Honey, Hush!: An Anthology of African American Women's Humor

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This massive (nearly 700 pages) anthology offers a fascinating survey of black women's humor, compiled from folk sources, the blues, and poetry, fiction, anecdotal recollections, and routines by such comedians as the late Jackie "Moms" Mabley. The title, editor Daryl Cumber Dance informs, is a "playful entreaty" that black women use to encourage each other or to express disbelief in private conversations when swapping jokes and tall tales. Some of the material in Honey, Hush is a bit bawdy and off-color, and Dance, a professor of English at the University of Richmond in Virginia, warns that "humor is often unkind, unfair, and unjust." Enter with an open mind and a willingness to laugh, however, and you'll be sure to have fun.


From Library Journal
Dance (English, Univ. of Richmond) has collected folktales, proverbs, slave narratives, and cartoons reflecting the humor of African American women. Among those included are authors Audre Lorde and Toni Morrison and comedian Whoopi Goldberg.Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.


Emerge
Authors of contemporary women's fiction, Zora Neale Hurston, and Moms Mabley are included in this more than 600-page collection . . . celebrating the priceless, ever-present Black female sense of humor.


Newsday
Dance leavens this mixture of humorous work by well-known authors such as novelist April Sinclair and poet Maya Angelou with a sprinkling of salty proverbs. . . . The result makes for many hours of enjoyable reading on subjects from O. J. to rum cake.


Book Description
The vibrant humor of African American women is celebrated in this bold and unique collection that the Miami Herald describes as "breathtakingly broad and deep." In this "dazzling anthology" (Publishers Weekly), Daryl Cumber Dance has collected the often hard-hitting, sometimes risqu, always dramatic humor that arises from the depth of black women's souls and the breadth of their lives. The eloquent wit and laughter of African American women are presented here in all their written and spoken manifestations: autobiographies, novels, essays, poems, speeches, comic routines, proverbial sayings, cartoons, mimeographed sheets, and folk tales. The chapters proceed thematically, covering the church, love, civil rights, motherly advice, and much more.


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The vibrant humor of African American women is celebrated in this bold, unique, and comprehensive collection. Often hard-hitting, sometimes risque, always dramatic and eloquent ("Sure God created Man before Woman, but then you always make a rough draft before the Final Masterpiece"), this humor arises from the depth and breadth of black women's lives. Daryl Cumber Dance has brought together a wonderful assemblage of contributors for Honey, Hush!--from slave narrators to contemporary political commentators, from antebellum poets to Audre Lorde, from the earliest novelists to Toni Morrison, from Beulah to Whoopi Goldberg, from the blues singer to the rapper.
As Dance was growing up, she absorbed this humor that spoke to all aspects of women's lives: hair, men, white folk, black people, and the nation. She describes it as "the natural delight of my life." If indeed humor is "God's aspirin to soothe the headache of reality," as the folk tell us, then this book is just the prescription the doctor ordered. "Honey, Hush!" is an exclamation used among black women, especially those from the South, as a friendly encouragement, a mild suggestion of playful disbelief, or a suggestion that one is telling truths that are prohibited. Honey, Hush! includes folktales, proverbs, cartoons, short stories, autobiographies, and much more.


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