Black Internationalist Feminism: Women Writers of the Black Left, 1945-1995

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments I can only begin to indicate the many ways that colleagues, mentors, friends, and family helped bring this book to fruition. At Cornell, Biodun Jeyifo, Hortense Spillers, Sunn Shelley Wong, and Barry Maxwell were rigorous and caring advisors who nurtured my interest in radical writers. Gary Okihiro and Eric Cheyfitz imparted invaluable advice. The Graduate Student Radical Caucus and our Report on the State of the English Department brought left critique to life for me. I especially thank Priya Gopal, Department brought left critique to life for me. I especially thank Priya Gopal, Department Sue Kim, and Ed White. This project developed at the University of Colorado at Boulder amid wonderful colleagues. John-Michael Rivera has been a sharp critic, savvy mentor, and true friend through it all. I am grateful for the support given in myriad forms by John Stevenson, Katherine Eggert, Jeffrey Robinson, William Kuskin, David Glimp, Marcia Douglas, Jane Garrity, Karen Jacobs, Sidney Goldfarb, Scarlet Bowen, Adam Bradley, Steve Lamos, Ruth Widmann , Laura Winkiel, Elisabeth Sheffield, Jeffrey DeShell, Jenny Dorn, John Escobedo, Arturo Aldama, and Emma Pérez. Even when my paperwork intimidated me, order and happiness prevailed thanks to Mary Lowe and Jeanine Reinke. Christie Yoshinaga-Itano was a tremendous advocate for faculty of color at Boulder. Shannon Rathod’s stellar research assistance and the students in my “African American Fictions of Travel” seminars pushed my readings in new directions. Long talks with the brilliant, beautiful, and greatly missed Vincent Woodard were crucial to my understanding of Lorraine Hansberry, Audre Lorde, and Black feminist critique. Bill Maxwell, Jim Smethurst, Judy Smith, Michelle Stephens, Anna Brickhouse , Adam Bradley, Karen Jacobs, Ed White, Dan Won-gu Kim, Vincent Woodard, and John-Michael Rivera took the time to read and comment incisively on portions of the manuscript. This book and my sanity have benefited enormously from working with Alex Lubin, Bill Mullen, Fred Ho, Aaron Lecklider, Gary Holcolmb, Malini Johar Schueller, Chris Vials, Michiko Hase, Adélékè Adéè .kó ., and Frederick Aldama. I learned much from enjoyable conversations with Michael Anderson, Barbara Foley, Tracy Heather Strain, Alan Wald, Mary Helen Washington, Rebeccah Welch, and Eric White. Rachel Peterson generously shared research with me. I relished the opportunity to present work from this book at stimulating conferences organized by Ivy Wilson at Northwestern, Eric Cheyfitz and Shirley Samuels at Cornell, and the American Studies Association. At the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Steven Fullwood and Diana Lachatanere were immensely knowledgeable and helpful. I am grateful to Joi Gresham and Matthew Lyons, trustees of the Lorraine Hansberry Properties Trust, for permission to quote from Hansberry’s manuscripts and papers and to the estate of Alice Childress for allowing me to quote from Childress’s papers. I also thank the Special Collections and Archives Department of the John Hope and Aurelia Elizabeth Franklin Library at Fisk University for permission to use Ann Allen Shockley’s interview of Alice Childress. The University of Colorado at Boulder generously supported research for this project with a Junior Faculty Development Award, a Kayden Research Grant, and a Council on Research and Creative Work Grant-in-Aid. I wish to thank Joan Catapano and Daniel Nasset at the University of Illinois Press for their expertise, enthusiasm, and professionalism. This book is much the better for the work of my excellent copyeditor Kate Babbitt and the two anonymous readers who provided thoughtful and detailed feedback. All errors in the book, of course, are mine. The Labor/Community Strategy Center of Los Angeles has been a major source of inspiration with its multiracial, anti-imperialist organizing. Eric Mann and Lian Hurst Mann are great leaders, thinkers, and friends. Some very special people never failed to lift my spirits while keeping me grounded: my brothers Steve and Randy Higashida and my girlfriends Julie Ha, Stephanie Bernardo, Grace Jiménez, Melissa Birnbaum, Johnna Christian, and Sylvia Tamashiro. Mia Kim, Tom Feder, and Aiden Kim Feder made their love palpable across distance and time. Jeannie Higashida, the best of big sisx . ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ters, remains in my heart always. My parents Henry and Alice Higashida left a legacy of love and perseverance that I see every day in Nat and Sen. Juggling work with these energetic little boys would have been impossible without the innumerable stroller rides, meals, UNO games, and bedtime stories provided by Nat and Sen’s truly extraordinary grandparents, Jee-Il and Young-Ja...