Just Plain Folks
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- $8.99
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
By returning to the cotton fields, tobacco barns, and humble dwellings of her ancestral home in the rural South, this author learned firsthand what is missing from the history books between the pages on slavery and present-day African-American culture. It is the experience of ordinary people who, on second glance, have led truly extraordinary lives. She developed an appreciation for their words, wit, and wisdom and has made it her life's work to pass along their experiences. In this collection of original short stories, she pays homage to these ordinary folks through lyrical tributes, many of which have aired or will air on National Public Radio. Her own program, Just Plain Folks: Wisdom from the Front Porch, airs weekly on NPR.
Like her radio segments, the stories in Just Plain Folks are meant both to entertain and to educate. Each story concludes with an author's note that places it in its proper cultural context.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this omnibus of self-styled "original tales," folk-culturist and storyteller Johnson-Coleman takes readers to the hearth, to the fields and to the church, seeking to convey those elements of the tradition of the African American South that are too often overlooked in the emphasis on slavery and discrimination. Johnson-Coleman developed 21 first-person stories from interviews with the residents of Farmville, N.C., her ancestral home. She then embellished with poetry, philosophy and anthropological texts that explain various customs mentioned in the stories. Thus, these simple, rural tales are tied to a tradition that began 300 years ago when the first slaves were brought from Africa to the American South. Among the affectionately fictionalized characters are Sister Nellie, self-appointed town genealogist; six-year-old Martha, who thinks water in the drinking fountain marked "colored" is rainbow water; and the opinionated Reverend Joyner. The narratives sometimes skid from folksy to hokey, as when one of her characters says: "Now I ain't got me no kinda understandin' 'bout birthin' no babies." Still, the collection is not all picnics and prayers. Lynching, rape and segregation's indignities make dramatic appearances, and the black residents of Farmville face their lives with a strength drawn from an unshakable religious faith. Despite its hammy moments, Johnson-Coleman's fictional debut is an informative and richly textured contribution to our understanding of African American culture.
