"Clothes, Class and Travel: Rewriting Black Women's Domestic Tradition"
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Date:
Thursday, February 23, 2012 - 1:00pm
Dr. Elsa Barkley Brown, professor of history at the University of Maryland College Park, will discuss her latest book, Clothes, Class, and Travel: Rewriting Black Women's Domestic Tradition. This book details the life and travel experiences of Juanita Harrison, a Mississippi-born African-American woman.
Harrison, who worked as a domestic, boarded a ship in New Jersey in June 1927, intent on traveling around the world. Nine years and 22 countries later, My Great, Wide Beautiful World, stories of Juanita Harrison's travel, became a national bestseller. Ridiculed by Harlem Renaissance intellectuals, Harrison and her book were soon forgotten. Barkley Brown will discuss Harrison as traveler and writer.
This lecture will be held in the Black Studies Division.