Title: De facto feminism
Description: "DeFacto Feminism: Essays Straight Outta Oakland views activism and feminism as they play out in one writer's political, artistic and spiritual life. A distinguished semifinalist for OSUs 2016 Non/Fiction Collection Prize, De Facto& is a cross between Audre Lorde's Zami: A New Spelling of My Name and Jean Toomer's Cane, blending essay, poems, graphics and literary criticism. An act of self-definition spanning four decades, the central person in DeFacto... is the writer herself, a feminist foot soldier. With the feel of memoir, these essays align with female thinkers Anna Julia Cooper, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Lorde, Alice Walker, Michelle Wallace, Angela Davis, bell hooks, Paula Giddings, Michelle Alexander, Roxane Gay and Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche. Much like the central character in her semi-autobiographical novel, Virgin Soul, whom Juanita calls a female foot soldier, the voice herein is a feminist foot soldier, processing major shifts in American society through the portal of her own artistic development. The essays are set chronologically, beginning with a picture of her Tuskegee Airman father, and an account of a not altogether idyllic childhood in Oakland, California. A patchwork narrative emerges: Growing up in Oakland in the fifties and sixties. Comparing her burgeoning sexuality to young white females in 1964 having orgiastic responses to the Beatles. Formulating an erstwhile womanhood based on Black Nationalism. Deconstructing the infamous N-word controversy. Looking back acerbically at her romance with The Gun and the black power movement. Paying homage to Black Arts Movement poet Carolyn M. Rodgers. Celebrating 21st century feminism in unexpected places. Examining race and micro-aggression in liberal Berkeley. Living with a ghost/mentor for a year. The book's format moves from essay to poem to epistle, utilizing the genre of letter writing in the final essay, {28}Acknowledge Me,
Subjects: American essays, African American women authors, Biography, African American women, Feminism
People: Judy Juanita
Time periods: 21st century