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Feminists Around the World: Ann Allen Shockley · Stuff Mom Never Told You

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  Speaker 1: Okay, this is Sandy and Samantha and welcome to steff
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  Speaker 1: WM Never told you production by Hear Radio.
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  Speaker 2: So we are writing this on April tenth, although publishing
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  Speaker 2: it on April fifteenth, so you know, a little bit,
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  Speaker 2: little bit delayed. We got this though, so but April
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  Speaker 2: tenth was in the middle of National Library Week, so
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  Speaker 2: we wanted to take the time to celebrate with an
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  Speaker 2: activist or an activist librarian as she is known, also
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  Speaker 2: a writer, journalist, so many other things, an Alan Shockley
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  Speaker 2: who is still with us, so of course we've got
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  Speaker 2: to celebrate while she's still with us. Shockley has made
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  Speaker 2: a profound impact in the world with her works and
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  Speaker 2: advocacy since her childhood in Louisville, Kentucky, which she was
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  Speaker 2: born I believed in nineteen twenty seven. Shockley has been
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  Speaker 2: influenced by books and writings her entire life. Teachers and
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  Speaker 2: mentors encouraged her to write and read, seeing her talents
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  Speaker 2: and creativity, so in high school she would take her
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  Speaker 2: talents and use them for her high school newspaper and
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  Speaker 2: would continue on to get her degree in college at
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  Speaker 2: Fisk University, as well as received her Masters in Library
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  Speaker 2: Sciences at Case Western Reserve University in nineteen fifty nine.
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  Speaker 2: So again, even back then, you were supposed to get
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  Speaker 2: a master's in order to work in the library. That's
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  Speaker 2: so such an invest amount of work, right, So here's
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  Speaker 2: a bit about her from benhair dot Org quote in
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  Speaker 2: Alan Shockley was born on June twenty first, nineteen twenty seven,
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  Speaker 2: in Louisville, Kentucky. Her love of reading and writing started
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  Speaker 2: at an early age. Harriet Leforest, her eighth grade teacher,
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  Speaker 2: was her mentor, and Richard Writ's uncle Tom's Children was
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  Speaker 2: an early influence on her writing. Shockley's introduction to writing
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  Speaker 2: for the public started with her editing her high school newspaper.
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  Speaker 2: She continued to write for various newspapers and graduated with
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  Speaker 2: her her bachelor's degree from Fisk University in nineteen forty eight,
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  Speaker 2: and in nineteen fifty nine, she received her master's degree
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  Speaker 2: in library science from Case Western Reserve University. So she's
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  Speaker 2: been at this for a while. During this time, she
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  Speaker 2: married William Shockley in nineteen forty eight and had two children,
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  Speaker 2: and she would go on to work as a librarian
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  Speaker 2: at Delaware State College and at the University of Maryland
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  Speaker 2: Eastern Shore and again would go on to work at
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  Speaker 2: Fisk University. In fact, she would go on to serve
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  Speaker 2: as Professor of Library Science at Fisk. She also was
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  Speaker 2: the associate librarian for Special Collections there as well as
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  Speaker 2: well as founded the Black Oral History Program. So here's
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  Speaker 2: a bit more detail about her. From the book Knowledge
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  Speaker 2: of Justice Disruption of Library and Information Studies through Critical
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  Speaker 2: Race Theory, So contributor and writer Schandra Walker writes and
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  Speaker 2: Alan Shockley a black activist librarian who wrote extensively on
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  Speaker 2: the purpose and function of black special collections. Shockley, who
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  Speaker 2: was a part of a continuum of black activist librarians,
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  Speaker 2: was extraordinary that she raised important questions about the need
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  Speaker 2: for special collections in libraries serving HBCUs, their function and
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  Speaker 2: support of black studies programs on predominantly white campuses, and
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  Speaker 2: the roles of librarians and publishers in developing and supporting
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  Speaker 2: such collections. So a lot of amazing work. And with
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  Speaker 2: her contributions to the library systems and advocating for more
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  Speaker 2: African American literature and writings, she was contributing with her
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  Speaker 2: own written work as well. She was a freelance columnist
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  Speaker 2: from nineteen forty five to nineteen fifty four and worked
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  Speaker 2: at different publishings such as The Louisville Defender, Fiske University Heralds,
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  Speaker 2: and others, specifically talking about African American studies and subjects
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  Speaker 2: and issues, as well as lgbt related issues. Here's a
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  Speaker 2: bit more information from beinhere dot org. Again, she writes
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  Speaker 2: about triple oppression, the internationality of racism, sexism, and homophobia
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  Speaker 2: in the Black community, and stories and writings were inspired
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  Speaker 2: by the Black civil rights the LGBTQ plus aberration, and
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  Speaker 2: the women's rights movements. And again from Schandra Walker, she
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  Speaker 2: writes she's best known for her literary works centering the
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  Speaker 2: lives of black lesbians. Her novels Loving Her, published in
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  Speaker 2: nineteen seventy four, The Black and White of It published
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  Speaker 2: in nineteen eighty, Say Jesus and Come to Me nineteen
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  Speaker 2: eighty two, and Celebrating Hotsch Law, published in two thousand
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  Speaker 2: and five, illuminate the lives of an overlooked demographic. Her
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  Speaker 2: writing exemplifies the very type of work that Black special
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  Speaker 2: collections endeavor to preserve and make available once they illuminate
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  Speaker 2: experiences that might otherwise be unnoticed and undervalued by other collections.
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  Speaker 2: In addition to her literary work, she also authored Afro
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  Speaker 2: American Women Writers seventeen forty six, nineteen thirty three and
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  Speaker 2: Anthology and Critical Guide nineteen eighty eight. Reportedly, the reference
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  Speaker 2: work was a labor of love for her, as she
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  Speaker 2: received no grant or clerical support, and she began assembling
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  Speaker 2: it in nineteen seventy eight using extra time on holidays
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  Speaker 2: and over summers, and describe being her inspiration for the work,
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  Speaker 2: She stated quote, I shared a personal empathy with many
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  Speaker 2: of these women whose problems mirrored my own and those
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  Speaker 2: of women writers throughout the centuries. Yeah, and unsurprisingly, her
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  Speaker 2: work and advocacy put her in a place of legacy
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  Speaker 2: as an activist librarian. But honestly, we don't see a
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  Speaker 2: lot of that conversation. But thanks to people like Walker,
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  Speaker 2: we are able to get a better understanding of the
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  Speaker 2: obvious crossovers of librarians and activism. I love that because
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  Speaker 2: I will say, when I was trying to look up
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  Speaker 2: specifically those who are activists, I see some historical figures,
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  Speaker 2: but that was not a lot that they talk about.
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  Speaker 2: I guess, you know, we don't celebrate librarians enough so
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  Speaker 2: that might be part of this problem. So in her
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  Speaker 2: time doing this very tedious work, she has talked about
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  Speaker 2: why collections like the African American writings and works are
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  Speaker 2: so important in being available to the public. And again
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  Speaker 2: this is from the Walker chapter from that book. She says,
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  Speaker 2: this type of special collection made available through the gathering
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  Speaker 2: of books and other materials allows for more comprehensive consideration
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  Speaker 2: and treatment of a certain phase of history, long neglected
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  Speaker 2: and misinterpreted, which by necessity must be studied, examined, and
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  Speaker 2: researched in order to provide the missing link in the
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  Speaker 2: history of a people and the history of a nation.
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  Speaker 2: So that was a quote from us Shocklely, and Walker
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  Speaker 2: goes on to say, here we see a bold statement
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  Speaker 2: that alludes to the deficiencies of cataloging and classification systems
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  Speaker 2: that have historically marginalized non wide, non Western materials. Black
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  Speaker 2: special collections then can be seen to have a liberating,
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  Speaker 2: emancipating function. Such collections, rather than relegating materials about the
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  Speaker 2: experience of Black people to a subordinate status, instead elevate
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  Speaker 2: them to a level that is at least on part
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  Speaker 2: with libraries, primary or main collections. Again, so important to
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  Speaker 2: be represented in libraries, and her boldness in advocating for
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  Speaker 2: the availability of having more black writers and books has
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  Speaker 2: made a long and lasting impact as well as her
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  Speaker 2: own books. As we mentioned previously, her book Loving Her
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  Speaker 2: was groundbreaking. So going back to that binhere dot org article,
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  Speaker 2: they write she was one of the first women to
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  Speaker 2: write about lesbian, especially black lesbian experiences, and likely the
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  Speaker 2: first to publish a novel centering on a black lesbian protagonist.
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  Speaker 2: Her groundbreaking book Loving Her was the first to explore
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  Speaker 2: a black lesbian protagonist in an interracial relationship. She wrote
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  Speaker 2: about what interested her and not what was socially acceptable,
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  Speaker 2: making her a pioneer in the black LGBTQ plus literature field.
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  Speaker 2: So this book garnered her the award of Lee Lynch
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  Speaker 2: Classic Award, but also garnered some critiques. So from what
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  Speaker 2: I gather, she's not actually a lesbian, but she does
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  Speaker 2: find that something that needs to be spoken about. In
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  Speaker 2: nineteen seventy four, what she did was truly something new
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  Speaker 2: and unheard of. And here's a bit from her Wikipedia
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  Speaker 2: page which he I know Wikipedia can be mistaken, but
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  Speaker 2: they did a great job in trying to get her
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  Speaker 2: remembered and made sure that her legacy is going to
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  Speaker 2: be lasting, so they wrote this. Journalists have come out
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  Speaker 2: that goes as far as to say that Shockli complicates
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  Speaker 2: same gender loving as well as problematizes it through her
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  Speaker 2: characterizations of African American people who also happen to be homosexual.
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  Speaker 2: Along with this, some argue that Shackleli uses too many
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  Speaker 2: generalizations in her text, has a poor stylistic choice, and
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  Speaker 2: did not work to battle common stereotypes about black lesbianism.
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  Speaker 2: In her first novel, Loving Her, the main character, Renee,
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  Speaker 2: chooses to live her life as a lesbian, but still
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  Speaker 2: performs stereotypically heteronormative notions on romance, which works against Shackli's
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  Speaker 2: supposed intentions of exposing what a lesbian relationship really is
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  Speaker 2: like in the late twentieth century. However, as the first
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  Speaker 2: novel representing an interracial relationship between two women, Loving Her
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  Speaker 2: does not exist within a historical framework in which it
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  Speaker 2: could serve as a satirical response too, so it is
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  Speaker 2: sometimes have been interpreted as a naive reinforcement of heteronormative
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  Speaker 2: and racist ideas about queer relationships and black webpon rather
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  Speaker 2: than a potentially self aware piece. Nonetheless, the fictional novel
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  Speaker 2: is still admittingly one of the first of its kind. Again,
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  Speaker 2: of course, like the author of this Wikipedia page does
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  Speaker 2: point out, it could have a lot to do with
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  Speaker 2: a time frame, so like it's very new, it's something new,
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  Speaker 2: So maybe she was making a satirical point if she
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  Speaker 2: is not actually a lesbian, which again I just saw
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  Speaker 2: that in one article saying that she was not. This
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  Speaker 2: could be a part of the problem as well as
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  Speaker 2: how do you reinvent or have a conversation about something
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  Speaker 2: that was so taboo in a time that people were
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  Speaker 2: out today even today even there's problematic things in what
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  Speaker 2: they think is representing in a good way, but they're
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  Speaker 2: underlying whether it's misogyny or underlying misogyniir all of this
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  Speaker 2: may come out without realizing it is coming maybe with
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  Speaker 2: good intentions, all those things. This is deep conversation, especially
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  Speaker 2: a book in nineteen seventy four. She moved to do
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  Speaker 2: something really radical at that point in time, so there's
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  Speaker 2: a lot of conversations that could be had. I've seen
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  Speaker 2: other articles specifically written by like black queer publications that
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  Speaker 2: talk about you still have to give her her flowers
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  Speaker 2: like it was an amazing thing. I think they celebrated
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  Speaker 2: this book last year and as being the fiftieth anniversary
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  Speaker 2: of the release of this book and how it was
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  Speaker 2: it was in an international level it was published on
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  Speaker 2: that level. Again, a lot of things to be talked about,
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  Speaker 2: but no matter what, we know that Chocolate has been
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  Speaker 2: doing amazing advocacy work in order to preserve history as
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  Speaker 2: well as giving recognition to those who are too often erased,
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  Speaker 2: especially in this day and age. We know librarians are
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  Speaker 2: being attacked, we know libraries are being attacked, we know
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  Speaker 2: black writers are being attacked. We know that CRT is
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  Speaker 2: being attacked. So all of this conversation that she has
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  Speaker 2: fought for since her childhood is so important to remember
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  Speaker 2: and we want to celebrate and thank her for her
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  Speaker 2: work because this is huge in what she has done
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  Speaker 2: with her life.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, Yes, and very cool books to add to our list.
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