2nd Edition

Sisters of the Yam Black Women and Self-Recovery

By bell hooks Copyright 2015
    198 Pages
    by Routledge

    198 Pages
    by Routledge

    In Sisters of the Yam, bell hooks reflects on the ways in which the emotional health of black women has been and continues to be impacted by sexism and racism. Desiring to create a context where black females could both work on their individual efforts for self-actualization while remaining connected to a larger world of collective struggle, hooks articulates the link between self-recovery and political resistance. Both an expression of the joy of self-healing and the need to be ever vigilant in the struggle for equality, Sisters of the Yam continues to speak to the experience of black womanhood.

    Preface to the New Edition: Reflections of Light  Introduction: Healing Darkness  1. Seeking After Truth  2. Tongues of Fire  3. Work Makes Life Sweet  4. Knowing Peace  5. Growing Away from Addiction  6. Dreaming Ourselves Dark and Deep  7. Facing and Feeling Loss  8. Moved by Passion  9. Living to Love  10. Sweet Communion  11. The Joy of Reconciliation  12. Touching the Earth  13. Walking in the Spirit  An Interview with bell hooks (2004)

    Biography

    A cultural critic, an intellectual, and a feminist writer, bell hooks is best known for classic books including Ain’t I a Woman, Bone Black, All About Love, Rock My Soul, Belonging, We Real Cool, Where We Stand, Teaching to Transgress, Teaching Community, Outlaw Culture, and Reel to Real. hooks is Distinguished Professor in Residence in Appalachian Studies at Berea College, and resides in her home state of Kentucky.

    "Sisters of the Yam, with its mixture of personal narrative, cultural critique, brief literary analyses, and plain, old-fashioned, kitchen table common-sense advice, might very well reach beyond the university to the diverse groups of people that have been hooks’s ‘intended’ audience throughout much of her speaking and writing." —Sandra Adell, African American Review (1995)

    "In Sisters of the Yam, hooks articulates black women’s healing as an expression of ‘liberatory political practice.’ This statement transformed my consciousness as a health activist. By simply caring for myself, I can be a revolutionary. . ." —Sariane Leigh, The Feminist Wire (2012)