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Defacto Feminism: Essays Straight Outta Oakland
Judy Juanita views activism and feminism as it plays out in her political, artistic and spiritual life. A distinguished semifinalist for OSU's 2016 Non/Fiction Collection Prize, De Facto... blends essays, poems, graphics by the late Rini Templeton and literary criticism. An act of self-definition with the feel of memoir, these essays follow a long line of thinkers, including Anna Julia Cooper, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Audre Lorde, Alice Walker, Michelle Wallace, Angela Davis, bell hooks, Paula Giddings, Michelle Alexander, Roxane Gay, and Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche. In her semi-autobiographical novel, Virgin Soul, the central character joins the Black Panther Party and calls herself a female foot soldier in the black revolution of the sixties. The feminist foot soldier in De Facto... processes major shifts in American society through her own development. The essays are set chronologically, beginning with a picture of the author's Tuskegee Airman father, and an account of a not altogether idyllic childhood in Oakland. The concept of freedom here is a freedom from complication, from an awaiting black consciousness.
A narrative emerges: Growing up in Oakland in the fifties and sixties. Comparing her burgeoning sexuality to young white females in droves in 1964 having orgiastic responses to the Beatles. Formulating an erstwhile concept of womanhood based on Black Nationalism. Deconstructing the infamous N-word controversy. Looking back acerbically at her romance with The Gun and the black power movement's similar fascination. Paying homage to poet Carolyn M. Rodgers. Celebrating 21st century feminism in unexpected places. Examining race and micro-aggression in liberal Berkeley. Living with a ghost/mentor for a year.
The book's format moves from essay to poem to epistle in the final essay, "Acknowledge Me," a true ghost story in which a dead playwright, once her teacher, pushes her to succeed in spite of her misgivings.
"Whatever Happened to Carolyn M. Rodgers?" pays homage to a poet who became a phantom of the Black Arts Movement (BAM). Rodgers utilized the unbridled militancy of the era, mixing slang, nostalgia, curse words, sociology, raw revelation of sexual intimacy to address the abyss between black men and women; she became a near pariah after reviving her Christian faith.
"All The Women in My Family Read Terry McMillan" asks what to do about black literature, at the release of her novel which doesn't fit with the books her friends and family are reading.
"Putting the Funny in the Novel" was the author's response to her agent saying her novel about the Panthers wasn't funny enough.
"Report from the Front" indicates how America's most liberal city, Berkeley, still channels racism.
The title essay "De Facto Feminism" tallies the myriad ways feminism pops up in a country that counts black women out, from fighting/finding contingency, building bridges, breaking bread, and doing bizness the old fashioned way.
"Cleaning Other People's Houses" considers the value of physical labor as the author works as a domestic for a living; she leaves that job remembering that Zora Neale Hurston worked as a domestic in the last impoverished decade of her life.
In the wake of Trayvon Martin, "The Gun as Ultimate Performance Poem" looks at the gun's dark power and role in the African American community from the Panthers to the present.
"Five Comrades in The Black Panther Party, 1967-1970" recalls the author's youthful joining the Black Panthers.
"The N-Word," in an age of trigger warnings and multiple N-Word explosions, blasts its premature burial...with qualifications, and calling it on white cops.
A narrative emerges: Growing up in Oakland in the fifties and sixties. Comparing her burgeoning sexuality to young white females in droves in 1964 having orgiastic responses to the Beatles. Formulating an erstwhile concept of womanhood based on Black Nationalism. Deconstructing the infamous N-word controversy. Looking back acerbically at her romance with The Gun and the black power movement's similar fascination. Paying homage to poet Carolyn M. Rodgers. Celebrating 21st century feminism in unexpected places. Examining race and micro-aggression in liberal Berkeley. Living with a ghost/mentor for a year.
The book's format moves from essay to poem to epistle in the final essay, "Acknowledge Me," a true ghost story in which a dead playwright, once her teacher, pushes her to succeed in spite of her misgivings.
"Whatever Happened to Carolyn M. Rodgers?" pays homage to a poet who became a phantom of the Black Arts Movement (BAM). Rodgers utilized the unbridled militancy of the era, mixing slang, nostalgia, curse words, sociology, raw revelation of sexual intimacy to address the abyss between black men and women; she became a near pariah after reviving her Christian faith.
"All The Women in My Family Read Terry McMillan" asks what to do about black literature, at the release of her novel which doesn't fit with the books her friends and family are reading.
"Putting the Funny in the Novel" was the author's response to her agent saying her novel about the Panthers wasn't funny enough.
"Report from the Front" indicates how America's most liberal city, Berkeley, still channels racism.
The title essay "De Facto Feminism" tallies the myriad ways feminism pops up in a country that counts black women out, from fighting/finding contingency, building bridges, breaking bread, and doing bizness the old fashioned way.
"Cleaning Other People's Houses" considers the value of physical labor as the author works as a domestic for a living; she leaves that job remembering that Zora Neale Hurston worked as a domestic in the last impoverished decade of her life.
In the wake of Trayvon Martin, "The Gun as Ultimate Performance Poem" looks at the gun's dark power and role in the African American community from the Panthers to the present.
"Five Comrades in The Black Panther Party, 1967-1970" recalls the author's youthful joining the Black Panthers.
"The N-Word," in an age of trigger warnings and multiple N-Word explosions, blasts its premature burial...with qualifications, and calling it on white cops.
- GenresFeminismNonfictionEssays
232 pages, ebook
Published October 6, 2016
About the author
Judy Juanita
13 books29 followersJudy Juanita’s latest book, a collection of essays, was a finalist in the OSU Non/Fiction Collection contest in 2016. The book, DeFacto Feminism: Essays Straight Outta Oakland (EquiDistance Press, 2016) examines the distance between black and female empowerment. Her poetry and fiction have been published widely, and her plays have been produced in the Bay Area and New York City. She has taught writing at Laney College in Oakland since 1993. She lives in Oakland.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
July 5, 2017
DE FACTO FEMINISM: ESSAYS STRAIGHT OUTTA OAKLAND begins with several reprinted works mostly from The Weeklings (theweeklings.com), an online forum dedicated to essay, and ends with an original piece comprised of letters between Faith, a writer, and Alexis, the wife of Faith’s deceased teacher. The latter brings all the formers to an intense close filled with both grief and joy, making a story of what started out as a manifesto. Essays on the N-word, guns, cleaning, the Beatles, black chick-lit, growing up in Oakland, and the Black Panthers flesh out what Judy Juanita means by de facto feminism: women who define feminism simply by doing what they must do, and what they do best. They make the word, not it them. So, too, the author, like the heroes and heroines she describes, exploits what might exploit her when she uses words and music as tools for change in her high school and college years and later, her own life as a source of creative material. In the final piece, “Acknowledge Me: a true ghost story/epistolary essay,” instead of cowering beneath a powerful, successful, charismatic, not to mention alluring, older white male teacher, the author (Faith) becomes his medium. She writes to his widow about their unconventional conversations and through him they become not only friends but collaborators. This last piece is a brilliant play within a play, showing Juanita’s true talent for showing (not telling) character development while also developing ideas she explores in the previous essays - the artist/writer lifestyle, the role of “the establishment” in her work, friends/loved ones’ support and the spirit world.
At first, I felt threatened by this book. How could I relate as an affluent, caucasian, Midwest woman? Even as fellow artist and writer, am I the establishment even if I don’t intend to be, because I’m white? But, as the essays became more personal (and when she mentions a fellow writer she likes because she is Midwestern, with a dry sense of humor), I felt inspired. We’re not enemies. The enemy might lie within us or outside us, but whatever it is, it keeps us apart, not together, as we are when we work for a common cause, listening to one another as Judy Juanita so graciously and wittily does with herself, her peers, students and those who have blazed the trail for her, to whom she dedicates the book.
At first, I felt threatened by this book. How could I relate as an affluent, caucasian, Midwest woman? Even as fellow artist and writer, am I the establishment even if I don’t intend to be, because I’m white? But, as the essays became more personal (and when she mentions a fellow writer she likes because she is Midwestern, with a dry sense of humor), I felt inspired. We’re not enemies. The enemy might lie within us or outside us, but whatever it is, it keeps us apart, not together, as we are when we work for a common cause, listening to one another as Judy Juanita so graciously and wittily does with herself, her peers, students and those who have blazed the trail for her, to whom she dedicates the book.
November 10, 2016
I jumped into this book quickly, too quick to really reflect on the title, De Facto Feminism. The sub-title, Essays Straight Outta Oakland, I understood, so half way through the book, I stopped to understand what the main title meant. As I read the author's definition of the title, I understood with my own life experiences what it means to survive difficulties as a woman, a Black woman. The author presents a platform of her own survival and how to change difficult situations into experiences of growth. How encouraging and motivational!
We all enjoy reminiscing about our past, reliving experiences, situations, friends and situations. However, the author recaptured the rapture in such detail, I thought I was at her house, at her school, with her friends, and with them all at a concert, or dance, or right there with them in the living room watching The Ed Sullivan Show. I so enjoyed her teen years, dancing with the door knob, and learning how not to lead your partner on the dance floor. I’m just in awe that she remembered such details, like it was yesterday.
Living in a household with two parents, was an experience that I and many of my neighbors did not enjoy or understand. The picture of the father being the head of the family, created this woman of strength.
The layout of the book is unique and offers tidbits of surprises when you least expected it, the quotes, pictures, and dialogue, helps you seek more. I however, longed for more personal experiences that were learned from the author’s readings and writings. “I learn through making big, fat mistakes vs. reading/perfecting in my mind.” P73 I’d love to hear the mistakes and the victory of such. What were the feelings on December 5, 2011 when her long awaited novel sold? What were the inner feelings of this renaissance woman, when her book sold? Many years, and much pain had occurred, what was learned? It had to be more than, “I’m A Novelist”? However, it took courage, lots of it, to continue with her dreams, through unemployment, cleaning houses, substitute teaching and raising a child. These were all paths to the end, but what does it feel like to WIN?
We all enjoy reminiscing about our past, reliving experiences, situations, friends and situations. However, the author recaptured the rapture in such detail, I thought I was at her house, at her school, with her friends, and with them all at a concert, or dance, or right there with them in the living room watching The Ed Sullivan Show. I so enjoyed her teen years, dancing with the door knob, and learning how not to lead your partner on the dance floor. I’m just in awe that she remembered such details, like it was yesterday.
Living in a household with two parents, was an experience that I and many of my neighbors did not enjoy or understand. The picture of the father being the head of the family, created this woman of strength.
The layout of the book is unique and offers tidbits of surprises when you least expected it, the quotes, pictures, and dialogue, helps you seek more. I however, longed for more personal experiences that were learned from the author’s readings and writings. “I learn through making big, fat mistakes vs. reading/perfecting in my mind.” P73 I’d love to hear the mistakes and the victory of such. What were the feelings on December 5, 2011 when her long awaited novel sold? What were the inner feelings of this renaissance woman, when her book sold? Many years, and much pain had occurred, what was learned? It had to be more than, “I’m A Novelist”? However, it took courage, lots of it, to continue with her dreams, through unemployment, cleaning houses, substitute teaching and raising a child. These were all paths to the end, but what does it feel like to WIN?
January 4, 2017
Wisdom for Everyone
Judy Juanita is an extraordinary writer. I’ve previously been swept away by her poetry and her novel, Virgin Soul. Her latest book, De Facto Feminism: Essays Straight Outta Oakland, does not disappoint. The essays cover such topics as coming of age, political activism (as a young woman, Juanita was a member of the Black Panther Party), feminism, black womanhood, and the process of becoming a writer, but one need not be a political activist, feminist, African American, woman, or writer to appreciate Juanita’s insights and stories. She is speaking to everyone, and she has wisdom to impart to all of us. The title essay expands the definition of feminism by making the case that as single parents working hard at low-paying jobs, black women are de facto feminists: they have no one to depend on except themselves. Ultimately, Juanita’s autobiographical stories are about not giving up on our dreams in the never-ending process of creating ourselves.
Like Juanita, I grew up in and around Oakland, California, and also like Juanita, I still live there. Moreover, I am her contemporary. Yet I have much to learn from her. For example, I was a freshman at UC Berkeley in 1967 when Juanita joined the Black Panthers. I knew about the Panthers, of course. I read about their activities all the time in the newspaper. In other words, I was on the sidelines, an observer of something she was in the middle of. Both her essays and her novel have given me insight into the black power movement and ’60s radicalism.
In addition to being a poet, novelist, essayist, and college instructor, Judy Juanita is a playwright. After reading De Facto Feminism and Virgin Soul, I can assure you that the day I hear that tickets are on sale for one of her plays, I will be first in line.
Judy Juanita is an extraordinary writer. I’ve previously been swept away by her poetry and her novel, Virgin Soul. Her latest book, De Facto Feminism: Essays Straight Outta Oakland, does not disappoint. The essays cover such topics as coming of age, political activism (as a young woman, Juanita was a member of the Black Panther Party), feminism, black womanhood, and the process of becoming a writer, but one need not be a political activist, feminist, African American, woman, or writer to appreciate Juanita’s insights and stories. She is speaking to everyone, and she has wisdom to impart to all of us. The title essay expands the definition of feminism by making the case that as single parents working hard at low-paying jobs, black women are de facto feminists: they have no one to depend on except themselves. Ultimately, Juanita’s autobiographical stories are about not giving up on our dreams in the never-ending process of creating ourselves.
Like Juanita, I grew up in and around Oakland, California, and also like Juanita, I still live there. Moreover, I am her contemporary. Yet I have much to learn from her. For example, I was a freshman at UC Berkeley in 1967 when Juanita joined the Black Panthers. I knew about the Panthers, of course. I read about their activities all the time in the newspaper. In other words, I was on the sidelines, an observer of something she was in the middle of. Both her essays and her novel have given me insight into the black power movement and ’60s radicalism.
In addition to being a poet, novelist, essayist, and college instructor, Judy Juanita is a playwright. After reading De Facto Feminism and Virgin Soul, I can assure you that the day I hear that tickets are on sale for one of her plays, I will be first in line.
November 4, 2016
I love this book. Of course, I'm biased because I wrote it. DeFacto Feminism: Essays Straight Outta Oakland views activism and feminism as it plays out in one writer's political, artistic and spiritual life. A distinguished semifinalist for OSU’s 2016 Non/Fiction Collection Prize, De Facto… is biomythography, a cross between Audre Lorde's Zami: A New Spelling of My Name and Jean Toomer's Cane, blending essay, poems, graphics by the late Rini Templeton and literary criticism. It is an act of self-definition spanning four decades. The central person in DeFacto... is a feminist foot soldier. With the feel of memoir, these essays follow a long line of female thinkers, including Anna Julia Cooper, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Audre Lorde, Alice Walker, Michelle Wallace, Angela Davis, bell hooks, Paula Giddings, Michelle Alexander, Roxane Gay, and Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche. The central character in my semi-autobiographical novel, Virgin Soul, calls herself a female foot soldier. The voice in these essays is a feminist foot soldier, processing major shifts in American society through the portal of her own artistic development.
October 31, 2019
Honestly a great read for anyone interested in learning more about feminism, human rights, racism,police brutality. There's something for everyone in this book.
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November 11, 2019Not really my thing but it had a very powerful message. Would definitely recommend for history fans and activists.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews