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Books by Mary Weems
Public Education and the
Imagination-Intellect: I Speak from the Wound in My
Mouth /
Tampon Class
An Unmistakable Shade of Red &
The Obama Chronicles
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Argo Starch
for Rudy Lewis
By Mary E. Weems
I ain’t
thought about Argo starch
in
forever, the cracked-chalk looking delicacy
granny
used to turn into crisp white sheets, and grandpa’s
shirts
when mama’d let us visit the heaven
of
their house for a weekend.
Granny
was a clean-neat-freak. Quarters jumped out
of
piggy banks to bounce on the beds she made, with 4-fold
corners, the beds she taught me to make ignoring me when
I said
we’d
just be back in them in 12 hours.
Granny
grew up when women had to heat their irons
on
coal stoves, would tell me stories about corncobs
to
wipe behinds, re-washing her mama’s walls at 3 o’clock
in the
morning—if a dirt spot was discovered during
late
night chore inspections.
She
never knew I knew she ate starch, but there
I’d be
hiding behind the stove, when she took
a
break from pressing clothes—she crunching
her
starch at the table, me chewing mine softly
between repeating to myself over and over
I
love you sweetie pie.
Back
then die was just a word I connected
with
Jesus and the resurrection granny believed
in—My
crying at night after repeating Now I
lay
me down to sleep, I pray the lord my soul
to keep—about how I feared
losing her not my soul.
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Mary E. Weems,
Ph.D. is an accomplished poet, playwright, author,
editor, performer, motivational speaker, and
imagination-intellect theorist. Weems has been widely
published in journals, anthologies, and several books
including
Public Education and the
Imagination-Intellect: I Speak from the Wound in My
Mouth (Lang, 2003), developed from her dissertation
which argues for imagination-intellectual development as
the primary goal of public education. She won the Wick
Chapbook Award for her collection white in 1996, and in
1997 her play Another Way to Dance won the
Chilcote award for The Most Innovative Play by an Ohio
Playwright. Her most recent chapbook
Tampon Class
(Pavement Saw Press, 2005) is in its second printing.
Mary Weems currently teaches in the English and
Education departments at John Carroll University,
and works as a language-artist-scholar in k-12
classrooms, university settings and other venues through
her business Bringing Words to Life.
Contact Professor Weems,
mweems45@sbcglobal.net, for readings and more
information.
Mary Weems is the eldest daughter of
four, the mama of one daughter, Michelle E.
Weems, and the
blessed-to-be-with-him-wife/partner of James
Amie. Proud to have been raised by her mama,
and to be from a poor, working-class
background, Mary started writing poems when
she was thirteen to learn to love herself.
This took a while. Since then, her creative
spirit-eye has turned more and more outward
to include her take on the African-American
experience from a personal and political
perspective as well as the universal
complexities of being a woman and anyone
alive in the world.
Mary E. Weems Table
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Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in
America
By Melissa V.
Harris-Perry
According to the
author, this society has historically exerted
considerable pressure on black females to fit into one
of a handful of stereotypes, primarily, the Mammy, the
Matriarch or the Jezebel. The selfless
Mammy’s behavior is marked by a slavish devotion to
white folks’ domestic concerns, often at the expense of
those of her own family’s needs. By contrast, the
relatively-hedonistic Jezebel is a sexually-insatiable
temptress. And the Matriarch is generally thought of as
an emasculating figure who denigrates black men, ala the
characters Sapphire and Aunt Esther on the television
shows Amos and Andy and Sanford and Son, respectively.
Professor Perry
points out how the propagation of these harmful myths
have served the mainstream culture well. For instance,
the Mammy suggests that it is almost second nature for
black females to feel a maternal instinct towards
Caucasian babies.
As for the source
of the Jezebel, black women had no control over their
own bodies during slavery given that they were being
auctioned off and bred to maximize profits. Nonetheless,
it was in the interest of plantation owners to propagate
the lie that sisters were sluts inclined to mate
indiscriminately.
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Sex at the Margins
Migration, Labour Markets and the Rescue Industry
By Laura María Agustín
This book explodes several myths: that selling sex is completely different from any other kind of work, that migrants who sell sex are passive victims and that the multitude of people out to save them are without self-interest. Laura Agustín makes a passionate case against these stereotypes, arguing that the label 'trafficked' does not accurately describe migrants' lives and that the 'rescue industry' serves to disempower them. Based on extensive research amongst both migrants who sell sex and social helpers, Sex at the Margins provides a radically different analysis. Frequently, says Agustin, migrants make rational choices to travel and work in the sex industry, and although they are treated like a marginalised group they form part of the dynamic global economy. Both powerful and controversial, this book is essential reading for all those who want to understand the increasingly important relationship between sex markets, migration and the desire for social justice. "Sex at the Margins rips apart distinctions between migrants, service work and sexual labour and reveals the utter complexity of the contemporary sex industry. This book is set to be a trailblazer in the study of sexuality."—Lisa Adkins, University of London |
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The White Masters of the
World
From
The World and Africa, 1965
By W. E. B. Du Bois
W. E. B. Du Bois’
Arraignment and Indictment of White Civilization
(Fletcher)
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Ancient African Nations
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The Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan
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The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
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Only a Pawn in Their Game
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Thanks America for
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George Jackson /
Hurricane Carter
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Haitian Declaration of Independence 1804
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January 1, 1804 -- The Founding of
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