Literature and Poetry
Jo Freeman's Review of Wilma Mankiller: How One Woman United the Cherokee Nation and Helped Change the Face of America
Wilma Pearl Mankiller had a life of many achievements and many difficulties. She gained fame as the first female Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation. She also endured many health problems and hit a few brick walls. Her life has been a popular topic. This is just one of many biographies, in addition to Mankiller’s autobiography... While Wilma was a first, her career gives the author ample opportunity to discuss the role of gender in the Cherokee Nation. Suffice it to say that women as a group had more power than in the larger white society, but less independence. For more on this, you’ll have to read the book. more »
Serena Nanda Reviews Brother Mambo: Finding Africa in the Amazon
Like early 20th century cultural anthropologists, John Lenoir set out in the 1970s, to spend some adventurous years doing fieldwork in an idyllic tropical paradise isolated from Western culture. But John never imagined how adventurous it would be. The readers of this fascinating and deeply moving memoir will experience the same surprises. John chose to work in the newly independent nation of Guyana, in the Amazon basin of South America. His aim was to explore the effect of African culture on a slave plantation society only recently freed from European colonialism. more »
National Archives Virtual Daytime Programs in March; Celebrating Women’s History Month
One example of the programs available: Book Talk – Female Genius: Eliza Harriot and George Washington at the Dawn of the Constitution, Tuesday, March 8, at 1 p.m. ET; Register in advance; watch on the National Archives YouTube Channel; Mary Sarah Bilder looks to the 1780s — the age of the Constitution — to investigate the rise of a radical new idea in the English-speaking world: female genius. English-born Eliza Harriot Barons O’Connor delivered a University of Pennsylvania lecture attended by George Washington as he and other Constitutional Convention delegates gathered in Philadelphia. As the first such public female lecturer, her courageous performance likely inspired the gender-neutral language of the Constitution. more »