An exciting resource in a promising, thorough multivolume celebration of Black women.
The first volume of an interdisciplinary, intersectional reference collection on influential Black women.
Disturbed by the 2016 election of Donald Trump and his pledge to “Make America Great Again,” author David was dismayed by the number of Americans who longed for the 1950s, “when White men ruled…and people of color had no rights.” She notes that surveys suggest that nearly 60% of White people believe that America in the 1950s was “better” than it is today. Even the #MeToo movement, a harbinger of 21st-century progressive activism, focused disproportionately on the experiences of White women. “Since history is told through the lens of the slaveholders,” who continue to control the nation’s narratives, it was important to David that she provide a comprehensive work that tells the “historical realities” too often “overlooked, misinterpreted, and often retold to present a false history.” The book starts with 50-plus pages of introductory material by David; Lyah Beth LeFlore-Ituen, a producer; and Chandra D.L. Waring, a professor, that contemplates both the victimization and the resilience of Black women. LeFlore-Ituen’s essay, for example, uses the multigenerational history of women in her own distinguished family as a lens through which to explore the impact of Black women on shaping the lives of their communities. Regardless of the dominant narratives in traditional history books, she reminds us, Black women have been telling their stories “at the kitchen table” for generations. The bulk of the nearly 700-page book comprises three parts that focus on Black women’s achievements in activism, dance, and sports. Each of the three sections begins with an introductory essay that provides a broad historical overview of the topic. Activists profiled include historical figures, like Harriet Tubman, Ella Baker, and Betty Shabazz, as well as modern figures, like criminal justice reform advocate Michelle Alexander and trans activist LaSaia Wade. The sections on dance and sports celebrate cultural icons from Josephine Baker and Debra Austin to Jackie Joyner-Kersee and Simone Biles. These chapters also challenge notions in sports broadcasting that paint successful Black athletes as “superhumanly ‘strong’ beings” and that fail to acknowledge their hard work, training, and mental fortitude.
The first book in an anticipated six-volume set, this is an inspiring, comprehensive work. With a multidisciplinary background in music, design, and poetry, David provides the model of activist scholarship that combines academic nuance and sophistication with an engaging writing style that is accessible to general readership, such as David’s essay that convincingly demonstrates how women served as the “foot soldiers” of the civil rights movement. Backed by impressive endnotes and references, each chapter is encyclopedic in breadth while offering fresh analytical insights into Black women who are well covered in the existing literature, like Rosa Parks. The choice to combine the topics of activism, dance, and sports makes for an eclectic collection. More consistency could have been paid in the formatting of chapters, which vary significantly in length. Accompanied by dozens of stark, powerful black-and-white photographs and portraits, this is a visually arresting volume whose words match the power of its images.
An exciting resource in a promising, thorough multivolume celebration of Black women.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-940939-79-7
Page Count: 595
Publisher: 2Leaf Press
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
PERSPECTIVES
It’s not Shakespeare, not by a long shot. But at least it’s not James Franco.
A noted actor turns to verse: “Poems are a Saturday in the middle of the week.”
McConaughey, author of the gracefully written memoir Greenlights, has been writing poems since his teens, closing with one “written in an Australian bathtub” that reads just as a poem by an 18-year-old (Rimbaud excepted) should read: “Ignorant minds of the fortunate man / Blind of the fate shaping every land.” McConaughey is fearless in his commitment to the rhyme, no matter how slight the result (“Oops, took a quick peek at the sky before I got my glasses, / now I can’t see shit, sure hope this passes”). And, sad to say, the slight is what is most on display throughout, punctuated by some odd koanlike aperçus: “Eating all we can / at the all-we-can-eat buffet, / gives us a 3.8 education / and a 4.2 GPA.” “Never give up your right to do the next right thing. This is how we find our way home.” “Memory never forgets. Even though we do.” The prayer portion of the program is deeply felt, but it’s just as sentimental; only when he writes of life-changing events—a court appearance to file a restraining order against a stalker, his decision to quit smoking weed—do we catch a glimpse of the effortlessly fluent, effortlessly charming McConaughey as exemplified by the David Wooderson (“alright, alright, alright”) of Dazed and Confused. The rest is mostly a soufflé in verse. McConaughey’s heart is very clearly in the right place, but on the whole the book suggests an old saw: Don’t give up your day job.
It’s not Shakespeare, not by a long shot. But at least it’s not James Franco.Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2025
ISBN: 9781984862105
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
A blissfully vicarious, heartfelt glimpse into the life of a Manhattan burlesque dancer.
A former New York City dancer reflects on her zesty heyday in the 1970s.
Discovered on a Manhattan street in 2020 and introduced on Stanton’s Humans of New York Instagram page, Johnson, then 76, shares her dynamic history as a “fiercely independent” Black burlesque dancer who used the stage name Tanqueray and became a celebrated fixture in midtown adult theaters. “I was the only black girl making white girl money,” she boasts, telling a vibrant story about sex and struggle in a bygone era. Frank and unapologetic, Johnson vividly captures aspects of her former life as a stage seductress shimmying to blues tracks during 18-minute sets or sewing lingerie for plus-sized dancers. Though her work was far from the Broadway shows she dreamed about, it eventually became all about the nightly hustle to simply survive. Her anecdotes are humorous, heartfelt, and supremely captivating, recounted with the passion of a true survivor and the acerbic wit of a weathered, street-wise New Yorker. She shares stories of growing up in an abusive household in Albany in the 1940s, a teenage pregnancy, and prison time for robbery as nonchalantly as she recalls selling rhinestone G-strings to prostitutes to make them sparkle in the headlights of passing cars. Complemented by an array of revealing personal photographs, the narrative alternates between heartfelt nostalgia about the seedier side of Manhattan’s go-go scene and funny quips about her unconventional stage performances. Encounters with a variety of hardworking dancers, drag queens, and pimps, plus an account of the complexities of a first love with a drug-addled hustler, fill out the memoir with personality and candor. With a narrative assist from Stanton, the result is a consistently titillating and often moving story of human struggle as well as an insider glimpse into the days when Times Square was considered the Big Apple’s gloriously unpolished underbelly. The book also includes Yee’s lush watercolor illustrations.
A blissfully vicarious, heartfelt glimpse into the life of a Manhattan burlesque dancer.Pub Date: July 12, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-250-27827-2
Page Count: 192
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2022
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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