A chronicle of African-American writers and their work encompasses two centuries and includes profiles of James Baldwin, Amiri Baraka, Gwendolyn Brooks, W.E.B. DuBois, Langston Hughes, and many others. Reprint.

African American Writers/Profiles of Their Lives and Works-From 1700s to the Present

Smith, Valerie

Baechler, Lea

Biographies & Memoirs

Collier Books

Not Just Race, Not Just Gender

From the nineteenth century articulations of Sojourner Truth to contemporary thinkers like Patricia J. Williams, Black feminists have always recognized the mutual dependence of race and gender. Detailing these connections, Not Just Race, Not Just Gender explores the myriad ways race and gender shape lives and social practices.  Resisting essentialist tendencies, Valerie Smith identifies black feminist theorizing as a strategy of reading rather than located in a particular subjective experience. Her intent is not to deny the validity of black women's lived experience, but rather to resist deploying a uniform model of black women's lives that actually undermines the power of black feminist thought. Whether reading race or gender in the Central Park jogger case or in contemporary media, like Livin' Large, Smith displays critical rigor that promises to change the way we think about race and gender.

Not Just Race, Not Just Gender: Black Feminist Readings

Humor & Entertainment

Movies

Routledge

From the nineteenth century articulations of Sojourner Truth to contemporary thinkers like Patricia J. Williams, Black feminists have always recognized the mutual dependence of race and gender. Detailing these connections, Not Just Race, Not Just Gender explores the myriad ways race and gender shape lives and social practices. Resisting essentialist tendencies, Valerie Smith identifies black feminist theorizing as a strategy of reading rather than located in a particular subjective experience. Her intent is not to deny the validity of black women's lived experience, but rather to resist deploying a uniform model of black women's lives that actually undermines the power of black feminist thought. Whether reading race or gender in the Central Park jogger case or in contemporary media, like Livin' Large, Smith displays critical rigor that promises to change the way we think about race and gender.

Arts & Photography

History & Criticism

The gamblers

S. French

Self-Discovery and Authority in Afro-American Narrative

It is by telling the stories of their lives that black writers--from the authors of nineteenth-century slave narratives to contemporary novelists--affirm and legitimize their psychological autonomy. So Valerie Smith argues in this perceptive exploration of the relationship between autobiography and fiction in Afro-American writing. Smith sees the processes of plot construction and characterization as providing these narrators with a measure of authority unknown in their lives. Focusing on autobiographies by Olaudah Equiano, Frederick Douglass, and Harriet Jacobs and the fiction of James Weldon Johnson, Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison, and Toni Morrison, she demonstrates the ways in which the act of narrating constitutes an act of self-fashioning that must be understood in the context of the Afro-American experience.Hers is a fertile investigation, attuned to the differences in male and female sensibilities, and attentive to the importance of oral traditions.

Self-discovery and authority in Afro-American narrative

Reference

Encyclopedias & Subject Guides

Harvard University Press

Community & Culture

The essays in this collection provide a variety of perspectives on black representation and questions of racial authenticity in mainstream as well as African American independent cinema. This volume includes seminal essays on racial stereotypes, trenchant critiques of that discourse, original essays on important directors such as Haile Gerima and Charles Burnett, and an insightful discussion of black gay and lesbian film and video. 
The contributors include Donald Bogle, Thomas Cripps, Jane Gaines, Nathan Grant, Stuart Hall, Tommy L. Lott, Wahneema Lubiano, Mike Murashige, Valerie Smith, James Snead, and David Van Leer. This volume is an important contribution to the Depth of Field series and should be indispensible for courses and individual scholars in film and multicultural studies. The book contains a mix of original and previously published pieces.

Representing Blackness: Issues in Film and Video (Rutgers Depth of Field Series)

Rutgers University Press

Simply wringing your hands over the state of the world is not going to change anything. It's real action that changes the world, and this book gives the reader advice from people who wake up every day and do the hard work of building peace. Bravo! - Jody Williams, Nobel Peace Prize LaureateThis volume teaches again and again one vital insight: peacebuilding in deeply divided communities requires a special combination of radical thinking, creative imagination and engaged action.   Mairead Maguire, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate  The literature on peacebuilding has expanded significantly in the past ten years. This book stands out because it reflects and charts the creativity, energy and relevance of the field for global peacemaking... it is an indispensable resource for educators, researchers and activist. - Tom Woodhouse, author of Contemporary Conflict Resolution   This book is an empowering patchwork of rich voices of harmony and dissent... It is a book you can dip into here and there on a plane or before bed. This is because it is a compilation that lets the journey be your own in connecting up the many strands of wisdom it contains. All of us can be much better peacebuilders if we take that journey of the connections with this sumptuous volume. - John Braithwaite, author of Crime, Shame and Reintegration Have you ever met people who faced deeply into the difficulties of life but still have a sense of joy, compassion, even playfulness?Each bestselling author shares with you wisdom, inspiring stories and real life experiences. Each of the 15 bold peacebuilders in this book are just such people and each offers their best ideas to help you. These people exude a kind of hope rooted, not in ignorance, but rather the kind of hope that arises as people face the complexity of violence, trauma, abuse and injustice but still somehow find a path toward being peace and transforming the world. . Each shares their first-hand experience of learning the art of conflict, how to be peace in the midst of disruption and how they work at transforming the world.These great teachers of peace teach you how to: Be inspired by the stories of people being peace and transforming the world.  .  Be equipped with tools and strategies of peacebuilding in a variety of settingsBe nurtured with resources that have helped shape and inspire the author's peace practices.   ˃˃˃ Authors include:Ovide Mercredi, Mubarak Awad, Stuart Clark, David Dyck, Martin Entz, Harry Huebner, Ouyporn Khuankaew, George Lakey, Ivo Markovic, Maxine Matilpi, Stan McKay, Piet Meiring, Sophia Murphy, Kay Pranis, and Karen Ridd. Accompany these authors offer you their best insights on these vital topics: women and peacebuilding, nonviolent action for social change, restorative justice, indigenous approaches to change, spirituality and creative arts, circle process, food security, mediation, inter-cultural peace work, truth and reconciliation. ˃˃˃

Voices of Harmony and Dissent: How Peacebuilders are Transforming Their Worlds

Self-Help

Personal Transformation

CMU Press

A key protagonist in the New York art scene of the 1970s and 1980s, Juan Downey (1940-1993) combined autobiographical content with an anthropological documentary style in his video works. This volume last unveils the oeuvre of this remarkable artist to a wider public.

Juan Downey: The Invisible Architect

Taussig, Michael

García, Isabel

González, Julieta

Bronx Museum of the Arts/MIT List Visual Arts Center

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Books by Smith, Valerie