On Sweetwater and the Significance of Black Women Tellin'

Abstract

In this essay, I offer a personal/political/intellectual response to Sweetwater. My reflections flow from a bittersweet panel at the 2013 National Communication Association Annual Convention that illuminated the power of black women's work about black women, but simultaneously testified to our oppressive present/absence in the field of communication studies. Situating Sweetwater as a rich foundation from which additional black femininity research can emerge, I close with a poetic articulation of what Robin M. Boylorn told me and taught me through her beautiful book.