Dialogues across Diasporas
Women Writers, Scholars, and Activists of Africana and Latina Descent in Conversation
Contributions by Meredith E. Abarca, Gabriela Durán Barraza, Sasha Pimentel Chacón, Myriam J. A. Chancy, Karma R. Chávez, Selfa Chew, Yvette Christiansë, Ayo Abiétou Coly, Angie Cruz, Kerry Doyle, Natasha Gordon-Chipembere, Ana-Maurine Lara, Veronica Savory McComb, Milena Simões Murta, Olumide Popoola, Nelly Rosario, Kathleen Staudt Edited by Marion Rohrleitner, Sarah E. Ryan
Not available to order
Publication date:
07 December 2012Length of book:
302 pagesPublisher
Lexington BooksISBN-13: 9780739178058
Dialogues Across Diasporas focuses on the shared historical legacies of members of the Africana and Latina diasporas, and the cultural impact of the African diaspora in the Americas. This book seeks to emphasize connections rather than divisions among different migratory ethnic communities via a reconfiguration of borders and ethnic identities. This collection of essays has three major goals: first, to foreground shared themes and strategies in the literary productions of women of Africana and Latina/o descent; second, to highlight the importance of the arts for community activism within shared diasporic spaces; and third, to illustrate the potential of artistic and activist collaborations among women from both groups across disciplinary, political, national, and ethnic divides. Dialogues across Diasporas is divided into three sections. The first section provides a theoretical overview of diasporic migrations, politics, and identities. It argues that diverse diasporas can unite around shared political and cultural experiences such as converting contested spaces into communities and resisting rhetorics of exclusion. The second section demonstrates the diverse ways in which migratory women and daughters of the diaspora frame their histories, lived experiences, and different forms of knowledge via poetry, short stories, academic essays, and other art forms. The third section focuses on women’s activism, suggesting opportunities for collaboration among and between diverse diasporic communities.
A stunning and unique contribution in the field of Africana Studies. Includes eloquent and highly readable work by female creative writers, community activists, and scholars of the African diaspora from Africa, Europe, Latin America, the Caribbean region, and the United States. Notably, this collection not only emerged from a two-day symposium in El Paso del Norte in 2010, but from where a majority of the nineteen contributors presently live and work, or have had past experiential contact with the U.S. Mexico borderlands. This book expands the horizons of interdisciplinary and intersectional scholarship in the already established areas of American-, Woman-, and Cultural Studies.