Includes bibliographical references.

Saving the life that is your own : the importance of models in the artist's life -- The Black writer and the Southern experience -- "But yet and still the cotton gin kept on working--" -- A talk : convocation -- Beyond the peacock : the reconstruction of Flannery O'Connor -- The divided life of Jean Toomer -- A writer because of, not in spite of, her children -- Gifts of power : the writings of Rebecca Jackson -- Zora Neale Hurston : a cautionary tale and a partisan view -- Looking for Zora -- The civil rights movement : what good was it? -- The unglamorous by worthwhile duties of the Black revolutionary artist, or of the Black writer who simply works and writes -- The almost year -- Choice : a tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. -- Coretta King : revisited -- Choosing to stay at home : ten years after the March on Washington -- Good morning, revolution : uncollected writings of social protest -- Making the movies and the movies we want -- Lulls -- My father's country is so poor -- Recording the seasons -- In search of our mothers' gardens -- From an interview -- A letter to the editor of Ms. -- Breaking chains and encouraging life -- If the present looks like the past, what does the future look like? -- Looking to the side, and back -- To The Black scholar -- Brothers and sisters -- Silver writes -- Only justice can stop a curse -- Nuclear madness : what you can do -- To the editors of Ms. magazine -- Writing The color purple -- One child of one's own : a meaningful digression within the work(s) -- Beauty : when the other dancer is the self.