Sharon Bridgforth has developed in love conjure/blues the first effort of what will be known as the performance novel. …The act of the performance novel is a challenge of exploration in forms of American storytelling. The performance work developed over the past 20 years has not always fulfilled satisfying experiences with language. We are willing to now deepen our explorations of form. Creating vocabularies and expanding dialogues centered on diverse methods of excavating stories is the goal. How successful we are will be defined by those of us making the journey… This primary work [love conjure/blues] has given permission to many of the rest of us to move forward…Laurie Carlos, The Austin Chronicle September 16, 2005.
Cover art by Daniel Alexander Jones
Published by RedBone Press.
love conjure/blues is published by RedBone Press. The book is taught at universities around the country.
…love conjure/blues reveals some of the mysteries of human existence by challenging traditional understandings of reading and participation, sexuality and sensuality, racial identity and ancestry, and the ritual performance that makes community. The experience of love conjure/blues—the convergence of spiritual worlds and the embodiment of those worlds through reading—is the act of making holy… Omi Osun Joni L. Jones,Ph.D. African and African Diaspora Studies Department, University of Texas at Austin.
