Books in brief

Crisis, The, Sep/Oct 2003

Women Writing Africa, Volume 1: The Southern Region, edited by M.J. Daymond, Dorothy Driver, Sheila Meintjes, Leloba Molema, Chiedza Musengezi, Margie Orford and Nobantu Rasebotsa (The Feminist Press, $75/$29.95 paper). A decade in the making, this is the first in a four-volume series intended to document the oral and literary voices of African women. Here, women from South Africa, Botswana, Swaziland, Lesotho, Namibia and Zimbabwe contribute more than 100 letters, essays, poems, speeches and works of fiction, from the late 19th century to 2001.

The First Thing Smoking, by Nelson Eubanks (One World/Ballantine, $19.95). An engaging collection of short stories from a new author. Set in Brazil and New York, the interconnected stories follow Maceo from childhood to his twenties, exploring family relationships and the politics of color, class and education.

Streets of Glory: Church and Community in a Black Urban Neighborhood, by Omar M. McRoberts (Chicago University Press, $25). McRoberts, a sociology professor at the University of Chicago, focuses on the Four Corners area of Boston and finds that many churches in inner-city neighborhoods are run and attended by people who don't live in the area. The congregations have little connection to the community and, simply seeking low overhead, are unlikely to be concerned about the needs and uplift of the neighborhood.

Rita Dove's Cosmopolitanism, by Malin Pereira (University of Illinois Press, $29.95). Pereira, a professor of English at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte, offers a critical study of Rita Dove's body of work, including her Pulitzer Prize-winning Thomas and Beulah and an interview with the former U.S. poet laureate.

Longing to Tell: Black Women Talk About Sexuality and Intimacy, by Tricia Rose (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $25). In an effort to dispel the stereotypical sexualized image of Black women that, while generally shunned, still permeates contemporary pop culture, Rose, a professor of American studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz, interprets the testimonies of 19 women who range in age and are from a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds.

Black Fathers: A Call for Healing, by Kristin Clark Taylor (Doubleday, $22.95). The author puts forth various experiences of men and women in fatherhood relationships (while also recalling memories of her own father, who is deceased) and examines the "challenges and pitfalls" Black men face in their responsibilities and love for their children. Characterized as a "clarion call" for fathers to become more involved with their families, each chapter highlights an issue, including prayer, pride, friendship, community and healing.

The Battle Over the Barnes Collection: Art Held Hostage, by John Anderson (W.W. Norton, $25.95). The author examines a big story that has received scant attention. Albert Barnes (1872-1951), a physician who made a fortune in pharmaceuticals, assembled a world-class collection of art that includes Picassos and Matisses and is valued at more than $6 billion. To the surprise of many, he left care of the collection to Lincoln University in Chester County, Pa., the oldest Black college in the country. Barnes owned a farmhouse near the school and had come to know its then-president Horace Mann Bond. Today, after protracted legal battles, the Barnes Foundation is in financial trouble, and as interested parties jockey to save and control it, Lincoln University's relationship with the collection is seriously threatened.