Gumbo- An Anthology of African American Writing [Anthology] PDF
Preview Gumbo- An Anthology of African American Writing [Anthology]
HARLEM MOON BROADWAY BOOKS NEW YORK EDITED BY Marita Golden and E. Lynn Harris Contents TITLE PAGE ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ABOUT THE HURSTON/WRIGHT FOUNDATION NOTE FROM E. LYNN HARRIS NOTE FROM MARITA GOLDEN FAMILY TREE • • The Dew Breaker BY EDWIDGE DANTICAT FROM Erasure BY PERCIVAL EVERETT FROM RL's Dream BY WALTER MOSLEY FROM The Harris Men BY R. M. JOHNSON The Boy-Fish BY DAVID ANTHONY DURHAM The Way I See It (FROM A Day Late and a Dollar Short) BY TERRY MCMILLAN FROM Pride BY LORENE CARY FROM What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day BY PEARL CLEAGE Mourning Glo BY LORI BRYANT-WOOLRIDGE FROM These Same Long Bones BY GWENDOLYN M. PARKER Your Child Can Be a Model! BY DAVID HAYNES FROM Song of the Water Saints BY NELLY ROSARIO Miss Prissy and the Penitentiary BY YOLANDA JOE Luminous Days BY MITCHELL JACKSON FROM Only Twice I've Wished for Heaven BY DAWN TURNER TRICE Sonny-Boy (FROM Pictures of a Dying Man ) BY AGYMAH KAMAU FROM Water Marked BY HELEN ELAINE LEE FROM October Suite BY MAXINE CLAIR Like Trees, Walking BY RAVI HOWARD Weight BY JOHN EDGAR WIDEMAN FROM Thieves' Paradise BY ERIC JEROME DICKEY FROM P. G. County BY CONNIE BRISCOE THIS I KNOW IS TRUE • • My Heavenly Father BY DANA CRUM Lion's Blood BY STEVEN BARNES The Knowing BY TANANARIVE DUE Luscious (FROM Loving Donovan) BY BERNICE L. MCFADDEN FROM Crawfish Dreams BY NANCY RAWLES Press and Curl BY TAYARI JONES I Don't Know Nothin' 'Bout Birthin' No Babies (FROM The River Where Blood Is Born) BY SANDRA JACKSON-OPOKU Draggin' the Dog BY ANIKA NAILAH Museum Guide (FROM Black Girl in Paris) BY SHAY YOUNGBLOOD School (FROM Miss Black America) BY VERONICA CHAMBERS Ghost Story (FROM Slapboxing with Jesus) BY VICTOR D. LAVALLE Clarity BY DAVID WRIGHT My Mama, Your Mama (FROM Imani All Mine) BY CONNIE PORTER FROM Rails Under My Back BY JEFFERY RENARD ALLEN FROM Dakota Grand BY KENJI JASPER LOVE JONES • • The Dinner Party BY E. LYNN HARRIS Meeting Frederick (FROM Douglass's Women) BY JEWELL PARKER RHODES Eva and Isaiah (FROM Ain't Nobody's Business If I Do) BY VALERIE WILSON WESLEY FROM Discretion BY ELIZABETH NUNEZ An Orange Line Train to Ballston BY EDWARD P. JONES Lucielia Louise Turner (FROM The Women of Brewster Place) BY GLORIA NAYLOR Fortune BY R. ERICA DOYLE $100 and Nothing! BY J. CALIFORNIA COOPER Are You Experienced? BY DANZY SENNA Group Solo BY SCOTT POULSON BRYANT Love BY BERTICE BERRY FROM Breathing Room BY PATRICIA ELAM Love (FROM Drop) BY MAT JOHNSON Antiquated Desires BY CRIS BURKS FROM Rest for the Weary BY ARTHUR FLOWERS FROM Church Folk BY MICHELE ANDREA BOWEN FROM Commitment BY THOMAS GLAVE Black and Boo BY MICHAEL KAYODE INCOGNITO • • Rossonian Days BY WILLIAM HENRY LEWIS Helter Skelter BY MARITA GOLDEN Here BY AUDREY PETTY Summer Comes Later BY ROBERT FLEMING The Bulging Bag BY UNOMA N. AZUAH FROM Sap Rising BY CHRISTINE LINCOLN Fire: An Origin Tale BY FAITH ADIELE Tan Son Nhut Airport, Ho Chi Minh City, 1997 (FROM The Land South of the Clouds) BY GENARO KY LY SMITH Between Black and White BY NICOLE BAILEY-WILLIAMS Hincty (FROM The Chosen People) BY KAREN GRIGSBY BATES To Haiti or To Hell BY ALEXS D. PATE Mirror Image BY AMY DU BOIS BARNETT FROM What You Owe Me BY BEBE MOORE CAMPBELL Will Not Be Televised BY JEWELL GOMEZ Fear of Floating BY BRYAN GIBSON FROM The Queen of Harlem BY BRIAN KEITH JACKSON My Girl Mona BY CRYSTAL WILKINSON ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS CREDITS COPYRIGHT PAGE Acknowledgments From Marita Golden: Clyde McElvene, my friend and fellow cultural worker, without whom the Hurston/Wright Foundation would not exist. E. Lynn Harris for the zeal, dedication, and generosity with which he has supported the Hurston/Wright Foundation and for suggesting this anthology. Janet Hill, for her energy, intelligence, and vision; and for making this big project more fun than I suspected it could be. From E. Lynn Harris: Thanks to Marita Golden and Clyde McElvene for their friendship and leadership of the Hurston/Wright Foundation and for allowing me to be a part of their mission. Janet Hill, for her leadership—and for proving to me time and time again that she is among the best editors and people in the business. All of the writers who didn't think twice when we asked them to contribute a story for free. This couldn't have happened without you. About the Hurston/Wright Foundation Since 1990, the Hurston/Wright Foundation has been in the forefront of developing programs that support the national community of Black writers. The Hurston/Wright Award, the country's only national award for college writers of African descent has recognized over thirty emerging writers, six of whose books have been published by leading national imprints. Hurston/Wright Writers' Week is the country's only multi-genre summer writers' workshop for Black writers, held on the campus of Howard University. Over five hundred writers have attended Hurston/Wright Writers' Week, and three alumni of the workshop have had books published. The Hurston/Wright Foundation also offers classes in creative writing for high school students in Washington, D.C. The Hurston/Wright Legacy Award is a new national award for published Black writers, presented by the Hurston/Wright Foundation in partnership with Borders Books and Music. Three winners in the categories of Fiction, Debut Fiction, and Nonfiction will receive, respectively, $10,000 for the winner and $5,000 each for two finalists. The Hurston/Wright Legacy Award is the only award to published Black writers presented by a panel of their peers, and honors the works of Black writers who represent the tradition of excellence and innovation established by Zora Neale Hurston and Richard Wright. For more information on the Hurston/Wright Foundation you may visit our Web site at www.hurstonwright.org Or email us at [email protected]. Our address is P.O. Box 77287 Washington, D.C. 20013; our phone is 301-422-0152. Note from E. Lynn Harris Early in my career I started supporting the Hurston Wright Foundation because I believed in their mission. The Foundation was addressing a need that was missing by providing workshops and programs for writers of color. Judging from the outstanding collection we've been able to gather in the form of Gumbo, I'm happy that other writers feel the same way and want to show the same support. Black authors are at a very critical point right now in proving to mainstream publishers that African American literature is viable not only in the sense of temporary renaissance, but now and forever. Imprints such as Harlem Moon will give voice to those writers perfecting their craft and will allow them to share their words with many hungry readers. Gumbo includes a broad spectrum of current writers—from those who have established popular followings, to those writing with a literary or social slant, as well as some unpublished authors who may become the stars of tomorrow. Some of you will reacquaint yourself with old friends in the form of stories you've loved that were previously published but you'll also be able to meet some new friends and be introduced to authors who have been waiting for the chance to meet you. By buying and supporting this collection, you'll ensure that there will always be entertaining, heartfelt and poignant stories by a wide range of writers who will always tell the stories of people of color. Thank you so much for your support. Warmest regards, E. Lynn Harris Note from Marita Golden Our mission is to tell the truth at whatever cost. RICHARD WRIGHT I am not tragically colored. There is no great sorrow damned up in my soul, nor lurking behind my eyes. I do not mind at all. ZORA NEALE HURSTON The Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Foundation was started with $750 and a dream. The money was mine. The dream belonged to every writer, everywhere, and it was the desire for recognition, support, and community. The African American writer has, of necessity, been visionary and witness, a channel for an individual sense of story even while recognizing that for Black people in America, writing is fighting. The most important and crucial lesson I have learned from other writers about the lonely, difficult, rewarding-beyond- measure, dangerous, amazing, misunderstood endeavor we undertake is the lesson of courage. Courage not only in the face of a society and a world that often seeks to silence the complexity and beauty of the experience of African people, but courage in the face of the fear and narrow-mindedness and orthodoxy that bedevils our own community. Writing is fighting. But it is also building and loving and confirming and creating. It's a job. A lifestyle. An honorable and even sacred way of living in the world. Zora Neale Hurston and Richard Wright exemplify all the contradictions, all the peaks and valleys of the writer's life. They made their lives their epitaph, and their spirits remain vivid, combustible, energizing, and inspiring, continually altering the world. The more I learn about the life of Richard Wright, every time I read or teach his autobiography, Black Boy, I am rendered nearly mute with admiration for his guts, his bravery, and the powerful things that words became when he used them. Every time I read Their Eyes Were Watching God, or just think about how Zora Neale Hurston strode through her life as though it was a
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