Colored Women Sittin' on High
Womanist Sermonic Practice in Literature and Music
The University of North Carolina Press · Print & ebook · April 29, 2025
From blue-note turmoil to grace-note power, Black women preachers stand tall.
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- Who it’s for
- Hill examines Black women’s sermonic practice across literature, music, and theology.
- Genres
- Black Lit Crit, Preaching, Liberation Theology
- Published
- The University of North Carolina Press, April 29, 2025
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From blue-note turmoil to grace-note power, Black women preachers stand tall. In Colored Women Sittin' on High, Melanie R. Hill offers a new perspective on the art of the sermon in African American literature, music, and theology. Drawing on the womanist cadence of Alice Walker in literature and the rhythmical flow of named womanist theologians, Hill makes interventions at the intersections of African American literary criticism, music, and religious studies.
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Pushing against the patriarchal dominance that often exists in religious spaces, Hill argues that Black women’s religious practice creates a “sermonic space” that thrives inside and outside the church, allowing for a critique of sexism and anti-Black racism. She examines literature by writers such as Zora Neale Hurston and James Baldwin, music by Aretha Franklin and Ms. Lauryn Hill, and sermons by theologians Ruby Sales and Vashti M. McKenzie, and she takes readers into a sermonic artwork of artists, preachers, and freedom movement activists who are, as Hill contends, the greatest “virtuosic alchemists” of our time.
The Sermonic Space
Hill examines Black women’s sermonic practice across literature, music, and theology.
Come here for
- Literary readings including Zora Neale Hurston
- Music by Aretha Franklin and Ms. Lauryn Hill
Expect
- An argument about religious practice inside and outside the church
- A critique of sexism and anti-Black racism in religious spaces
Where it sits
| Preaching | 62% |
|---|---|
| Black Lit Crit | 54% |
| Liberation Theology | 20% |
Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.
Publisher categories
- Black Lit Crit
- Preaching
- African American Studies
- Women's Studies
- Authors
- Melanie R. Hill
- Publisher
- The University of North Carolina Press
- Published
- April 29, 2025
- Format
- Print & ebook
- Reading lane
- Black Lit Crit