The sisterhood : how a network of Black women writers changed American culture / Courtney Thorsson.
Material type:
TextPublisher: New York : Columbia University Press, [2023]Description: vi, 280 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 25 cmContent type: - text
- unmediated
- volume
- 9780231204729
- 0231204728
- American literature -- 20th century -- History and criticism
- American literature -- Women authors -- History and criticism
- American literature -- Black authors -- History and criticism
- Women authors, Black -- United States
- Feminism in literature
- Community life -- United States -- History -- 20th century
| Item type | Home library | Collection | Shelving location | Call number | Materials specified | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item holds | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Adult Book
|
Main Library | NonFiction | New | 810.9928 T522 | Available | 33111011227002 |
Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
One Sunday afternoon in February 1977, Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Ntozake Shange, and several other Black women writers met at June Jordan's Brooklyn apartment to eat gumbo, drink champagne, and talk about their work. Calling themselves "The Sisterhood," the group--which also came to include Audre Lorde, Paule Marshall, Margo Jefferson, and others--would get together once a month over the next two years, creating a vital space for Black women to discuss literature and liberation.
The Sisterhood tells the story of how this remarkable community transformed American writing and cultural institutions. Drawing on original interviews with Sisterhood members as well as correspondence, meeting minutes, and readings of their works, Courtney Thorsson explores the group's everyday collaboration and profound legacy. The Sisterhood advocated for Black women writers at trade publishers and magazines such as Random House, Ms. , and Essence , and eventually in academic departments as well--often in the face of sexist, racist, and homophobic backlash. Thorsson traces the personal, professional, and political ties that brought the group together as well as the reasons for its dissolution. She considers the popular and critical success of Sisterhood members in the 1980s, the uneasy absorption of Black feminism into the academy, and how younger writers built on the foundations the group laid. Highlighting the organizing, networking, and community building that nurtured Black women's writing, this book demonstrates that The Sisterhood offers an enduring model for Black feminist collaboration.
Includes bibliographical references (pages [231]-268) and index.
"Revolution is not a one-time event" -- "An association of Black Women who are writers/poets/artists" -- "To move the needle in Black women's lives" -- "A community of writers even if they only slap five once a month" -- "A regular profusion of certain / unidentified roses" -- "The function of freedom is to free somebody else" -- "Making use of being used" -- Conclusion -- Appendix 1: Members of The Sisterhood -- Appendix 2: Meetings of The Sisterhood
"On February 6, 1977, Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Ntozake Shange, and several other Black women writers met at June Jordan's Brooklyn apartment. Naming itself "The Sisterhood," the group would meet over the next two years to discuss the future of Black literary feminism, how to promote and publicize their work, and the everyday pressures and challenges of being a Black woman writer. This network of individuals, which would also come to include Audre Lorde, Paule Marshall, Toni Cade Bambara and Margo Jefferson, as well as other Black women, shaped the direction of Black women's writing and Black literary culture in the post-Civil Rights and post-Black Arts Movement era and its reception in popular culture, the literary marketplace, and the academy. Drawing on meeting notes, interviews with participants their writings, and correspondence, Courtney Thorsson's history of "The Sisterhood" recounts the personal, political, and professional bonds and motivations that shaped the group's history and its dissolution. Turning to the group's legacy, she considers the critical and popular success of Alice Walker and Toni Morrison in the 1980s, the uneasy absorption of Black feminism into the academy, and the racist and misogynistic backlash these writers faced and the limits of mainstream success. Though "The Sisterhood" only formally existed for two years, its impact on American literature and culture, as Thorsson demonstrates, has been profound even as it reveals the limitations of its success"-- Provided by publisher.