The Sisters Are Alright: Changing the Broken Narrative of Black Women in America (2015)
“The Sisters Are Alright exposes anti–black-woman propaganda and shows how real black women are pushing back against distorted cartoon versions of themselves.
When African women arrived on American shores, the three-headed hydra—servile Mammy, angry Sapphire, and lascivious Jezebel—followed close behind. In the ‘60s, the Matriarch, the willfully unmarried baby machine leeching off the state, joined them. These stereotypes persist to this day through newspaper headlines, Sunday sermons, social media memes, cable punditry, government policies, and hit song lyrics. Emancipation may have happened more than 150 years ago, but America still won’t let a sister be free from this coven of caricatures.
Tamara Winfrey Harris delves into marriage, motherhood, health, sexuality, beauty, and more, taking sharp aim at pervasive stereotypes about black women. She counters warped prejudices with the straight-up truth about being a black woman in America. “We have facets like diamonds,” she writes. “The trouble is the people who refuse to see us sparkling.” “
Tamara Winfrey Harris is a writer who specializes in the ever-evolving space where current events, politics, and pop culture intersect with race and gender. Her first book is The Sisters are Alright: Changing the Broken Narrative for Black Women in America (Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Summer 2015). “For black women,” Tamara explains, “the most radical thing we can do is to throw off the shackles forged by [stereotypes] and regain our full and complex humanity. [This] is a revolutionary act in the face of a society eager to mold us into hard, unbreakable things.“
Tamara’s writing career began with the personal blog, What Tami Said. Her work there has been referenced by New York magazine and a host of sites dedicated to feminism and race. An article from the blog post, “Nappy Love: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Embrace the Kinks” was published by Oxford University Press (2014) in How Writing Works: 1st edition with Readings. Tamara was also a senior editor at Racialicious, a blog that explores the intersection of race and pop culture.
A Midwesterner at heart, Tamara is a native of Indiana. She graduated with a BA degree from the Greenlee School of Journalism at Iowa State University. She is also a graduate of the Maynard Institute’s Editing Program for Minority Journalists. With more than 20 years of experience in journalism, public relations and marketing, Tamara also teaches public speaking classes to college students.
“It took me 7 years before I got my first editorial position with Henry Holt. It took so long because back then people thought ‘Black people don’t read.’ But then Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, and Terry McMillan hit the bestseller list at the same time. And when that happened it was like ‘What in the world???’ because there wasn’t that many books being published by people of color. So there were even more books. And a variety of books.”
Tracy Sherrod mentions the start of publishing taking even more notice of Black voices in the literary landscape once they hit the bestseller list proving: There is a market for these books.
Throwback Thursday Black History Month edition! Check out our talk with Tracy on the importance of diversity in publishing to elevate and promote minority voices.
It’s that most affirming and positive time of the year: February ushers
in a celebration of Black history. In conjunction, Black artists within
the geek community have gathered in solidarity to once again appreciate
one another’s immense talent in the famous #28DaysofBlackCosplay. Started by Princess Mentality Cosplay (Princessology on Instagram),
cosplayers have taken to social media to share and retweet pictures of
Black cosplayers displaying their love for cosplay and the creative
license it grants them. You can check out Facebook, Twitter, and
Instagram to witness the beauty. Here are my favorite incredible
cosplayers spotted on Instagram this week!
Edited by: Victor LaValle and John Joseph Adams / Publisher: One World
Friends, 2019 is picking up right where 2018 left off, and all
indications are that 2020 is going to be more of the same. Things, as
they say, are as bad as they ever been. Knowing this, I picked up A People’s Future of The United States,
looking simultaneously for escapism and inspiration. This anthology of
25 speculative fiction short stories looks actively forward, projecting
out What If scenarios — What if the politics of America keep getting
more violent? What if we build that wall, and lots of others besides?
What if we do nothing about our impact on the climate?
As each story grapples with these questions the individual answers
are more pessimistic than optimistic, more “we have a long way to go”
than “it is only upsides from here”. But by the end of the book, the
overall feeling of possibility is clear. This is imagination set on the
work of crafting a better future. Overall, the anthology succeeds.
This Is Who We Are
In A People’s Future of The United States, editors LaValle (author of The Ballad of Black Tom and DESTROYER) and Adams (series editor for The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy)
cultivate 25 visions for the future of the United States. They present a
diversity of voice, character, and setting to scratch the surface of
the distinctions that lie within “The United States” (quotes
intentional). There are stories of first and second generation
immigrants and stories of the borders North and South. Mixed with tales
about “traditional Americans”, the whole work challenges assumptions
about who we will be in the future — and by extension who we are now.
The opener by Charlie Jane Anders, “The Bookstore at the End of
America”, is set in an America in which California has left the union.
As a Californian (adoptively), I love this setting. California becomes a
utopia, but one where the fine lines of technological advancement and
intellectual freedoms collide. This is both what anti-Californians
threaten and what some Californians seem to want. So what happens when
everyone gets what they want? Well, the usual. Screaming.
There are a few stories set in utopia/dystopia California, but just
as many in Billings, Montana, or somewhere between Syracuse and Buffalo,
New York. This is not a bi-coastal anthology. The impacts of our
current policies imagined — of drought, isolation, torture — touch
everyone.
Small Acts of Resistance
A People’s Future is one of a few anthologies I’ve read that
doesn’t just include a token story by/about a LGBTIQAP+ character.
There are queer characters throughout, both those whose sexuality is
central to the story, as in “It Was Saturday Night, I Guess That Makes
It Alright” by Sam J. Miller (yes, that’s a reference to Little Red Corvette), and those whose sexuality is a fact but not the point, as in “What Maya Found There” by Daniel José Older.
Regardless of main character, the stories rarely center the powerful.
These are tales of what folks do about continuing to stand up in a
world that wants them to lie down. There’s one notable exception: “By
His Bootstraps” by Ashok K. Banker, which is about Them People’s
President. Don’t skip it though; give it a chance. The reversals and
retakes that Banker crafts into the story are fantastic.
SIEMPRE BRUJA AIRS THIS FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1ST, 2019 ON NETFLIX
Netflix isn’t fucking promoting this shit so I’m gonna need y’all to please reblog this and spread the world because I REFUSE to see ANOTHER good fucking show cancelled because fucking execs don’t want a show about an AFRO LATINA succeed!!!!
Synopsis: A young 17th-century witch time travels to the future to save the man she loves, but first must adjust to present-day Cartagena and defeat a dark rival.
Cartoon Network is seeking writers, video editors, illustrators, and graphic designers for their Empowerpuff Internship to celebrate thePower Puff Girls‘ 20th anniversary. Applicants for the 12-month position can be based anywhere in the US.
While most of the world has drowned beneath the sudden rising waters of a climate apocalypse, Dinétah (formerly the Navajo reservation) has been reborn. The gods and heroes of legend walk the land, but so do monsters.
Maggie Hoskie is a Dinétah monster hunter, a supernaturally gifted killer. When a small town needs help finding a missing girl, Maggie is their last best hope. But what Maggie uncovers about the monster is much more terrifying than anything she could imagine.
Maggie reluctantly enlists the aid of Kai Arviso, an unconventional medicine man, and together they travel the rez, unraveling clues from ancient legends, trading favors with tricksters, and battling dark witchcraft in a patchwork world of deteriorating technology.
As Maggie discovers the truth behind the killings, she will have to confront her past if she wants to survive.
Rebecca Roanhorse is speculative fiction writer and Nebula, Hugo, and Sturgeon Award Finalist. She is also a 2017 Campbell Award Finalist for Best New Science Fiction and Fantasy writer. Her novel Trail of Lightning is the first book in the Sixth World series, followed by Storm of Locusts in 2019. She lives in northern New Mexico with her husband, daughter, and pug. Find more at RebeccaRoanhorse.com and follow her on Twitter at @RoanhorseBex.
Broken Places & Outer Spaces: Finding Creativity in the Unexpected (2019)
“Nnedi Okorafor was never supposed to be paralyzed. A college track star and budding entomologist, Nnedi’s lifelong battle with scoliosis was just a bump in her plan—something a simple operation would easily correct. But when Nnedi wakes from the surgery to find she can’t move her legs, her entire sense of self begins to waver. Confined to a hospital bed for months, unusual things begin to happen. Psychedelic bugs crawl her hospital walls; strange dreams visit her nightly. Nnedi begins to put these experiences into writing, conjuring up strange, fantastical stories. What Nnedi discovers during her confinement would prove to be the key to her life as a successful science fiction author: In science fiction, when something breaks, something greater often emerges from the cracks.
In Broken Places & Outer Spaces, Nnedi takes the reader on a journey from her hospital bed deep into her memories, from her painful first experiences with racism as a child in Chicago to her powerful visits to her parents’ hometown in Nigeria. From Frida Kahlo to Mary Shelly, she examines great artists and writers who have pushed through their limitations, using hardship to fuel their work. Through these compelling stories and her own, Nnedi reveals a universal truth: What we perceive as limitations have the potential to become our greatest strengths—far greater than when we were unbroken.
A guidebook for anyone eager to understand how their limitations might actually be used as a creative springboard,Broken Places & Outer Spaces is an inspiring look at how to open up new windows in your mind.”
Nnedi Okorafor is a novelist of African-based science fiction, fantasy, and magical realism for both children and adults. Born in the United States to Nigerian immigrant parents, Nnedi is known for weaving African culture into creative evocative settings and memorable characters. In a profile of Nnedi’s work, the New York Times called Nnedi’s imagination “stunning.” Nnedi has received the World Fantasy Award, the Hugo Award, and the Nebula Award, among others, for her novels. Her fans include Rick Riordan, John Green, Laurie Halse Anderson, and Ursula K. Le Guin among others.
Nnedi Okorafor holds a PhD in English and is a professor at SUNY Buffalo. She divides her time between Buffalo and the suburbs of Chicago, where she lives with her daughter. Learn more at nnedi.com or follow her on Twitter @nnedi.
