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ChickenBones Best Book of 2009
Go, Tell Michelle
African American Women Write to the New First Lady
Edited
Barbara A. Seals Nevergold and Peggy Brooks-Bertram *
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Women Talking to Michele with One
Voice
Vas-y, Parle à Michelle
Par:
Jacqueline Jean-Baptiste
(Go, Tell
Michelle; African American Women Write to the New
First Lady; Compiled and Edited by Barbara A.
Seals Nevergold and Peggy Brooks-Bertram; Excelsior
Editions; State University of New York Press;
Albany, New York)
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Des femmes
américaines, de descendance africaine; quelques-unes
des Caraïbes et directement du continent africain
ont exprimé, à Michelle Obama, à travers des lettres,
poèmes et contes, leur profonde et joyeuse émotion à
l’occasion de l’arrivée à la Maison Blanche, de la
Première Famille de descendance africaine.
C’est une belle
collection littéraire où la passion se mêle à
l’histoire. Ces femmes ont invoqué le long continuum
d’évolution des Noirs-américains, des ancêtres à
aujourd’hui : De l’esclavage à la ségrégation, aux
luttes acharnées pour les droits civils et les
souffrances afférentes, à l’acquisition légale des
droits, aux luttes pour la mise en oeuvre et le
maintien de ces droits, à l’équité et à
l’intégration jusqu’au 4 novembre 2008, journée de
l’élection de Barack Obama à la présidence des
États-Unis d’Amérique.
Très bien écrit;
les auteurs sont : ingénieures, médecins, avocates,
professeures d’université et d’autres institutions
post secondaires, travailleuses sociales,
ethnomusicologues, poètes et conteuses, artistes,
actrices, mères de famille, organisatrices
communautaires, présidente d’université, membres
d’assemblées législatives et j’en passe…
De la
Californie à New York, de la Floride à l’État de
Washington en passant par la Géorgie, l’Utah et
audelà; des Caraïbes, du Kenya, du Niger; toutes ces
femmes ont parlé à Michelle Obama et, elles l’ont
fait à l’unisson.
Elles ont
remercié Michelle, parce que maintenant, elles sont
complètement représentées à la Maison Blanche. Non
pas parce qu’elles n’étaient pas représentées avant,
mais parce que, cette nouvelle représentation n’est
pas une simple représentation de nombre ou de genre.
La représentation par Michelle est aussi une
représentation ontologique. Toutes les dimensions de
leur être sont représentées chez Michelle d’où une
compréhension totale de part et d’autre.
À travers leurs
lettres, les femmes ont honoré leur pays, Les
États-Unis d’Amérique, de cette capacité de
changement qui est la leur. C’est le seul pays au
monde, selon les femmes, capable d’effectuer un
changement si majeur. C’est le plus beau pays au
monde selon ces femmes, parce que porteur de si
grandes promesses. Ce sont après tout, les
Blancs-américains qui ont rendu possible l’élection
de Barack
Obama à la
présidence des États-Unis.
Michelle s’est
fait appeler : Excellence, Première Dame, Soeur,
Tante, Mère. Elle est comparée à une chanson, un
proverbe, un symbole même de dignité humaine.
Remercier Michelle est une façon, pour les femmes,
de reconnaître l’histoire de toutes ces grandes «
reines » (les ancêtres) qui sont passées avant.
Les phrases
sont puissantes par ce qu’elles expriment et
laissent sous-entendre en même temps par ex :
« Thank you for
the beautiful face of Black America you have
presented to the world… What a wonderful picture you
have drawn for the world ».
On le sait trop
bien, l’image des Noirs dans les média a été pour la
plupart, dégradante et horrifiante.
De vocabulaire
soigné, élégant et parfois poétique; c’est un de ces
livres qu’on prend plaisir à lire seul /e ou en
compagnie, dans la cuisine, à haute voix, à notre
mère pendant qu’elle prépare le repas. On peut
commencer n’importe où. On peut lire une lettre ou
un poème à la fois et refermer jusqu’à la prochaine
lecture. Ne pas aimer lire ne peut-être invoqué
comme excuse pour ne pas se le procurer.
La faiblesse de
ce livre est qu’il s’adresse plutôt à des lecteurs
avisés, c’est-à-dire, la génération des personnes
d’un certain âge qui sont conscients de l’histoire
et de la littérature des Noirs ou des
Noirsaméricains.
Pour une
personne de culture autre, pour qui jusque-là,
l’intérêt pour les Noirs était absent; pour les très
jeunes personnes même aux États-Unis, non instruits
de l’histoire des Noirs-américains ou des Noirs, une
bonne lecture de ce document, sans guide, reste
inaccessible.
À travers le
livre, on peut constater comment Michelle Obama est
scrutée à la loupe. Elle est citée mot à mot. Elle
est déjà remerciée pour des promesses qu’elle a
faites avant de devenir la Première Dame. Cette très
grande effusion d’amour inquiète. Michelle est
d’abord et avant tout un être humain, elle commettra
des erreurs; elle ne tiendra peut-être pas toutes
ses promesses. Michelle est aussi la Première Dame
des États-Unis, une population de plus de 300
millions d’habitants, dont les Noirs sont moins de
quinze pour cent. Pourra-t-elle répondre aux
attentes, et espoirs de cette minorité. Cette
passion, survivra-t-elle aux attentes non comblées,
aux espoirs déchus. Est-ce une lune de miel?
Qu’arrivera-t-il après? C’est l’inquiétude provoquée
par la lecture de cette oeuvre littéraire pourtant
si agréable.
Fortement recommandé.
Go, Tell Michelle Blog
Facebook Go, Tell Michelle *
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Women Talking to Michele with One
Voice
Go, Tell Michelle; African
American Women Write to the New First Lady
Compiled and Edited by Barbara A.
Seals Nevergold and Peggy Brooks-Bertram;
Excelsior Editions; State
University of New York Press; Albany, New York.
Book Review by Jacqueline Jean-Baptiste
African
American women as well as others from the Caribbean
and the African continent express their deep and
joyful emotions to Michelle Obama through letters
and poems and stories. They are all elated with the
arrival of the first African American First family
to the White House. This compilation of letters and
poems is a fantastic literary collection where
passion mingles with history and represents a long
continuum of evolution of African Americans from the
ancestors until today. These letters capture events
from slavery to segregation. They describe hard
struggles for civil rights and the suffering that
accompanied the struggle up to the winning of rights
and the struggle for implementation and maintenance
of those rights. They carry the reader to the
struggles for equity, to integration and to November
4, 2008 and the election of Barack Obama as
President of the United States of America.
The letters are
very well written. The authors are lawyers,
physicians, university professors, social workers,
ethno-musicologists, community activists, university
presidents, artists, mothers politicians and many
more. They represent every region of the United
States from California to New York, from Buffalo,
New York to Florida and beyond. Letters came from
the Caribbean, and the African Continent. On the
African continent, they wrote from Kenya, Cameroon,
Liberia and Niger and all these women talked to
Michelle Obama with one voice.
They thanked
Michelle because they feel they are completely
represented in the White House. Unlike before, they
are now ontologically represented. All dimensions
of their being are represented in Michelle.
Consequently, it is a total understanding that
stretches from her to them. Through their letters
the women honored the United States for this ability
to effect such a momentous change. It is the only
country in the world, according to these writers
that is capable of such a major change. It’s the
most wonderful country in the world because it has
so many promises to fulfill and Michelle Obama as
First Lady is one of those promises. These writers
saw this change as an achievement brought about by
all of the people because a broad and diverse group
of Americans worked together to make such a change
possible.
The writers
addressed the First Lady with numerous titles. They
called her Michelle, Your Excellency, First Lady,
Sister, Auntie and Mother. They made numerous
comparisons describing the First Lady as a song or a
proverb and saw her as symbolizing human dignity.
“Thanks Michelle” was a way for these women to
recognize all those great “queens” who came before.
Their sentences are powerful not only by what they
express but by what they did not expressly say. For
example, “thank you for the beautiful face of Black
America you have presented to the world . . .what a
wonderful picture you have drawn for the world.” We
know too well how images of Blacks in the media are
for the most part degrading and horrifying.
They wrote in
many voices with a refined vocabulary which was
elegant and sometimes poetic. It is the kind of
book one has the pleasure to read alone or in
company in the kitchen, out loud to a mother while
she prepared dinner. One can start anywhere, read
one letter and close it until the next reading.
Even if one does not like to read this would not be
an excuse for not having this book.
If I had any
concerns for this lovely book, it would be that the
book might benefit from a reading guide so that
those not quite aware of African and African
American history might be better informed to savor
the full depth of the writings. Further, these
writers wish for so much from Michelle and they seem
to observe the First Lady through many lens. They
already thank her for things she promised to do
before becoming First Lady. This large expression
of love is not without its dangers. Like each of
us, Michelle Obama is a human being subject to
making mistakes. She may not be able to hold all
her promises. Because she is the First Lady for all
the people one hopes that the passion expressed in
these letters will survive expectation if those
expectations are not met. One wonders. These are
my concerns for this extraordinary book and I highly
recommend it.
Go, Tell Michelle Blog
Facebook Go, Tell Michelle
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Read This Book
By
Enoch Root
Go, Tell Michelle—African American Women
Write to the New First Lady
Compiled and Edited by Barbara A. Seals
Nevergold and Peggy Brooks-Bertram
© State
University of New York Press, Albany
On November 11, 2008, one
week after the election of
Barack Obama to the presidency of the United States of
America, two women, Barbara A. Seals Nevergold and Peggy
Brooks-Bertram, sent out a call to their black sisters. The call
was for letters to the new
First Lady,
Michelle Obama, with the idea of presenting them in book
form. Hundreds of responses poured in through November and
December of 2008. The result was this volume of about one
hundred letters from women the world over, from all walks of
life and across the economic spectrum, from students, academics,
mothers and senior citizens.
The overwhelming spirit of
all the letters is one of joy, celebration and shared pride in
the achievement of one of their own, in having an
African American woman as First Lady of The United States of
America. Many of the messages are poems. All are clearly written
from the heart. They speak of the
institutional memory of the time when their ancestors were
brought to America, captured, in chains and forced to work to
feed and care for the people who enslaved them. They howl at the
torment their ancestors felt as their children were sold away
from them. And yet the idea emerges that all of that was in
preparation for this day, when one who shares these memories,
who has faced the daily indignities imposed on their people,
could be elected to lead us all.
Read this book! If you are
a white male who thinks he has an intellectual understanding of
how African Americans feel, both about their past and their hope
for their future, read it to begin to understand this in your
gut.
Read this book! If you
think your country has made a vast mistake with this change in
political and cultural direction, read it to at least feel part
of the hope this event has brought to an important segment of
the population, and of how their past has affected you, even if
you don't realize it.
Read this book! If you are
an African American woman, read it to share in the joy and
celebration of your sisters.
Read this book! It can not
help but to bring joy and hope to any heart by sharing the joys
and hopes expressed in these letters.
Barbara A. Seals Nevergold and
Peggy Brooks-Bertram are co-founders of The Uncrowned Queens
Institute for Research and Education on Women, Inc. at
University at Buffalo, State University of New York. More
information is available at
Uncrowned Queens.
Source:
http://everything2.com/node/1978315
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The Persistence of the Color Line
Racial Politics and the Obama Presidency
By Randall Kennedy
Among the best things about
The Persistence of the Color Line
is watching Mr. Kennedy hash through the
positions about Mr. Obama staked out by
black commentators on the left and
right, from Stanley Crouch and Cornel
West to Juan Williams and Tavis Smiley.
He can be pointed. Noting the way Mr.
Smiley consistently “voiced skepticism
regarding whether blacks should back
Obama” . . .
The
finest chapter in
The Persistence of the Color Line
is so resonant, and so personal, it
could nearly be the basis for a book of
its own. That chapter is titled
“Reverend Wright and My Father:
Reflections on Blacks and Patriotism.”
Recalling some of the criticisms of
America’s past made by Mr. Obama’s
former pastor, Mr. Kennedy writes with
feeling about his own father, who put
each of his three of his children
through Princeton but who “never forgave
American society for its racist
mistreatment of him and those whom he
most loved.” His father distrusted
the police, who had frequently called
him “boy,” and rejected patriotism. Mr.
Kennedy’s father “relished Muhammad
Ali’s quip that the Vietcong had never
called him ‘nigger.’ ” The author places
his father, and Mr. Wright, in
sympathetic historical light. |
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The Last Holiday: A Memoir
By Gil Scott Heron
Shortly after we republished The Vulture and The Nigger Factory, Gil started to tell me about The Last Holiday, an account he was writing of a multi-city tour that he ended up doing with Stevie Wonder in late 1980 and early 1981. Originally Bob Marley was meant to be playing the tour that Stevie Wonder had conceived as a way of trying to force legislation to make Martin Luther King's birthday a national holiday. At the time, Marley was dying of cancer, so Gil was asked to do the first six dates. He ended up doing all 41. And Dr King's birthday ended up becoming a national holiday ("The Last Holiday because America can't afford to have another national holiday"), but Gil always felt that Stevie never got the recognition he deserved and that his story needed to be told. The first chapters of this book were given to me in New York when Gil was living in the Chelsea Hotel. Among the pages was a chapter called Deadline that recounts the night they played Oakland, California, 8 December; it was also the night that John Lennon was murdered. Gil uses Lennon's violent end as a brilliant parallel to Dr King's assassination and as a biting commentary on the constraints that sometimes lead to newspapers getting things wrong. —Jamie Byng, Guardian / Gil_reads_"Deadline" (audio) / Gil Scott-Heron
& His Music Gil Scott
Heron Blue Collar
Remember Gil Scott- Heron |
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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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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
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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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