Soul Talk
The New Spirituality of African American Women
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- £10.99
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- £10.99
Publisher Description
• A celebration of the journey of African-American women toward a new spirituality grounded in social awareness, black American tradition, metaphysics, and heightened creativity.
• Features illuminating insights from Alice Walker, Toni Cade Bambara, Lucille Clifton, Dolores Kendrick, Sonia Sanchez, Michele Gibbs, Geraldine McIntosh, Masani Alexis DeVeaux and Namonyah Soipan.
• By a widely published scholar, poet, and activist who has been interviewed by the press, television, and National Public Radio's All Things Considered
From the last part of the twentieth century through today, African-American women have experienced a revival of spirituality and creative force, fashioning a uniquely African-American way to connect with the divine. In Soul Talk, Akasha Gloria Hull examines this multifaceted spirituality that has both fostered personal healing and functioned as a formidable weapon against racism and social injustice.
Through fascinating and heartfelt conversations with some of today's most creative and powerful women--women whose spirituality encompasses, among others, traditional Christianity, Tibetan Buddhism, Native American teachings, meditation, the I Ching, and African-derived ancestral reverence--the author explores how this new spiritual consciousness is manifested, how it affects the women who practice it, and how its effects can be carried to others.
Using a unique and readable blend of interviews, storytelling, literary critique, and practical suggestions of ways readers can incorporate similar renewal into their daily lives, Soul Talk shows how personal and social change are possible through reconnection with the spirit.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This book concludes with the reverberating, "Am I accomplishing my work in the world?" According to author and scholar Hull, African-American women are answering this question by integrating political identity, spiritual consciousness and creativity. To expound upon this theme Hull has skillfully synthesized the reflections of nine very interesting, highly articulate women, more than half of whom are well-known authors such as Alice Walker, Toni Cade Bambara and Sonia Sanchez. All are friends to whom Hull put the initial query, "How do you see yourself as a spiritual being and how does that spirituality manifest in your life and work?" The answers reveal a far-flung yet supple spirituality that embraces many New Age ideas that Bambara neatly called "everybody's ancient wisdom." Hull not only allows the women their individuality, wise in such a group, but also fluidly organizes her conversations with them into a half-dozen themes, exploring the influence of spiritual practice on such topics as communications with ancestors, race, creativity and healing. Hull is writing for African-American women, who "wear our politicized identities every hour of every day, lean toward spiritual practices that are concrete and can easily be incorporated into daily life." However, the explorations and truths that waft up from this powerful, practical and nourishing gumbo make interesting reading for anyone. In this intelligent work of the heart and spirit, Hull reveals the exquisite and reflective interiors of African-American women.