Sisters of the Yam: Black Women and Self-Recovery - Tapa dura

"Sisters of the Yam, with its mixture of personal narrative, cultural critique, brief literary analyses, and plain, old-fashioned, kitchen table common-sense advice, might very well reach beyond the university to the diverse groups of people that have been hooks’s ‘intended’ audience throughout much of her speaking and writing." ―Sandra Adell, African American Review (1995)

"In Sisters of the Yam, hooks articulates black women’s healing as an expression of ‘liberatory political practice.’ This statement transformed my consciousness as a health activist. By simply caring for myself, I can be a revolutionary. . ." ―Sariane Leigh, The Feminist Wire (2012)

In Sisters of the Yam, bell hooks reflects on the ways in which the emotional health of black women has been and continues to be impacted by sexism and racism. Desiring to create a context where black females could both work on their individual efforts for self-actualization while remaining connected to a larger world of collective struggle, hooks articulates the link between self-recovery and political resistance. Both an expression of the joy of self-healing and the need to be ever vigilant in the struggle for equality, Sisters of the Yam continues to speak to the experience of black womanhood.