Dark Designs and Visual Culture

by Michele Wallace

Michele Wallace burst into public consciousness with the 1979 publication of Black Macho and the Myth of the Superwoman , a pioneering critique of the misogyny of the Black Power movement and the effects of racism and sexism on black women. Since then, Wallace has produced an extraordinary body of journalism and criticism engaging with popular culture and gender and racial politics. This collection brings together more than fifty of the articles she has written over the past fifteen years. Included alongside many of her best-known pieces are previously unpublished essays as well as interviews conducted with Wallace about her work. Dark Designs and Visual Culture charts the development of a singular, pathbreaking black feminist consciousness. Beginning with a new introduction in which Wallace reflects on her life and career, this volume includes other autobiographical essays; articles focused on popular culture, the arts, and literary theory; and explorations of issues in black visual culture. Wallace discusses growing up in Harlem; how she dealt with the media attention and criticism she received for Black Macho and the Myth of the Superwoman , which was published when she was just twenty-seven years old; and her relationship with her family, especially her mother, the well-known artist Faith Ringgold. The many articles devoted to black visual culture range from the historical tragedy of the Hottentot Venus, an African woman displayed as a curiosity in nineteenth-century Europe, to films that sexualize the black body—such as Watermelon Woman , Gone with the Wind , and Paris Is Burning . Whether writing about the Anita Hill–Clarence Thomas hearings, rap music, the Million Man March, Toshi Reagon, multiculturalism, Marlon Riggs, or a nativity play in Bedford Stuyvesant, Wallace is a bold, incisive critic. Dark Designs and Visual Culture brings the scope of her career and thought into sharp focus.

Genres: Feminism, Cultural Studies

528 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2004

About the author

Michele Faith Wallace (born January 4, 1952) is a black feminist author, cultural critic, and daughter of artist Faith Ringgold. She is best known for her 1979 book Black Macho and the Myth of the Superwoman. Wallace's writings on literature, art, film, and popular culture have been widely published and have made her a leader of African-American intellectuals. She is a Professor of English at the City College of New York and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY).

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Sokari Ekine · Rating 4 out of 5]

A mix of memoir and self-reflective essays by author of "Black Macho and the Myth of the Superwoman".

A slow read, also reading Insurgency Online and the Spring edition of Mute on Immigration in UK

Finally got to finish this one not because it was a struggle but no time. Fact: Michelle Wallace does not like/rate bell hooks. At least two essays are dedicated to tearing hooks apart for being self-indulgent, repetitive and unimaginative. Though hooks is a great favorite of mine I have to agree with Wallace to some extent - I stopped reading hooks after Black Looks - there is only so much "white supremacy" "patriarchal domination" "self-recover" one can take. bell lost me completely when she went into "self-recovery" mode. If there is one thing I cannot stand that is "self-recovery" books. Apart from essays on her experience following the publication of Black Macho, Wallace's essays are critiques of hooks and other "feminist" writers / essayist / poets such as Rich, Lorde and others, plus a couple of excellent deconstructions of the Clarence Thomas / Anita Hill hearings. Wallace does not hold back on herself or anyone else - the first refreshingly honest work by a Black feminist I have read in a while.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super fucking long and kind of uneven (it's basically like a collection of all her essays over a certain period or something), but there's some good stuff in here. It's well-written and, especially in particular parts, really engaging. My favorite is the piece on bell hooks.