Kin: Practically True Stories

A dynamic kaleidoscope of story that honors the work of women.

Kin is a story and a celebration of Black womanhood, of resistance, and of perseverance--while simultaneously an indictment of American history. Kin is a tree--alive in places, broken in others--that offers shelter for women seeking respite in the midst of family-making. This tree depicts family grafted together by blood, law, or choice; its stories are voiced through blues-infused poetry, one-act plays, oral history, and reportage that are combined to form an orchestra of Black history and re-memory. Centered on the labor of women, the movement of women through lives and time, and the work of building associations that make up the home, this book takes up the rhythms and multifarious forms of its inspiration, Cane, the 1923 novel by Jean Toomer. The roots from which it all grows are the ancestors who ensure from the spirit realm that the family remains grounded and verdant, despite the manifold threats to its health and well-being. Kin is a tribute to forebearers, a beacon to those calling homes into being, and a strata of stories for children not yet born.

V Efua Prince is a professor of African American Studies at Wayne State University who specializes in themes of home, women, housework, and metaphor in African American literature. She has previously served as a W.E.B. Du Bois Fellow at Harvard University; a visiting scholar at the Carter G. Woodson Institute, University of Virginia; and Avalon Professor of Humanities at Hampton University. Her first book, Burnin’ Down the House: Home in African American Literature was recognized by Academia as a university press bestseller.