristin Hunter
โจ๏ธ the interviews with Toni Cade Bambara and Audre Lorde
โจ๏ธ Morrison's tips: Use simple words. Clarify adverbs without announcing them. Deliver an oral quality through intonation, volume and gesture
โจ๏ธ Margaret Walker Alexander lovingly taking Richard Wright to task
For language lovers and especially those who see themselves in Black women's artistry ๐ค
tianas_littalk's review against another edition
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
5.0
shiradest's review
4.0
I was moved with both recognition, and with fear, again, at Audre Lorde's comment that "it's scary because we've been through that before. It was called the fifties. Then I was moved with that stirring to act, upon reading in print what I have known and been told in different words since Dunbar (High School): "My responsibility is to speak the truth... with as much precision and beauty as possible. ... We've been taught that silence would save us, but it won't."
And we must not remain silent while the blood of our sisters/brothers/neighbors/communities/fellow human beings is shed.
Sherley Anne Williams reiterates this responsibility of a writer to write as well as one can and to "say as much of the truth as I can see at any given time."
Although this book is dated, and does not include my favorite author (Octavia Butler), I am so glad that I read this book in spite of my initial misgivings. From Bambara's hope that "We care too much ... to negotiate a bogus peace," to DeVeaux's "responsibility to see," I find my own compulsion to write validated by the responsibility of a writer to render individual expression into a universal expression, and to give voice to the voiceless/unseen/erased. To show the unspoken and to "empathize with the general human condition."
Society needs all perspectives because without those perspectives, we are missing vast parts of what our society actually looks like, which leads to deep problems. Writing, as was pointed out, must transcend individual experience, but it also comes from and is filtered through individual experience, so we desperately need every point of view.
And we must not remain silent while the blood of our sisters/brothers/neighbors/communities/fellow human beings is shed.
Sherley Anne Williams reiterates this responsibility of a writer to write as well as one can and to "say as much of the truth as I can see at any given time."
Although this book is dated, and does not include my favorite author (Octavia Butler), I am so glad that I read this book in spite of my initial misgivings. From Bambara's hope that "We care too much ... to negotiate a bogus peace," to DeVeaux's "responsibility to see," I find my own compulsion to write validated by the responsibility of a writer to render individual expression into a universal expression, and to give voice to the voiceless/unseen/erased. To show the unspoken and to "empathize with the general human condition."
Society needs all perspectives because without those perspectives, we are missing vast parts of what our society actually looks like, which leads to deep problems. Writing, as was pointed out, must transcend individual experience, but it also comes from and is filtered through individual experience, so we desperately need every point of view.
steph_foster's review against another edition
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
4.25
jw2869's review against another edition
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
I absolutely loved this book. Originally released in 1985 and reprinted in 2023 by Haymarket this book is a collection of interviews with some of the greatest contemporary writers of the 1950s-80s including Maya Angelous, Toni Morrison, Nikki Giovanni, Audre Lorde, Sonia Sanchez, Toni Cade Bambara and more. Don't be fooled by the title - this book has so much to offer even if you're not a writer (I'm not). I underlined and tabbed that thang up! I also found myself Googling and discovering so many other authors (and historical tea). Speaking of tea - can we talk about that Margaret Walker chapter?! She had me looking up court cases and all kinds of things. I thought Nikki Giovanni's chapter was hilarious because she did not miss a chance to tell the interviewer her questions or the things she asked about were boring. And her response to Kirkus' reviews of one of her books is now my new life mantra "If Kirkus never reviews another book of mine I'll be more than happy. My life is not bound in anything that sells for $5.95. And it never will be." LOLOLOL.
Funny parts aside, the book also gave me a critical lens to understand literature and the publishing business. Sonia Sanchez talks about how the publishing industry controls and contorts what's seen as intellectual Black thought. In discussing the transition from the 60s and 70s to the 80s, she says "certain themes were rewards; others were ignored. And since writers want recognition, many would not talk directly about social change; they would not necessarily talk about what America had done, but would turn inward and begin to talk about victimization."
Toni Cade Bambara resonated the most in terms of lessons I want to take into my life as a free Black woman. She says, "I'm not committed to any notion of 'career'...I don't feel obliged to structure my life in respectably routine ways." She implores us to "maintain a loose grip, a flexible grasp on those assumptions we hold to be true, valid, real. They may not be." She reminded me to continue to be a critical reader and participant in not only literature but the world around me and how it shapes my perceptions of reality. Nikki Giovanni reminds me to allow myself to grow, change, and adapt as I explore and am presented with new and different information about the world. She says "If I never contradict myself then I'm either not thinking or I'm conciliating positions and, therefore, not growing...There would be no point to having me go three-fourths of the way around the world if I couldn't create an inconsistency, if I hadn't learned anything."
As a creator and entrepreneur I got a lot of gems about the creative space and allowing myself to be a vessel and conduit. To allow ideas to come to me, trust the process and its ebbs and flows. Toni Morrison says "There is such a thing as 'writer's block,' and they should respect it. You shouldn't write through it. It's blocked because it ought to be blocked, because you haven't got it right now." It is a personal reminder not to let the demands of capitalism - deadlines, performance, etc. override the natural signals that your body is giving you. You have to give your creativity space to breathe. She later says "Ideas can't come to me when I'm preoccupied...in that situation of disengagement with the day-to-day rush, something positive happened...it's exactly what Guitar said: when you release all the shit, then you can fly."
For me, embedded across the interviews is a nod to the importance of community and legacy. These women weren't just contemporaries, but engaged and supportive colleagues. They read, responded to, edited, and promoted each other's work. They were in critical conversation with each other even if they didn't always agree. They were committed to leaving bread crumbs and clearing pathways for the women writers to follow them. For that I am grateful.
Funny parts aside, the book also gave me a critical lens to understand literature and the publishing business. Sonia Sanchez talks about how the publishing industry controls and contorts what's seen as intellectual Black thought. In discussing the transition from the 60s and 70s to the 80s, she says "certain themes were rewards; others were ignored. And since writers want recognition, many would not talk directly about social change; they would not necessarily talk about what America had done, but would turn inward and begin to talk about victimization."
Toni Cade Bambara resonated the most in terms of lessons I want to take into my life as a free Black woman. She says, "I'm not committed to any notion of 'career'...I don't feel obliged to structure my life in respectably routine ways." She implores us to "maintain a loose grip, a flexible grasp on those assumptions we hold to be true, valid, real. They may not be." She reminded me to continue to be a critical reader and participant in not only literature but the world around me and how it shapes my perceptions of reality. Nikki Giovanni reminds me to allow myself to grow, change, and adapt as I explore and am presented with new and different information about the world. She says "If I never contradict myself then I'm either not thinking or I'm conciliating positions and, therefore, not growing...There would be no point to having me go three-fourths of the way around the world if I couldn't create an inconsistency, if I hadn't learned anything."
As a creator and entrepreneur I got a lot of gems about the creative space and allowing myself to be a vessel and conduit. To allow ideas to come to me, trust the process and its ebbs and flows. Toni Morrison says "There is such a thing as 'writer's block,' and they should respect it. You shouldn't write through it. It's blocked because it ought to be blocked, because you haven't got it right now." It is a personal reminder not to let the demands of capitalism - deadlines, performance, etc. override the natural signals that your body is giving you. You have to give your creativity space to breathe. She later says "Ideas can't come to me when I'm preoccupied...in that situation of disengagement with the day-to-day rush, something positive happened...it's exactly what Guitar said: when you release all the shit, then you can fly."
For me, embedded across the interviews is a nod to the importance of community and legacy. These women weren't just contemporaries, but engaged and supportive colleagues. They read, responded to, edited, and promoted each other's work. They were in critical conversation with each other even if they didn't always agree. They were committed to leaving bread crumbs and clearing pathways for the women writers to follow them. For that I am grateful.