This Tuesday, July 26th, scholar and local author Rosetta Haynes will be at The Book Nook to sign copies of her new book: Radical Spiritual Motherhood. The signing will run from 6-7pm. The books are in stock and available now at The Book Nook in the Dunkirk-Fredonia Plaza in Dunkirk.
The daughter of Roosevelt and LaPearl Haynes, Rosetta Haynes grew up in Dunkirk and attended the Dunkirk public schools. She earned her B.A. in English and mathematics from Fisk University, and her M.A. and Ph.D. in English from Cornell University. She is currently an associate professor in the Department of English at Indiana State University in Terre Haute, Indiana, where she has worked since 1996.
Haynes’s book, Radical Spiritual Motherhood: Autobiography and Empowerment in Nineteenth-Century African American Women, was published in January, 2011, by Louisiana State University Press. The book is a study of the spiritual autobiographies of nineteenth-century African American women preachers Jarena Lee, Zilpha Elaw, Julia Foote, Amanda Smith, and Rebecca Jackson. These works are examined within the context of the narratives of former slaves Harriet Jacobs, Mary Prince, and Sojourner Truth in order to explore the links between the treatment of sexuality and the body in the texts of enslaved and free black women. And to show the continued relevance of the lives and writing of Lee, Elaw, Foote, Smith, and Jackson, Haynes also includes a discussion of twentieth-century African American Episcopal priest Pauli Murray, who embodies and celebrates the spiritual and cultural tradition of her nineteenth-century foremothers.
Haynes wrote this book because she wanted to raise people’s awareness about who these women were, the obstacles they faced and courageously overcame, and the journeys they engaged in to become dynamic preachers during a time when women were generally excluded from this occupation. Haynes intends for her book to appeal not only to academics but also to anyone who is interested in learning more about the ways that one group of women transformed themselves from ordinary working-class women into extraordinary religious leaders.
For more information, call The Book Nook at 366-0685.
