Tiffany N. Florvil's Introduction FSDW15

To Turn this Whole World Over: Black Women’s Internationalism during the Twentieth Century.  The volume will underscore Black women's international engagements across the globe.  My contribution to the volume focuses on May Ayim, an Afro-German activist and public intellectual, who helped to co-found an Afro-German organization entitled Initiative of Black Germans or ISD.  Ayim actually helped to initiate the Afro-German movement of the 1980s and 1990s.  In "Feeling Solidarity," I argue that Ayim consciously pursued anti-racist work by employing her literary productions as forms of activism to obtain social visibility and equality for herself, Afro-Germans, and other people of color. Ayim’s emotions and experiences in post-Holocaust Germany and elsewhere shaped her writing, diasporic identity, and activism. Traversing borders, Ayim forged transnational networks that ultimately helped her achieve recognition as one of the most promising Afro-German intellectuals and performers of her generation. In essence, this historical piece attends to the interplay of writing, feminist activism, diasporic identity, and emotional belonging.

I need to send revisions to the editors by July and the editors would like me to situate Ayim a bit more among her peers, especially other women writers. Their comments were pretty minor, but I think the piece could be pushed further.  So in terms of feedback, I am looking for general comments on clarity and style.  Is my argument persuasive?  Does the piece need additional examples?  Does the piece work as a whole or is it missing something?  Does Ayim come across as the main focal point?  If not, what can I do to change this?  How can I push my argument further?  Is there something potentially missing from my narrative and analysis?  Do I explain Ayim's significance enough?  These are just some of things that I am grappling with and would encourage critical feedback from my group. 

I hope this offers enough information. I am excited about engaging in feminist community building and scholarly work this week!

@tnflorvil

http://history.unm.edu/people/faculty/profile/tiffany-florvil.html

https://unm.academia.edu/TiffanyFlorvil

Yah #FSDW15!