Talk That Talk: An Anthology of African-American Storytelling

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Overview

Compilation of tales from Afro-American folklore. Among the storytellers included are Zora Neale Hurston, Nikki Giovanni, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Leadbelly.

From ghost stories to ghetto adventures, two celebrated story tellers present a collection of tales from African-American folklore.

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Overview

Compilation of tales from Afro-American folklore. Among the storytellers included are Zora Neale Hurston, Nikki Giovanni, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Leadbelly.

From ghost stories to ghetto adventures, two celebrated story tellers present a collection of tales from African-American folklore.

Read More Show Less

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly
More than 100 entries fill this superb treasury of Americana. The strata= gems of wily Br'er Rabbit, African folktales and the justly celebrated lyrics of Leadbelly are complemented by less familiar works. Among the standouts: ``Daddy,'' a deeply affecting portrait of Martin Luther King Jr. supplied by his daughter Yolanda D. King and her co-writer Hilda R. Tompkins; ``Don't Have a Baby Till You Read This,'' a deliciously wicked account of childbearing by poet Nikki Giovanni; and ``Harriet Tubman,'' a memorable assessment by her great-grandniece, Mariline Wilkins, which includes a startling description of the pk heroine's use of bacteria in homemade medicines. Most of the pieces are rendered in dialect, a technique that successfully recalls the oral tradition which they represent and which this volume seeks to preserve. Exceptionally well ordered, the anthology is divided into such sections as ``Like It Was: History Remembered'' and ``The Bogey Man's Gonna Git You: Tales of Ghosts and Witches.'' Goss and Barnes--both professional storytellers (Goss is president of the Association of Black Storytellers)--other folklorists,stet comma/g and b are not scholars but are folklorists and scholars contribute the critical essays that accompany and illuminate each of these sections. (Dec.)
Library Journal
Although this collection contains some fine material, it is handicapped by a lack of editorial rigor. ``Oral storytelling'' here includes recipes, personal recollections (of a Viet Nam vet, of Winnie Mandela's solitary confinement), historical biography, literary narrative, verse, and ``rap,'' as well as folktales, sermons, humor, ghost stories, and love stories. The introduction claims that this volume is canonical, but no criteria for inclusion, let alone for canonicity, are provided. Its academic status is further compromised by a lack of scholarship: there is no index of tale types or collection documentation, no bibliography or notes on sources or distribution. The commentaries, however thoughtful, are not scholarly. Native Americans (among others) may be surprised to learn that oral storytelling was ``brought into the Americas by African captives.'' Stick with Roger Abrahams's Afro-American Folktales ( LJ 2/15/85).-- Patricia Dooley, Univ. of Washington Lib. Sch., Seattle
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Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780671671686
  • Publisher: Touchstone
  • Publication date: 11/15/1989
  • Edition number: 1
  • Pages: 528
  • Product dimensions: 1.18 (w) x 6.00 (h) x 9.00 (d)

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