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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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Responses to Rudy's Essay
Feminism, Black Erotica, & Revolutionary Love
'Womanness' in the Writings of Kalamu ya Salaam
(1968-2002)
rudy,
you know, i make it a practice not to respond to literary
criticism because i want to encourage a wide variety of responses
rather than debate why i believe i am right. i deeply appreciate
that you decided to review my work in the context that you did.
in and of itself, your overview of my work is a validation of
the work as far as i am concerned.
today, i would not argue that sexism, as we know it, is solely a
product of the western worldview. although i would argue that
the western worldview is the dominate and dominating view, as
well as the western worldview is intrinsically sexist.
i also appreciate how you contextualized my support of
anti-sexist struggles as a career long quality of my work rather
than a conclusion i recently articulated.
one note of correction, although you have the correct
publication dates--"where do dreams come from" is in
two parts. the second part is "joyce's dream." the first part is
"rabbit's narration." also, that story was actually written based
on characters from a novel i wrote back in 1965. the novel is
long since lost and unpublished. of the stories you reviewed, i
think dreams is the oldest story.
finally, i would stress that there are other stories, poems and
essays with women at the center but that do not have erotic
elements per se. i think if the body of my work is examined,
then anti-sexism and spotlighting black women would be of the
two salient characteristics of my work. the other would be the
privileging of black music as both trope and metaphor, as well
as black music as a structural basis for the writing as text and
vehicle for the presentation of the writing in performance.
thanks again for the work you did.
kalamu
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Hi Rudolph,
I love it! I had written Mr. Salaam a long letter of
praise a few days ago, but he never wrote me back. I think
maybe he was embarrassed by the flattery...or maybe he's of that
school that think I'm a man-hater. I pray not. He's
one of my heroes.
But anyway, I truly love your work, Rudolph. It's so
hopeful when I read this kind of insight and beauty coming from
Black men.
There is hope for us after all. Kola * * * *
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Rudy:
I love that you're speaking up about a subject that usually
men in general do not address. You did a great job. I'm sure the
audience will love it. I often tell people that it is the
Western mode of sexuality and love that is riddled with perverse
sexism. A perversion under international White power that has
spread. Before Africa was ravaged, African women walked around
topless without having to worry about their lack of
body-consciousness being misinterpreted as promiscuity.
The real savages were the foreigners who came with unsettling
gazes.
Africa was proof that the Garden of Eden once existed. A
place where people were not ashamed of the body. Metaphorically
speaking Africa was the Garden of Eden before the White serpent
shamed our original mother and father into the savage/sadistic
form of humanity we see today. Today, we have people
fighting for sexual freedom. Sexual freedom is based on the
freedom to do what we please with our bodies. Yet, it is another
form of racial arrogance to believe that we can have healthy
sexuality when we have all been physically and emotionally raped
by racism.
With more and more people publicly addressing the return to our
roots, we will realize that Africans were feminists before the
entire world had a term for it. African women were heads of
their respective communities, loved by men and women. In
America, Black women did what was considered men's work in the
plantations while trying to keep their unrecognized/invisible
families together. You are right, it is when Black men tried
emulating Western forms of patriarchy/dominance that they became
torn apart. Unlike White men, Black men were not intimidated by
equality.
At any rate, if I'm rambling on like this, I know you're going
to have a very lively reaction to your views. Good Luck!
Also, I feel honored that you even considered my
opinion-Thank you.
Carol Chehade
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Rudy, Peace and blessings,
I came home and after getting settled was going to e-mail you
to encourage you. I was happy and surprised to learn that you
completed the essay. I read the entire essay. Outstanding job! I
mean it. I remain so proud of you. I learned a great deal from
reading the essay. I have to read more of Kalamu's work. Those
short stories seem quite interesting. You are so good at
sticking to a topic. You have done a great job of sharing
Kalamu's views and thoughts by sharing his writing. We have to
have a conversation one day about how much of this you agree
with. (smile) One thing on page 4 in the sentence that starts,
Sylvia believes......., should it be want from men or women?
Again, Rudy I am proud of the work you have done.Yvonne
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* Rudy:
This
looks fine. I think the analysis is sound and the excerpts are
compelling. If i were you, the only thing I would do is
elaborate on the four rape categories before citing examples in
the works.
Good
luck with the presentation.
JB
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The New Jim Crow
Mass Incarceration in the Age of
Colorblindness
By Michele Alexander
Contrary to the
rosy picture of race embodied in Barack
Obama's political success and Oprah
Winfrey's financial success, legal
scholar Alexander argues vigorously and
persuasively that [w]e have not ended
racial caste in America; we have merely
redesigned it. Jim Crow and legal racial
segregation has been replaced by mass
incarceration as a system of social
control (More African Americans are
under correctional control today... than
were enslaved in 1850). Alexander
reviews American racial history from the
colonies to the Clinton administration,
delineating its transformation into the
war on drugs. She offers an acute
analysis of the effect of this mass
incarceration upon former inmates who
will be discriminated against, legally,
for the rest of their lives, denied
employment, housing, education, and
public benefits. Most provocatively, she
reveals how both the move toward
colorblindness and affirmative action
may blur our vision of injustice: most
Americans know and don't know the truth
about mass incarceration—but her
carefully researched, deeply engaging,
and thoroughly readable book should
change that.—Publishers
Weekly |
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Blacks in Hispanic Literature: Critical Essays
Edited by
Miriam DeCosta-Willis
Blacks in Hispanic Literature is a
collection of fourteen essays by scholars and
creative writers from Africa and the Americas.
Called one of two significant critical works on
Afro-Hispanic literature to appear in the late
1970s, it includes the pioneering studies of
Carter G. Woodson and
Valaurez B. Spratlin, published in the 1930s, as
well as the essays of scholars whose interpretations
were shaped by the Black aesthetic. The early
essays, primarily of the Black-as-subject in Spanish
medieval and Golden Age literature, provide an
historical context for understanding 20th-century
creative works by African-descended, Hispanophone
writers, such as Cuban
Nicolás Guillén and Ecuadorean poet, novelist,
and scholar
Adalberto Ortiz, whose essay analyzes the
significance of Negritude in Latin America. This
collaborative text set the tone for later
conferences in which writers and scholars worked
together to promote, disseminate, and critique the
literature of Spanish-speaking people of African
descent. . . .
Cited by a
literary critic in 2004 as "the seminal study in the
field of Afro-Hispanic Literature . . . on which
most scholars in the field 'cut their teeth'."
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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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If you like this page consider making a donation
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Negro Digest /
Black World
Browse all issues
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Enjoy!
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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
Slavery /
George Jackson /
Hurricane Carter
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The Journal of Negro History issues at Project Gutenberg
The
Haitian Declaration of Independence 1804
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January 1, 1804 -- The Founding of
Haiti
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update 4
December 2011
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