De Facto Feminism:
Essays Straight Outta Oakland
A distinguished finalist for OSU’s 2016 Non/Fiction Collection Prize
Book of the Month at Kirkus Reviews, 2017
De Facto Feminism: Essays Straight Outta Oakland views activism and feminism as it plays out in one writer's political, artistic and spiritual life.
A distinguished finalist for OSU’s 2016 Non/Fiction Collection Prize, De Facto Feminism is biomythography, a cross between Audre Lorde's Zami: A New Spelling of My Name and Jean Toomer's Cane, blending essay, poems, graphics by the late Rini Templeton and literary criticism.
An act of self-definition spanning four decades, the central person in De Facto Feminism is the writer herself, a feminist foot soldier. With the feeling of a memoir, these essays align with a long line of female thinkers, including Anna Julia Cooper and Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Audre Lorde, Alice Walker, Michelle Wallace, Angela Davis, bell hooks, Paula Giddings, Michelle Alexander, Roxane Gay, The Black Lives Matter movement, and Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche.
Much like the central character in her semi-autobiographical novel, Virgin Soul, whom Juanita calls a female foot soldier, the voice in these essays is a feminist foot soldier, processing major shifts in American society through the portal of her own artistic development.
The essays are set chronologically, beginning with a picture of her Tuskegee Airman father, and an account of a not altogether idyllic childhood in Oakland, "A California Childhood, a freedom childhood." The concept of freedom here is a freedom from complication, from an awaiting black consciousness, freedom to enjoy innocence. A patchwork of narratives emerges:
Growing up in Oakland in the fifties and sixties.
Comparing her burgeoning sexuality to young white females in droves in 1964 having orgiastic responses to the Beatles.
Formulating an erstwhile concept of womanhood based on Black Nationalism.
Learning the crafts of poetry, playwrighting and fiction one workshop at a time, year after year.
Deconstructing the infamous N-word controversy.
Looking back acerbically at her romance with The Gun and the black power movement’s similar fascination.
Paying homage to Black Arts Movement poet Carolyn M. Rodgers.
Celebrating 21st century feminism in unexpected places.
Examining race and micro-aggression in liberal Berkeley.
Living with a ghost/mentor for a year.
for adult readers
Praise for De Facto Feminism
“In De Facto Feminism, Judy Juanita celebrates the working class black individualist...by showing the (oft-unheralded) ways they help build community, not through theoretical imperative, but simply in order to survive.” —Chris Stroffolino
“The author refers to herself as "an observational ironist," and her incisive comments on black life's contradictions make this essay collection a winner.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“Essential feminist reading, these provocative, contemplative essays cover feminism, sexuality, spirituality and race with clarity and depth.” —Amy Steele, 5 star Amazon review
“I loved this book... Judy has enormous courage, and her writing is her very own individual perspective… A wise and compelling story” —Marmarra, 5 star Amazon review
EquiDistance Press, 2016
Paperback, 230 pages
ISBN-13 : 978-0971635210
