Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology by Barbara Smith

Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology Reviews

• 
  jewelthinks

  I took my time with this one. I savored. I read slowly. I re-read. The pages are worn and dog-eared. So much was covered in these pages. My review is: Read this. Then read it again. And again. Again.
• 
  Charlotte

  My mom knew this woman when the first edition of this was published. I have one of the original editions and this book means so much to me. It for us women of color who long to scream and fight for change.
• 
  cory

  One of the classics of Black Feminist thought. Very helpful in thinking about how to integrate our fights against racism, sexism and homophobia -- many essays are from women whose lives are at the intersection of all three.
  
• 
  Trista

  Just finished and I'm going to try to write something here if I can manage to steady myself after having my soul rocked so hard. This book is phenomenal. Poems, memoirs, short fiction, essays; there's something here to level everyone! Before beginning this read you may like to ask yourself insofar as having your ass handed you, what's your style ? Avant-garde or abstract? Gently whispered soul shattering truths? Or perhaps, cosmic and catastrophic all consuming vengeance? Personally, I will greedily take a heaping dose of All.
  
  This work is a compilation of Black Feminist writers, activist and lesbians handling, dissecting, exploding the white supremacist, sexist, homophobic order of the day (late 70's) which, shamefully echoes much of the order of today. These writers bare the souls of Black Lesbian Folk and what it was like for them to be a part of a coalition that although for women would rather not have Black voices added to the mix; through feminist groups that though Black would rather not have to uphold the validity of Black lesbians. They march you through the Black Civil Rights organizations that don't feel their lesbian sisters are people deserving of the same rights; through adolescent years and first experiences with girls and their homophobic families. Steeped in the wisdom, power, sorrow and transcendence, these pages are a deluge of humanity from which, once submerged, the reader may never feel the need to come up for air. Though it has great moments of judgment, it is also welcoming and tender. This reader found friends and kindred in these pages and voices that have not faded or aged a day in over 4 decades and cannot recommend this work enough.
  
  Personal favorites were Barbara Banks' "Miss Esther's Land" about an old Black woman holding on to her farm land that her Uncle left her so white people could not take it, Toi Derricotte's "Hester's Song," inspired by her son asker her if she ever read The Scarlet Letter, Renita Weems, "Artists Without Art Form:' A Look at One Black Woman's World of Unrevered Black Women," where she discusses Sojourner Truth, Toni Morrison and Lorraine Hansberry. Alice Walker's "Only Justice Can Stop a Curse" is the only war "poem" I think I will ever refer to again and coming up on 40 years later, in the face of white men stepping out of penis ships with the promise to pollute and colonize space, her warning that "if we have any true love for the stars, planets and the rest of Creation, we must do everything we can to keep white men away from them," has a ring of doomsday to it. Lusiah Teish's, "Women's Spirituality: A Household Act," which ties in folklore and the great mystery and influence that was Marie LaVeau, the Voodoo Queen of New Orleans was a touch of the supernatural the work needed. There were honestly so many more, but if I mention them we will have a review of every piece and you really need to just go read it for yourself.
• 
  Radia

  This is really the book that changed my life.
• 
  Misse Jones

  I took my time savoring each story in the collection. Each experience, trauma, struggle, and outcry felt in some way my own or in the very least a common suffering relatable enough to keep me turning the pages. Often, I found myself flipping back to check the publication date and thinking this easily could have been writing today.
  
  Each of the stories in the anthology are a testament to the black feminist perspective.
  
  My favorite of them all is Pat Parker’s, “Where Will You Be?”
  
  Boots are being polished
  Trumpeters clean their horns
  Chains and locks forged
  The crusade has begun.
  
  Once again flags of Christ
  are unfurled in the dawn
  and criess of soul saviors
  Sing apocalyptic on air waves
  
  Citizens, good citizens all
  parade into voting booths
  and in self-righteous sanctity
  X away our right to life.
  
  I do not believe as some
  that the vote is the end,
  I fear even more
  It is just the beginning.
  
  So I must make assessment
  look to you and ask:
  Where will you be
  When they come?
  
  They will not come
  a mob rolling
  through the streets,
  but quickly and quietly
  move into our homes
  and remove the evil,
  the queerness,
  the faggotry,
  the perservereness
  from their midst.
  They will not come
  clothed in brown,
  and swastikas, or
  bearing chests heavy with
  gleaming crosses.
  The time and need
  for roses are over.
  They will come
  in business suits
  to buy your homes
  and bring bodies to
  fill your jobs.
  They will come in robes
  to rehabilitate
  and white coats to subjugate
  and where will you be
  when they come?
  
  Where will we all be
  when they come?
  And they will come —
  
  they will come
  because we are
  defined as opposite —
  perverse
  and we are perverse
  
  Everytime we watched
  a queer hassled in the
  streets and said nothing —
  it was an act of pervasion.
  
  Everytime we lied about
  tne boyfriend or girlfriend
  at coffee break —
  it was an act of perversion.
  
  Everytime we heard,
  “I don’t mind gays
  but why must they
  be blatant?” and said nothing —
  It was an act of perversion.
  
  Everytime we let straights
  make out in our bars while
  we couldn’t touch because
  of laws —
  it was an act of perversion.
  
  Everytime we out the proper
  clothes to go to a family
  wedding and left our lovers at home —
  it was an act of perversion.
  
  Everytime we heard
  “Who I go to bed with
  is my personal choice —
  it’s personal and not political”
  and said nothing —
  it was an act of pervasion.
  
  Everytime we let straight relatives
  bury our dead and push our
  lovers away —
  it was an act of pervasion.
  
  And they will come.
  They will come for
  the pervert D
  & it won’t,
  if you’re
  homosexual, not faggot
  lesbian, not a dyke
  gay, not queer
  it won’t matter
  if you
  own your business
  have a good job
  or are on S.S.I.
  it won’t matter
  if you’re
  Black
  Chicano
  Native American
  Asian
  or White
  it won’t matter
  if you’re from
  New York
  or Los Angeles
  Galveston
  or Sioux Falls
  it won’t matter
  if you’re
  Butch or Dem
  Not into roles
  Monogamous
  Non Monogamous
  it won’t matter
  if you’re
  Catholic
  Baptist
  Atheist
  Jewish
  or M.C.C
  
  They will come
  Then will come
  to be cities
  and to the land
  to your front rooms
  and in your closets.
  
  They will come for
  the perverts
  and where will
  you be
  When they come?
• 
  Claire S

  I've read excerpts from this during my Women's Studies days, but that was long ago and I've lived so much since then. I am totally due for re-reading!
• 
  Laura

  I enjoyed this book, the perspectives of the African-American feminists, and the light it shown on their thinking in the 1970s.
  
  I put this down for a long period of time because the publisher left out some pages right in the middle of a very interesting story.
  
  I read this (or started reading this) as the essay collection for the 2018 Read Harder Book Riot Challenge.
• 
  Emily

  Wonderful book. Especially enjoyed the voodoo at the end. The book covers many issues. I’d love to see new pieces included.
• 
  Ilene

  A rereading - still marvelous.
• 
  Kristin

  An important touchstone text in Third World Feminism.