Women Writers in Black Literature: AAAS 4146

Jamaica Kincaid's inspired, lyrical short stories Reading Jamaica Kincaid is to plunge, gently, into another way of seeing both the physical world and its elusive inhabitants. Her voice is, by turns, naively whimsical and biblical in its assurance, and it speaks of what is partially remembered partly divined.

"The theme of these poems is the exile of the spirit in this world and the painfully exciting, yet small margin in which return from exile is imaginable and perhaps even possible." "--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

The rich and privileged have fled the city, barricaded it behind roadblocks, and left it to crumble. The inner city has had to rediscover old ways-farming, barter, herb lore. But now the monied need a harvest of bodies, and so they prey upon the helpless of the streets. With nowhere to turn, a young woman must open herself to ancient truths, eternal powers, and the tragic mystery surrounding her mother and grandmother. She must bargain with gods, and give birth to new legends.

This, a modern retelling of the Little Mermaid story, uses a Caribbean Island as its setting and tells of the tragic love of a poor peasant girl for a rich mulatto.

Milton Rogovin traveled to Cuba twice in the mid-1980s to photograph those he calls "the forgotten ones." He encountered renowned poet Nancy Morejon, who, upon seeing his images, decided to write new poems and select poems from her work that resonated with the photographs.