Still Brave: The Evolution of Black Women's Studies

My mom is an academic rock star. I have known this for several years. It was one of our shared mentors...a famous historian...who once tried to explain something to me about my mom's scholarship. She said "your mom doesn't publish tons of work, but that's because when she does publish, the kinds of work she produces pushes and redefines her field." And so it is fitting that when Nellie McKay (brilliant scholar, friend, mentor, and editor of the Norton Anthology on African American literature) passed away, she left behind a request that my mom, and two other amazing women continue the work that she had begun....and produce an updated version of the Black Women's Studies cannon "All the Women are White, All the Men are Black, but Some of us are Brave". The new edition is titled "Still Brave: The Evolution of Black Women's Studies" and it is available for purchase at a bookstore near you. Below is the blurb:

We are not goddesses or matriarchs or edifices of divine forgiveness; we are not fiery fingers of judgment or instruments of flagellation; we are women forced back always upon our woman's power. We have learned to use anger as we have learned to use the dead flesh of animals, and bruised, battered, and changing, we have survived and grown and . . . we are moving on.—Audre Lorde

Cheryl Clarke, Angela Davis, bell hooks, June Jordan, Audre Lorde, and Alice Walker—from the pioneers of black women's studies comes Still Brave, the definitive collection of race and gender writings today. Including Alice Walker's groundbreaking elucidation of the term "womanist," discussions of women's rights as human rights, and a piece on the Obama factor, the collection speaks to the ways that feminism has evolved and how black women have confronted racism within it.

Frances Smith Foster is a professor of English and women's studies, the former director of the Emory Institute for Women's Studies, and current chair of the English Department at Emory University.

Beverly Guy-Sheftall is president of the National Women's Studies Association, the founding director of the Women's Research and Resource Center, and a professor of women's studies at Spelman College.

Stanlie James is director of the African and African American Studies Program at Arizona State University, where she holds a joint appointment with the Women's and Gender Studies Program.

This is an amazing accomplishment. Congrats ladies! I know Nellie would be so proud of you and proud of this book. And the reviews are in and it's awesome, but don't just take my word for it. Here is what others are saying:

“Still Brave is a monumental book that reminds us of the centrality of Black Womanist genius and talent grounded in courage and struggle. We can never understand what it means to be modern, new world, or African without this precious volume.”

—Cornel West, university professor, Princeton University the evolution of black women’s studies

“To hold Still Brave in your hands is to hold a courageous, beautiful history of global importance. Black feminism and Black Women’s Studies are monumental achievements. Still Brave shows why.”

—Catharine R. Stimpson, university professor and dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Science, New York University

“ Faculty and students at all levels of higher education; community activists; policymakers; and those just plain curious to read the very best scholarship on race and gender will welcome the publication of this volume. James, Foster, and Guy-Sheftall have put together a political, creative, truly interdisciplinary anthology. They have crafted a narrative of Black Women’s Studies over the past twenty-five years that will sustain the field in the twenty-first century. They are to be congratulated.”

—Claire G. Moses, editorial director of Feminist Studies and professor of Women’s Studies, University of Maryland

“ Radiant with intellectual energy, this sequel to But Some of Us Are Brave will be as indispensable to Women’s Studies scholars of every race, age, ethnicity, and theoretical orientation as its precursor was. The writers whose classic and contemporary essays are collected here address an exhilarating range of multidisciplinary and multicultural issues, from religion to sexuality to the history of Black feminist criticism—including a closing riff on the Obama daughters and Pecola Breedlove—with verve, wit, passion, and sophistication.

—Sandra M. Gilbert, Distinguished Professor of English Emerita, University of California, Davis

“ First Lady Michelle Obama embodies both the dearest hopes and deepest fears of so many African American women. Her fierce advocacy for her children, the power of her embodied self, her broad appeal to Americans of all races and classes suggest the realization of a Black feminist dream. But the essays in Still Brave remind us of the fraught terrain on which First Lady Obama stands. They demonstrate how Black women must remain “nice girls” or risk being swiftly punished by an American public with little familiarity with or respect for the diverse, authentic realities of Black women. The authors of Still Brave allow us to glimpse this stunning diversity of Black women’s lives across differences of age, color, class, sexual orientation, and religious belief. They illuminate the social and political context, meanings, and burdens that frame Black women’s lives. They open space for politically meaningful anger, push back against rigid norms of respectability, and map the contributions of African American women’s unique and varied perspectives. In short the book is courageous, necessary, and exquisitely edited. It is a true testament to the scholar to whom it is dedicated.

—Melissa Harris-Lacewell, associate professor of Politics and African American Studies, Princeton University