Flat-Footed Truths: Telling Black Women's Lives

by Patricia Bell-Scott, Juanita Johnson-Bailey

A new and exciting collection from 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.

Genres: Womens

256 pages, Hardcover

First published May 15, 1998

Reviews

[Karah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Plain-spoken works best. All of the women possessed immense portions of intelligence but the straightforward writers moved me. Sapphire, Valerie Jean, and Barbara Smith were refreshing. There is no one way to perceive black women. We live as broadly as women in other ethnic groups. It's just among our community that many lifestyles don't find acceptance. What a cruel truth.

Conclusion: Some readers may consider this book a scholarly text.The sadness lies in that this book gets overlooked in spite of its brilliance.

[Dasia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love being a black woman and books like this reinforce my sentiments. The book addresses topics surrounding black womanhood from multiple perspectives. The two ending chapter put into perspective the importance of community and honesty with other women. Anthologies are great because they offer a mixed bag of content. I learned about Zora Neale Hurston, Sojourner Truth, Sonia Sanchez, and countless other black women. Overall worth the read and rooted in information and feel-good accounts.

[Lori · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was just the book I needed to read in order to conjure my Grandmother's story of migration.