Daryl Cumber Dance, editor

From My People

"What an astonishingly rich collection of African American folklore Dance has produced! A major contribution to African American scholarship."—Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

A magnificent celebration of—and an essential introduction to—African American life and culture. Folklore displays the heart and soul of a people. African American folklore not only hands down traditions and wisdom through the generations but also tells the history of a people banned from writing and reading during slavery. In this anthology, Daryl Cumber Dance collects a wealth of tales that have survived and been adapted over the years, many featuring characters (like Brer' Rabbit) from African culture. She leaves no genre of folklore out, including everything from proverbs and recipes to folk songs and rumor. There is a section on the unique style that African Americans have consciously fashioned, including works by and about Paul Laurence Dunbar, Zora Neale Hurston, and Jelly Roll Morton. Within the chapter on folk art, which includes a sixteen-page color insert, quilts, dolls, sculpture, and painting get their due. From the famous to the anonymous, From My People is Dance's gift back to her culture. A Booklist Top Ten African American Nonfiction Book of the Year. Nominated for the Library of Virginia Literary Award. 82 illustrations.

"[T]he grand collection of African American folklore we have long yearned for....a rich and representative selection."—John Lowe, author of Jump at the Sun: Zora Neale Hurston's Cosmic Comedy

"[A] stunning sampler of African American tradition, compiled by one of America's leading scholars of African American folklore."—Alan Dundes, Professor of Anthropology and Folklore, University of California, Berkeley

"[A]n extensive and impressively rich collection....unparalleled in its coverage and variety as well as in its interpretive commentary."—Trudier Harris, co-editor of The Oxford Companion to African American Literature

"This extraordinary book is a treasury that should prove of lasting value and appeal."—Arnold Rampersad, author of The Life of Langston Hughes and Jackie Robinson

"Good work, Daryl. You make us proud."—Nikki Giovanni

"Immense and teeming and scholarly—not to mention entertaining....As rich and vast and enlightening as any you'll find this year....[A] glorious museum-in-a-book....Anthologies that are, at once, as massively enlightening and delightful as this one are rare."—Buffalo News, Editor's Choice

"The selections vividly affirm the strength of African American lore as part of American language and culture. Dance has conducted an ambitious search for the identity and essence of African American expression, and she succeeds admirably, capturing what was largely invisible to many generations."—Library Journal