In Search of a Beautiful Freedom

December 12, 2022
These powerful essays by Griffin (Read Until You Understand), a professor of African American studies at Columbia University, contemplate the culture and politics of Black feminism. She muses on music, literature, and history, suggesting in “When Malindy Sings” that Black women are often called on to sing at events promoting national unity because white people want them to play the role of “mammy,” who “heals and nurtures” the national family “but has no rights or privileges within it.” Pieces on Black women writers contemplate such famous figures as Zora Neale Hurston—whose controversial opposition to Brown v. Board of Education receives a subtle appraisal—as well as such lesser-known literary lights as Ellen Watkins Harper, who published novels about Reconstruction as early as 1869. Elsewhere, Griffin examines how Black women’s literature has pushed back against white supremacist beauty standards and provides a thoughtful critique of how Black nationalists, such as Malcolm X, have sought to exalt and protect Black women’s bodies while simultaneously subjecting them to patriarchal paternalization. Griffin is consistently incisive and her arguments deeply nuanced. This serves as a testament to the lucidity of Griffin’s stimulating oeuvre.

February 1, 2023
A Black feminist perspective on the arts, politics, and race. Griffin, a 2021 Guggenheim fellow and professor of African American literature at Columbia, gathers essays, written over the past 30 years, that cohere to reveal her evolution as an insightful cultural critic and historian. The book's title alludes to Alice Walker's In Search of Our Mother's Gardens: Womanist Prose, published in 1983, which Griffin read as a college student and which, she writes, "helped me to identify my intellectual calling" and inspired her appreciation of the essay as a literary form. Also deeply influential was Toni Morrison, whose works shaped her understanding "of history, narrative, power, domination, and language." From Morrison's work, Griffin came to understand that "mobility and migration were the dominant tropes of Black life in the modern world." Among many essays on music, Griffin considers Miles Davis, Billie Holiday, and three performers of the 1970s--Minnie Riperton, Syreeta Wright, and Deniece Williams--whose "ethereal, introspective, angelic voices" pointed to "a sense of healing and possibility." Griffin also examines the cultural significance of Black women singers, such as Marian Anderson and Aretha Franklin, who have performed before audiences on momentous occasions--presidential inaugurations, the aftermath of disasters--"when the nation is trying to present an image of itself to itself and to the world." Beyonc� falls into that category, singing the Etta James classic "At Last" at a ball celebrating the election of Barack Obama. That performance, and the election itself, inspires Griffin's perceptive analysis of the relationship of Michelle Obama and Beyonc� to America's racial history. Other essays include reflections on teaching online during the pandemic; the consequences of book banning; Hurricane Katrina, which exacerbated the "instability, insecurity, and disruption" that have blighted Black history; and the way difference has been "inscribed on the bodies of Black women." Scholarship and memoir meld in a stimulating collection.

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April 1, 2023
A wide array of cultural, social, and biographical subjects is explored in this dynamic collection of new and previously published essays. From the opening section, dedicated to writings on the influence of Black music, Griffin (Read Until You Understand, 2021) tackles many aspects of her subjects, including the often-conflicted relationship the zeitgeist has with art and artists. In "Ladies Sing Miles," she examines the juxtaposition of women finding deep connection and safety in the music of Miles Davis, while also coming to terms with his well-documented misogyny. Griffin's consistently skillful mixing of academic, researched prose with elegant memoir makes her complex essays accessible. In the especially absorbing "Wrestling til Dawn: On Becoming an Intellectual in the Age of Toni Morrison," the blending of her memories of first reading Morrison with a more formal literary critique of her work deftly strikes a balance between the personal and the universal. Throughout these expansive, engaging pieces, Griffin draws inspiration from many named creative heroes, as well as the writing and work of a long lineage of earlier Black artists and intellectuals. An excellent, thought-provoking collection.

COPYRIGHT(2023) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.