Romancing the Gullah in the Age of Porgy and Bess

Romancing the Gullah in the Age of Porgy and Bess is a literary and cultural history of a place: the Gullah Geechee Coast, a four-state area that’s one of only a handful of places that can truly be said to be the ＂cradle of Black culture＂ in the United States.

Romancing the Gullah seeks to fill a gap and correct the maps. While there is a veritable industry of books on literary Charleston and on ＂the lowcountry,＂ along with a plenitude of Gullah-inspired studies in history, anthropology, linguistics, folklore, and religion, there has never been a comprehensive study of the region’s literary influence, particularly in the years of the Great Migration and the Harlem (and Charleston) Renaissance.

By giving voice to artists and culture makers on both sides of the color line, uncovering buried histories, and revealing secret connections between races amid official practices of Jim Crow, Romancing the Gullah sheds new light on an only partially told tale. A labor of love by a Charleston insider, the book imparts a lively and accessible overview of its subject in a manner that will satisfy the book lover and the scholar.

KENDRA Y. HAMILTON is an associate professor of English and director of Southern Studies at Presbyterian College. Her work has appeared in Callaloo, The Southern Review, Shenandoah, and in the anthologies Angles of Ascent: A Norton Anthology of Contemporary African American Poetry; Black Nature: Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry; and Shaping Memories: Reflections of 25 African American Women Writers.