This year, in less than 100 days, my autobiography, Blackwildgirl: A Writer’s Journey to Take Back Her Superpower, will be released. (The book and companion journal are available now for pre-order on Amazon).
Pre-order the book: https://a.co/d/amlVdi2; Pre-order the journal: https://a.co/d/hsHHDPh
Almost 50 years after my first journal entry, at age 8, Blackwildgirl’s private journey from girlhood to womanhood documented in journals, poems, and letters to Love, is ready for the public stage!
A five-year project, written with acts, stages, and scenes, Blackwildgirl is the story of a little Black girl—Blackwildgirl—who was sassy, spunky, outrageous, audacious, bold, courageous, outspoken, and willful. She was, after all, wild!
But the world is never ready for little girls who are wild, so she was hushed and shushed. Shushed the way mean adults shush you, with their forefinger on their tightly pursed lips, crinkling and furrowing their eyebrows, their eyes glaring and flaring with disapproval: “SHHH; SHHHH; SHHHHHHH.” They never shush you once. It is always more than once, with each SHHH becoming ever more intense. So intense, it almost shatters your spirit and smushes your soul.
That’s how Blackwildgirl was shushed, hushed, and smushed. Her spirit was metaphorically buried; she had been silenced. But the world—the shusshers and smushers—didn’t know that they buried a seed: a seed that refused to die; a seed that was meant to be a tree; a seed that said: I REFUSE, in the spirit of Nikole Hannah Jones, who inspired and encouraged all of us to refuse during her powerful keynote at the Faculty Women of Color in the Academy National Conference. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50oiSkOJviE
Blackwildgirl is about the seed’s journey—a 12-stage initiation journey—to become a tree, navigating and surviving the wily and unwieldly world of wicked weeds, to be a guide for other seeds that want to become trees. Trees that look like goddesses, with arms, like branches outstretched into the world, taking up space. Trees with trunks that sway and sashay. Trees that are regal, resurrected, and refuse to be denied their rightful role in the world as pillars of power and wisdom.
This year, Blackwildgirl’s New Year’s Resolution is “I REFUSE.”
I refuse to be silenced.
I refuse to be hushed.
I refuse to be sushed.
I refuse to be smushed.
I refuse.
Blackwildgirl is for women and girls who are ready to be above-ground forces of nature; who refuse to be shushed and hushed and silenced. It is also for men who want to love, support, and respect women and girls on their journeys.
Travel with me on this journey, as Nikki Giovanni wrote in her tribute to Blackwildgirl:
Blackwildgirl
Once upon a time
Before time could be counter
Soft words were spoken
Then a song was sung
And a seed hearing those sounds followed them out
To become a part of the newness
To become a part of this warmth
To become…to become
To become a journey into
Girlhood
Menah Pratt follows
That sound to
That warmth to
That possibility
And invites us to travel
With her
-Nikki Giovanni, Poet
How can you travel with me:
- Preorder the book and journal,
The journal has reflection questions based on the book, so that at the end of every stage (there are 12 stages), you can reflect on your own life and your own journey. It is a wonderful companion to the book, so that you can begin your own journey as you join me in my journey.
Clicik this link to pre-order the book:
Click this link to pre-order the journal: https://a.co/d/hsHHDPh
Get ready by reading my mother’s journey: From Cotton Picking to College Professor: Lessons about Race, Class, and Gender in America. It’s a perfect segue to Blackwildgirl. My mom was a Blackwildgirl, and she had a tremendous influence on my life and journey. In Blackwildgirl, you will a completely different side to the woman who went from picking cotton to becoming part of the 1% of Black women full professors in the 1970s.
- Encourage your friends to check out and pre-order Blackwildgirl and to refuse to be shushed, hushed, or silenced.
- Follow me on social media (facebook/LinkedIn/Instagram) where each week, I will share little excerpts from Blackwildgirl’s journals and journey, leading up to the release date on April 2nd Learn where the book tour will be going in case it comes to a city near you!
- Check out the blurbs about Blackwildgirl at http://www.menahpratt.com/blackwildgirl including the Readers’ Favorite 5 Star Review!
- Message me on LinkedIn if you want a library near you, organization, university, or conference to be part of the Blackwildgirl Book Tour.
- Be on the lookout for the audiobook! Yes, indeed! I recorded it with the amazing support of the Virginia Tech Library.
- If you are woman of color in higher education and are a faculty member, graduate student, administrator, post-doctoral fellow, or independent scholar please ask your institution to sponsor you to attend the Faculty Women of Color in the Academy National Conference (FWCA), virtual or in-person. I founded this conference, now hosted and supported by Virginia Tech, specifically to support women of color in higher education. I’ll be kicking off the book tour at FWCA.
https://www.inclusive.vt.edu/Programs/FWCA/conference-info.html
You can watch this video of the 10th anniversary conference and excerpts from Nikole Hannah-Jones’ keynote:
Read Nikole’s statement here: https://www.naacpldf.org/press-release/nikole-hannah-jones-issues-statement-on-decision-to-decline-tenure-offer-at-university-of-north-carolina-chapel-hill-and-to-accept-knight-chair-appointment-at-howard-university/
The 12th annual installment of FWCA, April 11-14, 2024,(virtual and in-person) will feature sessions that will explore the topics of leadership, career advancement, personal well-being, scholar activism, and graduate school / emerging scholars. We also will have the following amazing keynote speakers!
Dynamic Keynote Speakers
Cherrie Moraga
Dr. Gabrielle A. Tayac
Menah Pratt
Signature Leadership Panel Speakers
Dr. Mariam Lam
Dr. Veronica Terriquez
Dr. Javaune Adams-Gaston
Featured Authors Panel Speakers
Dr. Stephanie G. Adams
Dr. Victoria Reyes
