Flat-Footed Truths

A new and exciting collection from Patricia Bell-Scott, the editor of the enormously successful Life Notes and the award-winning Double Stitch. With a foreword by Marcia Ann Gillespie.To tell the flat-footed truth is a southern saying that means to tell the naked truth. This revealing and inspiring anthology brings together twenty-seven creative spirits who through essays, interviews, poetry, and photographic images tell black women's lives. In the opening section that discusses the risks involved in sharing your life with others, Sapphire tells us about the challenges in recording her experiences when there has never been any validation that her life was important. The next section chronicles the adventure in claiming the lives of those who have been lost or neglected, such as Alice Walker's search for the real story of Zora Neale Hurston. The third part, which affirms lives of resistance, includes Audre Lorde's acclaimed essay "Poetry Is Not a Luxury." The final chapter, focusing on transformed lives, presents an insightful interview with Sonia Sanchez.This wonderful collection, featuring such writers as bell hooks, Barbara Smith, Marcia Ann Gillespie, and Pearl Cleage, is testimony to a flourishing literary tradition, filled with daring women, that will inspire others to tell their own stories.

Foreword / Marcia Ann GillespieTelling Flat-Footed Truths: An Introduction / Patricia Bell-ScottIn Her Chair [photo] / Dorothy GravesPART I: TELLING ONE'S OWN LIFESelf-Portraits [photo] / Gilda SnowdenIf You Lose Your Pen / Ruth FormanWriting Autobiography / bell hooksSapphire: The Artist as Witness / Patricia Bell-ScottHarriet Ann Buckley: An Artist Storyteller / Juanita Johnson-BaileyAutobiography / Marita GoldenPART II: CLAIMING LIVES LOSTI Sell the Shadow to Support the Substance [photo] / Sojourner TruthThrough the Storm, through the Tight / Brenda Faye BellLooking for Zora / Alice WalkerThe Brass Bed / Pearl CleageTo Miss Ida Bee with Love / Miriam DeCosta-WillisRepresenting Truth: Sojourner Truth's Knowing and Becoming Known / Nell Irvin PainterLegacy/Repeat after Me / Akasha (Gloria) HullPART III: TELLING LIVES AS RESISTANCEIndian Blood [photo] / Robbie McCauleyI am writing this / Elaine ShellyPoetry is not a luxury / Audre LordeMy American Herstory / Pearl Cleage"I Had to Tell the Truth": Testimony to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee's Confirmation Hearings for Judge Clarence Thomas / Anita F. HillBarbara Smith: A Home Girl with a Mission / Patricia Bell-ScottIn Answer to the Question: Have You Ever Considered Suicide? / Kate RushinPART IV: TELLING LIVES AS TRANSFORMATIONShe [photo] / Wini McQueenMovin' and Steppin' / Akasha (Gloria) HullThe Transformation of Silence into Language and Action / Audre LordeWriting Survival / Valerie JeanPoet Sonia Sanchez: Telling What We Must Hear / Juanita Johnson-BaileyA Poem for Flight / Becky Birtha