220 p., Employs a black feminist diaspora literary lens to identify, define, trace, and speak to the African Diaspora as it functions in black women's diaspora fiction and informs our understanding of black women's diaspora identity. Considers three authors and novels by women of, in, and across the African Diaspora. The study centers on Sandra Jackson-Opoku's The River Where Blood Is Born as a primary site of analysis of diaspora formation and theorization, Dionne Brand's At the Full and Change of the Moon and Maryse Condé's Desirada as comparative textual and theoretical sites.
Reviews the book "Women's Activism in Latin America and the Caribbean: Engendering Social Justice, Democratizing Citizenship," edited by Elizabeth Maier and Nathalie Lebon.
"Mother's Day is celebrated in so many ways throughout the world, the most popular to be sure is the brunch where the entire family can come together and celebrate mom together. It is interesting to note, however , that Mother's Day was first celebrated as a holiday - a holiday to commemorate women's public activism, women taking a stance to protect their families. And today in expressing our love and honouring mothers, is the least we can do", she said.
Depression is a common condition among women in the United Kingdom. However, little is known about the context of depression among British African Caribbean women. This article offers a preliminary discussion regarding issues and information pertaining to depression among British African Caribbean women. Characteristics and symptoms of depression along with treatment issues will also be presented.
Dionne Brand's memoir, A Map to the Door of No Return: Notes to Belonging, touches on the author's childhood in Trinidad and adulthood in Canada but is equally concerned with understanding and intervening in the larger histories among which Brand situates her identity. Her sources are rich and varied, and they can be broken down into three general types: the historical archives written during the 'age of exploration' and the slave trade; the contemporary archives of newspapers and journals; and the creative archive of postcolonial writers, or the neo-archive.
Looks at Barbados's experience of abortion law reform undertaken in the 1980s. The movement was led by then Cabinet Minister and lawyer Billie Miller. Documents the nuances, important moments, key strategies and major players in the reform movement, and highlights the critical role that Miller played in getting the Medical Termination Act passed in 1983. Background information on the situation of Barbadian women and the nature of parliamentary governance at that time is also addressed in order to give context to the politics surrounding the issue.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
174 p., Reading the fiction of Jamaica Kincaid, Dionne Brand, Jean Rhys, Erna Brodber, and Michelle Cliff alongside British texts such as Dickens's Great Expectations and Bronte's Jane Eyre, Renk demonstrates how contemporary Anglophone Caribbean women's writing radically subverts the myth of the family as it is constructed in 19th century British and colonial texts. These women writers reconfigure Caribbean identity, family, and nation according to cross-cultural, trans-national and transtemporal paradigms.
It is not surprising that the Caribbean woman pushes her daughter toward higher education, for she sees education as the greatest tool for social mobility. Education becomes more than just a means of expanding one's realm; it is seen as an armor of protection against hostile forces, an opportunity to be successful so that no one can "tek step wid yuh." Traditionally, women have been the custodians of culture. The Caribbean woman must continuously face this question: "How can I keep the culture intact, maintain our song and dance in these changing times, this electronic age of computer, when our children are struggling against the reins of our value system and often we are so perplexed, not knowing what to do? This, then, is the most valuable lesson the Caribbean mother passes on to her daughter: how to be firm in the midst of society's pressures and remain her individual self and nurture her talents and resources to love her mate and nurture her children, even while she pursues her own dreams. The songs and dance continue.
