{"product_id":"misbehaving-at-the-crossroads-essays-writings-isbn-9780063246638","title":"Misbehaving at the Crossroads: Essays \u0026 Writings","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e-bestselling, National Book Award-nominated author of \u003ci\u003eThe Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Age of Phillis\u003c\/i\u003e makes her nonfiction debut with this personal and thought-provoking work of cultural criticism that explores the journeys and possibilities of Black women throughout American history and in contemporary times.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHonorée Fanonne Jeffers is at a crossroads.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTraditional African\/Black American cultures present the crossroads as a place of simultaneous difficulty and possibility. In contemporary times, Kimberlé Crenshaw coined the phrase “intersectionality” to explain the unique position of Black women in America. In many ways, they are at a third crossroads: attempting to fit into notions of femininity and respectability primarily assigned to White women, while inventing improvisational strategies to combat oppression.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eMisbehaving at the Crossroads\u003c\/i\u003e, a landmark work of Black history and memoir, Jeffers explores the emotional and historical tensions in Black women’s public lives and her own private life. She charts voyages of Black girlhood to womanhood and the currents buffeting these journeys, including the difficulties of racially gendered oppression, the challenges of documenting Black women’s ancestry; the adultification of Black girls; the irony of Black female respectability politics; the origins of Womanism and Black feminist thought; and resistance to White supremacy and patriarchy. As Jeffers shows with empathy and wisdom, naming difficult historical truths represents both Blues and transcendence, a crossroads that speaks.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eNecessary and sharply observed, provocative and humane, and full of the insight and brilliance that has characterized her poetry and fiction, \u003ci\u003eMisbehaving at the Crossroads\u003c\/i\u003e illustrates the life of one extraordinary Black woman—and her extraordinary foremothers.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHow have Black women navigated the treacherous crossroads of American history to define their own identities?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eIntersectionality in Action:\u003c\/b\u003e Go beyond the buzzword to see how the unique position of Black women in America shapes their public and private lives, from girlhood to womanhood.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eThe Politics of Respectability:\u003c\/b\u003e An unflinching look at the improvisational strategies Black women have used to combat oppression while navigating notions of femininity assigned to White women.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eWomanism and its Roots:\u003c\/b\u003e Explore the origins of Black feminism, tracing its development as a powerful tool of resistance against both White supremacy and patriarchy.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eAncestry and Historical Trauma:\u003c\/b\u003e Jeffers combines personal genealogy with deep historical research to document the challenges of tracing Black women’s ancestry and uncovering the stories of her own extraordinary foremothers.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e | \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eLonglisted for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA \u003ci\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e \"Best Book of the Year\" * A \u003ci\u003ePeople,\u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003e Seattle Public Library, Read Between the Spines, Ms. Magazine, Goode Reader, Bookstr, \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003ePublishers Lunch,\u003c\/i\u003e \"Book of the Month\" * A \u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly, BookPage, BookRiot, The Millions, Medium Loc'D Booktician, Read Between the Spines, \u003c\/i\u003eand\u003ci\u003e Flyleaf Books\u003c\/i\u003e \"Most Anticipated\" * A \u003ci\u003eWashington Post\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eAARP\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eGarden \u0026amp; Gun\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eLiterary Hub, Vulture, Zibby Owens, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Eagle Harbor Books, Deep South Magazine, She Reads, \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eTertulia\u003c\/i\u003e \"Book to Read this Summer\"\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"To call this book exclusively nonfiction is unnecessarily reductive—like Jeffers herself, it refuses to be categorized. Instead, it leaps deftly between memoir, history, academic writing, and poetry. Across all forms and ideas, it soars....With her ‘red dirt’ matrilineal line in Georgia and literary foremothers like Alice Walker and Toni Morrison, Jeffers crafts not just a history of Black women in the United States but an essential way of looking at their inheritance—one that folds familiarity into proficiency. Generous, wise, and fearless, she travels through the wounds of past and present with remarkable grace and gripping narratives\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews (starred review)\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Deftly moving between sharp critique and an intimate, confessional tone, this astonishes.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly (starred review)\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“In this genre-blurring collection, which shifts between memoir, history, and poetry, Jeffers charts her place in a line of women whose lives have been shaped by slavery, racism, and resistance. Organized by the concept of the ‘crossroads,’ a place of ‘difficulty \u003cem\u003eand\u003c\/em\u003e possibility,’ Jeffers’s essays recall a range of formative experiences, from her first encounters with Alice Walker’s writing to a searing meeting with James Baldwin. Her disappointments with political figures, including Barack Obama and Kamala Harris, are tempered by insight into the challenges they faced; Harris, for instance, was ‘expected not only to be perfect but to transcend perfection.’” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"I would follow Jeffers's voice anywhere. Her wide-ranging symphony of essays on Black womanhood is a treat -- incisive, intellectual, intimate, funny, and formally inventive. I felt like I was listening to a brave yet vulnerable big sister riff blazingly on topics of history, family, politics and culture. Above all, she writes with a poet's heart.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eEmily Raboteau, author of Lessons for Survival\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"The poet 'shall draw us in with love and terror' and help us see more clearly our own times. Honorée Jeffers has done exactly that with this extraordinary collection of essays and writings. Sit with this book, revel in its use of language, struggle with the ideas, acknowledge that something intimate and vulnerable is happening on the page, and witness the expansiveness of Jeffers's imagination.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eEddie S. Glaude, Jr., author of We Are The Leaders We Have Been Looking For\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"The work of Honorée’s mother, Dr. Trellie James Jeffers, has long inspired me, guided me, made me feel things familiar, and question the familiar. Honorée’s pen is as sharp as her mother’s and just as instructive.  Yet different somehow still. With a poetic voice all her own, she holds our hands and ushers us (back) to places familiar, places forgotten — to the crossroads.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eYaba Blay, author of One Drop: Shifting the Lens on Race\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Once again Jeffers reveals her genius for plumbing the depth and complexity of Black women’s lives. With compassion, rigor, and great beauty, she unveils the tensions that circumscribe public understanding of our womanhood while challenging the larger culture and us to see ourselves in the full flowering of our gendered humanity. A personal, moving, and revelatory tour de force of understanding, care, and analysis. And like always, Honorée leaves me wanting more. Brava!\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eBlair LM Kelley, Ph.D., author of Black Folk: The Roots of the Black Working Class\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Jeffer's nonfiction debut is incisive and necessary reading.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003ePeople\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Equal parts memoir, history, polemic and poetry… There’s a difference between being at \u003cem\u003ea\u003c\/em\u003e crossroads—weighing an important decision at a crucial moment—and being at \u003cem\u003ethe\u003c\/em\u003e crossroads: a fabled space in the Black diasporic tradition where powers can be granted, whisked away or reclaimed by the spirit world, sometimes for the price of a soul. With her nonfiction debut, Honorée Fanonne Jeffers comfortably inhabits this mythic juncture, telling the stories of Black women in her genealogy with a literary style that joyfully resists easy categorization.”  \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNew York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Jeffers had a breakout hit in 2021 with her novel \u003cem\u003eT\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cem\u003ehe Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois\u003c\/em\u003e, one of The Post’s 10 Best Books that year. Her new collection of essays is animated by the same capacious interest in the history of Black women, from colonial times and earlier up to the present day. Some of the book’s most powerful writing is about her own family.”  - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eWashington Post,  “30 books to read this summer\"\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Jeffers made a monumental pivot to fiction with 2021’s centuries-spanning epic, \u003cem\u003eThe Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois\u003c\/em\u003e. Though certainly a leap, her debut novel continued what has become something of a career-long project for her, foregrounding the stories of heroic Black women. Now, Jeffers is carrying that project forward in still another mode, turning to personal and political essays to reflect on the complicated — at times seemingly impossible — position that Black women like her occupy in a culture determined to reduce them to virtually anything but themselves.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNPR\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"There is power in these writings....(Jeffers) will continue to misbehave, and we are all the better for it.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eMedium\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Like Jeffers’s fiction, her essays have an expansiveness. They are not easy in terms of subject matter or prose, but much like Toni Morrison’s writing (which inspires Jeffers’s sense of rememory), they are well worth digging into… Jeffers has formed her garden, with the fertile roots laid down in her homage to Alice Walker’s \u003ci\u003eIn Search of Our Mother’s Gardens\u003c\/i\u003e, and planted seeds that will inspire readers to seek out old stories with an understanding of feminism and intersectionality. These concepts are, in Jeffers’s hands, so beautifully rendered.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eLibrary Journal\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“An epic collection… In one of the book’s essays, ‘Toni Morrison Did That,’ Jeffers observes that the Nobel Prize-winning author ‘depicted Black cul­ture while \u003ci\u003ealso \u003c\/i\u003econsidering politics, while \u003ci\u003ealso \u003c\/i\u003econsidering United States history, while \u003ci\u003ealso \u003c\/i\u003econsidering White supremacy, while \u003ci\u003ealso \u003c\/i\u003econsidering economic class, while \u003ci\u003ealso \u003c\/i\u003econ­sidering gender, while \u003ci\u003ealso \u003c\/i\u003econsidering inter­generational trauma.’ We can apply this high praise to \u003ci\u003eMisbehaving at the Crossroads\u003c\/i\u003e as well. … This compelling collection of archives, research, criticism and memoir demonstrates not only the power of storytelling, but also the necessity of it.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eBookPage\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Part personal writing, part historical examination, this is a thought-provoking work threaded through with Jeffers’ poetic style.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eBookRiot\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“A poetic meditation on intersectionality… Jeffer’s ability to infuse words with emotion inspires more than a few goose bumps…. one can only anticipate how the crossroads of her imagination and lived experiences will shape her next work of fiction.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eAtlanta Journal-Constitution\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Stunning.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003ePeople, Top 10 Books of the Year, on The Love Songs of W. E. B. Du Bois\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“\u003cem\u003eThe Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois\u003c\/em\u003e is epic in its scope. [It] traces the story of a family, the town in Georgia where they come from, and their migration outward over generations. The word epic is overused these days, but this book was meant to be an epic and it is. . . . This is one of the most American books I have ever read. It’s a book about the United States. It’s a book about the legacy of slavery in this country. . . . And it’s also a book about traumas and loves that sustain over generations.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNoel King, NPR, on The Love Songs of W. E. B. Du Bois\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Triumphant. . . . Quite simply the best book that I have read in a very, very long time. . . . An epic tale of adventure that brings to mind characters you never forget: Meg Murry in \u003cem\u003eA Wrinkle in Time\u003c\/em\u003e, Scout in \u003cem\u003eTo Kill a Mockingbird\u003c\/em\u003e, Huckleberry Finn. . . . The historical archives of Black Americans are too often filled with broad outlines of what happened. . . . One of the many triumphs of \u003cem\u003eLove Songs\u003c\/em\u003e is how Jeffers transforms this large history into a story that feels specific and cinematic in the telling. . . . Just as Toni Morrison did in \u003cem\u003eBeloved\u003c\/em\u003e, Jeffers uses fiction to fill in the gaping blanks of those who have been rendered nameless and therefore storyless. . . . A sweeping, masterly debut.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eVeronica Chambers, New York Times Book Review, on The Love Songs of W. E. B. Du Bois\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“A feat of beauty and breadth.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eTime, 100 Must-Read Books of the Year, on The Love Songs of W. E. B. Du Bois\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Whatever must be said to get you to heft this daunting debut novel by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, I’ll say, because \u003cem\u003eThe Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois\u003c\/em\u003e is the kind of book that comes around only once a decade. Yes, at roughly 800 pages, it is, indeed, a mountain to climb, but the journey is engrossing, and the view from the summit will transform your understanding of America. . . . With the depth of its intelligence and the breadth of its vision, \u003cem\u003eThe Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois\u003c\/em\u003e is simply magnificent.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eRon Charles, Washington Post, on The Love Songs of W. E. B. Du Bois\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Stupendously good. . . . Jeffers’ renditions of Black family traditions and the burden of respectability politics are spot-on, and made me wish the book was even longer.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eKaren Grigsby Bates, NPR Best Books of the Year\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“A sweeping matriarchal epic that leads readers through a majestic tour of race, family, and love in America, this striking debut novel by an award-winning poet is, indeed, the Great American Novel at its finest.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eJoshunda Sanders, Boston Globe’s Best Books of the Year, on The Love Songs of W. E. B. Du Bois\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“For me, this doesn't take much thought. It is THE novel of the year. This astonishing work is the first fiction by a writer whose poetry collections are profound and beautiful. In this book, a young woman follows her family history into the recesses of slavery in America. The young woman is a historian, so we are following her into her stunning access to the documentation of her family's capture and beyond, to the present.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eMichael Silverblatt, KCRW’s Top 10 Books of the Year\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“With \u003cem\u003eThe Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois\u003c\/em\u003e, Jeffers has created an opus, an indelible entry to the canon of contemporary American literature and one of the foundational fictional texts of Black literature worthy of sitting alongside Ralph Ellison’s \u003cem\u003eInvisible Man\u003c\/em\u003e, Toni Morrison’s \u003cem\u003eThe Bluest Eye\u003c\/em\u003e and Jesmyn Ward’s \u003cem\u003eSing, Unburied, Sing.\u003c\/em\u003e” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eLatria Graham, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, on The Love Songs of W. E. B. Du Bois\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"If you read one book this year, choose this one. I went to bed thinking of Ailey Pearl Garfield and woke up thinking of her. With the arrival of this epic novel of family, race, and ancestral legacy, one of America's finest poets has announced herself as a storyteller of the highest magnitude. Absolutely brilliant.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eDolen Perkins-Valdez, author of Wench and Balm\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“As one of the most prolific poets of our time, Jeffers has penned a family saga that is just as brilliant as it is necessary, just as intimate as it is expansive. An outstanding portrait of an American family and in turn, an outstanding portrait of America.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eAngie Thomas, author of The Hate U Give\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“This sweeping, brilliant and beautiful narrative is at once a love song to Black girlhood, family, history, joy, pain . . . and so much more. In Jeffers's deft hands, the story of race and love in America becomes the great American novel.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eJacqueline Woodson, author of Red at the Bone and Another Brooklyn\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“With her nonfiction debut, Honorée Fanonne Jeffers comfortably inhabits this mythic juncture [of the crossroads], telling the stories of Black women in her genealogy with a literary style that joyfully resists easy categorization.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNew York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“\u003cem\u003eMisbehaving at the Crossroads\u003c\/em\u003e is a brilliant testament to just how restorative the writing of one life’s big feelings can be, and how equally pleasurable its reading.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eWashington Post Book World\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Incisive and necessary reading.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003ePeople\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Jeffers crafts not just a history of Black women in the United States but an essential way of looking at their inheritance—one that folds familiarity into proficiency. Generous, wise, and fearless, she travels through the wounds of past and present with remarkable grace and gripping narratives.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews (starred review)\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Harper","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44890698023141,"sku":"NP9780063246638","price":30.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780063246638.jpg?v=1730233874","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/misbehaving-at-the-crossroads-essays-writings-isbn-9780063246638","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}