Gumbo Ya-Ya means rich words, found words - and here Terri Jewell has collected the words, thoughts, observations, poems, lyrics and proverbs from 350 black women worldwide. Authors like Toni Morrison and Sonia Sanchez appear alongside African proverbs, blues singers and political figures in a book that affirms the strength and unity of black women. A useful resource for libraries and writers. Terri Jewell writes, Here are Black woman's words you can use...Give them to your enemies, stitch them into blankets, sip them with your tea. Argue about them, think about them...

The living folklore of Louisiana returns in this new edition of the classic Gumbo Ya-Ya. Long considered the finest collection of Louisiana folk tales and customs, Gumbo Ya-Ya chronicles the stories and legends that have emerged from the bayou country. Meet the Krewe of Zulu, New Orleans' most colorful all-black Carnival club, and the many tribes of Indians who help celebrate Mardi Gras with their fierce pageantry. Listen to the street criers entice customers to buy their goods. Produce peddlers hawk watermelon, cantaloupe, snap and butter beans, and strawberries. The charcoal man sells fuel to stoke the wash-day fires, while the kindling man offers to saw two cords for a dollar and dinner. Zabette and Rose Gla dispense the choicest coffee available in the French Quarter of New Orleans. The bottle man collects old bottles, rags, and bones, driving a hard bargain with the children who expect handfuls of peppermints, whistles, horns, and rattles for their hoards of treasure. All aspects of society are detailed in this wonderful album of Louisiana tradition: the Vieux Carr Creoles, with their strict codes of family honor; the burly Irish Channel immigrants; the lively Italians who still honor St. Joseph and St. Rosalia with all the pomp of the Old Country; and the fun-loving Cajuns, with their curious family names and spirited fais do do. There's no escaping superstition and voodoo in Louisiana. Several sections explain the customs and beliefs that have sprung up over the centuries. Always burn onion peels to ensure a steady supply of money. Sprinkle nutmeg in a woman's left shoe every night at midnight to drive her crazy. Kiss your elbow to change your sex. Gumbo Ya-Ya ( Everybody Talks at Once ) is a charming look at the legends and practices of Louisiana, particularly New Orleans. Originally written as part of the WPA's Louisiana Writers' Program, it has endured as a classic of its genre and is again available in a beautiful Pelican edition.

Gumbo Ya Ya, Aurielle Marie’s stunning debut, is a cauldron of hearty poems exploring race, gender, desire, and violence in the lives of Black gxrls, soaring against the backdrop of a contemporary South. These poems are loud, risky, and unapologetically rooted in the glory of Black gxrlhood. The collection opens with a heartrending indictment of injustice. What follows is a striking reimagination of the world, one where no Black gxrl dies “by the barrel of the law” or “for loving another Black gxrl.” Part familial archival, part map of Black resistance, Gumbo Ya Ya catalogs the wide gamut of Black life at its intersections, with punching cultural commentary and a poetic voice that holds tenderness and sharpness in tandem. It asks us to chew upon both the rich meat and the tough gristle, and in doing so we walk away more whole than we began and thoroughly satisfied. Excerpt from “transhistorical for the x in my gxrls” What I mean is, this country is mine if only because from my mouth I spit its loam and unspun a noose. I won’t exploit the only metaphor they gave us willingly, and instead hunt for other vicious things to make a muse. I earned this country. I owe it nothing. With my infinite, infant hand, I manipulated a death sentence into a compound-complex one. from the umbilical, I bled a life worth writing down and in a century’s time, there will be another word created still for the weeping magic of this same story: a Black gxrl’s first breath.

In this elegantly written inquiry into the function and purpose of illness, Duff reflects upon her own experience with Chronic Fatigue and Immune Dysfunction Syndrome (CFIDS) and offers a fresh perspective on recovery and healing. While we are conditioned to think of health as the norm, the author reveals that illness has its own geography, laws and commandments.