Benedita da Silva, the first black vice-governor of Rio de Janeiro, is profiled. Through her efforts to keep hope alive for impoverished Brazilians, laws were recently enacted to protect the rights of Rio's street children and domestic employees.
Berrian,Brenda F. (Author) and Broeck,Aart (Author)
Format:
Book, Whole
Publication Date:
1989
Published:
Washington D.C.: Three Continents Press
Location:
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
360 p., First International Conference on the Women Writers of the English-speaking Caribbean, April 198. Lists creative works by 1067 women writers. Arranged into four sections
Jamaica's veronica Campbell-Brown waves after winning the Women's 100 meters at the Diamond League Athletics meeting on Sunday May 15. in Shanghai, China. American Lashinda Demus. the meet's record holder, finished runner up in a season's best time of 54.58 seconds, with Olympic and World champion Melaine Walker of Jamaica coming third, also in an SB 54.96. The best of the other Caribbean performances came from Jamaican Dwight Thomas. He also finished fourth in the men's 110 hurdles, clocking a season's best 13.31.
Kingston, Jamaica: University of the West Indies Press
Location:
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
251 p., Showcases recent works that reflect a variety of disciplines, styles and topics that include considering Indo-Caribbean women in creative, artistic and performance text, historical and anthropological analyses, intersection with their "others" in the Caribbean and its diaspora, narratives of self, healing and spiritual growth, and roles in religion and cultural activities.
"What strikes you, your racism or me?" one of the female demonstrators wrote on her chest during the protest timed to coincide with Rio Fashion Week. "If we are buying clothes, why can't we parade in the (fashion) shows," asked a 15-year-old model taking part in the protest. "Does that mean that only white women can sell and the rest of us can only buy?" "Claiming to showcase Brazilian fashion without the real Brazilians amounts to showing Brazilian fashion (only) with white models," said Jose Flores, a 25-yearold former model who now works in advertising.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
213 p., Examines the need for international solidarity with grassroots movements in Brazil and throughout the African diaspora. Intertwined with the everyday happenings of a social movement currently underway in Brazil, the author conveys an in-depth sense of the women who drive the community movement in the neighborhood of Gamboa de Baixo in Salvador (Brazil).
Blacks; Women; Brazil; South America; Book reviews; PERRY, Keisha-Kkan Y; BLACK Women Against the Land Grab: The Fight for Racial Justice in Brazil (Book)
Works like Wheatley's and [Harriet Jacobs]' remind us how important it is to document our history with authenticity. History tells us of the need to write our own stories in our own words, for accuracy, for validation. And this is exactly why writers like Maya Angelou, Gwendolyn Brooks, Poet Laureate Rita Dove, Alice Walker and Louise Bennett Coverly (Jamaica) have revolutionized the written word and established themselves as role models for all of us. Positive images. Pulitzer Prize winner Alice Walker uses the word "womanist" in her works to refer to the liberation of black women. Through her famous novel "The Color Purple" and other works, she has revolutionized literature in the New World and given great insights into the traditions, beliefs, history, and values of people of African ancestry. The central theme in all of her work becomes the flower of hope that grows out of all despair. Black women writers have created for us a window to the world through which we can make real-life connections. From them we have received portraits in courage and a validation of ourselves. Their words constantly remind us that hope is eternal and that beauty can rise from adversity, as is so aptly expressed in the poignant declaration by Maya Angelou, the first female to read at a U.S. presidential inauguration, "And still I rise."
Caribbean women writers such as Erna Brodber and Opal Palmer Adisa often include men in women's liberatory quests as participants. The close connection between sexuality and emotions in this body of writing can be read through a new model of affective feminist reader theory. Women's sexual healing processes in the novels discussed in this article are not solely gynocentric in the Caribbean context: men are often active participants in these processes, and thus also in gender reconfigurations.
