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
Strictly for dittoheads.
An unabashed celebration of the late talking head.
Rush Limbaugh (1951-2021) insisted that he had a direct line to God, who blessed him with brilliance unseen since the time of the Messiah. In his tribute, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis calls him “the greatest broadcaster that [sic] ever lived.” That’s an accidental anointment, given checkered beginnings. Limbaugh himself records that, after earning a failing grade for not properly outlining a speech, he dropped out of college—doubtless the cause of his scorn for higher education. This book is a constant gush of cult-of-personality praise, with tributes from Ben Carson, Mike Pence, Donald Trump, and others. One radio caller called Limbaugh “practically perfect” and a latter-day George Washington by virtue of “the magnetism and the trust and the belief of all the people.” Limbaugh insists that conservatives are all about love, though he filled the airwaves with bitter, divisive invective about the evils of liberals, as with this tidbit: “to liberals, the Bill of Rights is horrible, the Bill of Rights grants citizens freedom….The Bill of Rights limits the federal government, and that’s negative to a socialist like Obama.” Moreover, “to Democrats, America’s heartland is ‘flyover’ country. They don’t know, or like, the Americans who live there, or their values.” Worse still for a money machine like Limbaugh, who flew over that heartland in a private jet while smoking fat cigars, liberals like Obama are “trying to socialize profit so that [they] can claim it”—anathema to wealthy Republicans, who prefer to socialize risk by way of bailouts while keeping the profits for themselves. Limbaugh fans will certainly eat this up, though a segment of the Republican caucus in Congress (Marjorie Taylor Greene et al.) might want to read past Limbaugh’s repeated insistence that “peace can’t be achieved by ‘developing an understanding’ with the Russian people.”
Strictly for dittoheads.Pub Date: Oct. 25, 2022
ISBN: 9781668001844
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Threshold Editions/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 23, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Doyle offers another lucid, inspiring chronicle of female empowerment and the rewards of self-awareness and renewal.
More life reflections from the bestselling author on themes of societal captivity and the catharsis of personal freedom.
In her third book, Doyle (Love Warrior, 2016, etc.) begins with a life-changing event. “Four years ago,” she writes, “married to the father of my three children, I fell in love with a woman.” That woman, Abby Wambach, would become her wife. Emblematically arranged into three sections—“Caged,” “Keys,” “Freedom”—the narrative offers, among other elements, vignettes about the soulful author’s girlhood, when she was bulimic and felt like a zoo animal, a “caged girl made for wide-open skies.” She followed the path that seemed right and appropriate based on her Catholic upbringing and adolescent conditioning. After a downward spiral into “drinking, drugging, and purging,” Doyle found sobriety and the authentic self she’d been suppressing. Still, there was trouble: Straining an already troubled marriage was her husband’s infidelity, which eventually led to life-altering choices and the discovery of a love she’d never experienced before. Throughout the book, Doyle remains open and candid, whether she’s admitting to rigging a high school homecoming court election or denouncing the doting perfectionism of “cream cheese parenting,” which is about “giving your children the best of everything.” The author’s fears and concerns are often mirrored by real-world issues: gender roles and bias, white privilege, racism, and religion-fueled homophobia and hypocrisy. Some stories merely skim the surface of larger issues, but Doyle revisits them in later sections and digs deeper, using friends and familial references to personify their impact on her life, both past and present. Shorter pieces, some only a page in length, manage to effectively translate an emotional gut punch, as when Doyle’s therapist called her blooming extramarital lesbian love a “dangerous distraction.” Ultimately, the narrative is an in-depth look at a courageous woman eager to share the wealth of her experiences by embracing vulnerability and reclaiming her inner strength and resiliency.
Doyle offers another lucid, inspiring chronicle of female empowerment and the rewards of self-awareness and renewal.Pub Date: March 10, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-0125-8
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
PROFILES
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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