Fiction. African American Studies. LGBT Studies. Using traditional storytelling and nontraditional verse to chronicle the course of love returning in the lifetimes of one woman-loving-woman named bull-dog-jean, the bull-jeanstories give cultural documentation and social commentary on African-American herstory and survival. Set in the rural South of the 1920s, THE BULL-JEAN STORIES herald the spirit of African-American people. "BULL-JEAN STORIES by Sharon Bridgforth isn't a book that you read, it's a book that you hear...The language in THE BULL-JEAN STORIES is sweet and intense, as are the thoughts and exploits of bull-dog-jean. Every passage sings...This book gets my unqualified recommendation and also a suggestion: if you can get Austin performance artist Bridgforth to your town for a reading, do it. You won't be disappointed."—Sara Look "The book [THE BULL-JEAN STORIES] brings to life the sights and sounds of the rural south in the 1920s with stories that leap to you from the well of love and life, untangling open heart wounds with words and uncovering the strength of the author in pure character. ..Bridgforth's talent as a storyteller is purposeful and loving. Consistent in THE BULL-JEAN STORIES is the cultural shadow that bull-jean, an 'all-my-heart' revolutionary, secretly and outwardly conquers with nobility and ease, but not without pain...The book carries you with it, not the other way around."—Sandra Beckmeier "...Set in the rural South of the 1920s, these stories are infused with a mother tongue that will work its magic on you, transporting you in time and place...The non-linear structure of her poetic/circular storytelling in the bull- jean stories makes for a natural transition from page to stage. It also is a very ingenious way to highlight what is the essence of oral tradition: how it sounds...Here the rhythm and the flow of the words and the dialect come together as if in song. These jazzy poetic riffs need to be read aloud. This is one book that should come with a CD—Bridgforth's language begs to be heard."—Debra Hiers "It reads like a play, speaks like a poem, visualizes like scenes from a movie, and lingers in your ear like your favorite song. Hooray for sharon bridgforth on her first published performance stories. It includes all the literary elements you expect in a novel: setting—the rural south of the 1920s; a round character—bull- dog jean la rue; plot and conflict—will she or won't she find 'Lovve'?; and style, tone, and language woven in the oral tradition of Southern dialect. Yet it's not (a novel, that is)...Perhaps the brilliance of the work is the way bridgforth infuses historical data into humor, sentiment, and lyrical prose, illuminating what it meant to be an African-American butch lesbian living in the South...Truly, what bridgforth has done with this collection, THE BULL-JEAN STORIES, is sure to set a precedent for future storytelling writers. It is a must-have in your repertoire."—Lambda Book Report

The Bull-Jean Stories

Literature & Fiction

Bridgforth, Sharon

United States

RedBone Press

Fiction. African American Studies. LGBT Studies. Finalist for the Lambda Literary Award in Drama. LOVE CONJURE/BLUES is performance literature/a novel that is constructed for breath. The piece is not meant to be theater/a concert/an opera or a staged reading but is. LOVE CONJURE/BLUES places the fiction- form inside a traditional Black American voice/inviting dramatic interpretation and movement within the fit of a highly literary text—filled with folktales poetry haints prophecy song and oral history. LOVE CONJURE/BLUES considers a range of possibilities of gender expression and sexuality within a southern/rural/Black working class context that examines the blues as a way of life/as ritual—in concert with Ancient practices and new creations. The past the present the future the living and the dead co-exist together/at the same time in a weave of dreams/Prayers/Love/Spirit expressed.

Love Conjure/Blues

Poetry

bull-jean & dem/dey back collects two performance/novels centering Sharon Bridgforth’s southern-Black-butch-sheroe, bull-jean. 
First published by RedBone Press in 1998, the Lambda Literary Award-winning the bull-jean stories chronicles the course of lovve returning in the Life-times of bull-dog-jean. Set in the rural 1920s south, the bull-jean stories is an act of griot-anthropology, remembering the ancestor we never knew but always knew we needed—the raucous, sweet-talking, heart-aching wo’mn-lovvn-wo’mn bull-dog-jean and the fierce and beautiful community that surrounds her. 
Twenty-two years later, bull-dog-jean returns in bull-jean/we wake. Grieving the loss of their elders, seeking healing, the Narrator calls forward bull-jean. Through a series of dreams, porch prayers, and visitations from cussing conjurers, Black Mermaids, children that fly, and shape-shifting ole folk, bull-jean and dem guide the Narrator towards a realization of the sustaining power of love, memory, community, ritual, and spiritual binding.

bull-jean & dem/dey back

Dramas & Plays

53rd State Press

In June 2022, Sharon Bridgforth and Daniel Alexander Jones held an intimate and searching conversation about the pragmatics of making art and engaging the communities--living and ancestral--from which their work emerges. The two longtime friends reflect on Bridgforth's&nbsp;bull-jean & dem/dey back, a collection of two performance/novels written twenty-two years apart about the eponymous bull-jean (published in Sept 2022 by 53rd State Press). Bridgforth reveals how motherhood spurred her towards understanding her genders and sexuality, and how the desire to love, heal, and live in truth has compelled her writing and her life choices. Bridgforth details the weave between her early work in social justice (based in Austin, TX, where she and Jones met), her artmaking, and her remarkable commitment to community.&nbsp;Bridgforth's writing starts in the marrow of her own healing. As they discuss Bridgforth's work--as well as the work of such&nbsp;luminaries as Laurie Carlos, Robbie McCauley, Ntozake Shange, Urban Bush Women,&nbsp;raúlrsalinas, and&nbsp;Beverly Glenn-Copeland--Jones and Bridgforth offer tested strategies for living a grounded artistic life.

All These Things: A Conversation

Arts & Photography

Jones, Daniel Alexander

Performing Arts

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Bridgforth, Sharon. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Bridgforth, Sharon