Synopses & Reviews
Estella Conwill Majozo has lead a life of creativity and of leadership in the arts. A respected poet, teacher, and performance artist, Majozo writes eloquently about the deep roots in family and community that have sustained her as well as the conflicts and challenges that have confronted her, as they have many creative and self-aware African-American women over the last half-century.
This memoir traces the paths Majozo has taken from the "Little Africa" section of segregated Louisville through a difficult marriage and a Ph. D. at the University of Iowa, to New York where Majozo has become a member of the hardy cultural community of Harlem. It is a testament to the importance of a life lived in pursuit of cultural heritage, spiritual growth, and personal inegrity.
Synopsis
At the intersection of poetry and politics, race and gender, analysis and feeling lies this telling memoir from Estella Conwill Majozo, first published in hardcover in 1999. Booklist declared, "Majozo's poetic abilities are evident in this memoir of her development as a black woman and an artist.... (She) writes knowingly of coming through a wilderness mined with racial, sexual, and social restrictions".
Come Out the Wilderness traces the journey of this African American poet, performance artist, community arts activist, teacher, and single mother from her childhood in the "Little Africa" section of segregated Louisville, Kentucky, through the trials of an abusive marriage to the triumph of earning one of the first Ph.D.s awarded in African American literature. Estella Conwill Majozo's memoir testifies to the importance of a life lived in pursuit of spiritual growth, cultural heritage, and personal integrity.
Synopsis
A powerfully written memoir by a black woman artist in search of meaning and "grace" in her family, work, and spiritual lives.