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Books by Miriam DeCosta-Willis
Daughters of the Diaspora: Afra-Hispanic Writers
(2003 /
Singular Like a Bird: The Art of Nancy Morejon
(1999)
The
Memphis Diary of Ida B. Wells (1995) /
Erotique Noire/Black Erotica
(1992) /
Homespun
Images
( 1989) /
Notable Black Memphians
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Overview
Miriam DeCosta-Willis, author
and college professor, was born 1 November 1934, in
Florence, Alabama. She received her B.A. at Wellesley
College in 1956; her M.A. Johns Hopkins in 1960; her
Ph.D. Johns Hopkins in 1967 in Romance Languages. In
1967 she joined the faculty of Memphis State University
as the first African American member, and while there
agitated for more black staff members. When King was
assassinated in 1968 she was in the march that erupted
into violence and the police used mace on her.
DeCosta-Willis
became a professor of Spanish and in 1970 chairperson of the
Department of Romance Languages at Howard University. At Howard, she was exposed to Afro-Hispanic
authors. In 1975 DeCosta-Willis left Howard and in 1979
returned to teaching at LeMoyne-Owen College. She
remained there for ten years before taking a position at
George Mason University. Leaving in 1991, DeCosta-Willis
took a position with the University of Maryland, where
she remained until her retirement in 1999.
DeCosta-Willis served for ten years as an associate editor of
SAGE: A Scholarly Journal on Black Women. She is co-founder and a former chairperson of the
Memphis Black Writers Workshop, and has served on the Memphis
Arts Council advisory committee and a review panelist
for the National Endowment for the Humanities. DeCosta-Willis
has four grown children. She divides her time between
Washington, D.C., and Memphis.
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Table
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Published Works:
Daughters of the Diaspora: Afra-Hispanic Writers
(Kingston, Jamaica: Ian Randle Publisher, 2003)
/
Blacks in Hispanic Literature: Critical Essays
(1977) /
Singular Like a Bird: The Art of Nancy Morejon
(1999) /
The Memphis Diary of Ida B. Wells (Beacon Press, 1995) /
Erotique Noire/Black Erotica
(New York:
Bantam Doubleday Dell, 1992) /
Homespun Images (Memphis, TN: Wimmer Brothers,
1989)
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Notable Black Memphians (Miriam
DeCosta-Willis)—This
biographical and historical study by Miriam DeCosta-Willis (PhD,
Johns Hopkins University and the first African American faculty
member of Memphis State University) traces the evolution of a major
Southern city through the lives of men and women who overcame social
and economic barriers to create artistic works, found institutions,
and obtain leadership positions that enabled them to shape their
community. Documenting the accomplishments of Memphians who were
born between 1795 and 1972, it contains photographs and biographical
sketches of 223 individuals (as well as brief notes on 122 others),
such as musicians Isaac Hayes and Aretha Franklin, activists Ida B.
Wells and Benjamin L. Hooks, politicians Harold Ford Sr. and Jr.,
writers Sutton Griggs and Jerome Eric Dickey, and Bishop Charles
Mason and Archbishop James Lyke—all of whom were born in Memphis or
lived in the city for over a decade. . . . |
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Also included
are short biographies of barbers, sanitation
workers, and postal employees such as Alma Morris,
T. O. Jones, and Tom Lee—ordinary citizens who made
extraordinary contributions to their community. The
result of ten years of painstaking research in
archives and libraries, this study draws upon
interviews, private papers, newspaper articles, and
photographic collections to illuminate Black
achievements in Memphis, Tennessee.
Located in a bend of the Mississippi
River, in the heart of the Bible Belt, and in the center of a tri-state
region that includes Arkansas, Mississippi, and Tennessee, Memphis is the
site of a rich African American culture that finds expression in blues and
jazz, in poetry and fiction, and in painting and sculpture. Less well known,
perhaps, are Black cultural expressions in business, athletics, and
medicine: for example, the founding of hospitals and a medical school; the
building of a public park/auditorium and the first Black-owned baseball
stadium in the country; and the creation of the South's first integrated law
firm and first Black savings and loan association.
Sons and daughters of the city include
city and county mayors, an Olympic medalist, an Oscar-winning actor, and
former member of the Federal Communications Commission, CEO of the Regional
Medical Center, president of Colorado State University, and professor of
orthopedic surgery at Harvard Medical School.
The lives of these outstanding Black
Memphians provide a context for understanding and interpreting the social,
political, and cultural history of a city in the Deep South. Notable Black
Memphians is a vital addition to all collections in African American studies
and American history.
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DeCosta-Willis
makes it possible to look back in a new way into the
character of wells, and, more than that, into the daily
life of African-Americans a century ago.
— Chicago Tribune
Wells and
DeCosta-Willis join together across time in a scholarly
collaborative dance of sisterhood to produce a work that
not only holds an insightful mirror to the past, but
could be used as a guidepost for African-American and
other women today in living totally self-defined lives.
—Tri-State Defender
A unique look
at the life o an independent, unmarried African-American
woman coping with financial hardships, romantic
entanglements, sexism, and racism . . . A substantial
contribution to African-American Studies
—Publisher Weekly
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Erotique Noire/Black Erotica,
edited by Miriam
Decosta-Willis, Reginald Martin (Editor),
Roseann P. Bell
A glorious, groundbreaking celebration of
Black sensuality—short stories, poems,
essays, folk tales, and letters--ranging
from the lyrical to the lascivious, from the
prurient to the provocative. It is, as well,
a serious and intellectually grounded
anthology of black literature, including
such authors as Alice Walker, Ntozake Shange,
Barbara Chase-Riboud, among many others.
(Anchor)
A collective work of art whose time has
come. Of lasting value for all lovers of
literature and the erotic, this is a
glorious, groundbreaking celebration of
black sensuality, including works by Alice
Walker, Ntozake Shange, and many more. |
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The editors are to be congratulated for amassing a
collection of erotica worthy in its own right
because of the writers showcased, among them Alice
Walker, Chester Himes, Gloria Naylor, Jewelle Gomez,
Charles Blockson, Audre Lorde, and Essex Hemphill.
Coverage is not limited to African American writers
but includes African, Caribbean American, and Latin
American writers, whether straight or gay, of prose,
poetry, or fiction. For some authors, this anthology
features their first piece of erotic writing.
Readers will be familiar with other selections, for
example, Lorde's "Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as
Power." As a whole, this book successfully
challenges stereotypical notions about black erotica
and serves up delightful sexual tidbits for just
about everyone's taste.—Faye
A. Chadwell, Univ. of South Carolina Lib., Columbia
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Daughters of the Diaspora: Afra-Hispanic Writers—This
book brings together the creative
writings of some 20 Hispanophone women
of African descent as well as the
interpretive writings of some 15
literary critics. Several genres are
combined including poetry, short
stories, essays, excerpts from novels
and personal narratives to create a
unique anthology. Featured writes
include: Virginia Brindis de Salas,
Carmen Colón Pellot, Julia de Burgos,
Aida Cartagena Portalatín, Marta Rojas,
Eulalia Bernard, Georgina Herrera,
Lourdes Casal, Argentina Chiriboga,
Nancy Morejón, Excilia Saldaña, Beatriz
Santos, Maria Nsue Angüe, Sherezada (Chiqui)
Vicioso, Soleida Ríos, Edelma Zapata
Pérez, Yvonne-América Truque, Cristina
Cabral, Shirley Campbell, Mayra Santos-Febres.
Hardcover: 544 pages Ian Randle
Publishers Inc. (January 30, 2003
Miriam DeCosta Willis is Professor
Emeritus of African Studies University
of Maryland. |
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posted 29 January 2009 |
