Publication accompanying the Hood Museum's exhibition of the same name. Eight contributors analyze representations of black women from separate but intersecting perspectives: the traditional African; the colonial; and the contemporary global. Thompson's essay opens with the black female body on display in Europe and moves to the recovery of traditional African ideologies of womanhood, setting the stage for Amadiume's examination of traditional African art practices and Schildkrout's demonstration of cross-cultural exchange. Investigating western colonizations and imaginings of black women, Wallace-Sanders's analysis of Mammy representations shifts the ground to the United States; while Willis considers how photographs from black family albums between the 1890s and 1940s countered racist images in popular culture. Thompson's closing meditation leads the reader back to contemporary, thought-provoking and often confrontational images of an empowered and outspoken black female presence at the heart of this exhibit. Please note: this book contains mature imagery.