Bread Out of Stone: Recollections, Sex, Recognitions, Race, Dreaming, Politics

by Dionne Brand

Brand turns her clear, unflinching eye to issues of sex and male violence toward women; how Black women learn the erotic; the vulnerability of Black female life in the city; and the stereotypes of Black females in popular culture. She looks at the denial of racism by the white liberal cultural elite, the centrality of 'whiteness' in definitions of North American culture, the responses of the dominant culture to difference, and white appropriation and representations of Black culture. The history and experience of Toronto's Black community are illuminated in essays charting the differing issues and politics confronting white and Black immigrant groups, the growth of the Black consciousness movement, and the coming of age and the inner lives of a new generation of Blacks in the city.
And she examines her personal history, further exploring her themes as she journeys home to Trinidad, tells of being turned down for a job, describes becoming a leftist, reviews her influences as a poet, and considers the process of filmmaking as a metaphor for the way each of us makes decisions about what we will - and will not - see.

Genres: Nonfiction, Essays, Canada, Queer, Feminism, Lesbian, Memoir

183 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1995

About the author

As a young girl growing up in Trinidad, Dionne Brand submitted poems to the newspapers under the pseudonym Xavier Simone, an homage to Nina Simone, whom she would listen to late at night on the radio. Brand moved to Canada when she was 17 to attend the University of Toronto, where she earned a degree in Philosophy and English, a Masters in the Philosophy of Education and pursued PhD studies in Women’s History but left the program to make time for creative writing.

Dionne Brand first came to prominence in Canada as a poet. Her books of poetry include No Language Is Neutral, a finalist for the Governor General’s Award, and Land to Light On, winner of the Governor General’s Award and the Trillium Award and thirsty, finalist for the Griffin Prize and winner of the Pat Lowther Award for poetry. Brand is also the author of the acclaimed novels In Another Place, Not Here, which was shortlisted for the Chapters/Books in Canada First Novel Award and the Trillium Award, and At the Full and Change of the Moon. Her works of non-fiction include Bread Out of Stone and A Map to the Door of No Return.

What We All Long For was published to great critical acclaim in 2005. While writing the novel, Brand would find herself gazing out the window of a restaurant in the very Toronto neighbourhood occupied by her characters. “I’d be looking through the window and I’d think this is like the frame of the book, the frame of reality: ‘There they are: a young Asian woman passing by with a young black woman passing by, with a young Italian man passing by,” she says in an interview with The Toronto Star. A recent Vanity Fair article quotes her as saying “I’ve ‘read’ New York and London and Paris. And I thought this city needs to be written like that, too.”

In addition to her literary accomplishments, Brand is Professor of English in the School of English and Theatre Studies at the University of Guelph.

For more information, please see http://www.answers.com/topic/dionne-b...

Reviews

[Sonja · Rating 5 out of 5]

I always learn so much from Dionne Brand and I love her writing. Primarily a poet, she was born in Trinidad and then emigrated to Toronto in 1970. She was in Grenada supporting the Revolution when the U.S. invaded in 1983 to thwart it.
Bread Out of Stone: Recollections, Sex, Recognitions, Race, Dreaming, Politics, first published in 1994, is a great book. I couldn’t put it down.
Some of the topics she covers are racism, women’s rights, cooptación, Cuba, sexuality, poetry, Canadian whiteness, and Caribbean history.
Dionne Brand is always strong and clear, poetic and honest. When she writes in the essay “Dualities” about her struggles over whether to finish her PhD, she says she couldn’t quite “buy into the program.” But it made me sad when she admitted: “but if we really think about it, we’re broken.” We get a sense of what it all cost her from the previous essays but it’s hard to imagine the extent and depth of the brokenness. I am so glad we have her poetry and other books. Most of all that we have the gift of her wisdom.

[Sally Elhennawy · Rating 5 out of 5]

So freaking good. Not to be a hater but a lot of y’all are getting a little too comfortable having never read Dionne Brand… she will change your life I promise

[Liat · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was incredible. It makes me sad that more people haven't read this on goodreads. I thought it was genius..now to read everything Brand has ever written...

[CaseyTheCanadianLesbrarian · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve read a lot of books by Dionne Brand, poetry and fiction, but Bread Out of Stone is the first non-fiction I’ve read by this Black lesbian literary powerhouse. While it’s not my favourite work by her—I prefer her poetry—I’m glad I read this essay collection and would certainly recommend it as a sharp, personal account of, among other things: racism in Canada, education and academia, political activism, memory, capitalism, immigration, and writing.

Most of the essays in Bread Out of Stone are written in what is for Brand a fairly prosaic style—that is, still pretty poetic because Brand is such a natural poet she just can’t help it...

See the rest of my review here: https://caseythecanadianlesbrarian.wo...

[Rev · Rating 4 out of 5]

North American media is so saturated with events, thoughts, and feelings from the United States that, as a Canadian observing other Canadians, we adopt whatever is going on in the U.S. while simultaneously making a conscious effort to separate ourselves from them. This creates a weird sphere that the Canadian psyche exists within, and it makes it so easy to neglect Canadian perspectives and happenings in our own backyard. With that being said, Dionne Brand’s work is extremely valuable, not solely based on insight into what it means to be given a racialized identity in Canada, but in proving that we are not exempt from the culture of whiteness that pervades the U.S. In fact we perpetuate it right along with them as an imperialist nation-state. Whether it’s prose or poetry, I will always recommend Dionne Brand to everyone.

[Lawrence · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dionne Brand does not write bad books. She is the greatest talent in Canada and an incredible creator with a strong lyrical voice.

In one of the essays she extensively quotes James Baldwin and it's almost seamless the flow between her beautifully oral poetic passages and Baldwin's gospel-inflected prose. Both pulling from their tradition but Brand with that extra twist of insight and alienation that lends an outsider's stab of perception.

As she notes in her introduction to this re-issue, many of the issues she presents remain, from colonialism to appropriation to police violence to intersectional feminism, they all continue to reverberate in Brand's echoing prose.

The petty literary feuds (poor forgotten Neil Bissoondath) are delightful especially with so many former enemies deservedly forgotten, though their arguments sadly not. What remains is Brand's prose, her rooted voice full of memoir and identity calling for respect and recognition.

Screw Margaret Atwood, this is your queen.

[Noheadjoe · Rating 4 out of 5]

A series of relatively short, eminently readable essays exploring the politics of race and gender through literary canons and the Canadian cultural sector. Essential reading for anyone interested in lineages of Canadian blackness and the black struggle in Canada. Especially relevant today as the issues of police brutality and cultural appropriation remain painfully relevant to black youths in Canada.

[Salty Swift · Rating 4 out of 5]

Trinidad-born, Toronto-based author/poet/professor Dionne Brand offers up a slew of commentary based around race, justice, politics, sex and family. Many of these essays are biting and plain livid, though one can't blame the author for calling the proverbial spade a spade. Unflinching work.

[T · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5/5

[Matthew Molinaro · Rating 5 out of 5]

sneaking in reading at work, but we're in dionne brand's toronto so what about it!

[Maureen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written in the 1990s, could've been written thirty seconds ago, which is disheartening in terms of social justice.