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978-1-58838-161-3
1-58838-161-7
$13.95 paperback
5" x 8"
144 pages
NewSouth Books
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In
three dozen poems and a two-act play, MacArthur Fellow Billie Jean Young
honors the tradition of struggle, resistance, and survival common to
generations of women descended from African slaves. The tradition she
dramatizes in her acclaimed portrayal of Fannie Lou Hamer (here for the
first time in book form)—the tradition of making a way out of no way—is
the same tradition she celebrates in remembering her mother’s “rub-board
hands.” Her poetry also reveals the deeply painful, often hidden costs
of living in a tradition of resistance, costs not readily apparent in
her own stellar resumé of accomplishments and awards. In this
collection, Young celebrates her personhood as well as her
African-American womanhood and the power of self-creation and
re-creation in the face of personal rejection, abuse, systemic
exploitation, and oppression. Organized chronologically with each
section indicating a significant turning point in her adult life, her
poems may be read as road markers from her life’s journey. For Young,
the road is not a freeway; it is not even always paved. It is, however,
a familiar path and one any of us can enter.
about
the author
Billie Jean Young lives in Pennington, Alabama, her hometown. She was
educated in Choctaw County schools and holds degrees from Selma
University, Judson College, and Samford University’s Cumberland School
of Law. A former Jackson State University Assistant Professor of Speech
and Dramatic Art, she teaches at Mississippi State University Meridian
campus. She also co-founded and directed the Southern Rural Women’s
Network. |
