Put Your Hands on Your Hips and Act Like a Woman: Black History and Poetics in Performance

Put Your Hands on Your Hips and Act Like a Woman is a book that explores how women of the African diaspora have used ancient traditions to record memory, history, and experience in performance. It provides a collective performed autobiography that complements the small body of pre-twentieth-century African and African American womens writing, engaging with a range of vibrant traditions to provide new and old paradigms for locating the history, philosophy, pedagogy, and theory embedded in a lineage of African diaspora performance.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 246 pages
Publication date: 01 May 2024
Publisher: University of Nebraska Press

In a captivating tapestry of griot traditions, where storytelling, cultural history, and social and literary criticism converge, "Put Your Hands on Your Hips and Act Like a Woman" emerges as a powerful testament to the enduring legacy of women of the African diaspora. Through a fusion of performance, these women have re-membered and re-imagined ancient traditions, harnessing them to record memory, history, and experiences in vibrant theatrical performances. Their songs and dances, rich with polyphonic text, offer a profound reflection on their identities, imaginations, and agency, creating a collective performed autobiography that complements the limited body of pre-twentieth-century African and African American women's writing.

Gale P. Jackson, in her insightful exploration, delves into a diverse array of vibrant traditions, offering windows into multiple discourses and illuminating both "new" and ancient paradigms for understanding the rich history, philosophy, pedagogy, and theory embedded within the lineage of African diaspora performance. With a lyrical interdisciplinary approach, she weaves herstories, geographies, and genres together, unearthing cultural continuities, improvisation, and transformative action. Through this lens, "Put Your Hands on Your Hips and Act Like a Woman" presents a fresh perspective on familiar material, expanding our sources, readings, and vision of African diaspora, African American, and American literatures.

This captivating work serves as a testament to the resilience and creativity of women of the African diaspora, who have used performance to reclaim their narratives, challenge stereotypes, and forge a collective identity that transcends time and space. By embracing the power of tradition and interweaving it with contemporary perspectives, "Put Your Hands on Your Hips and Act Like a Woman" contributes to a richer understanding of the human experience and fosters a deeper appreciation for the diverse tapestry of cultures that make up our world.

Dimension: 229 x 152 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781496238894