Sisters in the Life: A History of Out African American Lesbian Media-Making | by Yvonne Welbon | Alexandra Juhasz | ‎ Duke University Press | ‎ English | ‎ Illustrated Edition

Product description Review "Sisters in the Life is an act of reclamation, a means of shining a light on the critical work that these women have done with little recognition or fanfare. . . . For those who are invested in the history of representation, Sisters in the Life is worth adding to your bookshelf." -- Evette Dionne ― Bitch"This well-researched title is highly recommended for readers interested in African American, women's, LGBTQ, and general film studies." -- Sally Bryant ― Library Journal"Sisters in the Life moves uninterruptedly from strength to strength. Along the way, its stories are eclectic but interrelated, U.S.-centered but increasingly global, alert to ongoing inequities but inspired by past and present accomplishments― and by futures that look brighter all the time." -- Nick Davis ― Film Comment"In this academic but engaging anthology, contributors examine the important contributions of black lesbian filmmakers over the past three decades. Finally, filmmakers like Cheryl Dunye, Dee Rees, and Angela Robinson get their due. So too should Welbon (director of 1993’s famed Sisters in the Life: First Love.)" -- Jacob Anderson-Minshall ― The Advocate"This is an eye-opening study that seems likely to become a classic in its genre." -- Jean Roberta ― Gay & Lesbian Review About the Author Yvonne Welbon is the founder of the Chicago-based nonprofit Sisters in Cinema. She is an independent filmmaker whose films have screened on PBS, Starz/Encore, TV-ONE, IFC, Bravo, and the Sundance Channel and in over one hundred film festivals around the world. Alexandra Juhasz is Professor and Chair of the Department of Film at Brooklyn College, City University of New York; the coeditor of A Companion to Contemporary Documentary Film; and a documentary filmmaker. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Sisters in the LifeA History of Out African American Lesbian Media-MakingBy Yvonne Welbon, Alexandra JuhaszDuke University PressCopyright © 2018 Duke University PressAll rights reserved.ISBN: 978-0-8223-7086-4ContentsPreface • To Be Transparent: Seeing Directions and Connections in Black Lesbian Film Alexandra Juhasz, Introduction • The Sisters in the Life Archive Project Yvonne Welbon, PART I • 1986–1995, Introduction Yvonne Welbon, 1. Birth of a Notion: Toward Black, Gay, and Lesbian Imagery in Film and Video Michelle Parkerson, 2. Narrating Our History: An Introduction Thomas Allen Harris, 3. Narrating Our History: Selections from a Dialogue among Queer Media Artists from the African Diaspora Edited by Raúl Ferrera-Balanquet and Thomas Allen Harris, with Shari Frilot, Leah Gilliam, Dawn Suggs, Jocelyn Taylor, and Yvonne Welbon, 4. Construction of Computation and Desire: Introduction to Yvonne Welbon's Interview with Pamela L. Jennings Kara Keeling, 5. Ruins and Desire: Interview with Pamela L. Jennings, July 27, 2012 Yvonne Welbon, 6. The book of ruins and desire: Interactive Mechatronic Sculpture Pamela L. Jennings, 7. A Cosmic Demonstration of Shari Frilot's Curatorial Practice Roya Rastegar, 8. Identity and Performance in Yvonne Welbon's Remembering Wei-Yi Fang, Remembering Myself: An Autobiography Devorah Heitner, PART II • 1996–2016, Introduction Yvonne Welbon, 9. Producing Black Lesbian Media Candace Moore, 10. Stereotypy, Mammy, and Recovery in Cheryl Dunye's The Watermelon Woman Karin D. Wimbley, 11. Coquie Hughes: Urban Lesbian Filmmaker. Introduction to Yvonne Welbon's Interview with Coquie Hughes Jennifer DeVere Brody, 12. Stepping Out on Faith: Interview with Coquie Hughes, July 27, 2012 Yvonne Welbon, 13. "Invite Me In!": Angela Robinson at Hollywood's Threshold Patricia White, 14. Shine Louise Houston: An Interstice of Her Own Making L. H. Stallings, 15. From Rage to Resignation: Reading Tina Mabry's Mississippi Damned as a Post–Civil Rights Response to Nina Simone's "Mississippi Goddam" Marlon Rachquel Moore, 16. The Circuitous Route of Presenting Black Butch: The Travels of Dee Rees's Pariah Jennifer DeClue, 17. Creating the World Anew: Black Lesbian Legacies and Queer Film Futures Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Acknowledgments, Selected Bibliography, Contributors, Index, CHAPTER 1Birth of a NotionToward Black, Gay, and Lesbian Imagery in Film and VideoIn mainstream media, gays and lesbians of color are either woefully present or predictably absent. The litany of black gay and lesbian characters in Hollywood films and network television reads like its own form of blackface.They range from the burly, black "bulldagger" as whorehouse madam in the 1933 film The Emperor Jones (starring Paul Robeson) to the predatory lesbian vamp in Spike Lee's 1983 She's Gotta Have It; from Eddie Murphy's ultracamp Miss Thing hairdresser on NBC's Saturday Night Live to the snap! queen duo on Fox TV's In Living Color.These relentless stereotypes are part of a continuum of silence and mockery and denial surrounding lesbians and gay men within our own African American community — a community that is, of course, on