Mouths of Rain: An Anthology of Black Lesbian Thought

by Briona Simone Jones (Editor)

Overview

Winner, Lambda Literary Award in LGBTQ Anthology
Winner, Judy Grahn Award for Lesbian Nonfiction, Publishing Triangle Awards
A Ms. magazine, Refinery29, and Lambda Literary Most Anticipated Read of 2021

A groundbreaking collection tracing the history of intellectual thought by Black Lesbian writers, in the tradition of The New Press's perennial seller Words of Fire

African American lesbian writers and theorists have made extraordinary contributions to feminist theory, activism, and writing. Mouths of Rain, the companion anthology to Beverly Guy-Sheftall's classic Words of Fire, traces the long history of intellectual thought produced by Black Lesbian writers, spanning the nineteenth century through the twenty-first century.

Using “Black Lesbian” as a capacious signifier, Mouths of Rain includes writing by Black women who have shared intimate and loving relationships with other women, as well as Black women who see bonding as mutual, Black women who have self-identified as lesbian, Black women who have written about Black Lesbians, and Black women who theorize about and see the word lesbian as a political descriptor that disrupts and critiques capitalism, heterosexism, and heteropatriarchy. Taking its title from a poem by Audre Lorde, Mouths of Rain addresses pervasive issues such as misogynoir and anti-blackness while also attending to love, romance, “coming out,” and the erotic.

Contributors include:
Barbara Smith
Beverly Smith
Bettina Love
Dionne Brand
Cheryl Clarke
Cathy J. Cohen
Angelina Weld Grimke
Alexis Pauline Gumbs
Audre Lorde
Dawn Lundy Martin
Pauli Murray
Michelle Parkerson
Mecca Jamilah Sullivan
Alice Walker
Jewelle Gomez

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781620975763
Publisher:	New Press, The
Publication date:	02/23/2021
Pages:	224
Sales rank:	508,060
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Briona Simone Jones is a doctoral candidate in the Department of English at Michigan State University. She is a Black lesbian feminist of Jamaican and African American descent from Rochester, New York.

Table of Contents

Foreword: We Won't Stop the Rain Cheryl Clarke xv

Mouths of Rain: Be Opened Alexis Pauline Gumbs xix

Introduction: No Hand, No Gaze Briona Simone Jones xxv

Part I Uses of the Erotic, 1909-2020 1

Ma Rainey

Cheryl Clarke

Red Jordan Arobateau

Alice Ruth Moore Dunbar-Nelson

You! Inez! 3

Alice Walker

Can It Be? 4

Angelina Weld Grimké

A Mona Lisa 8

Audre Lorde

Love Poem 9

Woman 10

Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power 11

Cheryl Clarke

Kittatinny 18

Lucille Bogan

B.D. Woman's Blues 19

Michelle Parkerson

Finer with Time 20

Monica Arac de Nyeko

Jambula Tree 22

Pat Parker

Metamorphosis 35

My Lover Is a Woman 36

Sunshine 39

Terri Jewell

Celebrant 40

Part II Interlocking Oppressions and Identity Politics, 1980-2020 45

Audre Lorde

Barbara Smith

Anita Cornwell

Three for the Price of One: Notes from a Gay, Black Feminist 47

Ann Allen Shockley

A Meeting of the Sapphic Daughters 57

Dawn Lundy Martin

To be an orphan inside of "blackness" 66

Kai Davis

Ain't I a Woman? 67

Kail a Story

Not Feminine as in Straight, but Femme as in Queer #AF: The Queer & Black Roots of My Femme Expression/Experience 69

Mecca Jamilah Sullivan

Wolfpack 76

Pamela Sneed

We Are Here 91

Part III Coming Out and Stepping Into, 1978-2020 95

Catherine E. McKinley and L. Joyce Delaney

Lisa C. Moore

Beverly Smith

The Wedding 97

Dionne Brand

Poem from No Language Is Neutral 103

Akasha Gloria Hull

Angelina Weld Grimke: (1880-1958) 104

JP Howard

Aubade, in pieces, for my ex-lovers 115

Janae Johnson

Black Butch Woman 116

Jewelle Gomez

Curtain 1983 118

Michelle Cliff

Notes on Speechlessness 121

Moya Bailey

Living Single 127

Pat Parker

Funny 130

Part IV The Sacred, 1970-2020 135

M. Jacqui Alexander

Omotara James

Alexis De Veaux

Interspecies 137

Alexis Pauline Gumbs

Her relationship to Africa lives in the part of her that is eight years 148

Arisa White

Black Pearl: A poetic drama for four voices 150

Cheryl Boyce-Taylor

How to Make Art 167

Doris diosa davenport

Erzulie-Oshun (Georgia Style) 168

Pauli Murray

Without Name 170

SDiane Bogus

Fighting Racism: An Approach Through Ritual 171

Sangodare Akinwale

Anew 179

Sharon Bridgforth

Excerpt from love conjure/blues 188

Part V Radical Futurities, 1976-2020 191

Barbara Jordan

Demita Frazier

Charlene A. Carruthers

Alexis Pauline Gumbs

The Shape of My Impact 193

Audre Lorde

I Am Your Sister: Black Women Organizing Across Sexualities 198

Barbara Smith

Toward a Black Feminist Criticism 204

Bettina Love

A Ratchet Lens: Black Queer Youth, Agency, Hip Hop, and the Black Ratchet Imagination 226

Cathy J. Cohen

Deviance as Resistance: A New Research Agenda for the Study of Black Politics 249

Doris diosa davenport

Never Mind the Misery/Where's the Magic? 280

Kate Rushin

At Another Crossroads 286

SDiane Bogus

The Myth and Tradition of the Black Bulldagger 287

Savannah Shange

Play Aunties and Dyke Bitches: Gender, Generation, and the Ethics of Black Queer Kinship 294

Shawn(ta) Smith-Cruz

Archiving Black Lesbians in Practice: The Salsa Soul Sisters Archival Collection 314

Susana Morris

More Than Human: Black Feminism, of the Future in Jewelle Gomez's The Gilda Stories 318

Acknowledgments 335

Biographies 337

Selections 361

Editorial Reviews

11/16/2020

Jones traces “the long history of love between Black women” in this wide-ranging, celebratory anthology. Documenting “the purview of the poet, blues woman, essayist, and critic,” Jones collects cultural criticism, theory, personal essay, and poetry from 1909 to 2019. The pieces are organized into five sections: “Uses of the Erotic” advances Audre Lorde’s writing (in her essay of the same name) on the “suppression of the erotic”; “Interlocking Oppressions and Identity Politics” sees “Black lesbians articulate the complexity of embodying a multiplicitous self,” as Jones writes in the introduction; “Coming Out and Stepping Into” focuses on personal tales of coming out; “The Sacred” is centered on spirituality and ritual; and “Radical Futurities” looks forward. Each features seminal writings from authors including Lorde, Barbara Smith, and Alice Walker, as well as up-and-coming writers, among them cultural critic Bettina Love, who expounds on the subversive power of the word ratchet to “examine the multiple intersections of Black and queer identity constructions within the space of hip hop,” and Arisa White, who writes an innovative “poetic drama for 4 voices.” Jones’s inspiring and prodigious anthology is striking. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

Praise for Mouths of Rain:
Featured in Elle's Essential Pride Reading List

“It’s no secret that Black lesbian thought leaders have played a pivotal role as activists in shaping feminist theory. In this powerful anthology, Briona Simone Jones shines a light on the words of many of those trailblazers, including Barbara Smith, Audre Lorde, Mecca Jamilah Sullivan, among many notable others.”
—Refinery29

"Mouths of Rain compiles the work of Black lesbian writers and thinkers primarily across the 20th and 21st centuries; the result is enlightening and deeply communal.”
—The Atlantic

“This outstanding collection honors the legacy and contributions made by Black lesbian writers throughout the last two centuries.”
—Ms. magazine

“Told through a collection of essays by Black women including Alice Walker, Audre Lorde, Jewel Gomez and Beverly Smith, Mouths of Rain explores the long history of intellectual thought and stories by Black lesbian writers spanning from the nineteenth century through the twenty-first century.”
—The Root

“In Mouths of Rain, Dr. Briona Simone Jones masterfully curates an anthology of Black women loving Black women. . . . This collection is a balm that shows readers that Black feminism benefits us all.”
—Elle

“Wide-ranging, celebratory. . . . Jones’s inspiring and prodigious anthology is striking.”
—Publishers Weekly

“It’s time people listen to Black lesbians and utilize that knowledge into action to improve lives. This book is a gateway into that action. An essential component to any social science shelf, this is transformative, vital reading.”
—Library Journal (starred review)

“Briona Simone Jones's anthology Mouths of Rain is an audacious, unapologetic, transgressive collection of Black ‘queer' writing across genre, time, identity, age, and political leanings. This sister/companion to Words of Fire, published thirty years ago, makes visible—again—our passionate and unwavering commitments to the eradication of all oppressions. It bears witness to the necessity and power of the field of Black Lesbian Studies and is a love offering to us all.”
—Beverly Guy-Sheftall, Anna Julia Cooper Professor of Women's Studies at Spelman College and editor of Words of Fire: An Anthology of African American Feminist Thought

From the Publisher

★ 02/01/2021

A much-needed addition to social science and philosophy shelves everywhere, Mouthsof Rain is a beautiful compilation of Black lesbian thought over the past 200 years. Editor Jones, a Black lesbian feminist of Jamaican and African American descent, also highlights women who have shared intimate relationships with other women. Featured are the writings of Alice Walker, Audre Lorde, and Pauli Murray along with others, such as Barbara Smith and Bettina Love, whose writings deserve more attention. Including poetry, essays, and short stories on each topic, the book allows readers to connect to women's inner and outer truths—their desires, realities, hopes for the future, and immediate needs. Most important, the flow of the book will propel people to read further, learn more, and delve deeply into the subject matter in the hope that all can gain more understanding. This groundbreaking anthology resonates with studies, tales, and songs that have been ignored for far too long. VERDICT It's time people listen to Black lesbians and utilize that knowledge into action to improve lives. This book is a gateway into that action. An essential component to any social science shelf, this is transformative, vital reading.—Ahliah Bratzler, Indianapolis

Library Journal