DARYL CUMBER DANCE

Daryl Cumber Dance, known by many simply as the "Dean of Folkculture," has collected the writings and traditions of numerous cultures in six acclaimed anthologies. Her most recent anthology, From My People: 400 Years of African American Folklore (2002), assembles everything from tales and proverbs to folk songs, recipes, rumor, sermons, music, and art. Its 700-plus pages tell the history of a people who were banned from reading and writing during slavery. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. called the collection "a major contribution to African American scholarship. . .destined to be studied, passed on, and cherished for generations to come."

Dance's previous collection, Honey, Hush! An Anthology of African American Women's Humor (WW Norton & Co, 1998), amasses the vibrant wit and laughter of African American women in both written and spoken manifestations. The collection includes material such as autobiographies, novels, essays, poems, proverbs, comic routines, cartoons, and folk tales. "A dazzling anthology," said Publishers Weekly. Breathtakingly broad and deep," said the Miami Herald.

Her other works include: New World Adams: Conversations with Contemporary West Indian Writers (Peepal Tree Press, 1992); Long Gone: The Mecklenburg Six and the Theme of Escape in Black Folklore (University of Tennessee Press, 1987); Fifty Caribbean Writers: A Bio-Bibliographical and Critical Sourcebook (Greenwood Press, 1986); Folklore from Contemporary Jamaicans (University of Tennessee Press, 1985); and Shuckin' and Jivin': Folklore from Contemporary Black Americans (Indiana University Press, 1978).

Dance currently is a professor at the University of Richmond in Virginia. She has also served as the Advisory Editor of Black American Literary Forum since 1978, and as the Editorial Advisor of the Journal of West Indian Literature since 1986. She regularly contributes to numerous folklore and black studies journals.

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