Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Contents ix
3. Preface to the 40th Anniversary Edition xiii
4. Preface to the Rutgers University Press Edition xix
5. Acknowledgments xxv
6. Introduction xxvii
7. Poem lxxi
8. The Blood—Yes, the Blood
9. For a Godchild, Regina, on the Occasion of Her First Love 3
10. The Damned 7
11. Hester’s Song 9
12. The Sisters 11
13. Debra 15
14. If I Could Write This in Fire, I Would Write This in Fire 17
15. The Blood—Yes, the Blood: A Conversation 35
16. Something Latino Was Up with Us 61
17. I Used to Think 67
18. The Black Back-Ups 71
19. Home 77
20. Artists without Art Form
21. “Under the Days”: The Buried Life and Poetry of Angelina Weld Grimké 87
22. The Black Lesbian in American Literature: An Overview 99
23. “Artists without Art Form”: A Look at One Black Woman’s World of Unrevered Black Women 111
24. I’ve Been Thinking of Diana Sands 125
25. A Cultural Legacy Denied and Discovered: Black Lesbians in Fiction by Women 129
26. What It Is I Think She’s Doing Anyhow: A Reading of Toni Cade Bambara’s The Salt Eaters1 145
27. Black Lesbians—Who Will Fight for Our Lives but Us?
28. Tar Beach 169
29. Before I Dress and Soar Again 185
30. LeRoy’s Birthday 187
31. The Wedding 191
32. Maria de las Rosas 199
33. Miss Esther’s Land 201
34. The Failure to Transform: Homophobia in the Black Community 223
35. Where Will You Be? 237
36. A Home Girls’ Album
37. Selected Photographs 243
38. A Hell of a Place to Ferment a Revolution
39. Among the Things That Use to Be 249
40. From Sea to Shining Sea 251
41. Women of Summer 259
42. The Tired Poem: Last Letter from a Typical Unemployed Black Professional Woman 287
43. Shoes Are Made for Walking 293
44. Billy de Lye 305
45. The Combahee River Collective Statement 307
46. Black Macho and Black Feminism 319
47. Black Lesbian/Feminist Organizing: A Conversation 331
48. For Strong Women 363
49. The Black Goddess 367
50. Women’s Spirituality: A Household Act 371
51. Only Justice Can Stop a Curse 397
52. Coalition Politics: Turning the Century 401
53. List of Credits 417
54. Notes on Contributors 421
55. About the Editor 433