Judy Juanita, a poet, novelist, and playwright, was the editor-in-chief of The Black Panther, the newspaper of the Black Panther Party, and has taught writing at Laney College in Oakland, California, since 1993. Juanita has long chronicled this country’s contradictions in various genres and has come out on the side of hope. Here’s an introduction to her work.
Virgin Soul: In Juanita’s semiautobiographical novel, a young woman joins the Black Panther Party, meets
many members of the Black Power movement (Stokely Carmichael, Eldridge Cleaver, Bobby Seale), and critiques the movement from a feminist perspective. Our reviewer says, “She runs into one of the movement’s contradictions: that women are seen as less equal than men in the fight for equality, reduced to ‘sexual cannon fodder in the midst of war.’ ”
De Facto Feminism: Essays Straight Outta Oakland: In this starred essay collection, Juanita recalls a “goody-goody” childhood in 1950s America, “a Jell-O white bread land of perfection and gleaming surfaces,” and joining the Black Panthers. Our reviewer says, “Her incisive comments on Black life’s contradictions make this essay collection a winner.”
Homage to the Black Arts Movement: This starred multigenre work considers the revolutionary Black artistic and political movements of the ’60s and ’70s. Our reviewer says, “Juanita has created a dense and intriguing tribute to an important literary group whose influence still reverberates in American culture. Her works effectively embrace a wide variety of issues from gender politics to skin-color privilege within the Black community.”
Manhattan My Ass, You’re in Oakland: Our reviewer describes Juanita’s most recent book, published in June, as “unsettling, important, and unforgettable poetry.” Her poem “Laborers Day, 2016” ends with this hopeful, instructive note: “Let us return To music To art / To dance To sculpture To architecture / To faith in human goodness / To hope To each other / Let’s look up from our mobiles / And return To each other.”
Karen Schechner is the vice president of Kirkus Indie.
