Jam on the Vine

Title:

Jam on the Vine

A Novel

Author:

Barnett, LaShonda Katrice

Subject:

Literature

Historical Fiction

African American Fiction

Fiction

Description:

In this “captivating saga” of the post-Reconstruction era, a black female journalist blazes her own trail—“unforgettable; gripping; an instant classic” (Elle). Ivoe Williams, the precocious daughter of a Muslim cook and a metalsmith from central-east Texas, discovers a lifelong obsession with journalism when she steals a newspaper from her mother’s white employer. Living in the segregated quarter of Little Tunis, Ivoe immerses herself in the printed word until she earns a scholarship to the prestigious Willetson Collegiate in Austin. Finally fleeing the Jim Crow South to settle in Kansas City, Ivoe and Ona, her former teacher and present lover, start the first female-run African American newspaper, Jam On the Vine. In the throes of the Red Summer—the 1919 outbreak of lynchings and race riots across the Midwest—Ivoe risks her freedom and her life to call attention to the atrocities of the American prison system. Inspired by the legacy of trailblazing black women like Ida B. Wells and Charlotta Bass, LaShonda Katrice Barnett’s Jam On the Vine is both an epic vision of the hardships that defined an era and “an ode to activism, writ[ten] with a scholar’s eye and a poet’s soul” (Tayari Jones, O The Oprah Magazine).

Publisher:

Grove Press

Grove Atlantic

Date:

2015/02/03

Digital Format:

Open in browser

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Kindle

Language:

English

Summary

In this "captivating saga" of the post-Reconstruction era, a black female journalist blazes her own trail--"unforgettable; gripping; an instant classic" ( Elle ).

Ivoe Williams, the precocious daughter of a Muslim cook and a metalsmith from central-east Texas, discovers a lifelong obsession with journalism when she steals a newspaper from her mother's white employer. Living in the segregated quarter of Little Tunis, Ivoe immerses herself in the printed word until she earns a scholarship to the prestigious Willetson Collegiate in Austin.
Finally fleeing the Jim Crow South to settle in Kansas City, Ivoe and Ona, her former teacher and present lover, start the first female-run African American newspaper, Jam On the Vine . In the throes of the Red Summer--the 1919 outbreak of lynchings and race riots across the Midwest--Ivoe risks her freedom and her life to call attention to the atrocities of the American prison system.

Inspired by the legacy of trailblazing black women like Ida B. Wells and Charlotta Bass, LaShonda Katrice Barnett's Jam On the Vine is both an epic vision of the hardships that defined an era and "an ode to activism, writ[ten] with a scholar's eye and a poet's soul" (Tayari Jones, O The Oprah Magazine ).

Author Notes

LaShonda Katrice Barnett was born in Kansas City, Missouri in 1974 and grew up in Park Forest, Illinois. She is the author of a story collection and editor of the volumes: I Got Thunder: Black Women Songwriters On Their Craft (2007) and Off the Record: Conversations with African American & Brazilian Women Musicians (2014). For short fiction she received the College Language Association Award and the New York Money for Women/Barbara Deming Memorial Artist Grant. Recent awards for writing and historical fiction research include the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities & National Endowment for the Humanities grant #45.129; Mystic Seaport's Munson Institute of Maritime Culture Paul Cuffe Memorial Fellowship; Sewanee Writers Conference Tennessee Williams Scholarship and the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center Advanced Fiction fellowship. A graduate of the University of Missouri, she received an M.A. in Women's History from Sarah Lawrence College and the Ph.D. in American Studies from the College of William and Mary. She has taught literature and history at Columbia University, Sarah Lawrence College, Hunter College, and Brown University.

Reviews (2)

Booklist Review

In her first novel, Barnett skillfully plumbs historical accounts of black American life in the Jim Crow era and weaves them into an engaging and enlightening family saga. The story centers on Ivoe Williams, born in east Texas in 1888, a precocious young girl who becomes obsessed with reading as a means of escaping her seemingly hopeless life. Encouraged by her mentor, Ona, Ivoe earns a scholarship to Willetson Collegiate and Normal Institute in Austin, where she studies printing, typesetting, literature, and history. After graduation, Ivoe is prevented from following her dream of writing for a newspaper in both her hometown and Kansas City, where she is turned down repeatedly owing to her race and her gender. She is joined in Kansas City by Ona, her teacher- become-lover and together, in 1918, they found the first female-run African American newspaper, Jam! On the Vine, which shines light on black achievement as well as detailing the systemic economic oppression and brutality rooted in racism, which was so prevalent then, only one generation removed from slavery.--Donovan, Deborah Copyright 2015 Booklist

Library Journal Review

In this lively and thought-provoking coming-of-age tale inspired by the life of newspaperwoman and activist Ida B. Wells, Ivoe Williams shares Wells's passion for the printed word as she struggles during the Jim Crow era to establish the first African American press on the eve of 1919's Red Summer. VERDICT Strong supporting characters and enlightening writing brings history to life in a meaningful work of fiction that should be welcomed by readers of Alice Walker, Lalita Tademy, and Tayari Jones. (LJ 12/15/14) (c) Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

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Summary

Author Notes

Reviews (2)

Booklist Review

Library Journal Review

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