Go Girl! – The Black Woman's Book of Travel and Adventure

Go Girl!
368 Pages
ISBN 978-0933377424

A rich collection of fifty-two stories covering the globe. Sister-to-sister advice on everything from destination selection, to traveling solo, to saving money on airfare. Exploration and discussion of issues of particular concern to black women; dealing with racism, overcoming fears, claiming entitlement, etc. The book also includes a planning guide and a resourceful guide.

Maya Angelou tells the story of arriving in Africa a stranger but leaving claimed as a member of the Bambara tribe. Evelyn C. White writes about finding new pride in being black after visiting Egypt. Opal Palmer Adisa evokes the sights, sound, and aromas of urban Ghana where she traveled to meet her lifelong pen pal. Lucinda Roy brings alive the year she spent teaching girls in Sierra Leone and talks how the villagers’ friendship overcame her loneliness for home.

Alice Walker offers a quite meditation on how the beauty of the country stirred her imagination. Audre Lorde captures her experience of being refused entry to the British Virgin Islands because of her dreadlocks. Gwendolyn Brooks recounts the camaraderie and tensions of a trip to Russia with a group of American writers. Gloria Wade-Gayles explores the complexities of being both an American and a woman of color as a paying guest in a Mexican home.

Brenda Joyce Patterson

About Brenda Joyce Patterson (Tampa Bay, Florida Author)

Brenda Joyce Patterson

Brenda Joyce Patterson (brendajoycepatterson.com) is a poet, columnist, and writer. She was co-editor of the international literary magazine, Onionhead. She writes the At The Library column for Lakeland, FL newspaper, The Ledger. Recent poetry and fiction have been published in Gravel Magazine and Melancholy Hyperbole. Her travel essay, "The Kindness of Strangers", was published in Go Girl: The Black Woman's Guide to Travel and Adventure (Eighth Mountain Press, 1997). She studied poetry under Peter Meinke, Lola Haskins and Nicholas Samaras.