Black Feminist Theories

Carole Boyce Davies is Chair and Professor of African Diaspora Literatures at Howard University and Professor Emerita of Africana Studies and Literatures in English at Cornell University, USA. Bibi Bakare-Yusuf is co-founder and publishing director of Cassava Republic Press and an independent scholar based between Nigeria and the UK.Janell Hobson is a Professor of Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies at the University at Albany, State University of New York, USA.Angelique V. Nixon is Senior Lecturer at the Institute for Gender and Development Studies at the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago.Christen A. Smith is Professor of Anthropology and Black Studies at Yale University.

The Handbook Black Feminist Theories is a magnificent compilation of Black feminist poetry, fiction, prose and artwork. Taken together, the contributors illuminate the creative eruption of Black feminist work at multiple junctures across time and place, challenging US-Centric hegemony and revealing Black Feminisms to be complex, transnational discourses that emerge from the complex and shifting genealogies of Black women’s lives. Essential reading for all those interested in how the world is changed by the radical epistemic undercurrents emerging at the intersections of oppression, the Handbook provides a powerful and capacious archive of resistance that challenges us to think and to teach more expansively about liberatory praxis and the meaning of diaspora. It offers a powerful and welcome resource for transdisciplinary teachers and researchers in African and diaspora studies, feminist, gender and women’s studies, and across the humanities and social science disciplines.

• Editors’ IntroductionIntroductory Section - Regional Perspectives0.1 Nancy Morejon, “Mujer Negra/Black Woman”0.2 Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi, “On African Indigenous Feminisms” (excerpt from A Girl Is a Body of Water) 0.3 Conceição Evaristo, “I Woman” & “Women’s Voices”0.4 M Nourbese Philip, “On the Discourse of the Logic of Language” 0.5 Desiree Lewis, “Feminist Africa and African Feminism: from the 1990s to the Present” 0.6 Flávia Rios, “Afro-Latin American and Caribbean Black Feminism” 0.7 Lola Olufemi, “Black and Afrofeminism in Europe: A Politics of Dissent” 0.8 Shihan De Silva Jayasuriya, “Theorising on ‘Black’ Feminism in South Asia”0.9 June Jordan, “Poem About My Rights” (poem in English) 0.10 Donna Aza Wier-Soley. “Sojourner In Truth, Justice and Beauty”Section 1 - Black Feminist Foundations1.1 Carole Boyce Davies, Section Introduction1.2 Margaret Washington, “Sojourner Truth: Reclaiming Her Voice, Renaming Her Speech” 1.3 Michelle Duster, “Ida B. Wells: Defied and Challenged Second-Class Standing” 1.4 Panashe Chigumadzi, “Charlotte Makgomo Mannya-Maxeke: Beyond ‘The Mother of Black Freedom’ in South Africa” 1.5 Nydia Swaby, “Amy Ashwood Garvey and Black Diaspora / International Feminism” 1.6 Kaysha Corinealdi, “The Feminist Life of Felicia Santizo” 1.7 Myriam Moise, “The Feminist Avant-Garde of Negritude: Jane Nardal’s Black Internationalism” 1.8 Claudia Cumberbatch Jones, “We Seek Full Equality” (1949) 1.9 Micere Mugo, An interview (1976) & Poem, “To Be A Feminist Is” (1994) 1.10 Leila Gonzalez, “For an Afro-Latin American Feminism” Section 2 - Statements and Manifestos 2.1 Christen A. Smith, Section Introduction2.2 First National Conference of National Association of Colored Women of America, “The Call of Meeting (Let us Confer Together)”, 1895 2.3 “The Feminist Movement in Haiti,” Madeleine G. Sylvain, President, Women’s League for Social Action, Haiti, 1939 2.4 “The Women’s Charter,” Founding Conference of the Federation of South African Women, 1954 2.5 National Black Feminist Organization “Statement of Purpose” 1973 2.6 The Combahee River Collective, "Black Feminist Statement," 1977 2.7 “Notes on Reading the Philosophy of Sistren Collective,” Alissa Trotz and Honor Ford-Smith 2.8 Sistren Collective, “Philosophy of Sistren, 1977 2.9 “Sista II Sista Freedom School for Young Women of Color,” Nicole Burrowes 2.10 Afro-Colombian Solidarity Network, “Peace without ancestral afrodescendant territories? Not for the Black women of Northern Cauca”, 2014 2.11 "March Against Racism and Violence and in Favor of Living Well (bem viver),” Brasilia 2015: National Black Women's March, November 18, 2015 2.12 The African Feminist Forum, "Charter of Feminist Principles for African Feminists", 2016 2.13 The Cite Black Women Collective, "Cite Black Women: A Critical Praxis (A Statement)”, 2021 2.14 “Red Carpet Feminism: On ‘Breaking a Glass Ceiling’: Contextualising Women’s Struggle in Tanzania,” Christina Mfanga (2023) 2.15 “Black Feminisms Forum (from Bahia 2016 to Barbados 2024)”, Angelique V. Nixon 2.16 United African Women’s Organization (UAWO) “A Black Feminist Manifesto,” 2024 2.17 “Kamala Harris and the Legacy of Black Women’s Leadership,” Janell Hobson in conversation with Carole Boyce Davies (2024)Section 3 - Cultures and Aesthetics3.1 Bibi Bakare-Yusuf, Section Introduction3.2 Zora Neale Hurston, “Characteristics of Negro Expression” 3.3 Nthabiseng Motsemme, “Distinguishing Beauty, Creating Distinctions: The Politics and Poetics of Dress Among Young Black Women in South Africa” 3.4 Angélica Sánchez, “Carving Black Women: Black feminisms and 18th-century Colonial Nativity Scenes in Nueva Granada” 3.5 Janine Francois, “Art on my Mind: Black Feminist Placemaking in a British Art Museum” 3.6 Chyrstel Oloukoi, “Filming On An African Rhythm: Safi Faye, Cinematic Griot” 3.7 Marina Magloire, “The Spirit Writing of Lucille Clifton” 3.8 Carolyn Cooper, “Drawing Sister P's Tongue” 3.9 Mopelolade Oreoluwa Ogunbowale, “Rethinking the Goddess’ Pathways: An Introduction to Osun’s Aesthetic Manifestations as a Trope for Understanding Afro-Atlantic Expressive Cultures” 3.10 Rambisayi Marufu, “do you care? listening for [(un)doings] strains of intimacy in the African hair-braiding salon”Section 4 - Bodies, Genders, Sexualities 4.1 Angelique V. Nixon, Section Introduction4.2 Audre Lorde, from Zami - A New Spelling of My Name 4.3 June Jordan, “A New Politics of Sexuality” 4.4 Beatriz Nascimento, “The Black Woman and Love” 4.5 M. Nourbese Philip, “Dis Place: the Space Between” 4.6 Rosamond S. King, “Caribbean Women’s Protest Traditions, from Carnival to Hashtags” 4.7 Bibi Bakare-Yusuf, “Thinking with Pleasure: Danger, Sexuality and Agency” 4.8 Naminata Diabate, “Coda: Some Reflections on Naked Agency, Visual Dissemination, and the Search for Humans” 4.9 Carolette Norwood, “And Still They Rise: The Kinks of Our Hair in African Diasporic Contexts” 4.10 C. Riley Snorton, Preface, Black on Both Sides 4.11 Marquis Bey, Introduction, Black Trans Feminism 4.12 Carmen Faustino, “Meu Orgasmo Sagrado” / “My Sacred Orgasm” Section 5 - Black Feminist Futures 5.1 Janell Hobson, Section Introduction 5.2 Wangari Maathai, “A Nobel Lecture on Sustainable Development, Democracy, and Peace” 5.3 Myriam J. A. Chancy, “Haitian Feminisms: A Future for Haiti” 5.4 Nnedi Okorafor, “Africanfuturism Defined” 5.5 Nadia Sanger, “Notes on African Futurism and Black Feminist Politics” 5.6 Neema Githere, “Afropresentism: Quotidien Rituals for Quotidien Wounds” 5.7 Tabita Rezaire, “Decolonial Healing: In Defense of Spiritual Technologies” 5.8 Moya Bailey, “Misogynoir on the Move: A Dandelion Story” 5.9 Anna LaQuawn Hinton, “Cripping #BlackGirlMagic, Valuing Black (Girl) Being” 5.10 Alexis Pauline Gumbs, “dark energy: for Harriet Tubman” Section 6 - ARTBlack Feminist Visual Artists - A Selected List Section 7 - BIOGRAPHIES