Books by Kalamu ya
Salaam
The Magic of JuJu: An Appreciation of the Black Arts
Movement /
360:
A Revolution of Black Poets
Everywhere Is Someplace Else: A Literary Anthology
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From A Bend in the River: 100 New Orleans Poets
Our Music Is No Accident /
What Is Life: Reclaiming the Black Blues Self
My Story My Song (CD)
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Our Women Keep our Skies From Falling
Six Essays
in Support of The Struggle To Smash Sexism/Develop Women
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Our Women
Keep Our Skies From Falling
Dedication
This book is dedicated to the man who
made the
biggest difference in my life.
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(on this man's foundation i
build
my political support of feminism)
my father
is a solid steeper
amid a generation
of soft shoers
& scuffling shufflers
was young with
WWII, did not die
nor get discouraged
but rather fought
on both fronts
and unflinchingly brought
the fight back
home, after
korea
a country boy
who walked miles
for school & job
he married the minister's
daughter (who was
a school teacher)
but never went
out to lunch for
class or church,
could sing but usually
kept his baritone
at home
i remember him home
making us work
rising with the sun
and planting food
in the city
i remember him home
waxing floors
on his knees
and requiring his sons
to follow his lead learning
to cook and clean
but mostly
i remember him man
teaching me
consistency: the
importance of principle,
the necessity of
struggle and the
immense beauty
of interrelating
with a good woman
what more could
a son receive
from a father
than the realness
of life lived
like a conscious
African(american)
man!
sho-nuff simply doing
his duty, in his own
context, in his own
space and time.
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Our Women Keep Our
Skies From Falling
our women keep our
skies from falling
our days from dying
our nights from
crying
carrying deep
within themselves
the sacred sun loaves
of African-american
lives
embers which fire
black generations are
securely embedded
betwix
broad baobabian hips
and gleam sparkling
forth
from deep lakes of
blue/black brown
dark ebony eyes
their song is
healing song, and
calling song, and
culture song, and
though no one can
stop the rain
our women keep our
skies from falling |
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Liberty For Our People means Women's
Liberation As Well
Some comrades do their utmost to prevent
women taking charge, even when there are women who have more ability to
lead than they do. Unhappily some of our women comrades have not been able
to maintain the respect and the necessary dignity to protest their
position as persons of authority. They were not able to escape certain
temptations, or at least to shoulder certain responsibilities without
complexes. But the men comrades, some, do not want to understand that
liberty for our people means women's liberation as well, sovereignty for
our people means that women as well as must play a part, and that the
strength of our party is worth more if women join in as well to lead with
the men. Many folks say that Cabral has an obsession about giving women
leadership positions as well. They say" "Let him do it, but we
shall sabotage it afterwards." That comes from folk who have not yet
understood anything. They can sabotage today, sabotage tomorrow, but one
day it will catch up with them. --Amilcar Cabral 1969 I Am for Keeping the Thing Going
There is a great stir about colored men
getting their rights, but not a word about the coloured women; and if
coloured men get their rights, and not coloured women theirs, you see the
coloured men will be masters over the women, and it will be just as bad as
it was before. So I am for keeping the thing going while things are
stirring; because if we wait till it is still, it will take a great while
to get it going again.--Sojourner Truth 1867
copyright July 1980 By Kalamu ya
Salaam Cover Drawing by Douglass Redd
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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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Weep Not, Child
By
Ngugi wa Thiong'o
This is
a powerful, moving story that details the
effects of the infamous Mau Mau war, the
African nationalist revolt against colonial
oppression in Kenya, on the lives of
ordinary men and women, and on one family in
particular. Two brothers, Njoroge and Kamau,
stand on a rubbish heap and look into their
futures. Njoroge is excited; his family has
decided that he will attend school, while
Kamau will train to be a carpenter. Together
they will serve their country—the
teacher and the craftsman. But this is Kenya
and the times are against them. In the
forests, the Mau Mau is waging war against
the white government, and the two brothers
and their family need to decide where their
loyalties lie. For the practical Kamau the
choice is simple, but for Njoroge the
scholar, the dream of progress through
learning is a hard one to give up.—Penguin
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The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family
By Annette
Gordon-Reed
This is a scholar's
book: serious, thick, complex. It's also fascinating, wise
and of the utmost importance. Gordon-Reed, a professor of
both history and law who in her previous book helped solve
some of the mysteries of the intimate relationship between
Thomas Jefferson and his slave Sally Hemings, now brings to
life the entire Hemings family and its tangled blood links
with slave-holding Virginia whites over an entire century.
Gordon-Reed never slips into cynicism about the author of
the Declaration of Independence. Instead, she shows how his
life was deeply affected by his slave kinspeople: his lover
(who was the half-sister of his deceased wife) and their
children. Everyone comes vividly to life, as do the places,
like Paris and Philadelphia, in which Jefferson, his
daughters and some of his black family lived. So, too, do
the complexities and varieties of slaves' lives and the
nature of the choices they had to make—when they had the
luxury of making a choice. Gordon-Reed's genius for reading
nearly silent records makes this an extraordinary work.—Publishers
Weekly |
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