Shadowboxing: Representations of Black Feminist Politics
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James, Joy
St. Martin’s. 256p.
ISBN: 0-312-22070-7. $26.95

James rejects the conventional black feminism for a more radical agenda in the tradition of Ida B. Wells and Ella Parker. She targets capitalism and the state as the perpetrators of gender, race, and class oppression. Then she draws attention to modern black feminists like Angela Davis, Elaine Brown, and Assata Shakur, who follow their legacy. These images of the radical and anti-radical political contexts from which these women come, challenge us to rethink how we understand the changing African presence in the American culture. It’s an analysis James offers of the black woman in white cinema and the black man in feminist coalitions. As James sees it, black feminism is rooted in the black community, in the shadows, and argues that there are "distinctions between black men championing black females as patriarchal protectors and black men championing feminism to challenge sexism."

Pictures of a Dying Man
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Kamau, Agymah
Coffee House. 304p.
ISBN: 1-56689-087-X. $23.95

This is Kamau's second novel and is set on a small Caribbean island. Former Deputy Prime Minister Gladstone Bell hangs himself at his home as the book opens. His widow, Isamina; his parents Miss Esther and Sonny-Boy; and others suspect foul play. But one almost can't believe what one "sees" and hears as his childhood widow, daughter, friends and neighbors, ex-girlfriends, and coworkers all reflect on the effect he had on their lives. Kamau uses Gladstone's journal entries and poems to share his own reflections on his life. But the different voices of those whose lives Gladstone touched are most impressive. Readers get a peek into Caribbean political life as we see Gladstone at work and death rituals as we participate in the communal grieving process. Kamau's writing is lively and entertaining, yet very compassionate given the circumstances surrounding his main character.

My Garden (Book)
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Kincaid, Jamaica
Farrar, Straus, Giroux. November. 224p.
ISBN: 0-374-28186-6. $23

Kincaid loves gardens and in this her latest work, she has gathered all she loves about gardening and examines it and then she also talks about her friends who are gardeners. She is clear that she loves spring and summer, but not winter and she is passionate about it—winter is too white. During those times she enjoys books and reading—books about gardens and gardening, books on horticulture and botany, and even seed and plant catalogs. Kincaid share’s that her own garden resembles a map of the Caribbean (she was born in Antigua). One of her favorite subjects in school in Antigua was botany and so she examines the idea of the garden in Antigua, and she ponders the relationship of formal English gardens in colonized countries though she also considers the English gardens in England. In her own intimate style Kincaid examines her memories, which sometimes are not happy ones. While one of the flowers Kincaid loves is the hollyhock, the very sight of one stirs unhappy childhood memories of harvesting cotton. Kincaid is able, however, to maintain playfulness throughout this very entertaining novel.

For Freedom's Sake: The Life of Fannie Lou Hamer
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Lee, Chana Kai
Illinois U. Press. 288p.
ISBN: 0-252-02151-7. $29.95

Hamer was born in Mississippi during the Jim Crow era, yet rose to national prominence as a civil rights activist in the 1960s. This may be the first full account of the life of this courageous woman. She first led a group from the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party to the Democratic National Convention in 1964, to attempt to unseat the all-white Mississippi delegation. There was also a widening rift between the more grassroots activism of Hammer’s past and the new middle-class strategies of the national civil rights movement. Lee skillfully reveals that while we learn of Hamer's acute political instincts, her rhetorical prowess, as well as her frustration with society's willingness to see her as an example of heroism but would resist her efforts toward transformation. Sexism and racism shaped the civil rights movement and often limited the roles women could play in it. Lee discusses Hamer’s personal life revealing the repeated rapes her grandmother endured, which resulted in 20 illegitimate children, Hamer's own involuntary sterilization, and the sexual abuse from the police. In so doing, Lee brings to light an aspect of the civil rights movement and of Hamer’s life that has not been widely covered. It is from the perspective of the African American women during the fight for basic human rights in the South.