Majozo's poetic abilities are evident in this memoir of her development as a black woman and an artist. Her writing evokes the love, joy, and turmoil of growing up the only girl among five brothers in Louisville, Kentucky, crossing the line that begins to restrict a girl's behavior and learning to cross other lines in her life. Majozo writes poignantly of growing up during the civil rights movement, an era of self-discovery, and her resentment at being designated the spokesperson for the African Americans in a Catholic girl's school. The search for identity intensifies after failed marriages that leave her to raise her children without a mate. But she writes lovingly of her supportive family, particularly a grandmother who lived on in dreams and messages, a mother who gave unwavering support, and brothers who helped compensate for poor choices in husbands. Majozo, who earned the first Ph.D. awarded in African American literature, writes knowingly of coming through a wilderness mined with racial, sexual, and social restrictions and limiting relationships.
Vanessa Bush
From Kirkus Reviews
An evocative and eventful memoir of a remarkable black woman who made the arts her life and her life an artwork. Born Estella Conwill in 1949, M jozo (African-American Literature/Hunter Coll.) grew up in Louisville, Ky., when it was still segregated; her first strong memory is of fighting between her brothers and neighboring whites. Her father fell to his death while helping a neighbor when the author was a child, and her mother had to work, but Estella tried hard at school, where she was the token colored student, required to be a credit to her race. When a youthful marriage went bad and her husband turned abusive, the devout Catholic spent years trying unsuccessfully to get the marriage annulled. The thoughtlessness of one sexist white priest finally provoked her to explode (though only after shed left his presence): ``I am sorry, Father, that the church is so stupidly insensitive to my situation! That it has never cared about my poor little Black female ass and still has the nerve to call itself the body of Christ, you jerk!'' This is one of several occasions when the reader wants to get up and cheer, but most of M jozos victories are quiet ones: earning one of the first doctorates in African-American literature; founding and running Blackaleidoscope, an arts center in her hometown. Several passages in the book deal with the authors oscillation between New York City, the historic mecca of African-American artists, and her dream of helping black culture thrive in Louisville. She drew sustenance from both places, moving back to New York in 1988 to teach at Hunter. Throughout, M jozos language is richly seasoned with allusions to both black literature and the Bible. Though her memoir chronicles some hard times, including a wrenching miscarriage, it also shows her moving on to new love and challenges. Both personally and professionally, M jozo exemplifies the trials and triumphs of the African-American woman. (22 b&w pohotos, not seen) --
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