Shaking the Tree A Collection of New Fiction and Memoir by Black Women

by Danquah, Nana-Ama

• ISBN13: 9780393050677
• ISBN10: 039305067X
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-08-17
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Summary

Showcasing the newest generation of black women writers, including ZZ Packer, Edwidge Danticat, and Shay Youngblood, Shaking the Tree gathers twenty-three voices that came of age in the wake of the civil rights, black arts, gay rights, and feminist movements. Their literature embodies the tragedies and triumphs of contemporary black women in their struggle to negotiate a sense of individual identity beyond the limited scope of gender and race. Shaking the Tree offers a panorama of both fiction and memoir, revealing perspectives as diverse as they are dynamic: asha bandele recounts how she fell in love with a prisoner charged with murder; Rebecca Walker explores a childhood split between disparate racial and cultural landscapes; ZZ Packer remembers her near-abduction from summer camp at a time when local black children were being found murdered; Danzy Senna and Carolyn Ferrell tell tales about being young and biracial in a society that sees only in black and white. This anthology is as urgent as it is historical'”these voices are the future of American literature.

Author Biography

Meri Nana-Ama Danquah is the author of a memoir, Willow Weep for Me: A Black Woman's Journey Through Depression, and the editor of the anthology Becoming American: Personal Essays by First Generation Immigrant Women. She lives in Los Angeles

Table of Contents

The Incoming Wave: An Introduction	xiii
``Home'' From The Prisoner's Wife	5	(8)
asha bandele
From Black Ice	13	(10)
Lorene Cary
From Mama's Girl	23	(9)
Veronica Chambers
From Willow Weep for Me: A Black Woman's Journey Through Depression	32	(11)
Meri Nana-Ama Danquah
``Children of the Sea'' From Krik? Krak!	43	(17)
Edwidge Danticat
``Beginning Again'' From An American Story	60	(12)
Debra J. Dickerson
``Wonderful Teen'' From Don't Erase Me	72	(13)
Carolyn Ferrell
``Markers'' From Break Any Woman Down	85	(17)
Dana Johnson
``It's Racier in the Bahamas'' From Bulletproof Diva: Tales of Race, Sex, and Hair	102	(9)
Lisa Jones
From The Serpent's Gift	111	(11)
Helen Elaine Lee
``July 1978'' From The Book of Sarahs: A Family in Parts	122	(9)
Catherine E. McKinley
``What's Love Got to Do with It?'' From Every Good-bye Ain't Gone	131	(21)
Itabari Njeri
``The Stranger''	152	(10)
ZZ Packer
``April 1974---Johnson Creek'' From Stigmata	162	(13)
Phyllis Alesia Perry
From The Pagoda	175	(12)
Patricia Powell
``Leila, 1998'' From Song of the Water Saints	187	(10)
Nelly Rosario
``The Body of Luce Rivera'' From Caucasia	197	(9)
Danzy Senna
``The Wall of Pain'' From The Fall of Rome	206	(12)
Martha Southgate
From Girl in the Mirror: Three Generations of Black Women in Motion	218	(12)
Natasha Tarpley
``Nepenthe'' From Glow in the Dark	230	(8)
Lisa Teasley
``Larchmont'' From Black, White, and Jewish: Autobiography of a Shifting Self	238	(14)
Rebecca Walker
``On Our Way to Beautiful'' From On Our Way to Beautiful	252	(11)
Yolanda Young
``Lover'' From Black Girl in Paris	263	(20)
Shay Youngblood
Contributors	283	(6)
Acknowledgments	289	(2)
Credits	291