Books
What if Black parents from other planets visited Earth? What kind of advice would you give them to safely navigate the world given today's social climate? In To Black Parents Visiting Earth: Raising Black Children in the 21st Century, Janet Stickmon writes a collection of letters to Black parents visiting Earth on topics ranging from the politics of hair to generational wealth, from education to self-care, offering practical advice on how to raise our Black children to be happy, confident, and resilient. The letters are part memoir, part self-help guide and explore ways we can inoculate our children against self-hatred, strengthen their spirits, and nurture their brilliance against a backdrop of anti-Blackness.
“There’s so much to laud here, but I’m most taken by the lushness and specificity of the language. All of our senses are taken care of as Stickmon makes us feel, not just what it feels like to be a Black parent or Black child, but the actual intimate and terrifying space between child and parent, between Black childhood and Black adulthood. To Black Parents Visiting Earth will last…it will set the tone for parental studies in this country. I’ve never read anything like this book.”
—KIESE LAYMON, author of Heavy: An American Memoir
“To Black Parents Visiting Earth is a powerful affirmation that reminds Black parents (and others) that we are not crazy when we make demands for more inclusive, representative, culturally relevant approaches to growing our children.”
—GLORIA LADSON-BILLINGS, author of The Dreamkeepers: Successful Teachers of African American Children
“Janet Stickmon is an ancient truth teller. Her collection of letters of love to Black parents [Black people] will incite a wave of enduring engagements and interventions into the everyday experiences, battles, and triumphs of Black life and Black parenthood. To Black Parents Visiting Earth is a ground swell of tools, remembrances, and unapologetic defiance in a world set on negating the power, beauty, and brilliance of Black children.”
—ANDREW JOLIVETTE, author of Obama and the Biracial Factor: The Battle for a New American Majority
Janet Stickmon’s Midnight Peaches, Two O’clock Patience is a mantra, a spell cast to acknowledge ancestral connection, the multiple gazes upon the female body, and the sexual freedom born from motherhood. This collection of essays, poems, and short stories invites the reader to bear witness to how women touch others and the ways they want to be touched. Midnight Peaches, Two O’Clock Patience disrupts the border separating public and private, human existence and the spirit realm, exposing the beauty of what has been named dirty, shameful, and repulsive. Stickmon reminds us that patience and a listening ear can inspire a woman’s creative power to overflow without warning.
MIDNIGHT PEACHES, TWO O’CLOCK PATIENCE features: “Blackapina,” “(FOR:) Play–An Exegesis of Goapele’s ‘Play’ “, “Breastmilk,” and “Beauty Revealed–Bringing Out the Best in Others. “Blackapina” was featured in READ TO WRITE STORIES by editor Michael Noll. Check out the interview and writing exercise on narrative voice as Noll uses “Blackapina” as an example of “How to Bring Other Voices into Your Story.”
Crushing Soft Rubies is the place where spirit, culture, and survival meet. It is the story of a Filipino-African-American who is caught between the death of her parents and the desperate need to define herself—not as an orphan, but as a strong woman who is willing to do whatever is necessary to ensure that her past does not become a barrier to her future. From her childhood home being burned to the ground, to the joys and conflicts with her Filipino family, to seeking a connection to her African-American heritage, and then to the beautiful moment of her marriage, Janet navigates the rough waters of love, spirit, identity, and survival, maintaining a life filled with faith and wonder.
Male Strippers as Healers and their Emcee as Griotte examines the 2015 film Magic Mike XXL and focuses on: 1) the multidimensional depictions of the Kings of Tampa and how this humanizes male entertainers, 2) the way the film elevates the performances of male entertainers to the role of healer, and 3) how the emcee’s role is raised to the level of a griot(te), a wise wordsmith singing praises to women, reminding them that they are worthy of having their sexual desires prioritized.