Kirjahaku

" . . . a rare combination of inclusiveness and honesty. . . . cogent introduction[s] . . . confirm the central point of the tales: a search for cultural identity and freedom. First-rate." —Library Journal " . . . deserves a place alongside the classic collection of Negro tales, Mules and Men. Folktales are the stories people tell, and Shuckin' and Jivin' presents a splendid representative sheaf of the stories black Americans of all social classes tell today . . . . Professional folklorists will applaud Dance's candor and scholarly rigor." —Richard M. Dorson An exciting new collection of Black American folklore, running the gamut from anecdotes concerning life among the slaves to obviously contemporary jokes. In their frank expression of racial attitudes and unexpurgated wit, these tales represent a radical departure from earlier collections.

In this dazzling anthology (Publishers Weekly), Daryl Cumber Dance has collected the often hard-hitting, sometimes risqu , always dramatic humor that arises from the depth of black women's souls and the breadth of their lives. The eloquent wit and laughter of African American women are presented here in all their written and spoken manifestations: autobiographies, novels, essays, poems, speeches, comic routines, proverbial sayings, cartoons, mimeographed sheets, and folk tales. The chapters proceed thematically, covering the church, love, civil rights, motherly advice, and much more.

There is perhaps no other person who has been so often and obsessively featured in any writer’s canon as Jamaica Kincaid’s mother, Annie Drew. In this provocative new book, Daryl Dance argues that everything Kincaid has written, regardless of its apparent theme, actually relates to Kincaid’s efforts to free herself from her mother, whether her subject is ostensibly other family members, her home nation, a precolonial world, or even Kincaid herself.A devoted reader of Kincaid’s work, Dance had long been aware of the author’s love-hate relationship with her mother, but it was not until reading the 2008 essay ""The Estrangement"" that Dance began to ponder who this woman named Annie Victoria Richardson Drew really was. Dance decided to seek the answers herself, embarking on a years-long journey to unearth the real Annie Drew.Through interviews and extensive research, Dance has pieced together a fuller, more contextualized picture in an attempt to tell Annie Drew’s story. Previous analyses of Kincaid’s relationship with her mother have not gone beyond the writer’s own carefully orchestrated and sometimes contrived portraits of her. In Search of Annie Drew offers an alternate reading of Kincaid’s work that expands our understanding of the object of such passionate love and such ferocious hatred, an ordinary woman who became an unforgettable literary figure through her talented daughter’s renderings.

There is perhaps no other person who has been so often and obsessively featured in any writer’s canon as Jamaica Kincaid’s mother, Annie Drew. In this provocative new book, Daryl Dance argues that everything Kincaid has written, regardless of its apparent theme, actually relates to Kincaid’s efforts to free herself from her mother, whether her subject is ostensibly other family members, her home nation, a precolonial world, or even Kincaid herself.A devoted reader of Kincaid’s work, Dance had long been aware of the author’s love-hate relationship with her mother, but it was not until reading the 2008 essay ""The Estrangement"" that Dance began to ponder who this woman named Annie Victoria Richardson Drew really was. Dance decided to seek the answers herself, embarking on a years-long journey to unearth the real Annie Drew.Through interviews and extensive research, Dance has pieced together a fuller, more contextualized picture in an attempt to tell Annie Drew’s story. Previous analyses of Kincaid’s relationship with her mother have not gone beyond the writer’s own carefully orchestrated and sometimes contrived portraits of her. In Search of Annie Drew offers an alternate reading of Kincaid’s work that expands our understanding of the object of such passionate love and such ferocious hatred, an ordinary woman who became an unforgettable literary figure through her talented daughter’s renderings.

Daryl Cumber Dance, legendary teacher, celebrated genealogist, applauded literary scholar, and famed folklorist (often dubbed "The Dean of American Folklore"), has achieved renown for her classic studies and collections such as Shuckin' and Jivin' Folklore from Contemporary Black Americans; Folklore from Contemporary Jamaicans; Long Gone: The Mecklenburg Six and the Theme of Escape in Black Folklore; Fifty Caribbean Writers: A Bio-Bibliographical and Critical Sourcebook; New World Adams: Conversations with Contemporary West Indian Writers; Honey, Hush An Anthology of African American Women's Humor; The Lineage of Abraham: The Biography of a Free Black Family in Charles City, VA; From My People: 400 Years of African American Folklore; and In Search of Annie Drew, the Mother, and Muse of Jamaica Kincaid. Those who have followed her remarkable scholarly career during the last fifty years may be shocked to discover that she has suddenly turned her attention to an entirely new genre at the age of eighty-two. She has produced her first work of fiction a historical novel, Land of the Free ... Negroes.Clearly, the footprints of the applauded historian, folklorist, humorist, literary critic, and scholar are everywhere evident in this brave new venture, but many may be surprised at the poetic imagination, the creative genius, the spiritual vision, the romantic interludes, the tragic drama, the comedic tableau, and the enthralling suspense that this octogenarian unleashes in her spellbinding history of her own family of free Blacks in Charles City County, Virginia, as they struggle for survival, happiness, and respect in the Antebellum South.Beginning with an African woman and a Native American man whose son has a daughter by an indentured servant from England, Dance treats six generations of her family, based largely upon and generally bearing the names of her actual ancestors as they deal with capture, kidnappings, rescues, purchases, indentureship, legal conflicts, compromises, seductions, exploitations, wars, mobs, jealousies, robberies, uprisings, schemes, vengefulness, love, courtships, marriages, births, deaths, murders, friendships, parties, celebrations, adventures, travels, businesses, investments, craftsmanship, labor, and education. This page-turner will have you alternately angry, shocked, excited, amazed, amused, moved, and incredulous--but ultimately inspired. Prepare to be enlightened and emotionally touched by Dance's memorable characters' sense of self, their love of family, their religious dedication, their delight in their culture, their unexpected courage, their unfailing ingenuity, their steadfast determination, their staunch commitment to ideals, and their building of homes, businesses, a church, and a community.

REMEMBERING Paule is the compelling story of two friends, novelist Paule Marshall and folklorist and literary critic Daryl Cumber Dance, both committed truth-tellers, teachers, cultural critics, writers, and activists who wielded their pens to revolutionize their literary world. Marshall is often hailed as the matriarch of the Black Women's Literary Renaissance. Her Brown Girl, Brownstones signaled a new day in African Diasporic women's writing. Daryl Dance has been dubbed 'the Dean of American folklore' for her work in African American and Jamaican folklore.