Annotated Bibliography
Angelou, Maya. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. New York, N.Y: A Bantom book,
published by arrangement with Random House, Inc. 1969.
This story is part one of Angelou's six-part autobiographical series. It is especially useful for this work as it sets the precedent of a negative self-concept, fundamentally due her skin color.
Angelou, Maya. "Phenomenal Woman." Phenomenal Woman: Four Poems Celebrating
Women. New York, N.Y. Random House, Inc. 1974
This poem is a celebration of all things concerning Black womanhood. It reflects how there is a community of people who have a different paradigm shift of what beauty is. This paradigm is in dichotomy with what American society coins as what is pretty.
Barrino, Fantasia. Life is Not a Fairy Tale. New York, N.Y.: FIRESIDE. 2005.
Life is Not a Fairy Tale is the autobiography of Fantasia Barrino, the third season winner of American, Idol, the popular reality show on television. Fantasia, her stage namesake, shares the awe-inspiring story of her life. As she chronicles her life, from her strong spiritual foundation, to her unhealthy self-perception governing her departure from all things spiritual, Barrino honestly shares the downward spiral her life took, and the hard lessons she has had to learn that has brought her back to her spirituality. It began with dressing promiscuously, to early sexual encounters, to dropping out of high school, and ultimately having a child out of wedlock, being left to raise her as a single mother. Through the help of her "village," she was encouraged to audition for American Idol, and with her success has been able to recognize her ability to sing as the as a Go-given, anointed gift that would change her life forever.
Spielberg, Steven. The Color Purple film. 1985.
This film, which is critical to this unit, is an adaptation of the book. While the film faced controversy, it is lauded as one of the most compelling films of its time. The Color Purple was nominated for four Oscars.
The Color Purple edition of StageNOTES®: A Field Guide for Teachers
www.campbroadway.com/stagenotes/ TheColorPurple_StageNotes.pdf
This free PDF is an invaluable resource to any teacher who wishes to study the various media in which The Color Purple Story is shared. It is a great interdisciplinary resource, including lesson plans for teachers across content areas.
Walker, Alice. The Color Purple. Orlando, FL: A Harvest book, Harcourt, Inc. 1982.
The Color Purple is a fictive work about a woman's arduous journey to selfhood.
It features Celie, the fictive female protagonist who is examined as a subject of study for this curriculum unit. It won the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for fiction.
Walker, Alice. The Same River Twice: Honoring the Difficult. New York, N.Y: POCKET
BOOKS, a division of Simon and Schuster Inc. 1996.
The Same River Twice: Honoring the Difficult is a powerful book comprised of Walker's reflective commentary, essays, journal entries, and her own never-used screenplay all to, in her words, "balance this experience I have felt a need to share what I did attempt (35)." Walker addresses her ambivalence and subsequent lack of significant input toward The Color Purple film adaptation as it was being created. Walker confronts the personal life challenges that inhibited a presence of mind that would enable full stake-holdership in the film making process and potentially avoid much of the accusations against the film as negative reflection of Blackness. Walker respectfully and reverentially criticizes Steven Spielberg, celebrating and upholding many of his artistic choices, many of which were a departure from her own, while questioning others, which she believed to be in part detrimental to the story originally told in the Pulitzer Prize winning novel. Moreover, Walker acknowledges that the film has been placed under the scrutiny of American society, which African-Americans are part of the whole, that has not reached a point of maturity and security in itself to celebrate all that we and are not, rendering any exposure that is not flattering, offensive.
Whitaker, Charles. Alice Walker: 'Color Purple' author confronts her critics and talks
about her provocative new book - Intervie. Ebony, May 1992.
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/ mi_m1077/is_n7_v47/ai_12290929/pg_2
This article features Walker addressing the major critics of her book: African-American males. It was instrumental to me, as it included how many languages the book had been written in.
White, Evelyn C. A Life. 362.
http://books.google.com/ books?id=v_Un8p4VfcsC& pg=PA362&lpg=PA362& dq=the+color+purple+book+copies+sold&source=web& ots=1MPzn-4h2i&sig=CJLfdR3yfyU0AjVTz3YKgrkCvxE
This website was valuable, because it features a preview of White's biographical account of Alice Walker's life entitled A Life. I t is valuable in that it shares critical parts of the novel, and enables one to conduct substantial research on significant junctures in Walker's life, including her writing of The Color Purple without ever having to purchase the book, or make an informed decision before purchasing the book.
The Wiz. 1978, Motown Productions and Universal Pictures. 1977.
Starring Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Nipsey Russel Ted Ross, Richard Pryor Mabel King, and Lena Horne, this classical musical is an African-American adaptation of The Wizard of Oz. This musical will be critical to the implementation of classroom activity number three illustrates the Illumination of the Gift. The Lion, Tiger, Scarecrow, and Dorothy had their gifts all along. It was simply a matter of it being platformed when the time was right, after a difficult journey filled with life-lessons and subsequent character building. I wish to establish this precedent in tandem with the critical moments at which Celie and Fantasia discovered their gifts.
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