Author: Ashley E. Remer
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1538120909
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 289
Book Description
Who are the girls that helped build America? Conventional history books shed little light on the influence and impact of girls’ contributions to society and culture. This oversight is challenged by Girl Museum and their team, who give voices to the most neglected, yet profoundly impactful, historical narratives of American history: young girls. Exploring American Girls’ History through 50 Historic Treasures showcases girls and their experiences through the lens of place and material culture. Discover how the objects and sites that girls left behind tell stories about America that you have never heard before. Readers will journey from the first peoples who called the continent home, to 21st century struggles for civil rights, becoming immersed in stories that show how the local impacts the global and vice versa, as told by the girls who built America. Their stories, dreams, struggles, and triumphs are the centerpiece of the nation’s story as never before, helping to define both the struggle and meaning of being “American.” This full-color book is a must-read for those who yearn for more balanced representation in historic narratives, as well as an inspiration to young people, showing them that everyone makes history. It includes color photographs of all the treasured objects explored.
Exploring American Girlhood through 50 Historic Treasures
Author: Ashley E. Remer
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1538120909
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 289
Book Description
Who are the girls that helped build America? Conventional history books shed little light on the influence and impact of girls’ contributions to society and culture. This oversight is challenged by Girl Museum and their team, who give voices to the most neglected, yet profoundly impactful, historical narratives of American history: young girls. Exploring American Girls’ History through 50 Historic Treasures showcases girls and their experiences through the lens of place and material culture. Discover how the objects and sites that girls left behind tell stories about America that you have never heard before. Readers will journey from the first peoples who called the continent home, to 21st century struggles for civil rights, becoming immersed in stories that show how the local impacts the global and vice versa, as told by the girls who built America. Their stories, dreams, struggles, and triumphs are the centerpiece of the nation’s story as never before, helping to define both the struggle and meaning of being “American.” This full-color book is a must-read for those who yearn for more balanced representation in historic narratives, as well as an inspiration to young people, showing them that everyone makes history. It includes color photographs of all the treasured objects explored.
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1538120909
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 289
Book Description
Who are the girls that helped build America? Conventional history books shed little light on the influence and impact of girls’ contributions to society and culture. This oversight is challenged by Girl Museum and their team, who give voices to the most neglected, yet profoundly impactful, historical narratives of American history: young girls. Exploring American Girls’ History through 50 Historic Treasures showcases girls and their experiences through the lens of place and material culture. Discover how the objects and sites that girls left behind tell stories about America that you have never heard before. Readers will journey from the first peoples who called the continent home, to 21st century struggles for civil rights, becoming immersed in stories that show how the local impacts the global and vice versa, as told by the girls who built America. Their stories, dreams, struggles, and triumphs are the centerpiece of the nation’s story as never before, helping to define both the struggle and meaning of being “American.” This full-color book is a must-read for those who yearn for more balanced representation in historic narratives, as well as an inspiration to young people, showing them that everyone makes history. It includes color photographs of all the treasured objects explored.
A Girl Can Do: Recognizing and Representing Girlhood
Author: Tiffany R. Isselhardt
Publisher: Vernon Press
ISBN: 1648894283
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 272
Book Description
How do scholars research and interpret marginalized populations, especially those that are seldom recognized as marginalized or whose sources are believed to be rare? Combining intersectional feminism and public history methodologies, ‘A Girl Can Do: Recognizing and Representing Girlhood’ reflects on how girlhood is found, researched, and interpreted in museums, archives, and historic sites. Defining “girl” as “self-identifying females under the age of 21,” ‘A Girl Can Do’ lays the groundwork for understanding girlhood, its constructs, and its marginalization while providing faculty, students, and working professionals with ten case studies on researching and working with girlhood. Contributors include archaeologists, archivists, curators, educators, and historians who demonstrate how adding a girl studies lens fosters greater inclusivity and diversity in our work. Whether studying spatial techniques of marginalization in colonial Peru, the daybooks as records of girlhood in late-nineteenth century Sweden, or collaborating with self-identifying fangirls to produce a pop-up exhibition, the contributors demonstrate the variety of sources and methods that can be used to interpret this oft-overlooked population. Throughout, ‘A Girl Can Do’ petitions for collaborative and creative thinking in how we can reframe and reinterpret our sources – both traditional and overlooked – to shed new light on how girls have contributed to, and provide frames of reference for, human history and culture.
Publisher: Vernon Press
ISBN: 1648894283
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 272
Book Description
How do scholars research and interpret marginalized populations, especially those that are seldom recognized as marginalized or whose sources are believed to be rare? Combining intersectional feminism and public history methodologies, ‘A Girl Can Do: Recognizing and Representing Girlhood’ reflects on how girlhood is found, researched, and interpreted in museums, archives, and historic sites. Defining “girl” as “self-identifying females under the age of 21,” ‘A Girl Can Do’ lays the groundwork for understanding girlhood, its constructs, and its marginalization while providing faculty, students, and working professionals with ten case studies on researching and working with girlhood. Contributors include archaeologists, archivists, curators, educators, and historians who demonstrate how adding a girl studies lens fosters greater inclusivity and diversity in our work. Whether studying spatial techniques of marginalization in colonial Peru, the daybooks as records of girlhood in late-nineteenth century Sweden, or collaborating with self-identifying fangirls to produce a pop-up exhibition, the contributors demonstrate the variety of sources and methods that can be used to interpret this oft-overlooked population. Throughout, ‘A Girl Can Do’ petitions for collaborative and creative thinking in how we can reframe and reinterpret our sources – both traditional and overlooked – to shed new light on how girls have contributed to, and provide frames of reference for, human history and culture.
Exploring the History of Childhood and Play through 50 Historic Treasures
Author: Susan A. Fletcher
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1538118750
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 327
Book Description
A full-color trip through the treasures of American Childhood from 1650 to today. Remember the toys you played with when you were growing up? Each of those objects has a story to tell about the history of American childhood and play. Construction toys like Lincoln Logs and Erector Set offer insight into America’s booming urban infrastructure in the early 1910s and 20s, and the important role toys played in preparing children for future careers in engineering and architecture. A stuffed toy monkey from Germany tells the story of young Jewish refugees to the United States during World War II. The board game Candyland has its origins in the dreaded polio epidemic of 1950s. Exploring Childhood and Play Through 50 Historic Treasures brings together a collection of beloved toys and games from the last two centuries to guide readers on a journey through the history of American childhood and play, 1840-2000. Through color photographs and short essays on each object, this book examines childhood against the backdrop of culture, politics, religion, technology, gender, parenting philosophies, and more. The book features ten categories of objects including board and electronic games, dolls, action figures, art toys, optical toys, animal toys, construction sets, and sports. Each essay tells the story of the individual object its historic context, and each passage builds upon one another to create a fascinating survey of how childhood and play changed over the course of two centuries.
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1538118750
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 327
Book Description
A full-color trip through the treasures of American Childhood from 1650 to today. Remember the toys you played with when you were growing up? Each of those objects has a story to tell about the history of American childhood and play. Construction toys like Lincoln Logs and Erector Set offer insight into America’s booming urban infrastructure in the early 1910s and 20s, and the important role toys played in preparing children for future careers in engineering and architecture. A stuffed toy monkey from Germany tells the story of young Jewish refugees to the United States during World War II. The board game Candyland has its origins in the dreaded polio epidemic of 1950s. Exploring Childhood and Play Through 50 Historic Treasures brings together a collection of beloved toys and games from the last two centuries to guide readers on a journey through the history of American childhood and play, 1840-2000. Through color photographs and short essays on each object, this book examines childhood against the backdrop of culture, politics, religion, technology, gender, parenting philosophies, and more. The book features ten categories of objects including board and electronic games, dolls, action figures, art toys, optical toys, animal toys, construction sets, and sports. Each essay tells the story of the individual object its historic context, and each passage builds upon one another to create a fascinating survey of how childhood and play changed over the course of two centuries.
Wild Girls: How the Outdoors Shaped the Women Who Challenged a Nation
Author: Tiya Miles
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 1324020881
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 146
Book Description
A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice A Publishers Weekly and New York Public Library Best Book of the Year Named a Most Anticipated Book of the Year by The Millions and Literary Hub “Thoroughly absorbing.… A beautiful synthesis of diverse women’s experiences, combining history with memoir and a call to action.” —Jill Watts, New York Times Book Review An award-winning historian shows how girls who found self-understanding in the natural world became women who changed America. Harriet Tubman, forced to labor outdoors on a Maryland plantation, learned from the land a terrain for escape. Louisa May Alcott ran wild, eluding gendered expectations in New England. The Indigenous women’s basketball team from Fort Shaw, Montana, recaptured a sense of pride in physical prowess as they trounced the white teams of the 1904 World’s Fair. Celebrating women like these who acted on their confidence outdoors, Wild Girls brings new context to misunderstood icons like Sacagawea and Pocahontas, and to underappreciated figures like Native American activist writer Zitkála-Šá, also known as Gertrude Bonnin, farmworkers’ champion Dolores Huerta, and labor and Civil Rights organizer Grace Lee Boggs. This beautiful, meditative work of history puts girls of all races—and the landscapes they loved—at center stage and reveals the impact of the outdoors on women’s independence, resourcefulness, and vision. For these trailblazing women of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, navigating the woods, following the stars, playing sports, and taking to the streets in peaceful protest were not only joyful pursuits, but also techniques to resist assimilation, racism, and sexism. Lyrically written and full of archival discoveries, Wild Girls evokes landscapes as richly as the girls who roamed in them—and argues for equal access to outdoor spaces for young women of every race and class today.
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 1324020881
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 146
Book Description
A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice A Publishers Weekly and New York Public Library Best Book of the Year Named a Most Anticipated Book of the Year by The Millions and Literary Hub “Thoroughly absorbing.… A beautiful synthesis of diverse women’s experiences, combining history with memoir and a call to action.” —Jill Watts, New York Times Book Review An award-winning historian shows how girls who found self-understanding in the natural world became women who changed America. Harriet Tubman, forced to labor outdoors on a Maryland plantation, learned from the land a terrain for escape. Louisa May Alcott ran wild, eluding gendered expectations in New England. The Indigenous women’s basketball team from Fort Shaw, Montana, recaptured a sense of pride in physical prowess as they trounced the white teams of the 1904 World’s Fair. Celebrating women like these who acted on their confidence outdoors, Wild Girls brings new context to misunderstood icons like Sacagawea and Pocahontas, and to underappreciated figures like Native American activist writer Zitkála-Šá, also known as Gertrude Bonnin, farmworkers’ champion Dolores Huerta, and labor and Civil Rights organizer Grace Lee Boggs. This beautiful, meditative work of history puts girls of all races—and the landscapes they loved—at center stage and reveals the impact of the outdoors on women’s independence, resourcefulness, and vision. For these trailblazing women of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, navigating the woods, following the stars, playing sports, and taking to the streets in peaceful protest were not only joyful pursuits, but also techniques to resist assimilation, racism, and sexism. Lyrically written and full of archival discoveries, Wild Girls evokes landscapes as richly as the girls who roamed in them—and argues for equal access to outdoor spaces for young women of every race and class today.
Why Old Places Matter
Author: Thompson M. Mayes
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 153811769X
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 169
Book Description
Why Old Places Matter is the only book that explores the reasons that old places matter to people. Although people often feel very deeply about the old places of their lives, they don’t have the words to express why. This book brings these ideas together in evocative language and with illustrative images for a broad audience. The book reveals the fundamentally important yet under-recognized role old places play in our lives. While many people feel a deep-seated connection to old places -- from those who love old houses, to the millions of tourists who are drawn to historic cities, to the pilgrims who flock to ancient sites throughout the world -- few can articulate why. The book explores these deep attachments people have with old places –the feelings of belonging, continuity, stability, identity and memory, as well as the more traditional reasons that old places have been deemed by society to be important, such as history, national identity, and architecture. This book will be appealing to anyone who has ever loved an old place. But more importantly, it will be an useful resource to articulate why old places are meaningful to people and their communities. This book will help people understand that the feeling many have for old places is supported by a wide variety of fields, and that the continued existence of these old places is good. It will give people the words and phrases to understand and express why old places matter.
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 153811769X
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 169
Book Description
Why Old Places Matter is the only book that explores the reasons that old places matter to people. Although people often feel very deeply about the old places of their lives, they don’t have the words to express why. This book brings these ideas together in evocative language and with illustrative images for a broad audience. The book reveals the fundamentally important yet under-recognized role old places play in our lives. While many people feel a deep-seated connection to old places -- from those who love old houses, to the millions of tourists who are drawn to historic cities, to the pilgrims who flock to ancient sites throughout the world -- few can articulate why. The book explores these deep attachments people have with old places –the feelings of belonging, continuity, stability, identity and memory, as well as the more traditional reasons that old places have been deemed by society to be important, such as history, national identity, and architecture. This book will be appealing to anyone who has ever loved an old place. But more importantly, it will be an useful resource to articulate why old places are meaningful to people and their communities. This book will help people understand that the feeling many have for old places is supported by a wide variety of fields, and that the continued existence of these old places is good. It will give people the words and phrases to understand and express why old places matter.
Misfit Children
Author: Markus Bohlmann
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 1498525806
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 291
Book Description
Misfits are often confused with outcasts. Yet misfits rather find themselves in-between that which fits and that which does not. This volume is interested in this slipperiness of misfits and explores the blockages and the promises of such movements, as well as the processes and conditions that produce misfits, the means that enable them to undo their denomination as misfits, and the practices that turn those who fit into misfits, and vice versa. This collection of essays on misfit children produces transmissible motions across and engages in scholarly conversations that unfold betwixt and between in order to make rigid concepts twist and twirl, and ultimately fail to fit.
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 1498525806
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 291
Book Description
Misfits are often confused with outcasts. Yet misfits rather find themselves in-between that which fits and that which does not. This volume is interested in this slipperiness of misfits and explores the blockages and the promises of such movements, as well as the processes and conditions that produce misfits, the means that enable them to undo their denomination as misfits, and the practices that turn those who fit into misfits, and vice versa. This collection of essays on misfit children produces transmissible motions across and engages in scholarly conversations that unfold betwixt and between in order to make rigid concepts twist and twirl, and ultimately fail to fit.
Museum Mercenary
Author: Rebecca Migdal
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1538118610
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 387
Book Description
Do you love museums? Do you believe in their wonder and power? Do you want to contribute to a wider museum community? Do you want to build a satisfying independent career? Museum Mercenary is for you. This book is for anyone who believes in museum work but struggles to find satisfaction in traditional museum jobs. It is for those who want to be challenged and inspired by a wider network of colleagues. It is for the creative, committed, and curious who want to live fulfilling lives while building meaningful careers. It is for those just hitting the job market, for those looking for a mid-career shift, or those wanting to contribute after retirement. It is for those who hope to balance making money with making a difference. Museum Mercenary shares how a dedicated museum worker can launch and sustain a successful and satisfying career as an independent museum professional. This book is a toolkit for anyone looking to build a career consulting for museums. It provides practical advice about establishing your business, building your network, and managing projects to ensure long-term success and satisfaction. This book will help you answer key questions, such as: How do you market your services and find clients? Which skills should you develop and how? How do you manage taxes and insurance? What professional standards should you follow? How do you plan for the future? And, most importantly, how do you do all of that while doing museum work that makes you proud? Museum Mercenary bridges the gap between guides for doing great museum work and guides for building a successful freelance career. It prepares you to become freelance professional engaged in transforming the museum field. Use the tips, tactics, and activities in this book to navigate freelancing and then get back to the business of meaningful museum work.
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1538118610
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 387
Book Description
Do you love museums? Do you believe in their wonder and power? Do you want to contribute to a wider museum community? Do you want to build a satisfying independent career? Museum Mercenary is for you. This book is for anyone who believes in museum work but struggles to find satisfaction in traditional museum jobs. It is for those who want to be challenged and inspired by a wider network of colleagues. It is for the creative, committed, and curious who want to live fulfilling lives while building meaningful careers. It is for those just hitting the job market, for those looking for a mid-career shift, or those wanting to contribute after retirement. It is for those who hope to balance making money with making a difference. Museum Mercenary shares how a dedicated museum worker can launch and sustain a successful and satisfying career as an independent museum professional. This book is a toolkit for anyone looking to build a career consulting for museums. It provides practical advice about establishing your business, building your network, and managing projects to ensure long-term success and satisfaction. This book will help you answer key questions, such as: How do you market your services and find clients? Which skills should you develop and how? How do you manage taxes and insurance? What professional standards should you follow? How do you plan for the future? And, most importantly, how do you do all of that while doing museum work that makes you proud? Museum Mercenary bridges the gap between guides for doing great museum work and guides for building a successful freelance career. It prepares you to become freelance professional engaged in transforming the museum field. Use the tips, tactics, and activities in this book to navigate freelancing and then get back to the business of meaningful museum work.
Collecting and Provenance
Author: Jane Milosch
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 153812758X
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 451
Book Description
The study of provenance—the history of the creation and ownership of an artefact, work of art, or specimen—provides insights into the history of taste and collecting, illuminating the social, economic, and historic trends in which an object was created and collected. It is as much a history of people as it is of objects, and its study often reveals intricate networks of relationships, patterns of activity and motivations. This book promotes the study of the history of collecting and collections in all their variety through the lens of provenance, and explores the subject as a cross-disciplinary activity. Perhaps for the first time in a publication, it draws on expertise ranging from art history and anthropology, to natural history and law, looking at periods from antiquity through the 18th century and the Holocaust era to the present, and materials from Europe and the Americas to China and the Pacific. The issues raised are wide-ranging, touching on aspects of authenticity, cultural meaning and material transformation and economic and commercial drivers, as well as collector and object biography. The book fills a gap in the study of collecting and provenance, taking the subject holistically and from multiple standpoints, better to reflect the widening interest in provenance from a range of disciplinary perspectives. This book will be a service to the field, from established scholars and museum professionals to students of collecting history, cultural heritage, and museum studies.
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 153812758X
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 451
Book Description
The study of provenance—the history of the creation and ownership of an artefact, work of art, or specimen—provides insights into the history of taste and collecting, illuminating the social, economic, and historic trends in which an object was created and collected. It is as much a history of people as it is of objects, and its study often reveals intricate networks of relationships, patterns of activity and motivations. This book promotes the study of the history of collecting and collections in all their variety through the lens of provenance, and explores the subject as a cross-disciplinary activity. Perhaps for the first time in a publication, it draws on expertise ranging from art history and anthropology, to natural history and law, looking at periods from antiquity through the 18th century and the Holocaust era to the present, and materials from Europe and the Americas to China and the Pacific. The issues raised are wide-ranging, touching on aspects of authenticity, cultural meaning and material transformation and economic and commercial drivers, as well as collector and object biography. The book fills a gap in the study of collecting and provenance, taking the subject holistically and from multiple standpoints, better to reflect the widening interest in provenance from a range of disciplinary perspectives. This book will be a service to the field, from established scholars and museum professionals to students of collecting history, cultural heritage, and museum studies.
Creating Meaningful Museum Experiences for K–12 Audiences
Author: Tara Young
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1538146800
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 327
Book Description
Creating Meaningful Museum Experiencesfor K–12 Audiences: How to Connect with Teachers and Engage Students is the first book in more than a decade to provide a comprehensive look at best practices in working with this crucial segment of museum visitors. With more than 40 contributors from art, history, science, natural history, and specialty museums across the country, the book asks probing questions about museum-school relationships, suggests new paradigms, and offers creative approaches. Fully up-to-date with current issues relevant to museums’ work with schools, including anti-racist teaching approaches and pivoting to virtual programming during the pandemic, this book is essential for both established and emerging museum educators to ensure they are current on best practices in the field. The book features four parts: Setting the Stage looks at the how museums establish and finance K-12 programs, and how to engage with the youngest audiences. Building Blocks considers the core elements of successful K-12 programming, including mission alignment, educator recruitment and training, working with teacher advisory boards, and anti-racist teaching practices. Questions and New Paradigms presents case studies in which practitioners reconsider established approaches to museums’ work with schools and engage in iterative processes to update and improve them—from evaluating K–12 museum programs to diversifying program content, to prioritizing virtual programming. Solutions and Innovative Models offers examples of programs that have been reimagined for the current landscape of museum-school collaborations, including practicing self-care for teachers and museum educators, investing in extended school relationships over one-time visits, and highlighting the stories of enslaved people who lived at historic sites.
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1538146800
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 327
Book Description
Creating Meaningful Museum Experiencesfor K–12 Audiences: How to Connect with Teachers and Engage Students is the first book in more than a decade to provide a comprehensive look at best practices in working with this crucial segment of museum visitors. With more than 40 contributors from art, history, science, natural history, and specialty museums across the country, the book asks probing questions about museum-school relationships, suggests new paradigms, and offers creative approaches. Fully up-to-date with current issues relevant to museums’ work with schools, including anti-racist teaching approaches and pivoting to virtual programming during the pandemic, this book is essential for both established and emerging museum educators to ensure they are current on best practices in the field. The book features four parts: Setting the Stage looks at the how museums establish and finance K-12 programs, and how to engage with the youngest audiences. Building Blocks considers the core elements of successful K-12 programming, including mission alignment, educator recruitment and training, working with teacher advisory boards, and anti-racist teaching practices. Questions and New Paradigms presents case studies in which practitioners reconsider established approaches to museums’ work with schools and engage in iterative processes to update and improve them—from evaluating K–12 museum programs to diversifying program content, to prioritizing virtual programming. Solutions and Innovative Models offers examples of programs that have been reimagined for the current landscape of museum-school collaborations, including practicing self-care for teachers and museum educators, investing in extended school relationships over one-time visits, and highlighting the stories of enslaved people who lived at historic sites.
Breath Better Spent
Author: DaMaris Hill
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1635576628
Category : Poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 159
Book Description
A Netgalley "Must-Read Books by Black Authors in 2022" From the award-winning and critically acclaimed author of A Bound Woman Is a Dangerous Thing comes a new book of narrative in verse that takes a personal and historical look at the experience of Black girlhood. In Breath Better Spent, DaMaris B. Hill hoists her childhood self onto her shoulders, together taking in the landscape of Black girlhood in America. At a time when Black girls across the country are increasingly vulnerable to unjust violence, unwarranted incarceration, and unnoticed disappearance, Hill chooses to celebrate and protect the girl she carries, using the narrative-in-verse style of her acclaimed book A Bound Woman is a Dangerous Thing to revisit her youth. There, jelly sandals, Double Dutch beats, and chipped nail polish bring the breath of laughter; in adolescence, pomegranate lips, turntables, and love letters to other girls' boyfriends bring the breath of longing. Yet these breaths cannot be taken alone, and as she carries her childhood self through the broader historical space of Black girls in America, Hill is forced to grapple with expression in a space of stereotype, desire in a space of hyper-sexuality, joy in a space of heartache. Paying homage to prominent Black female figures from Zora Neale Hurston to Whitney Houston and Toni Morrison, Breath Better Spent invites you to walk through this landscape, too, exploring the spaces-both visible and invisible-that Black girls occupy in the national imagination, taking in the communal breath of girlhood, and asking yourself: In a country like America, what does active love and protection of Black girls look like?
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1635576628
Category : Poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 159
Book Description
A Netgalley "Must-Read Books by Black Authors in 2022" From the award-winning and critically acclaimed author of A Bound Woman Is a Dangerous Thing comes a new book of narrative in verse that takes a personal and historical look at the experience of Black girlhood. In Breath Better Spent, DaMaris B. Hill hoists her childhood self onto her shoulders, together taking in the landscape of Black girlhood in America. At a time when Black girls across the country are increasingly vulnerable to unjust violence, unwarranted incarceration, and unnoticed disappearance, Hill chooses to celebrate and protect the girl she carries, using the narrative-in-verse style of her acclaimed book A Bound Woman is a Dangerous Thing to revisit her youth. There, jelly sandals, Double Dutch beats, and chipped nail polish bring the breath of laughter; in adolescence, pomegranate lips, turntables, and love letters to other girls' boyfriends bring the breath of longing. Yet these breaths cannot be taken alone, and as she carries her childhood self through the broader historical space of Black girls in America, Hill is forced to grapple with expression in a space of stereotype, desire in a space of hyper-sexuality, joy in a space of heartache. Paying homage to prominent Black female figures from Zora Neale Hurston to Whitney Houston and Toni Morrison, Breath Better Spent invites you to walk through this landscape, too, exploring the spaces-both visible and invisible-that Black girls occupy in the national imagination, taking in the communal breath of girlhood, and asking yourself: In a country like America, what does active love and protection of Black girls look like?