From My People: 400 Years of African American Folklore

In From My People: 400 Years of African American Folklore, Daryl Cumber Dance (Honey, Hush!: An Anthology of African American Women's Humor) celebrates rumors, riddles, recipes, song lyrics, sermons, art objects and stories. The anthology offers a compendious assortment folklore and commentary on African-American culture by the eminent likes of Frederick Douglass, Jelly Roll Morton and Jacqui Malone. Zora Neale Hurston's fashion sense is assessed by her contemporaries; nursery rhymes and clapping games are recounted by experts; quilts and tramp art are pictured; and superstitions are repeated. Dance, a professor at the University of Richmond, has assembled an impressive, diverse array of African Americana, including 30 b&w photos and 16 pages of color photos. (Feb.)