EROTIQUE NOIRE

by Miriam DeCosta-Willis

In this glorious, unprecedented anthology, Black writers celebrate Black sensuality. Between Ntozake Shange's "Fore/Play" and John A. Williams's "After Play" arranged into chapters such as "When the Spirits Come," "Movin' to the Beat," "Naughty, Nasty, and Nice," and "Taking the Plunge" - are a host of imaginative short stories, poems, essays, folktales, and letters. Always spicy, sometimes raunchy, often tender and touching, or just plain fun, Erotique Noire/Black Erotica is also a serious and intellectually exciting anthology of Black literature, including such authors as Audre Lorde, Marita Golden, Alice Walker, Terry McMillan, Chester Himes, Trey Ellis, Calvin Hernton, and Barbara Chase-Riboud, among many, many others.
African, African-American, Latin-American, and Caribbean-American men and women, gay and straight - novelists, poets, essayists, and scholars - provide wealth of erotic delights ranging from the lyrical to the lascivious, from the provocative to the shockingly explicit. Challenging the traditional shibboleths that have surrounded the literary representation of Black physical desire and sexual pleasure, Erotique Noire/Black Erotica draws open the curtain to reveal an erotic emotional world rich in its imagery, passion, and sense of adventure.
Celebratory and bold, triumphant and heady, this collection reclaims the fullness of Black life. It is an extraordinary work of lasting valu for all lovers of litrature and, especially, the erotic.

Genres: Erotica

456 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1992

Reviews

[Mina Richards · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's beautiful words on paper that seared me at times. It's the type of writing that you never forget. I still have my copies on my bookshelf when these came out. I go back to this book and The Dark Eros to read those works that speak to me.

[Cheryl A. · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I first encountered this book I was a young woman working in an area that was full of other women in my age range (early 20's) and boy oh boy, this book made the rounds and then some in our department! We had extended discussions about it at the desk. Lol. Great and fun memories! This is and was a helluva read. There's something in it for everyone. Some of it, now that I'm older, can be kinda raunchy but there are some sweet reads in it as well.