"Black Woman Gossip" listed my favorite black women story collections, including Alice's IN LOVE AND TROUBLE: STORIES OF BLACK WOMEN. In particular I noted the transfer of African oral tradition to the printed word, with the necessity to shortcut African-American speech for varieties of oppressive reasons leading to virtues of expression and cadence, and, of course, secrets. Since then, today's publication of Deesha Philyaw's THE SECRET LIVES OF CHURCH LADIES (West Virginia University Press, 2020) pinched me like a church lady would, to tell me it's time for an update.
Category: Writers
“I allow myself creative freedom to make whatever kind of art I feel like in the moment…” – Tiffany Gholar
Gholar has a provided missive for a new way to write about the creative life, art-making and (most specifically) Black women navigating those historically troubled waters for all talents.
Tiffany Gholar Tells the Truth
Gholar's display of glorious art and life-giving paintings, completed across five years, come with grown woman commentary about what it took to see each piece through. In wisdom, she snakes the darkest corners of life- grief, breakups, economic peril- in a chronology of change and chaos where blank canvas was the steadiest hold.
What Toni wrote to Obama…
In honor of her birthday and Black History Month, read a prescient excerpt from Toni Morrison's 2008 letter to Barack Obama.
Make a Difference Today for Black Art and Culture
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Negress Allure (in honor of sisters at the 2017 MET Gala…)
A Cosmopolitan online piece pointed out how women of color were best-dressed at the 2017 MET Gala. This got me to thinking about how long Black women have been unsung fashion and beauty changemakers...
A Powerful 2017 For Us All…
We can all magnify our voices this year, to make some serious contributions and change some lives. I hope you take your ideas and visions- a new business, more love in your relationships, superior health, more education- to new heights.
negression 