Publishing, Publications, and Booksellers - Southern Lesbian Feminist Activist Herstory Project

Epicurean of the Heart: In Memory of Shay Youngblood

Shay Youngblood at Charis Books and More in 2020

By E.R. Anderson, on behalf of Charis Books and More, and Charis Circle Shay Youngblood, novelist, playwright, artist, and poet, died on Tuesday, June 11, 2024, after an extended illness. She was surrounded by loved ones sending her to meet the ancestors. In the days since Shay has gone from this Earth, our Charis community has been longing for her to come back, and has sought sustenance in her words and in the words of all those whose lives she touched. Shay Youngblood was an epicurean of the heart, a writer’s writer, a generous gift-giver, a marvelous cook, and a cheerleader for everyone’s wildest dreams. Shay got her start at Charis Books and More in Atlanta, Georgia (now located in Decatur, Georgia), at the Charis Circle Young Women Writers Group. “The first evening Mama doesn’t come back, I make a sandwich with leaves from her goodbye letter.I want to eat her words.” We are fortunate that we got to witness and celebrate the entire trajectory of her writing career that went from her first, pre-publication poetry reading at Charis Books and More in 1980 all the way to her picture book release …

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Posted on July 15, 2024 Posted in Culture and the Arts, Publishing, Publications, and Booksellers Tagged with A Family Prayer, Amazing Grace, Atlanta, Big Mama Stories, Black Girl in Paris, Charis Books and More, Charis Circle, Decatur, Firebrand Books, Georgia, Horizon Theatre Company, Linda Bryant, Lisa Adler, Nancy Bereano, Shakin’ the Mess Outta Misery, Shay Youngblood, Soul Kiss, Square Blues, Talking Bones, Ticket to Paris, Yaddo, Young Women Writers Group

Remembering Shay Youngblood

Shay Youngblood

On June 11, 2024, Shay Youngblood died after an extended illness. Loved ones surrounded her as she went to meet her ancestors. Novelist, poet, and playwright, Shay Youngblood got her start at Charis Books & More in Decatur, Georgia, at the Charis Circle Young Women Writers Group. From reading her poetry at Charis to publishing her first book, Big Mama Stories (1989) with Firebrand Press, to producing her plays at Little 5 Points Horizon Theatre, she left us a rich legacy.

Celebrating the Anniversary of the Herstory Project

May and June 2024 are multiple anniversaries for the SLFA Herstory Project. It’s the fifteenth anniversary of our first Herstory Project planning workshop at Womonwrites. It’s the tenth anniversary of our first special issue of Sinister Wisdom. And it’s the second anniversary of the launching of this website.

We celebrated the publication of our sixth and final Sinister Wisdom volume two years ago. The six special volumes contain a treasure trove of collected stories, interviews, timelines, and photographs from three decades of twentieth-century, lesbian-feminist activism in Southern states. Now, we are focusing on making these edited interviews available online as we continue to add new interviews.

The herstory of lesbian-feminist activism in the South was rapidly being lost as these stories of unsung sheroes were not being reported in any of the memoirs and histories of the women’s liberation movement in the twentieth century.

Remembering Terri Lynn Jewell: Black, Lesbian-Feminist Poet

Terri Jewell at Womonwrites 1984. Photo courtesy of Rand Hall.

Terri Jewell (1954-95), Black, lesbian-feminist poet, lived in Lansing, Michigan, for the last twenty-plus years of her life, and we are happy to claim her for the South. She grew up in Louisville, Kentucky. In 1984, Terri attended Womonwrites: the Southeast Lesbian Writers Conference in Georgia with the Louisville League of Lesbian Writers.

During her short life, Terri Jewell published one book of poetry, Succulent Heretic (Lansing, MI: Oral Tortuga Press, 1994), and the collection The Black Woman’s Gumbo Ya-Ya: Quotations by Black Women (Freedom, CA: Crossing Press, 1993).

Terri’s book, Our Names Are Many: The Black Woman’s Book of Days (Freedom, CA: Crossing Press, 1996), was published posthumously. Terri Jewell’s poems also appear in scores of journals and are anthologized in collections like A Fierce Brightness: 25 Years of Women’s Poetry, When I Am An Old Woman I Shall Wear Purple, and If I Had My Life to Live Over, I Would Pick More Daisies.

When our Herstory Project editors went looking for women who remembered Terri Jewell, we found her Louisville League of Lesbian Writers friends eager to participate.

Category: Publishing, Publications, and Booksellers

Epicurean of the Heart: In Memory of Shay Youngblood

Remembering Shay Youngblood

Celebrating the Anniversary of the Herstory Project

Remembering Terri Lynn Jewell: Black, Lesbian-Feminist Poet