Also this issue:

Equal Movement Rights
A new project examines gender gaps in the dance field.
-Deni Kasrel

Razzle Dazzle
-David Anthony Fox

Faith in Freedom
-David Anthony Fox

Ronen Koresh

Ghost World
-Janet Anderson

April 18-24, 2002

artpicks

A Voice From the Past

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ARCHIVES . Articles

Also this issue:

Equal Movement Rights
A new project examines gender gaps in the dance field.
-Deni Kasrel

Razzle Dazzle
-David Anthony Fox

Faith in Freedom
-David Anthony Fox

Ronen Koresh

Ghost World
-Janet Anderson

April 18-24, 2002

artpicks

A Voice From the Past

Meredith Broussard

Books

What happens in The Bondwoman's Narrative (Warner Books), the just-published manuscript written by fugitive slave Hannah Crafts in the mid-1850s? It hardly matters. The book's discovery and publication is such a fascinating story that it merits a purchase (yes, in hardcover) and read. This is the first known text written by an African-American woman who had been a slave, which is the kind of literary discovery that happens once in a lifetime.

Certainly, the Narrative -- edited by Henry Louis Gates Jr., the chair of Harvard's African-American studies department and our most fascinating public intellectual -- has attracted no shortage of coverage, but it's the kind of story that never gets boring. Just hearing about the painstaking research required to authenticate the manuscript is enough to occupy several hours.

Then, there's the local connection: Crafts may have lived within a few miles of Philadelphia, in Burlington, N.J. Gates was unable to find out what happened to the author in her later life, but one of the possible Hannah Crafts was married to a Methodist minister whose parish was in Burlington. There's even a local angle inside the story itself: Some kindly neighbors taught young Crafts to read, neighbors who sound suspiciously like Quakers.

With all of the talk about The Bondwoman's Narrative as an important historical object, the story written by Crafts has become almost secondary. So it comes as a delightful surprise to discover that the story has legs. It's a Gothic, sentimental novel written in the popular style of the 1850s, featuring elements like a heroine with a tragic secret (gasp -- she's a mulatto, married to a white slave owner!), a creepy mansion and a haunted linden tree outside the manor, through which the ill wind whistles. Tragedy, triumph, history and a terrific story -- what more, really, could we want?

Henry Louis Gates Jr. signing, Fri., April 19, 4:30 p.m., free, African American Museum of Philadelphia, Seventh and Arch sts., 215-574-0380; reading and signing, 7 p.m., free, Borders, 1727 Walnut St., 215-568-7400.




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