Datasets:
HHazard
/
continuous-learning

Dataset card Data Studio Files
xet
 Community
1
text
stringlengths
13
991
"Blanche on the Lam" opens in a court room with Blanche being accused of writing bad checks and being sentenced to thirty days in jail to teach her a lesson. She has a small panic attack at the thought of having to spend thirty days in a small jail cell and asks to use the rest room where she ends up fuming over what h...
There is a disturbance out in the hall and she takes her chance to escape by slipping out of the restroom and making her way to the exit and out into the underground parking lot. She walks quickly out of the area and finds herself in the neighborhood to a job she had got from the Ty-Dee Girls agency she cancelled for t...
After lunch Blanche and the family of four drive out to the country house by the sea. That day she learns that one of the family members, Aunt Emmeline, is a drunk or at least that is what she assumes, and is a witness to her Will signing that hands over the control of her nephew, Mumsfield‘s, money to his cousins, Gra...
Later, after returning from running errands with Mumsfield, she finds the Sheriff at the country house and thinks she has been caught, but it turns out that Sheriff is there to see Everett. After she has calmed herself she wonders why the Sheriff was there if not for her, and is even more curious when she realizes how ...
However, Blanche cannot assume that she is living with a murderer based on what she overheard and witnessed. The same day Nate comes and tells her that he saw someone wearing a pink jacket walking the short-cut route to the place where the Sheriff died. It is obvious he thinks it was Everett. Later that day Everett con...
Blanche finds clues here and there and eventually learns that the Aunt Emmeline she saw sign the will was an impostor and that the real woman had been killed. After going over the clues she had and looking at what evidence she had already uncovered and seeing Grace again, she realized that she had been suspecting the w...
She is the central character on "Blanche on the Lam". She is a black woman, who is a housekeeper and cook, on the run from a jail term for a minor offense. She hides out as a domestic worker for a dysfunctional white family. According to Mildred Mickle, Blanche is "a domestic heroine, a very human, compassionate, and h...
He is the white and mentally retarded cousin of Grace. He holds a good amount of power in the novel because he is the designated heir to the family fortune and for that his family plots to cheat him out of the money. Although he is white, he cannot be understood or accepted by his family, "He exits in a liminal space, ...
He relates more to Blanche than his own white family because they share a common reality of being misunderstood and denigrated. Additionally, they both see beyond the superficial and discover hidden truths.
She plays the stereotypical white mistress role. She pays little attention to the people she trusts to run her home but hypocritically, it is because she does not see them as individuals. Blanche, however, takes advantage of Grace's ignorance by pretending to be a former employee so that she can get hired even though s...
He serves as a gardener for the Carter family, whom Blanche is working for while in hiding. He acts submissive and quiet in front of Grace, however he drops this stereotypical "Uncle Tom" act and reveals himself to be a sharp witted, humorous man. He owes his life to Grace, because he was about to be lynched (before th...
He is Grace's husband. He presents himself in the eyes of Blanche as the central villain and is conspicuous from the start of the novel. His former wife mysteriously died, leading him to an inheritance. Blanche suspects the Sheriff to be blackmailing (or as she calls it "white male") Everett so that he does not tell Gr...
He is Mumsfield's cousin and the family lawyer. Blanche catches Symington calling in favors to keep Nate's murder committed by one of his family members out of court to avoid a scandal. He tries to bribe Blanche from revealing this scandal by telling her he will get her sentence repealed.
She holds the inheritance in which she planned to pass to Mumsfield. Blanche notes in the novel about Aunt Emmeline that she "looked like a drunken Little Orphan Annie at eighty, with her frizzy yellow hair and blank, watery eyes." Blanche is asked to witness Aunt Emmeline sign over her will to Grace and Everett, strik...
Following the tradition of many black artist in the 20th century, Barbara Neely uses the mystery/crime genre to incorporate themes of deception and perception. With the use of Blanche's character as the detective, Neely asks who is the real criminal: master or slave, upper class or the working class, black or white?
The issues of trust, deception, and perception have long flourished in racial and gender conflicts. Barbara Neely, exposes these issues through the web of mystery surrounding the murders and cheating that surrounds the characters in "Blanche on the Lam". Additionally, there is an overall theme of fear of the characters...
Blanche utilizes all three aspects that provide her with invisibility (being black, female, and a domestic servant) and relies on her identity as a "Night Girl"- a name a wise aunt gave her when she found Blanche crying because some kids teased her about having a dark, black complexion. Her aunt consoled her by saying:
"They jealous 'cause you got the night in you. Some people got night in 'im, some got morning, others, like me and your mama, god dusk. But it's only them that's got night can become invisible. People what got night in 'em can step into the dark and poof...Go any old where they want. Do anything. Ride them stars up the...
Blanche's aunt gives her a positive conception of dark skin and instead of being ashamed, Blanche utilizes this concept of being invisible in to a powerful liberation. It allows her to move unseen, to discover the Carter family secrets, and ultimately turns her in to a crafty detective who solves all the crime in the n...
In "I Know What the Red Clay Looks Like: The Voice and Vision of Black Women Writers", Rebecca Carroll interviews Barbara Neely, and she discusses how she formed Blanche White:
"The character of Blanche initially came from a woman I knew in North Carolina who had a look that inspired me to create a heroine in her memory...I knew I wanted her to be representative of who black women are, presently and historically. Both my grandmothers did domestic work..." "A cleansing construction: Blanche Wh...
According to Elsie Washington in a review for "Essence", the novel is considered "the first mystery by a black woman with a Black woman as the heroine".
Neely scored major accolades with her first novel, winning the Agatha, Anthony, and Macavity Awards for "Blanche on the Lam". She also received an award from the Black Women’s Reading Club for the book.
Starting Over is a 2011 autobiography by American musician and recording artist La Toya Jackson. The book was published by Gallery Books and was released on June 21, 2011. It made "The New York Times" Best Seller list for the week ending July 2, 2011.
The book picks up from where her previous autobiography, "", left off. It details her abusive relationship with, and escape from, her manager Jack Gordon.
The latter part of the book describes how her brother Michael Jackson confided in La Toya that he feared being killed for his music and publishing estate. In the book La Toya reveals that she feared for Michael's life in the months leading up to his death.
The hardcover version was released on June 21, 2011. The mass market paperback was released on May 29, 2012.
Jackson made "The New York Times" Best Seller list for the week ending July 2, 2011. This was her second book to make the list, the first being "", which peaked at number 2.
For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf
For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf is Ntozake Shange's first work and most acclaimed theater piece, which premiered in 1976. It consists of a series of poetic monologues to be accompanied by dance movements and music, a form Shange coined as the choreopoem. "for colored girls..." t...
In December 1974, Shange performed the first incarnation of her choreopoem with four other artists at a women's bar outside Berkeley, California. After moving to New York City, she continued work on "for colored girls...", which went on to open at the Booth Theatre in 1976, becoming the second play by a black woman to ...
"for colored girls..." has been performed Off-Broadway as well as on Broadway, and was adapted as a book (first published in 1976 by Shameless Hussy Press), a 1982 television film, and a 2010 theatrical film. The 1976 Broadway production was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Play.
"for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf" is a piece of work inspired by events of Shange's own life. Shange admitted publicly to having attempted suicide on four occasions. In a phone interview conducted with CNN, she explained how she came to the title of her choreopoem: "I was driving ...
Shange also explains that she chose to use the word "colored" in the title of her choreopoem so that her grandmother would be able to understand it.
The prologue of the choreopoem "dark phrases" begins with the lady in brown describing the "dark phrases of womanhood". All she hears are screams and promises. Each woman states where she is from, by stating they are outside their respective cities. The lady in brown proclaims that this piece is all for "colored girls ...
The lady in yellow says it was graduation night and she was the only virgin. She was out driving around with her male friends who she has known since the seventh grade in a black Buick, laughing about graduation. After a fight breaks out, the lady in yellow and Bobby leave and end up having sex in the back of the Buick...
The lady in blue talks about how she used to participate in dance marathons frequently. One night she refused to dance with anyone that only spoke English. Throughout the monologue she intertwines English and Spanish. During this time she discovered blues clubs. She says she became possessed by the music. She ends her ...
The lady in red addresses an ambiguous "you" throughout the monologue. She has loved this "you" strongly and passionately "for 8 months, 2 wks, & a day" without any encouragement. She decides to end this affair and leaves a note attached to a plant that she has watered every day since she met this person.
The lady in orange begins by saying she does not want to write in neither English nor Spanish, but she only wants to dance. She forgets all about words when she starts to dance. She says "we gotta dance to keep form cryin and dyin" and the other ladies repeat her words. The lady in orange then claims that she is a poet...
The lady in blue sets the scene with tubes, tables, white washed windows, and her legs spread open. She couldn't bear to have people looking at her while she got an abortion so she is all alone.
The lady in purple describes Sechita's life in the bayou, while lady in green dances out Sechita's life. She is dressed up for the Creole carnival celebration. She embodies the spirit of her namesake, Sechita, the Egyptian goddess of creativity, love, beauty and filth from the 2nd millennium.
The lady in blue begins her monologue by explaining that she used to live in the world but now only lives in Harlem, and her universe is only six blocks. She used to walk all over the world and now her world is small and dirty. The lady in blue says that when she used to live in the world where she was nice and sweet b...
The lady in orange discusses a relationship that left her heartbroken. She says that ever since she realized that someone would call a "colored girl an evil woman a bitch or a nag" (56) she has tried not to be that person. She tries to not only give joy, but to receive it as well. She finds herself in what she believes...
The lady in purple speaks about her relationship to dance and men. She deliberately chooses to dance with men who don't speak English, pops pills, and uses dance as an escape from reality. Then she meets a man who she gave everything: dance, fear, hope and scars. She admits she was ready to die, but now is ready to be ...
The lady in blue proclaims that they all deal with too much emotion and that it might be easier to be white. That way they could make everything "dry & abstract wit no rhythm & no / reelin for sheer sensual pleasure". The lady in blue states that they should try to control their feelings and she is going to take the fi...
The lady in yellow claims to have lost touch with reality because she used to think she was immune to emotional pain, but she realized she is not. She gave her dance, but her dance was not enough. She says "bein alive & bein a woman & bein colored is a metaphysical / dilemma / i haven't conquered yet".
The other women come and each repeats, "my love is too...delicate/beautiful/sanctified/magic/saturday nite/complicated/music to have thrown back in my face." The ladies begin dancing and chanting together.
The lady in green says that someone has taken all of her "stuff". She feels that she is the only one that knows and can appreciate the value of her stuff. She describes her stuff as the way she sits with her legs open sometimes, her chewed up fingernails, her rhythm, her voice, her talk, her "delicate leg and whimsical...
The ladies start talking about all the apologies they've received from men. Some examples include: he is sorry because he does not know how she got your number, sorry because he was high, sorry because he is only human, and sorry because he thought she could handle it. The lady in blue then declares that she does not n...
"for colored girls..." was first performed by Shange with four other artists at the Bacchanal, a women's bar, outside Berkeley, California. About six months after performing the work in California, Shange and her collaborator, Paula Moss, decided to move across the country determined to perform it in New York City's do...
In 1982 "for colored girls..." was adapted for television on WNET-TV, PBS, as part of The American Playhouse series. Although "for colored girls" went from a play production to television one, this production was dubbed a "telefilm" instead of a teleplay as the performance on WNET-TV was seen as a serious departure fro...
In 2009 Tyler Perry announced that he would produce Shange's "for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf". The film was the first project for 34th Street Films, Perry's new production company housed in Lionsgate The cast included Loretta Devine, Kimberly Elise, Whoopi Goldberg, Janet Jackson...
In the fall of 2019, The Public Theater revived the play. The production was directed by Leah C. Gardiner, with choreography by Camille A. Brown and featured a Deaf actress in the role of "Lady in Purple."
In 1982 the play was adapted for television on PBS station WNET-TV, as part of the "American Playhouse". The adaptation, directed by Oz Scott, was seen as a serious departure from the Broadway production. A review by "The New York Times" states: "What Miss Shange prefers to call a "choreopoem" has been expanded into re...
On March 25, 2009, the film industry magazine "Variety" reported that Nzingha Stewart, a black female director, had acquired the feature film rights to "for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf" from Shange and that Lionsgate had signed Stewart to create a screenplay adaptation and direct ...
Stewart, at Lionsgate's direction, approached Tyler Perry about producing the film. However, Perry told Lionsgate that if he produced it, he also wanted to write and direct it. Perry then usurped the project from Stewart and scrapped her script. The shift prompted controversy over whether Perry had the skill and consci...
On September 3, 2009, Lionsgate announced it had acquired the distribution rights to Tyler Perry's 34th Street Films adaptation of the play, with principal photography originally scheduled to take place in Atlanta, Georgia, in November and December 2009. The film, which was retitled "For Colored Girls", was released on...
When asked if she held reservations about Perry's adaptation of her work, Shange responded: "I had a lot of qualms. I worried about his characterizations of women as plastic." In reference to the film post-production, she stated that "I think he did a very fine job, although I'm not sure I would call it a finished film...
In addition to receiving several accolades, the play has been described as a landmark piece in African American literature and black feminism. It has since become a cornerstone of black feminist writing and 20th-century drama.
The poster for the play and book (as pictured above) are by the New York-based graphic artist, Paul Davis.
Longing to Tell: Black Women Talk About Sexuality And Intimacy is a 2003 book by Tricia Rose. It comprises 20 oral histories by African-American women from different socio-economic backgrounds and ages telling their stories about various aspects of sexuality.
The "New York Times" noted that it is "the first compilation of black women's oral histories about all aspects of sexuality" and that it has been applauded by scholars like Henry Louis Gates Jr., while, in a discussion about her book "The Politics & Passion", Gloria Wekker expressed disappointment with "Longing to Tell...
"Longing to Tell" has also been reviewed by "Booklist", "Publishers Weekly", "Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society", "Women's Review of Books, Library Journal, Multicultural Review, and Essence."
Luster is a 2020 debut novel by Raven Leilani. The book follows a Black woman in her twenties who gets involved with a fortysomething white man in an open marriage. "Luster was" released on August 4, 2020 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. It received mainly positive critical reception and won the 2020 Kirkus Prize for fict...
"Luster" follows Edie, a Black woman in her twenties who lives in New York City and works as an editorial assistant. She meets Eric, a white man in his forties who is in an open marriage. Eric and his wife have a 12-year-old adoptive daughter, Akila, who is also Black. Edie begins a sexual relationship with Eric and mo...
Critics noted that the character of Edie is a "flâneur", which is notable as it is typically a literary position occupied by white male characters.
The book was recommended by various outlets prior to its publication.
"Luster" received mostly positive reviews. "Kirkus Reviews" described the book in a starred review as "Sharp, strange, propellant—and a whole lot of fun." Mark Athitakis rated the book 3.5/4 stars and stated in "USA Today", ""Luster" isn’t just a sardonic book, but a powerful one about emotional transformation." "Publi...
Noting that the novel is a debut, Leah Greenblatt of "EW" wrote, "that newness sometimes shows; after a wildly beguiling start, the novel telescopes inward, often forsaking narrative momentum for mood and color. Sentence by sentence, though, she’s also a phenomenal writer, her dense, dazzling paragraphs shot through wi...
Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Who Helped Win the Space Race is a 2016 nonfiction book written by Margot Lee Shetterly. Shetterly started working on the book in 2010. The book takes place from the 1930s through the 1960s when some viewed women as inferior to men. The biograph...
The book reached number one on "The New York Times" Non-Fiction Best Sellers list and got the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Nonfiction in 2017. The book was adapted as a film by the same name, released in 2016, that was nominated for three Oscars. It received numerous other awards.
"Hidden Figures" tells the story of three African-American women who worked as computers to solve problems for engineers and others at NASA. For the first years of their careers, the workplace was segregated and women were kept in the background as human computers. Author Margot Lee Shetterly's father was a research sc...
The book explains how these three historical women overcame discrimination and racial segregation to become three American achievers in mathematics, scientific and engineering history. The main character, Katherine Johnson, calculated rocket trajectories for the Mercury and Apollo missions. Johnson successfully "took m...
The book was adapted as a film of the same name, written by Theodore Melfi and Allison Schroeder, and directed by Melfi. It was released on December 25, 2016 to positive reviews from critics, and received a nomination for Best Picture at the 89th Academy Awards. It received numerous other nominations and awards. Taraji...
While the film is based on the book, author Margot Lee Shetterly agrees that there are differences between the two, and she finds that to be understandable.
In 2016 a Young Reader's Edition was released for readers ages 8–12.
A "Hidden Figures" picture book was released in January 2018. The book was co-written by Margot Lee Shetterly for children from four to eight years of age.
The Planet of Junior Brown is a 1971 young adult novel by Virginia Hamilton and illustrator Jerry Pinkney. It is about two boys, Junior Brown and Buddy, who with a school janitor, Mr. Pool, construct a mechanical solar system.
Barbara Bader reviewing "The Planet of Junior Brown" in "Kirkus Reviews" wrote "This is not a story to be judged on grounds of probability, but one which makes its own insistent reality; it endures along with its promise long after the story ends." and revisiting the book in "Horn Book" 40 years later noted that childr...
"The Planet of Junior Brown" has also been reviewed by "African American Review", and Literature Arts Medicine Database.
In 1997 a film of the same name, adapted from the novel was released.
The Inheritance Trilogy is a fantasy trilogy written by American author N. K. Jemisin and published by Orbit Books. The trilogy consists of "The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms" that won the Locus Award for Best First Novel and was nominated for the World Fantasy Award; followed by "The Broken Kingdoms" and "The Kingdom of G...
Yeine is half-Arameri and half-Darr. She is small with curly hair, and can sometimes be taken for a boy. She's the chieftain, or "ennu", of the Darre, which is a matriarchal society of warriors (reminiscent of the Amazons), until she is made a potential heir to the Arameri throne and put in charge of three other countr...
Yeine is a resilient, independent woman. She's learned to mask her emotions from the Darre people, but cannot fake friendliness and affection for those she does not like. She loathes the Arameri family, but will use Arameri tactics to protect those she loves. She treats the Enefadeh with respect unlike most of her kins...
Because Enefa's soul is within her body, she can hear the goddess' voice and see visions. Even though everyone, including Nahadoth, expects Enefa's soul to overtake her own, her soul defeats Enefa's and she replaces the goddess with Enefa's blessing.
N.K. Jemisin's character study names her as impulsive and irrational (she obsesses over her mother's murder even when she has other things to worry about), and not above hurting herself to get what she needs.
Nahadoth is the Nightlord, otherwise known as the god of night, chaos, and change. He was the first of the gods to exist. When Itempas murdered Enefa, he led his children in revolt against him, and was forced into a mortal body as a punishment. By day, he is "Naha," a tortured human. By night, however, he is free to be...
He is the father of Sieh, and loves Enefa, Itempas and later Yeine.
The god of law, order, light, and rules, Bright Itempas came after Nahadoth and though at first they fought, they later became lovers. He kills Enefa and imprisons Nahadoth and his children, but offers the Nightlord a chance to be free and serve him every time a new Arameri ruler is chosen.
He is worshipped as the Skyfather by the Arameri people, who imposed him on all the peoples they conquered and declared all who remembered Nahadoth and the others as heretics.
The goddess of twilight, dawn, balance, life, and death, she came third of the Three. She was the one who created life. Sieh was her firstborn. From the beginning, Nahadoth delighted in her creations, but Itempas didn't because he disliked change. She loves both Nahadoth and Bright Itempas, and Sieh obviously longs for...
The Trickster god, he is the firstborn of Nahadoth and Enefa. A perpetual child, with a child's cleverness and a child's cruelty, he has bright green eyes and a falsely innocent demeanor. Sieh has chosen the path of a child, and therefore despite his age he can't stop loving and longing for a mother. Yeine notices at o...
The goddess of wisdom, she betrays the Enefadeh's plan to Itempas. She is described as very beautiful, with gold and silver wings, though she takes the form of a plump, old librarian when she first appears to Yeine. Yeine kills her after she replaces Enefa.
The goddess of war and battle, she is huge, and described as taller kneeling than Sieh standing. Like Kurue and Sieh, she is another of Nahadoth's children, and the one to mark Yeine so that she'll be free from Arameri control. Yeine earns her respect after she kills Kurue.
The ruler of the Arameri and Yeine's grandfather, he offered his wife to transfer the Stone to him, which killed her and alienated his daughter, Kinneth. Despite this he continues to love his daughter, and always hoped for her return. In N.K. Jemisin's character study, she reveals that Dekarta blames Yeine for taking K...
One of the potential heirs and a cousin once-removed from Yeine, Scimina is a cruel, half-mad woman with no conscience whatsoever. She sets Nahadoth on Yeine the first time she meets her and threatens to destroy Darre if she isn't named as heir. She sits at Dekarta's right hand at the Council, and is described as “a re...
Scimina's younger twin brother and the other potential heir, Relad surrounds himself with his vices. He knows if he aligns with Yeine his sister will kill him.
A half-blood like Yeine, he is the palace steward and a good man who takes care of the servants and cares for Yeine. He was part Amn and part Ken, and gets his red-colored hair from his Ken side. His Amn father was also Relad and Scimina's older brother. T'vril is said to be just as smart as Scimina or Relad. Yeine ord...
The palace Scrivener—or scholar of the gods—he claims to have been Kinneth's friend and offers to befriend Yeine. Yeine doesn't trust him, and later figures out that he was her mother's lover and that she used him to learn the truth about her mother's death.
A matriarchal society, Darre is made of tribes and ruled by the "ennu", which happens to be Yeine. Darre publicly rescinded their faith in Nahadoth and the Enefadeh when they were conquered by the Arameri, but still worship them in secret. The men in Darre are trophies, and used basically to sire children, though many ...