Big Mama Stories - Softcover

Youngblood, Shay

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1481847775 ISBN 13: 9781481847773

Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2013

Synopsis

Big Mama Stories is set in the South in the 1960's. Daughter, whose mother died when she was very young, is raised by the women in her community, some blood related, some not. At the age of twelve, she begins her journey to womanhood, guided by these diverse, non-traditional, older Black women. Daughter reflects on her vivid memories of growing up, recalling rituals, faith healings, storytelling and lessons she learned about survival.

About this title

About the Author:

Georgia-born writer Shay Youngblood is author of the novels Soul Kiss, Winter Prophet, and Black Power Barbie. Her plays, Amazing Grace, Shakin' the Mess Outta Misery, and Talking Bones (Dramatic Publishing Company), have been widely produced. Her other plays include Flying Blind, Square Blues and Communism Killed My Dog. An Edward Albee honoree, and the recipient of numerous grants and awards, including a Pushcart Prize for fiction, a Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting Award, several NAACP Theater Awards, and an Astraea Writers' Award for fiction, Ms. Youngblood graduated from Clark-Atlanta University and received her MFA in Creative Writing from Brown University. She has worked as a Peace Corps volunteer in the eastern Caribbean, as an au pair, artist's model, and poet's helper in Paris, and as a creative writing instructor in a Rhode Island women's prison. She was a Japan U.S. Friendship Commission Creative Artist Fellow (2011).

Review:

The narrator of The Big Mama Stories grew up in "the projects," an area with "lines that marked us" and where the best blackberries flourished in the black cemetery. When her biological mother deserted her at five, the narrator was left with Big Mama, who was neither big nor her mother: "Just regular. A old Black woman who had a gift for seeing with her heart." Big Mama, however, is only one of this young girl's mothers - and they're not all female. Through their interconnected stories we learn their histories and hear their advice. From Big Mama, an explanation about why she uses snuff becomes a lesson on Black pride. From Miss Corrine, the hairdresser, the narrator learns the truth about her mother along with some advice: "if you got to dance or dream or anything at all, take it a step at a time and don't let nothing and nobody get in your way when you doing right." There's Miss Tom "who was not a pretty woman, she was handsome like a man" and Uncle Buck who tells her "Sometimes I love Jesus and sometimes I think he hard of hearing." On occasion all the mothers come together, to heal an illness or to celebrate a rite of passage, and during these events the narrative soars. Whether quiet or jubilant, sad or defiant or thoughtful, each story has power and pride, given freely to the narrator, and through her, to us. -- For great reviews of books for girls, check out Let's Hear It for the Girls: 375 Great Books for Readers 2-14. -- From 500 Great Books by Women; review by Erica Bauermeister

About this edition

• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1481847775
• ISBN 13: 9781481847773
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 5
• Number of pages: 138