Friday, March 1, 2013

Two New Reviews


Two more reviews of Living with Lynching have emerged.  

In that stellar journal Signs, Sandy Alexandre offers a truly gratifying assessment.  She recently published her own study of racial violence, The Properties of Violence, and it is very clear that she understands what it means to examine this material in ways that acknowledge the humanity and agency of targeted individuals, families, and communities.

Her review of reads, in part, "If ever a lynching book could be described as beautiful, it would undoubtedly be Mitchell’s for the gracious way she takes care to read, generously and meticulously, all that she sees and hears (as well as what she does not see and hear) when she enters the homes that these characters have struggled to build for themselves. The beauty and persuasiveness of Living with Lynching lie also in its clarity and its sense of conviction..."  For more, please see the Spring 2013 issue of Signs, a publication of the University of Chicago Press.


The Drama Review (TDR) also includes of review by rising scholar Kristin Moriah.  She says, for example, "Mitchell’s work is truly singular. Critical attention has rarely been turned towards the output of early African American women playwrights. Thus, Mitchell’s examination of embodied practices of black belonging as they relate to lynching dramas signifies a new line of critical inquiry."  For more, please see the Spring 2013 issue of TDR, a publication of New York University and MIT.