SOME years ago, when I was teaching a graduate seminar in fiction at Columbia University, a well-known male novelist visited my class to speak on his development as a writer. In discussing his formative years, he didn't realize it but he seriously endangered his life by remarking that women writers are luckier than those of his sex because they usually spend so much time as children around their mothers and their mothers' friends in the kitchen.

What did he say that for? The women students immediately forgot about being in awe of him and began readying their attack for the question and answer period later on. Even I bristled. There again was that awful image of women locked away from the world in the kitchen with only each other to talk to, and their daughters locked in with them.... ---Paule Marshall, From The Poets in The Kitchen---

The visual is a clear reminder of how far we have come as women. And in honor Black History Month, I make a tribute to all black women standing tall in their unique, phenomenal ways.

And, a special honor to Paule Marshall's lifelong achievements, and for her narrative "From The Poets In The Kitchen". I first came across the article in The Norton Anthology of African American Literature, but you can find it via New Times original publication by clicking here.