{"product_id":"speaking-my-soul-9781032068831","title":"Speaking my Soul","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cp\u003eSpeaking My Soul is the honest story of linguist John R. Rickford's life from his early years as the youngest of ten children in Guyana to his status as Emeritus Professor of Linguistics at Stanford, of the transformation of his identity from colored or mixed race in Guyana to black in the USA, and of his work championing Black Talk and its speakers.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis is an inspiring story of the personal and professional growth of a black scholar, from his life as an immigrant to the USA to a world-renowned expert who has made a leading contribution to the study of African American life, history, language and culture. In this engaging memoir, Rickford recalls landmark events for his racial identity like being elected president of the Black Student Association at the University of California, Santa Cruz; learning from black expeditions to the South Carolina Sea Islands, Jamaica, Belize and Ghana; and meeting or interviewing civil rights icons like Huey P. Newton, Rosa Parks and Sout\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eSpeaking my Soul: Race, Life and Language\u003c\/em\u003e is a fascinating account of a life that started in colonial British Guiana (now Guyana) but is transformed by emigration to the United States in the turbulent late 1960s. Arrival here as a college student challenges Rickford to the core. The embracing Black Power movement presents him with a chance to discover a self essentially misled in British Guiana; seizing that chance, he exorcises some of the main colonialist demons, especially those involving the privilege of possessing a \"light\" skin color that is often a barrier between him, and others like him, and the black masses. Finding in the study of sociolinguistics a field of inquiry that reinforces his new self-perception, he becomes an expert above all on the dignity and integrity of \"Black English.\" In a crucial way, this is an act of love, and love is a crucial feature here: above all, love of family and love of academia but also love of the masses of people everywhere. This is a notable, instructive story of a remarkable life and career.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eArnold Rampersad, author of biographies of \u003ci\u003eJackie Robinson, Langston Hughes\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eRalph Ellison, \u003c\/i\u003eand co-author of \u003ci\u003eArthur Ashe: Days of Grace, a Memoir\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn this remarkable and compelling story about love, family, poetry, language, education, activism, and the evolution of identity and acceptance, John R. Rickford illuminates the transatlantic ties that bind Caribbean, African, and African American cultures, and the complexities of race that informed his own journey from Guyana to the U.S.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTracey L. Weldon, author, \u003ci\u003eMiddle Class African American English\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eRickford is not just one of the first scholars of color to study modern sociolinguistics. His model as an educator, family member, and friend has made our profession more humble, kinder, and more caring. He is a transformative figure who has written a captivating account of his journey from the single bedroom with nine kids in Guyana to the leader of the sociolinguistic world. A riveting, inspirational account!\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWalt Wolfram, author of \u003ci\u003eDialects and American English, Appalachian English, \u003c\/i\u003eand\u003ci\u003e Talkin’ Tar Heel\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSpeaking my Soul: Race, Life and Language is such a moving memoir—at once a highly personal family story, and yet one with insights that make this book also an invaluable contribution to Black Studies, Diasporic Studies, and the emerging field of Critical Mixed Race Studies. Rickford’s intimate family account of his own complex racial heritage, paired with an insider’s view of a field of research that he himself shaped, is a wholly engrossing read. The divine irony that this world-renowned pioneer in sociolinguistics temporarily lost his speech after a stroke makes this memoir an even more poignant reflection on life and language.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMichele Elam, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Souls of Mixed Folk \u003c\/i\u003eand editor of \u003ci\u003eThe Cambridge Companion to James Baldwin\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis moving and honest memoir is crucial to understanding the wider reaches of identity in a multi-racial former British colony, and by extension, to the much- discussed question of identity in today’s instantly connected global world. Having himself in 2019 suffered an unexpected stroke (an illness that had killed his father), Rickford was motivated to further explore his family tree…This leads Rickford to discover a web of ancestral connections (African, East Indian, Amerindian, Scottish) that bear witness to Guyana’s diverse racial heritage. … in this memoir, Rickford invites us to sit with the unseen ancestors that inhabit his house of memory.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFrom the \u003ci\u003eForeword\u003c\/i\u003e by \u003cb\u003eJohn Agard\u003c\/b\u003e, author of \u003ci\u003eHalf-Caste\u003c\/i\u003e, numerous other books of poetry, and winner of the 2012 Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e…it is Rickford’s humanity that shines through these pages, showing how diversity is one of the world’s most valuable resources, how diversity arises from the chances and challenges of ordinary people’s lives, and how academic study, far from meaning elite confinement in an ivory tower, can show how knowledge is not only power but enrichment of everybody’s lives.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eMichael Mitchell\u003c\/b\u003e, University of Warwick, UK\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDr. John Rickford is the heart of Black language and linguistics scholarship because of what you see and feel in \u003ci\u003eSpeaking My Soul \u003c\/i\u003efrom the very beginning: family and friends. I am glad John made his way from Guyana to the U.S. and developed his \"Black complex\" that led him to expand our knowledge and understanding of Black languages and Black lives. The homage to his award-winning book co-authored with his son only serves to enshrine him as the heart and soul for those of us who do (Black) language. And though he may have often been the \"runt of the litter\" in various instances in his life, he is definitely our rock. Thank you for speaking to my soul.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSonja L. Lanehart\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e, University of Arizona, USA\u003cb\u003e, \u003c\/b\u003eauthor of \u003ci\u003eSista, Speak! Black Women Kinfolk Talk about Language and Literacy \u003c\/i\u003eand editor of \u003ci\u003eThe Oxford Handbook of African American Language\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eList of Illustrations\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eForeword by John Agard\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePrologue: The gift of Stroke\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e1 Youngest of ten, and my monkey and rabbit\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e2 Forebears and cousins\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e3 Baby Wade, my mum\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e4 Siblings: Patricia(s) and Peter\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e5 Queen’s College (my high school)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e6 Friends and Girlfriends\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e7 Johnny and Johnny (Agard) and the police\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e8 Going to America\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e9 U of California, Santa Cruz \u0026amp; summer 1969\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e10 Forgive me, my son, Thank you my parents\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e11 How I fell in love with Linguistics \u0026amp; Black Talk\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e12 The Sea Islands: Dashiki in suitcase if required\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e13 Rosa Parks at Stanford\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e14 Stanford in Oxford: David Dabydeen \u0026amp; Dennis Brutus \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e15 African and African American Studies, Learning Expeditions, Kongo Cosmograms\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e16 Ebonics, Rachel Jeantel, Trayvon Martin, Black Lives Matter\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eEpilogue: The gift of Love \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIndex\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Taylor \u0026 Francis Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49406658707799,"sku":"9781032068831","price":25.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/speaking-my-soul-9781032068831","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}