This back to school season, we're bringing back some of our favorite Womanica episodes you might have missed. Today's Womanican is Gayl Jones (1949-present). She is a prolific author celebrated for her writing about Black womanhood, slavery, and the African Diaspora. She disappeared from public life by choice until very recently, when she reappeared in words with her 2021 novel, “Palmares.”
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This month, we’re heading back to school – and we’re taking you along with us! For all of September, we’ll be bringing back some of our favorite Womanica episodes you might have missed. You’ll hear me – and some talented guest hosts – share both iconic and under-appreciated stories. But there’s a twist... each week is dedicated to a different school subject. This week: Women you should be learning about in literature classes!
History classes can get a bad rap, and sometimes for good reason. When we were students, we couldn’t help wondering... where were all the ladies at? Why were so many incredible stories missing from the typical curriculum? Enter, Womanica. On this Wonder Media Network podcast we explore the lives of inspiring women in history you may not know about, but definitely should.
Every weekday, listeners explore the trials, tragedies, and triumphs of groundbreaking women throughout history who have dramatically shaped the world around us. In each 5 minute episode, we’ll dive into the story behind one woman listeners may or may not know–but definitely should. These diverse women from across space and time are grouped into easily accessible and engaging monthly themes like Educators, Villains, Indigenous Storytellers, Activists, and many more. Womanica is hosted by WMN co-founder and award-winning journalist Jenny Kaplan. The bite-sized episodes pack painstakingly researched content into fun, entertaining, and addictive daily adventures.
Womanica was created by Liz Kaplan and Jenny Kaplan, executive produced by Jenny Kaplan, and produced by Grace Lynch, Maddy Foley, Brittany Martinez, Edie Allard, Lindsey Kratochwill, Adesuwa Agbonile, Carmen Borca-Carrillo, Taylor Williamson, Sara Schleede, Paloma Moreno Jimenez, Luci Jones, Abbey Delk, Hannah Bottum, Lauren Willams, and Adrien Behn. Special thanks to Shira Atkins. Original theme music composed by Miles Moran.
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Hey, listeners, it's Jenny. This month, we're heading back to school and we're taking you along with us. For all of September, we're bringing back some of our favorite Womanica episodes you might have missed. You'll hear me and some talented guest hosts share both iconic and underappreciated stories, and there's a twist. Each week is dedicated to a different school subject. This week, we're sharing women you should be learning about in literature classes. Their words created impactful stories, changed minds and preserved cultures. And their stories go beyond the same people you remember from the standard literary canon. So onto the show. Hello from Wonder Media Network. I'm Jenny Kaplan and this is Womanica. Historically, women have been told to make themselves smaller, to diminish themselves. Some have used that idea to their advantage, disappearing into new identities. A disappearance was the end of their stories, but the beginning of a new chapter in their legacies. This month, we're telling the stories of these women. We're talking about disappearing acts. The ability to capture the rhythms of spoken word and transmute that onto a page is a rare gift You have to be very quiet, comfortable slipping into the background. Here are the different beats in people's voices. Today's Womaniquin has that gift. She introduced new ways of thinking about Black America, womanhood, and slavery, but she completely disappeared from public life until very recently, when she appeared briefly through the written word. Let's talk about Gail Jones. Gail Jones was born in Lexington, Kentucky, in nineteen forty nine. Her father, Franklin, was a line cook, and her mother, Lucille, was a homemaker and a vivacious writer. In her free time, Lucille read stories she'd written for the family, subtly encouraging Gay and her little brother to use their imaginations. Gil began reading and writing early in childhood thanks to her mother's love of the written word. Weekends with her grandmother, a local playwright, further nurtured her talents. Gail's grandmother would invite friends over and in the backyard, everyone would tell winding stories about everyday life. There was a rhythm to the way her elders spoke. This is where the young writer gained a true affection for storytelling. Despite her shy nature, Gail began her education in segregated black schools, but later her mother arranged for Gail and her brother to attend the white, academically rigorous Henry Clay High School. Though shy and one of just a few black students, Gail excelled academically. She caught the attention of a teacher who introduced her to the writer Elizabeth Hardwick. In a way, this was the beginning of Gail's literary life. Hardwick helped arrange a scholarship for Gail to attend Connecticut College. From there, she went on to receive a doctor and creative writing at Brown University. Ever quiet, some of Gaile's professors attributed her meekness to arrogance, but really Gail was observant, incessant, and listening to the pulses of speech and writing them down. Around nineteen seventy four, Gayle's work found its way into the hands of then up and coming editor Tony Morrison. Upon reading one of Gail's manuscripts, Morrison said, no novel about any black woman could ever be the same. After this, that novel, Korregidora, was published in nineteen seventy five, Gayle's debut, Odd readers. The novel follows a woman in Kentucky who's a descendant of both enslaved people and a Portuguese and slaver. Gail called it a blues novel because it communicated the good and the bad all at once, and it included her signature, a rhythmic cadence. The material in her novel was raw, the language was too. She turned African American vernacular English into a song. Kureggidora was an investigation of the unique trauma of enslaved women, written with a ferocity seldom seen before. The novel solidified Gail's place in the literary world until her second book, Eva's Man, was published. Critics loathed the novel. They said the brutality depicted made it dangerous, but Gail defended her book. Her characters, she explained, were contradictory and ambivalent when she wrote freely exploring the social and political world she lived in without judgment. Several years after publishing her second novel, Gail met her future husband, Robert Higgins. He was an unpredictable man with far ranging and violent, fringed beliefs. His volatile behavior and trouble with the law a strange Gale from her university and literary community. One day, Higgins brandished a gun at a Pride rally and was arrested. The backlash of against him was so powerful he fled overseas. Gail went with him, disappearing into the noise. While in exile, she never made a statement, but she spoke through the written word, publishing three books of poetry. After a few years, the two quietly returned to the United States. Gail remained hidden from public life, but she published two more novels. The first, The Healing, became a nineteen ninety eight National Book Award finalist. Despite that, Gail remained solitary, refusing to join in the literary fanfare. Her blues novels contained all she wanted to say, the bad and the good, all at once. In nineteen ninety eight, Gaile's husband died by suicide after police were alerted to his stateside return. The spectacle and media surrounding his death led to what was assumed to be Gaile's final exit from society. She stopped publishing her works, and many of her books fell out of print. Outside of PhD courses, a niche literary journals, Gail's industry shifting work was all but forgotten until twenty twenty one when Gail surprised the world with a new release, pal Mars. The novel is about the last settlement of fugitives from slavery in seventeenth century Brazil. The story is winding, pulsing, and bluesy as ever. Paul Maris was a triumph and a twenty twenty two Pulitzer Prize finalist. Since this return, Gail's manuscripts have once again hit the shelves with the steady flow that Gail chooses to remain living in Kentucky in solitude. She doesn't take interviews and doesn't speak to those outside of her very small inner circle. In the silence, Gale works her gift transmuting the rhythms of spoken words onto the page. With her most recent releases, Gail reminds us that her work speaks for itself. Thanks for listening to this best of episode of Wumanica. For more information, find us on Facebook and Instagram at work Manica Podcast special thanks to Liz Kaplan, my favorite sister and co creator. Join us tomorrow for another one of our favorite episodes, honoring the back to school season. Talk to you then,