Cookie Woolner

Reading Lists These books, both fiction and nonfiction, remind readers of what collective power has achieved in the past, and to imagine what it could do in the future I wrote much of Lesbian Love Story during the Covid-19 lockdown, when I was desperate to build queer community inside the walls of my own home.

. Sept. 2023. 210p. ISBN 9781469675480. pap. $24.95. HIST COPY ISBN Though some attention has been paid before to the lives of queer Black women in the pre-Stonewall era, by historians and others, Woolner’s (history, Univ. of Memphis) book is extraordinary in its scope and inventiveness to focus on their intimate lives. The book mentions famous people, such as Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey, but many others who are lesser known are included too, thanks to the author’s sleuthing skills and research.

How Janelle Monáe Is Reviving the Harlem Renaissance in Brooklyn I didn’t grow up with much art in my house, but one of things I do remember was a piece featuring five Black women in African print fabrics with different hues of peaches, grays, and purples. It was a present given to my parents (purchased on a Detroit sidewalk) when we moved to our new house when …