The Art of Black Women's Storytelling

In this course we will explore Black women’s storytelling from the 19th century to present day. We will examine multiple forms of Black women’s storytelling such as kitchen table narratives, music, personal and academic essays, plays, poetry/spoken word, anthologies, podcasts, digital blogs/vlogs, films, and TV shows. Our exploration of these forms of storytelling will highlight the capacious nature of literacy by decentering Western conceptions of knowledge production as solely written. Black literacy becomes understood as oral, performative, visual, and written storytelling and therefore framed as an activity that is individual and communal, historical and cultural memory, and social and political activism. This course will include readings, discussions, small group projects, and film screenings.



Veronica Ahmed Coates '14 is a doctoral candidate in American Studies at Purdue University. Her current research focuses on Black women's literature in the 20th and 21st centuries and Black women's reproductive history. She's also an instructor for WGSS and Black Studies, a twin mom, and is an indie bookshop enthusiast./