Love Activism and the Respectable Life of Alice Dunbar-Nelson

<p><b>Finalist: PROSE Awards for Excellence in Humanities 2023 - Biography and Autobiography</b><br><b><br>A fascinating biography of a fascinating woman. - <i>Booklist</i> starred review</b><br><b>This definitive look at a remarkable figure delivers the goods. </b><b>- </b><b><i>Publishers Weekly</i> starred review</b><br><b>A brilliant analysis. - Jericho Brown Pulitzer Prize winner</b><br><b>Featured in <i>Ms. Magazine</i>'s </b><b>Most Anticipated Reads for the Rest of Us 2022 (</b><b>books by or about historically excluded groups)</b> <p/>Born in New Orleans in 1875 to a mother who was formerly enslaved and a father of questionable identity Alice Dunbar-Nelson was a pioneering activist writer suffragist and educator. Until now Dunbar-Nelson has largely been viewed only in relation to her abusive ex-husband the poet Paul Laurence Dunbar. This is the first book-length look at this major figure in Black women's history covering her life from the post-reconstruction era through the Harlem Renaissance. <p/>Tara T. Green builds on Black feminist sexuality historical and cultural studies to create a literary biography that examines Dunbar-Nelson's life and legacy as a respectable activist - a woman who navigated complex challenges associated with resisting racism and sexism and who defined her sexual identity and sexual agency within the confines of respectability politics. It's a book about the past but it's also a book about the present that nods to the future.</p>