Caroline Randall Williams | |
---|---|
Born | Nashville, Tennessee, U.S. | August 24, 1987
Education | St. Paul's School Harvard University University of Mississippi (MFA) |
Known for | Soul Food Love |
Awards | NAACP Image Award |
Caroline Randall Williams (born August 24, 1987 [1] ) is an American author, poet and academic best known for the 2015 cookbook Soul Food Love, [2] co-written with her mother, author Alice Randall, and published by Random House. In February, 2016, Soul Food Love received the NAACP Image Award in Literature (Instructional). [3]
In 2015, her book of poetry, Lucy Negro, Redux was published by Ampersand Books. [4] Lucy Negro, Redux was adapted as a ballet by the Nashville Ballet. [5]
Williams is a native of Nashville, Tennessee. She graduated from St. Paul's School in 2006 and from Harvard University in 2010. After graduation, she spent two years as an instructor in the Teach for America program. She received an MFA in creative writing from the University of Mississippi in 2015. [6] She is the daughter of Alice Randall and Avon Williams III.
She is the great-granddaughter of Arna Bontemps, [7] the African-American poet, novelist and noted member of the Harlem Renaissance, [8] and the granddaughter of Avon Williams, the Nashville lawyer and key leader of the city's civil rights movement. One of her great-great-grandfathers was Edmund Pettus, a white US senator of Alabama, senior officer of the Confederate States Army and grand dragon of the Ku Klux Klan. Pettus and his enslaved black servant were the parents of her great-grandfather Will. She has stated, "The black people I come from were owned and raped by the white people I come from." [9] [10]
In January 2015, she was named by Southern Living magazine as one of the "50 People Changing the South in 2015." [11] In 2015, she joined the faculty of West Virginia University as an assistant professor. [12] In 2016 she was appointed Writer-In-Residence at Fisk University. [13] In the Fall of 2019, she joined the faculty of Vanderbilt University. [14] as the Writer-In-Residence of Medicine, Health, and Society.
Published by Random House in 2015, Soul Food Love: Healthy Recipes Inspired by One Hundred Years of Cooking in a Black Family is co-authored by Williams and her mother, the novelist Alice Randall. According to the publisher, the book relates the authors’ family history (which mirrors that of much of black America in the 20th century), explores the often fraught relationship African-American women have had with food, and forges a powerful new way forward that honors their cultural and culinary heritage. [15]
Williams' debut book of poetry was published in 2015 by Ampersand Books. The collection explores William Shakespeare's love life, theorizing that the Dark Lady in his sonnets was a woman of African descent. [16] In a review for the Nashville Scene , Erica Wright stated that the collection "does so with such grit, music and honesty that readers will find themselves rooting for the poet's theory — that Shakespeare once had a black lover and immortalized her in verse — to be true." [17] Lucy Negro, Redux was adapted as a ballet by Nashville Ballet.
Lucy Negro, Redux has been adapted as a ballet titled Attitude: Lucy Negro Redux, choreographed by Paul Vasterling. [18] It was premiered by the Nashville Ballet at the Polk Theater of the Tennessee Performing Arts Center on February 8, 2019. [19] Kayla Rowser danced the role of Lucy and Rhiannon Giddens scored and performed the music. [18]
Co-written by Williams and Randall, the book was published by Turner Publishing Company in 2012. According to the publisher, the middle-grade fantasy book is the tale of one young woman's adventure to pass her Official Princess Test, discover a means of escape from her island, and reveal her true destiny. [20]
The book received the following accolades: The NAACP Image Award for Youth Literature, 2013 (nomination), [21] Cybils Award in Middle Grade Fantasy, 2012 (nomination) [22] and the Harlem Book Fair's Phillis Wheatley Award for Young Adult Readers, 2013 (winner). [23]
In 2020, amidst the national discussions around removing statues of Confederate generals and renaming of U.S. military bases, Williams wrote an opinion piece for the New York Times, titled "You Want a Confederate Monument? My Body Is A Confederate Monument." She argued for the removal of Confederate monuments, using her existence and family history to make her point. In that essay, she stated, "modern DNA testing has allowed me to confirm, I am the descendant of black women who were domestic servants and white men who raped their help." [24] She opened the piece by writing: "I have rape-colored skin. My light-brown-blackness is a living testament to the rules, the practices, the causes of the Old South." [25]
James Weldon Johnson was an American writer and civil rights activist. He was married to civil rights activist Grace Nail Johnson. Johnson was a leader of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), where he started working in 1917. In 1920, he was chosen as executive secretary of the organization, effectively the operating officer. He served in that position from 1920 to 1930. Johnson established his reputation as a writer, and was known during the Harlem Renaissance for his poems, novel and anthologies collecting both poems and spirituals of Black culture. He wrote the lyrics for "Lift Every Voice and Sing", which later became known as the Black National Anthem, the music being written by his younger brother, composer J. Rosamond Johnson.
Nia Talita Long is an American actress. Best known for her work in Black cinema, Long rose to prominence after starring in the film Boyz n the Hood (1991), and for her portrayal of Beullah "Lisa" Wilkes on the NBC sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (1991–1995). She then appeared in Friday (1995), as well as the 1997 films Love Jones and Soul Food.
Vanessa Estelle Williams, sometimes professionally credited as Vanessa E. Williams, is an American actress and producer. She is best known for her roles as Maxine Joseph–Chadway in the Showtime drama series, Soul Food (2000–2004), for which she received NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series and as Nino Brown's feisty gun moll, Keisha in the 1991 crime drama film, New Jack City. Williams is also known for her role as Anne-Marie McCoy in the first and fourth of the Candyman films, and as Rhonda Blair in the first season of the Fox prime time soap opera, Melrose Place (1992–93).
Nicole Ari Parker Kodjoe is an American actress and model. She made her screen debut with a leading role in the critically acclaimed independent film The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love (1995) and went on to appear in Boogie Nights (1997), directed by Paul Thomas Anderson.
Alice Randall is an American author, songwriter, producer, and lecturer. She is best known for her contributions to country music, in addition to her novel and New York Times bestseller The Wind Done Gone, which is a reinterpretation and parody of the 1936 novel Gone with the Wind.
Autherine Juanita Lucy was an American activist who was the first African-American student to attend the University of Alabama, in 1956. Her expulsion from the institution later that year led to the university's President Oliver Carmichael's resignation. Years later, the University admitted her as a master's student and in 2010 a clock tower was erected in her honor on its campus.
Nelson George is an American author, columnist, music and culture critic, journalist, and filmmaker. He has been nominated twice for the National Book Critics Circle Award.
Malinda Williams is an American actress and producer. She began her career on television, before appearing in films A Thin Line Between Love and Hate (1996), High School High (1996), and The Wood (1999).
Patricia C. McKissack was a prolific African American children's writer. She was the author of over 100 books, including Dear America books A Picture of Freedom: The Diary of Clotee, a Slave Girl;Color Me Dark: The Diary of Nellie Lee Love, The Great Migration North; and Look to the Hills: The Diary of Lozette Moreau, a French Slave Girl. She also wrote a novel for The Royal Diaries series: Nzingha: Warrior Queen of Matamba. Notable standalone works include Flossie & the Fox (1986), The Dark-Thirty: Southern Tales of the Supernatural (1992), and Sojourner Truth: Ain't I a Woman? (1992). What is Given from the Heart was published posthumously in 2019.
Yolande Cornelia "Nikki" Giovanni Jr. is an American poet, writer, commentator, activist, and educator. One of the world's most well-known African-American poets, her work includes poetry anthologies, poetry recordings, and nonfiction essays, and covers topics ranging from race and social issues to children's literature. She has won numerous awards, including the Langston Hughes Medal and the NAACP Image Award. She has been nominated for a Grammy Award for her poetry album, The Nikki Giovanni Poetry Collection. Additionally, she was named as one of Oprah Winfrey's 25 "Living Legends". Giovanni is a member of The Wintergreen Women Writers Collective.
Lucy Marie Walsh is an American actress, singer, songwriter, and pianist. She is also known for her television and film roles. She is the daughter of Eagles' guitarist Joe Walsh and his third wife, Juanita "Jody" Boyer.
Kelly Miller Smith Sr. was a Baptist preacher, author, and prominent activist in the Civil Rights Movement, who was based in Nashville, Tennessee.
Rhiannon Giddens is an American musician known for her eclectic folk music. She is a founding member of the country, blues, and old-time music band the Carolina Chocolate Drops, where she was the lead singer, fiddle player, and banjo player.
Ruby Hurley was an American civil rights activist. She was a leader in the Civil Rights Movement and administrator for the NAACP, and was known as the "queen of civil rights".
Alice Carlotta Jackson Stuart was an American educator, and the first African-American woman to apply for graduate school studies at the University of Virginia. She was denied on the basis of "good and sufficient reasons" and later went on to earn her Master of Arts at Columbia University in 1937.
The 47th Image Awards, was presented by the NAACP, commemorating roles, talents, and achievements of people of color in film, television, music and literature during the 2015 calendar year. This ceremony was hosted for the third time by Anthony Anderson on the TV One network.
The Dark Lady is a woman described in Shakespeare's sonnets, and so called because the poems make it clear that she has black wiry hair, and dark, "dun"-coloured skin. The description of the Dark Lady distinguishes itself from the Fair Youth sequence by being overtly sexual. Among these, Sonnet 151 has been characterised as "bawdy" and is used to illustrate the difference between the spiritual love for the Fair Youth and the sexual love for the Dark Lady. The distinction is commonly made in the introduction to modern editions of the sonnets. As with the Fair Youth sequence, there have been many attempts to identify her with a real historical individual. A widely held scholarly opinion, however, is that the "dark lady" is nothing more than a construct of Shakespeare's imagination and art, and any attempt to identify her with a real person is "pointless".
The Heyward Shepherd monument is a monument in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, dedicated in 1931. It commemorates Heyward Shepherd, a free black man who was the first person killed during John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry.
Emma Belle Gibson Sykes was a suffragist and civil rights activist.
Nashville Ballet is a professional ballet company in Tennessee. Founded in 1986 and based in Nashville, Tennessee, it presents a repertoire of classic and contemporary works by a variety of choreographers, including Artistic Director Paul Vasterling.