A Bound Woman Is a Dangerous Thing: The Incarceration of African American Women from Harriet Tubman to Sandra Bland

by DaMaris Hill

Overview

Nominated for an NAACP Image Award
A Publishers Weekly Top 10 History Title for the season
Booklist's Top 10 Diverse Nonfiction titles for the year
BookRiot's "50 Must-Read Poetry Collections"
Most Anticipated Books of the Year--The Rumpus, Nylon

A revelatory work in the tradition of Claudia Rankine's Citizen, DaMaris Hill's searing and powerful narrative-in-verse bears witness to American women of color burdened by incarceration.

“It is costly to stay free and appear / sane.”

From Harriet Tubman to Assata Shakur, Ida B. Wells to Sandra Bland and Black Lives Matter, black women freedom fighters have braved violence, scorn, despair, and isolation in order to lodge their protests. In A Bound Woman Is a Dangerous Thing, DaMaris Hill honors their experiences with at times harrowing, at times hopeful responses to her heroes, illustrated with black-and-white photographs throughout.

For black American women, the experience of being bound has taken many forms: from the bondage of slavery to the Reconstruction-era criminalization of women; from the brutal constraints of Jim Crow to our own era's prison industrial complex, where between 1980 and 2014, the number of incarcerated women increased by 700%.* For those women who lived and died resisting the dehumanization of confinement--physical, social, intellectual--the threat of being bound was real, constant, and lethal.

In A Bound Woman Is a Dangerous Thing, Hill presents bitter, unflinching history that artfully captures the personas of these captivating, bound yet unbridled African-American women. Hill's passionate odes to Zora Neale Hurston, Lucille Clifton, Fannie Lou Hamer, Grace Jones, Eartha Kitt, and others also celebrate the modern-day inheritors of their load and light, binding history, author, and reader in an essential legacy of struggle.

*The Sentencing Project

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781635572629
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:	01/15/2019
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	192
File size:	32 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

DaMaris B. Hill is assistant professor of creative writing and African American and Africana studies at the University of Kentucky. Her previous works are The Fluid Boundaries of Suffrage and Jim Crow: Staking Claims in the American Heartland, and a collection of poetry, \Vi-ze-bel\\Teks-chers\. She has two PhDs, one in English and one in women and gender studies. A former service member of the United States Air Force, she lives in Lexington, Kentucky.
DaMaris B. Hill, PhD, is the author of A Bound Woman Is a Dangerous Thing, an NAACP Image Award Finalist; The Fluid Boundaries of Suffrage and Jim Crow: Staking Claims in the American Heartland; and a collection of poetry, \Vi-ze-bel\ \Teks-chers\(Visible Textures). As with her creative process, Hill's scholarly research is interdisciplinary. An Associate professor of Creative Writing at the University of Kentucky and a former service member of the United States Air Force, she lives in Kentucky. www.damarishill.com
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Table of Contents

Preface xiii

Bound 1

Harriet Beecher Spruill-Hill 3

Shut Up in My Bones 4

Lucille Clifton 7

In the Garden 9

Study the Masters 11

Miz Lucille 13

Lucy Sayles 15

Licorice for Lucy 16

Bound.fettered. 19

Annie Cutler 21

The Concession of Annie Cutler 22

Alice Clifton 25

The Love Song of Alice Clifton 27

Black Bess 29

A Mermaid's Stroll 31

Ella Jackson 33

Bewitched 35

Em Lee and Stella Weldon 37

Em Lee's Sweet on Stella 39

Mary Hannah Tabbs 41

Lusts and Gaines 42

Ida Howard 45

What You Oughta Know about Ida 47

Laura Williams 49

Stewing 51

Annie Wilson 53

Frisk 55

Black White Criminality in Insane Asylum 57

Black Bird Medley 58

Bound/demarcation; boundaries 63

Ida B. Wells 65

λv=c ♥v>>! 66

There Are Thieves in the Temples 68

Translation 1 69

Translation 2 70

Translation 3 72

Translation 4 73

Translation 5 74

Translation 6 76

Translation 7 79

Zora Neale Hurston 81

Zora Neale Hurston 82

Claudia Jones 85

Claudia Jones 87

Eartha Ritt 89

Eartha Kitt 91

Sonia Sanchez 93

This Granny Is a Gangster 95

Sandra Bland 97

#SandySpeaks Is a Choral Refrain 98

Bound √hurdle; spring forth 101

Harriet Tubman 103

Harriet Is Holy 105

Joan Little 107

Joan Little 108

Ruby McCollum 111

Ruby McCollum 113

Grace Jones 115

Amazing Grace and Unloved Gentiles 117

Fannie Lou Hamer 119

Magnolia's State 121

Bound-hem; hemmed in (for Assata shakur) 123

Assata Shakur 125

Revolution: Assata in 1956 126

Retina: Assata in 1970 129

Every Black Woman Knows the Constitution: Assata in 1972 131

Truth Is a Mirror in the Hands of God: Assata in 1976 132

Exodus: Assata in 1979 135

The Education of the Taw Marble: Assata a Timeless Lesson in Geography and Geometry 136

A Reckoning: Assata in 1980 139

Space Program: Assata in 1981 141

The Arms Race/The War on Drugs: Assata in 1984 142

Bound ∞hinge 145

Gynnya McMillen 147

Trainers for Gynnya McMillen 149

Patriot and Prisoner 151

Coping 155

A Recipe for a Son 157

Gabriel Casts a Knuckle 158

Remains 161

Praying for Sons 163

Acknowledgments 165

Citations 167

Photo Credits 169

Editorial Reviews

01/21/2019

Through poetic memoir, biographical sketches, and archival black-and-white photographs, Hill’s first full-length collection gives voice to the history of black women in the United States who have undergone incarceration and oppression. To be bound suggests to be trapped; however, Hill’s poems illustrate how oppression can summon inner-strength, resistance, and revolution. While many of the freedom fighters spotlighted in the collection endured tragedy, Hill suggests it would be limiting to label these figures as tragic or doomed. Their narratives are not cautionary tales of defeat, but nuanced testaments of survival and ascension. In “Miz Lucille (an echo poem for Ms. Clifton),” Hill writes, “i stand up/ in the world that gift wrapped me for ruin/ i stand up/ and mark the script.” Hill’s deep admiration for poet and mentor Lucille Clifton serves as a touchstone, a way to rise above everyday struggles. In “Claudia Jones,” Hill envisions the activist and writer’s story as one of redemption: “How many/ ways did you write women? How / many ways did you right women?” For Hill, a bound woman overcomes oppression through her legacy. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

"While many explorations of the prison system focus on the male experience, DaMaris B. Hill shines a light on the plight of incarcerated black American women . . . It’s a difficult, powerful subject, and a history far too few Americans are familiar with; Hill tells these stories with passion and strength, illuminating the ongoing struggle to be free." - Nylon, Most Anticipated Books of the Year

"[A] bitter, unflinching history that artfully captures the personas of these captivating, bound yet unbridled African-American women. Hill’s passionate odes to Zora Neale Hurston, Lucille Clifton, Fannie Lou Hamer, Grace Jones, Eartha Kitt, and others also celebrate the modern-day inheritors of their load and light, binding history, author, and reader in an essential legacy of struggle." - The Rumpus, "What to Read When You Want to Celebrate Black History"

"DaMaris B. Hill writes the poetry of the bound black woman across the ages in this haunting, powerful collection. What you will read here is not just poetry, though. This book offers an education. This book bears witness. This book is a reckoning." - Roxane Gay

"Stunning. It feels as if I have been waiting for this book my whole life. It's a call and response, a poetic dialogue, a deep honoring of all that black women have endured and created and inspired. The voices Hill has found embody the women in her book with heart and allow us to know them in their essence. This is a brave, brilliant, beautiful account of love. Unforgettable." - Eve Ensler

"In this distinctive inquiry in verse, Hill reflects on black women who resisted violent racism and misogyny, ranging from the notable and notorious to the lesser-known yet no less heroic." - Booklist, Top Ten Diverse Nonfiction

"A collection of soul-wrenching poetry . . . A Bound Woman is a Dangerous Thing is a must-read for anyone who wants to learn more not just about the myriad struggles of women of color, but also the always-inspiring fierceness and triumphs."- Manhattan Book Review

"In piercing thought and extraordinary verse [DaMaris B. Hill] explores what it means to be bound for black women across history and into the present moment. She does not write to argue innocence and guilt but to illuminate experience, to honor struggle and expression, and to affirm love." - Asheville Citizen Times

"With a lyricism that sings, swings, and stings, poet and writer Hill reflects on black women who resisted violent racism and misogyny, ranging from the notable and notorious (Fannie Lou Hamer, Eartha Kitt, Ida B. Wells, Joanne Little) to lesser-known, no-less-heroic women." - Booklist, starred review

"At exactly the right time, University of Kentucky professor DaMaris B. Hill has written a powerful collection of poems examining the incarceration of Black women . . . I will be processing this book for a long time." - Ms. Magazine.com

"Hill creates an intimate atmosphere that allows for a rich exploration of fully formed heroines . . . they are soothsayers, truth-tellers, mavericks and revolutionaries." - BookPage

"Hill’s first full-length collection gives voice to the history of black women in the United States who have undergone incarceration and oppression. To be bound suggests to be trapped; however, Hill’s poems illustrate how oppression can summon inner-strength, resistance, and revolution." - Publishers Weekly

"Honest, intelligent, brutal, the poems in A Bound Woman is a Dangerous Thing will not soothe or temper the weight of a violent misogynistic history. Instead, they serve as a much-needed resurrection. DaMaris B. Hill is a brilliant poet historian who has created an important lyrical excavation that’s never been more necessary." - National Book Award Finalist Ada Limón, author of THE CARRYING

"This book challenged me to reconsider what I knew of American history. Hill has crafted an indelible affirmation of the power of women, black women in particular, in rich verse that is at once a history, a reckoning, a balm, and call to empathy and action." - Mitchell S. Jackson, Whiting Award-winning author of THE RESIDUE YEARS and the forthcoming memoir SURVIVAL MATH

From the Publisher

2018-09-11

A scholar and poet illuminates a legacy of African-American women through biographical sketches, archival photos, and verse.

Long before Black Lives Matter and #MeToo, black women have been resisting the onslaughts of racism and sexual subjugation, as detailed in this unique volume. "Some of these movements began in the colonial era," writes Hill (Creative Writing, African-American and Africana Studies/Univ. of Kentucky; editor: The Fluid Boundaries of Suffrage and Jim Crow, 2016, etc.). "Writing poems about such women has forced me to question what it means for a Black woman to engage in resistance within this particular time and this specific place." On the scholarly side, the book offers a series of short biographical sketches of black women in American history. Following each is a poem (or more) of celebration; "these poems are love letters," writes the author. Through them, she traces her own literary influences as well as the heroic inspiration of black women who resisted, suffered, and even died in the face of oppression. One of the more recent is Sandra Bland, who died of what the official record noted was a suicide in a Texas jail cell after a minor traffic violation and altercation with the officer ticketing her. "Prior to her arrest," writes Hill, "Bland curated and documented her protests of police killings on various social media sites using the hashtag #SandySpeaks. Upon her death, her #SandySpeaks works went viral. They stand as an archive, a record of her intelligence and activism." Another woman was immortalized in the ballad "Joanne Little" by Sweet Honey in the Rock after stabbing an assailant with an icepick as he attempted to sexually assault her. She was acquitted of first-degree murder. More familiar names such as Eartha Kitt and Zora Neale Hurston receive similar tributes, as the collection builds to the author's own stream-of-consciousness monologue, her "autobiographical journey."

A memorable book that is neither easy to classify nor dismiss.

Kirkus Reviews