English 381.01: Black Bodies of Displacement, Desire & Discontent, a class where disruption, discourse & discussion occur in examination of Black women's writing

I gotta admit it. I was so excited ( and nervous) when I was asked to teach course on Black women's books and short stories. I wasn't nervous because I hadn't taught this type of course before. I was nervous because there are so many amazing books and short stories by Black women that I feared I wouldn't be able to make a decision on the course materials or theme. I mean, who doesn't love Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Toni Cade Bambara, Zora Neale Hurston, Jesmyn Ward, and Deesha Philyaw??? I am a cultural anthropologist--a social scientist--whose first love was the humanities. So getting lost in a great book is my thing, especially if it is about Black women.

I was excited--I still am--because this course allows the space for my students and I to examine Black women's lived experiences and creative expression through an intersectional lens. We use intersectionality to investigate how the displacement of African women during the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade continues to impact Black women's lives today, as well as how oppression and subjugation had led to spiritual, mental, sexual, economic, intellectial, and civil discontent in a country that has historically tried to marginalize us. Nevertheless, such forces remain unable to sqelch our desires for collective liberation and indiviual self-determination. We are the dreams that will not die!

This course is about love, survival, family, religion, self-exploration, dysfunctional relationships and relatives; it's about trauma and healing, life and death, healing and death.

My students have the space to be their authentic selves in their experiences with the assigned readings. They get to share whatever the material brings up for them, but also situate their analysis within the literary tropes and themes we have explored: slavery, loss of innocence, irony, satire, mothering, folklore and religion, gender and sexuality, and family.

This blog site is a place for student expression and celebration. I hope you enjoy my students' works as much as I have enjoyed teaching them this semester.