-
Views
-
Cite
Cite
Julie Armstrong, The Sisterhood: How a Network of Black Women Writers Changed American Culture, Journal of American History, Volume 111, Issue 3, December 2024, Pages 609–610, https://doi.org/10.1093/jahist/jaae231
Close - Share Icon Share
Extract
Many scholars who study Black women writers know the photograph: eight luminaries—including Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, June Jordan, and Ntozake Shange—pose smiling under a framed image of the singer Bessie Smith. Many also know that the group, identifying itself as the Sisterhood, created a personal and professional community during a series of meetings in the late 1970s. The lesser-known story is one that Courtney Thorsson captures in her book's title, The Sisterhood: How a Network of Black Women Writers Changed American Culture. References to these meetings typically describe them as informal, but as Thorsson argues, they were instead strategic, intent on increasing the visibility of Black women in publishing and the academy. The gatherings, typically held at members' New York City apartments, also provided the sustenance of mutual support, vigorous debate, laughter, and potluck dinners to fortify the women as they built careers and navigated the daily grind of sexism and racism.
