As I write Regina Andrews' biography I read other biographies for inspiration and I am particularly interested in biographies of other "obscure" African American women to see how the authors describe the significance of their subject's lives. I recently read an interesting biography,
Thyra J. Edwards: Black Activist in the Global Freedom Struggle by Gregg Andrews (University of Missouri Press, 2011). I am also interested in the international travel experiences of African American women--one of the things that interested me about Regina Andrews. I was fascinated to find that Edwards traveled and studied in Denmark in the 1930s--a country that I have recently, frequently visited.
I hope in the future to teach a course called African American Women's Biography. Students would write an introduction or book proposal about their subject and use images, music, and narration to create short digital stories. Part of the course would require students to read existing biographies and I just learned about two new ones: Remaking Race and History: The Sculpture of Meta Warrick by Renee Ater and Phillis Wheatley: Biography of a Genius in Bondage by Vincent Carretta. I would also discuss my own biography of Regina Andrews and the process of creating it.
