The Dawn at My Back

Reviews / Votes

"Having been a filmmaker most of her life, the author of this lyric book makes clear the effects of the movies on real life drama, and vice versa. She plays lights and shadows on the imagined and the real and guides the reader to a truer seeing." Maxine Hong Kingston, author "Not since James Baldwin's essays on Hollywood films have we seen such moving and insightful testimony about how commercial culture forms the frames through which we learn about individual and collective identities. With exceptional flair and vision, Blue creates a completely new form of autobiography that links the public and the private, the personal and the political, and the spectator and subject in exciting new ways." George Lipsitz, author and historian "... an extraordinary first-person account of what it is like growing up as a Black woman in the South and carving out a professional life in a culture distorted by racism. It is one of those books in which one person's life illuminates the complexities of an entire society." Howard Zinn, historian "Carroll Parrott Blue brilliantly captures the chilling interior life of her mother, a professional Black woman in twentieth-century America. This beautifully written life story combines images and illustrations, social history, film and art analysis to create a richly textured work that poignantly explores the intersection of race, gender, class, and region in the construction of a unique identity, and in so doing reveals an awesome talent." Darlene Clark Hine, historian "Blue's words and stories lead readers into her personal and family history, which increases our own ability to contextualize how memory guides our life choices. It is a courageous book that helps us to see America through the lens of an innovative photographer, filmmaker, and passionate writer." Deborah Willis, art historian "In Carroll Parrott Blue's provocative memoir The Dawn at My Back, a montage of words and images unfolds before us with a focused dignity. As if the narrative is moved by light and shadow, like a postmodern scrapbook of experiences and sensations, lives converge into a brilliant canvas portrayed through immense integrity and imagination. The Dawn at My Back is a delight to read and see." Yusef Komunyakaa, poet