Black Women for Beginners

There’s a Black Woman on each of the seven continents and in almost every country. So no matter where you go, she’s already been there. She travels with forces greater than herself. Her presence is everywhere.Black Women For Beginners chronicles the trials and triumphs of Black Women from antiquity to the present, reflecting with wit and humor the challenges they have faced and the fortitude and strength that have sustained Black Women and patterned history with a diversity of excellence. As warriors, healers, teachers, mothers, queens, and liberators Black Women have had tremendous impact on issues from food to fashion, from politics to poetry. Replete with a glossary of reference terms, Black Women For Beginners whimsically details the influence of stereotypes on the portrayal of Black Women in various venues and punctuates the absurd.

Writer, actress, filmmaker and broadcast journalist, S. Pearl Sharp’s commentaries and essays are heard on NPR, Pacifica radio and other broadcast outlets. An award-winning independent filmmaker for 25 years, Sharp’s films include Life Is A Saxophone on poet Kamau Daa'ood, Central Avenue Live! for the City of Los Angeles, the semi-animated Picking Tribes, and The Healing Passage/Voices From The Water in which prominent cultural artists address the present-day residuals of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. S. Pearl merges art, spirituality and creativity in her literary readings and her workshops, The Writer’s Dance Class and Writing Wellness.