Books

Awarded 2nd Place for the Chicago Folklore Prize.

“Trash Talk is a brilliant examination of the conspiracy theories, legends, myths and national lies that attended the rise, election and governance of Barack Obama…”

-Michael Eric Dyson, author of Entertaining Race: Performing Blackness in America

Stories and Studies of African American Quilters

“Crafted Lives is a landmark addition to the growing body of work on African American quilt-making traditions.”

-Laurel Horton, author of Mary Black’s Quilts: Meaning and Memory in Everyday Life

"Whispers on the Color Line … powerfully underscor[es] the social significance of hearsay, rumors, and legends in everyday life. [A]n important contribution … to the ongoing discourse about race matters in this country."

―Elijah Anderson, author of Code of the Street: Decency, Violence, and the Moral Life of the Inner City

"In this wise, witty, and scholarly book, Patricia Turner investigates the history of anti-black images from … black-faced cookie jars to stereotypes of blacks in the mass media, showing that it is a short psychic distance from Aunt Jemima to Driving Miss Daisy.

-Mary Helen Washington, editor of Black-Eyed Susans and Midnight Birds

"Illuminating. . . . Although [Turner] deals primarily with some seemingly preposterous rumors circulating among blacks in the United States, her book demonstrates how and exemplary case study of folklore can reveal the positive side of these seemingly damaging rumors. Moreover, her work opens up new perspectives on black culture."—New York Times