Description

This is the story of Dr Geneva Smitherman aka Dr G the pioneering linguist often referred to as the Queen of Black Language In a series of narrative essays Dr G writes eloquently and powerfully about the role of language in social transformation and the academic intellectual linguistic and societal debates that shaped her groundbreaking work as a Black Studies OG and a Womanist scholaractivist of African American Language

These eleven essays narrate the development of Dr Gs race gender class and linguistic consciousness as a member of the Black Power Generation of the 1960s and 70s In My Soul Look Back In Wonder Dr G links the personal to the professional and the political situating the struggles and successes of a Black woman in the Academy within the historical experiences and development of her people

As Dr G enters her eighth decade in this Black Lives Matter historical moment she seeks to share the meaning and purpose of a life of study and struggle and its significance for all those who seek racial and social justice today