Lyah Beth Leflore – författare

In his new collection of poetry, Naked, Abiodun Oyewole unveils his thoughts on self-love, forgiveness, lost love, survival, and cultural identity. Known as a founding member of The Last Poets, a spoken word performance group that arose out of the black nationalism movement in East Harlem in the late 1960’s, Oyewole brings his revolutionary voice to this collection. His writing is straight-forward, engaging, and intense, with the poems taking on the shape of various emotions. Inspired by the “naked poetry” of Juan Ramón Jiménez, Naked is rooted in a striving for freedom, for an essential natural state devoid of all external adornment, turning sensations into concepts that express the concrete realization of nature itself. Written in free form, the brief transcendental poems of Naked convey the character of Oyewole, who has evolved into a master poet of his generation.

The third volume in the Trailblazers series, highlights Black women’s contributions in literature, media production, business, and the military.   Black women have been breaking down barriers and shattering stereotypes for generations, playing a powerful role in American history. In the Trailblazers series, Gabrielle David examines the lives and careers of over four hundred brilliant women from the eighteenth century to the present. Each volume provides biographical information, photographs, and a historical timeline written from the viewpoint of Black women, offering accessible reference resources. Volume 3 features women from the fields of literature, business, military, and film, music, and television production. It covers literary greats including Gwendolyn Brooks, Toni Morrison, Phillis Wheatley, and Natasha Trethewey. We learn that Black ingenuity and entrepreneurship began during slavery with women who paved the way for those like Oprah Winfrey. David explores the Black women who pursued their right to serve in the United States Armed Forces, even when they were not considered American citizens and follows notable contributions by Black women in media production.

Revealing mother and daughter memoir chronicling their final conversations, complexities as women and artists, and the rich history of their African American family.    Shirley Bradley Price LeFlore, activist and architect of the 1960's Black Arts Movement, and Lyah Beth LeFlore share tears and laughter through intimate conversations during Shirley’s final year of life and discuss the childhood tragedy that shaped Shirley’s life and artistry. Lyah talks about growing up with a mother in the public eye, tracing Shirley’s ancestors’ experiences as a midwestern African American family with rich southern roots and a deep belief in God and the spirit world.   A testament to the powerful bond between Shirley and her three daughters, the book shines a light on the beauty and toll of caregiving by beautifully interwoven prose, including Shirley’s private journal entries and unreleased poetry, discovered by Lyah, alongside stories, ephemera, and photographs

The fourth volume in the Trailblazers series highlights Black women’s contributions in film and television, the sciences, and journalism.Black women have been breaking down barriers and shattering stereotypes for generations, playing a powerful role in American history. In the Trailblazers series, Gabrielle David examines the lives and careers of over four hundred brilliant women from the eighteenth century to the present. Each volume provides biographical information, photographs, and a historical timeline written from the viewpoint of Black women, offering accessible reference resources.This fourth volume of Trailblazers explores the complicated relationship that Hollywood has had with Black women actors; significant Black women in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM); and pioneering Black women journalists. David includes actors such as Hattie McDaniel, Fredi Washington, and Nina Mae McKinney who blazed the trail for women like Pam Grier, Halle Berry, and Viola Davis. “Hidden figures” in STEM are brought to light, such as biologist Jewel Plummer Cobb, mathematician Dorothy Vaughan, roboticist Ayanna Howard, and computer scientist Timnit Gebru. In addition, profiles of publishing pioneers like Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Mary Ann Shadd Cary, Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin, and Nancy Hicks Maynard show how they paved the way for Carole Simpson, Yamiche Alcindor, Nikole Hannah-Jones, and Jemele Hill.

Since slavery, Black women have struggled to liberate themselves from racism and sexism. Yet despite these hurdles and under the most difficult circumstances, they managed to achieve greatness. TRAILBLAZERS shines a light on these their accomplishments, which often led to widespread cultural change. TRAILBLAZERS is a six-volume series that examines the lives and careers of over four hundred brilliant women from the eighteenth century to the present who blazed uncharted paths in every conceivable way.Each TRAILBLAZERS volume is organized into several sections. Along with biographical information and powerful photographs, David provides a historical timeline for each section—written from the viewpoint of Black women—that maps out the significance of the featured women that follow.Volume 1 features an assortment of sixty-five activists, dancers, and athletes. We learn about the significance of activists like Ella Baker, Pauli Murray, Rosina Tucker, and Clara Day, who represent the hundreds of unnamed women who participated in the civil rights and labor movements. We re-discover dancers Jeni Legon and Margot Webb, who are honored alongside dance legends Josephine Baker, Katherine Dunham, Janet Collins, and a new generation of dancers including Misty Copeland, Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards, and choreographers like Camille A. Brown, and Cynthia Oliver. And then there are the Black women athletes who disrupted the world of sports, from the nearly forgotten tennis champion Ora Washington and Alice Coachman—the first to compete and win in the Olympics—to Simone Biles, the most decorated gymnast in Olympic history. Throughout the series, as David re-introduces many of these women into the public sphere, they are not always in predictable ways. For example, Debbie Allen makes a brief appearance in this volume, not for her acting or as a director, but rather as the dancer she initially trained to be, reminding us that Black women are multifaceted, multitalented, and complex. What binds these women together is that as they struggled on the front lines, they shook up the status quo of Black people in America. Throughout the volume, David also challenges the socially conditioned assumptions, stereotypes, and false binaries that denigrate Black women’s bodies particularly in dance and sports, including the barriers they face in how they wear their hair. In this regard, David addresses the totality of Black womanhood: physically, culturally, and politically.With painstaking research, David has created an affordable, visually rich, and accessible reference book. From the foremothers who blazed trails and broke barriers, to the women who follow in their footsteps, TRAILBLAZERS offers powerful and inspiring role models for women and girls from all cultural backgrounds and for the intellectually curious. TRAILBLAZERS is a clarion call for recognition of the transformative work Black women have done and continue to do. Written in accessible prose that contains personal reflections for a broad audience, TRAILBLAZERS also serves as a vital reference guide for use in schools and libraries.