Summer Snow: Reflections from a Black Daughter of the South

by Trudier Harris-Lopez, Trudier Harris

A wide-ranging, spirited collection of personal essays about growing up black and Southern

Like Maya Angelou and bell hooks before her, Trudier Harris explores her complicated identity as a black woman in the American South. By turns amusing and probing, Summer Snow lays out in a series of linked essays the formative experiences that shaped Harris into the writer and intellectual she has become.

With passion and eloquence, Harris writes about the creation of her unique first name, how porch-sitting is in fact a creative Southern tradition, and how insecurities over her black hair ("the ubiquitous hair") factored into her self-image. She writes about being a "black nerd" as a child, and how the black church influenced her in her early years. But she also writes about more troubling topics, such as the price blacks have paid for integration, and the "staying power of racism." In one moving piece, Harris remembers a white teenager propositioning her for sex in exchange for five dollars. Unflinching in her assessment of white Southern culture, yet deeply attached to a South
many black intellectuals have abandoned, Harris in Summer Snow takes readers on a surprising tour of one woman's life, loves, and lessons.

Trudier Harris is the author of numerousbooks, including Saints, Sinners, Strong Black Women in African American Literature and Fiction and The Novels of Toni Morrison. She is currently a professor of English at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Praise for Summer

"Stimulating and provocative, SUMMER SNOW resonates with folkloric energy and vividly evocative prose. Trudier Harris's presence and voice vibrate through this journey, guiding her reader with the sheer force of her rigor, grace, and intelligence as well as a goodly amount of wry humor and wit. A reader's dream-book, reminding us all of the resonant claim of southern spaces."
-- Karla Holloway, William Kenan Professor of English at Duke University, author of numerous books, including Passed On.

"Trudier Harris speaks of the "cotton-pickin' authority" of those in her childhood who earned respect because of their life-long backbreaking labors in the fields. Harris has translated that authority into one of her own, the authority of her words. Because of this author, we see, feel, understand and celebrate our people, who created--through sheer wit and will--a culture that defeated the dehumanization of slavery by keeping us, body and soul alive. A wonderful book you have to read to believe."
--Toi Derricotte, author of The Black Notebooks.

"Noon can be as blinding as midnight; snow no less than sun can cause a
vision distortion. Like Zora Neale Hurston, another great daughter of
the South, Harris lets her vision be tempered by her love. And make no
mistake, the South of Black Americans, is a love story. SUMMER SNOW
reminds us of that... causes us to remember that... lets us celebrate
that."
--Nikki Giovanni

"SUMMER SNOW is the classic we have been waiting for--the classic that
only a "Black daughter of the South" could have written. It has dance and song, color and texture, pathos and humor, analysis and introspection, and a gallery of fascinating women and men
we can never forget."
--Gloria Wade Gayles, author of PUSHED BACK TO STRENGTH

Genres: Memoir, Nonfiction

224 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2003

Reviews

[Tamara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Engaging, informative, very readable

[Mercedes Schultz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very informative book.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dr. Harris was one of my favorite teachers at UNC. I often told my students to take her class. The rationale being that you could get a community college education at UNC -- meaning that a good education does not have to have the premier price tag. If you are going to "be like Mike" and have a "Nike education" you should have take courses from professors that make Carolina great. Dr. Harris is one such professor.

SUMMER SNOW is a memoir. She reviews different aspects of her life, such as her name, and gives the back story. As she says, she gives "the specificity in the generality." Whereas many southerners (particularly African Americans from the South) may share in similar experiences, hers is a specific narrative of a life well lived. Not all Black people are alike and there is no grand poo pah writing memos on "How to be Black" on this day or any other.

I am enjoying reading this book. I highly recommend it.

[Kaethe · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this because the library would be hosting the author to talk about it, and I found it very moving. It's always interesting to hear the life story of someone who somewhat overlaps your own. I mostly grew up in the South, was a nerdy child (and am now a nerdy adult), had bad hair, and know the importance of a porch. ("Me too, me too", as I read) But the wonder is in the spaces between us.

I am concerned about the extremely white face of publishing, and I make it a point to read and support works by authors of color, and I know that there are always more lessons for me to take to heart. The goal isn't to create a post-racial society, but a post-racist one.

[Shannyn Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

At once a collection of insightful essays, an intensely readable memoir, and a poetic eulogy to the lost "cotton-pickin'" generation of Harris's parents and its cultural contributions that ultimately shaped Harris's own voraciousness in exploring and interpreting it, Summer Snow is a written testament to the value of folklore and traditional storytelling.