Black Feminist Cultural Criticism

Part I: Foundations.

Overview.

1. Their Fiction Becomes Our Reality: Black Women Image Makers. (Mary Helen Washington).

2. Toward a Black Feminist Criticism. (Barbara Smith).

3. New Directions for Black Feminist Criticism. (Deborah E. McDowell).

4. But What Do We Think We Are Doing Anyway: The State of Black Feminist Criticism(s) or My Version of a Little Bit of History. (Barbara Christian).

Supplementary Readings.

Media Resources.

Part II: The Moving Image.

Overview.

5. Some Reflections on the Negro Actress: The Tattered Queens. (Ruby Dee).

6. Daughters of the Dust. (Jacqueline Bobo).

7. Below the Line: (Re)Calibrating the Filmic Gaze. (C. A. Griffith).

8. In My Mother's House: Black Feminist Aesthetics, Television, and A Raisin in the Sun. (Sheri Parks).

Supplementary Readings.

Media Resources.

Part III: Art.

Overview.

9. African-American Women Artists: An Historical Perspective. (Arna Alexander Bontemps and Jacqueline Fonvielle-Bontemps).

10. In Search of a Discourse and Critique/s That Center the Art of Black Women Artists. (Freida High W. Tesfagiorgis).

11. In Their Own Image. (Kellie Jones).

12. The Freedom to Say What She Pleases: A Coversation with Faith Ringgold. (Melody Graulich and Mara Witzling).

Supplementary Readings.

Media Resources.

Part IV: Music and Spoken Word.

Overview.

13. Black Women and Music: A Historical Legacy of Struggle. (Angela Y. Davis).

14. Never Trust a Big Butt and a Smile. (Tricia Rose).

15. Divas Declare a Spoken-Word Revolution. (Evelyn McDonnell).

16. 'A Laying on of Hands': Transcending the City in Ntozake Shange's for Colored Girls who have Considered Suicide when the Rainbow is Enuf. (Carolyn Mitchell).

Supplementary Readings.

Media Resources.

Part V: Material Culture.

Overview.

17. The Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power. (Audre Lorde).

18. African American Quilts: Paradigms of Black Diversity. (Cuesta Benberry).

19. Harriet Powers: Portrait of An African-American Quilter. (Gladys-Marie Fry).

20. Empathy, Energy, and Eating: Politics and Power in The Black Family Dinner Quilt Cookbook. (Sally Bishop Shigley).

Supplementary Reading.

Media Resources.

Contributors.

Media Resources Directory of Distributors.

Bibliography.

Index.