A black woman filmmaker in her mid-thirties, Liv, decides to attend her estranged mother’s sixtieth birthday party. Her mother, Cleo, is a prolific, celebrated playwright. Liv arrives determined to triumphantly disclose her pregnancy, but instead she must confront the fact that Cleo is dying of uterine cancer.
Stranger in the Family ~ a memoir
Stranger in the Family is a mixed-media memoir that examines the shifting terrain upon which we negotiate race, kinship, and identity. When my father died of cancer in the spring of 2004, I accepted an offer to teach in the tiny east African country of Djibouti. While abroad, I reflected upon the complicated concept of diaspora, and the alienation I sometimes felt as a foreigner brought to mind a hurtful remark my father once directed at me: “You’re a stranger in this family.” When my teaching assignment in Djibouti ended prematurely, I returned to Toronto and wrote a collection of essays to more closely examine my “outsider” role within my family and my native land. Stranger in the Family uses prose, photography, short stories, and poetry to trace my evolution as a black woman, a writer, a daughter, and a Canadian.
A Wish After Midnight ~ a young adult novel
Fifteen-year old Genna Colon believes wishes can come true. Frustrated by the drug dealers in her building, her family’s cramped apartment, and her inability to compete with the cute girls at school, Genna finds comfort in her dreams of a better future. Almost every day she visits the garden and tosses coins into the fountain, wishing for a different life, a different home, and a different body. Little does s he know that her wish will soon be granted: when Genna flees into the garden late one night, she makes a fateful wish and finds herself instantly transported back in time to Civil War-era Brooklyn.
Man of All Work? ~ a paper presented at the Richard Wright centenary celebration, held at the American University in Paris, June 2008.
My paper will consider the complex rendering of black female victimization by Wright, beginning with a reading of “Man of All Work” (judged by James Baldwin to be one of Wright’s best) and then moving to a close reading of the ambiguous rape of Sarah in “Long Black Song.” I will conclude with a brief discussion of Wright’s legacy and the current proliferation of films featuring African American men performing grotesque black female identities.
Interview with Zetta Elliott ~ included in Three Plays
Playwright and professor, Carolyn nur Wistrand, asks Zetta Elliott to discuss her inspirations, aims, and ambition as a black feminist playwright.
