Words of Witness: Black Women's Autobiography in the Post-Brown Era (Wisconsin Studies in Autobiography)

"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"-- Provided by publisher 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 officialand often nostalgicunderstandings of the civil rights and Black Power movements. She situates each writer as activist-citizen, adopting and remaking particular roleswarrior, the least of these, immigrant, hip-hop headto crystallize a range of black feminist responses to urgent but unresolved political issues. 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. Contents 10 Acknowledgments 12 Introduction: The Ethics of Self-Fashioning 18 1. Moving beyond the Strong Black Woman: Melba Beals’s Warriors Don’t Cry 41 2. Reclaiming Radical Interdependence: Rosemary Bray’s Unafraid of the Dark 71 3. Honoring the Past to Move Forward: June Jordan’s Soldier 94 4. Storytelling as Diasporic Consciousness: Edwidge Danticat’s Brother, I’m Dying 121 5. Cultivating Liberatory Joy: Eisa Davis’s Angela’s Mixtape 141 Epilogue: Bodies, Material Histories, and Black Women’s Autobiography 168 Notes 178 Bibliography 206 Index 232