Salamishah Tillet Books

From a superstar academic and cultural critic, an exploration of Alice Walker's critically acclaimed and controversial novel The Color Purple In 1982, Alice Walker made history when she became the first Black woman to win the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award for The Color Purple. But Walker's novel, which tells the story of a young girl in Jazz Age Georgia, received as much criticism as praise. It launched heated conversations about race, gender, language, and sexual violence that echo to today. In this gem-like examination of the novel, the film by Steven Spielberg, and the hit Broadway musical, prominent academic and activist Salamishah Tillet combines cultural criticism, history, and memoir to explore Walker's work and its lasting importance. Based on archival research and interviews with Walker, Oprah Winfrey, and Quincy Jones, among others, In Search of The Color Purple is a provocative and personal book, a bold debut from an important public intellectual.

Contemporary African American artists and intellectuals explore the legacy of slavery to confront the exclusion of African Americans from the nation's founding narratives. By examining contested figures and events, such as Thomas Jefferson's relationship with Sally Hemings and the characters in Uncle Tom's Cabin, they reconstruct "sites of slavery." This analysis not only highlights the civic estrangement felt in the post-civil rights era but also seeks to reclaim the subjectivity of enslaved individuals, ultimately envisioning a more inclusive American democracy.

Focusing on the transformative journey of a woman, the narrative explores her pivotal role in desegregating the complex emotion of black rage within a significant cultural context. Her actions not only challenge societal perceptions but also reshape the national dialogue surrounding race and emotion, highlighting the power of individual influence in addressing deep-rooted issues. This compelling account delves into the intersections of personal experience and broader societal change.