In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens

Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

1. Alice Walker’s collection of essays is subtitled “Womanist Prose,” a term Walker herself coined. What is womanism, and how does it differ from the feminist movement? How does an understanding of womanism help set the context for reading Walker’s text?

Teaching Suggestion: It may be helpful to introduce Womanism Versus Feminism as one of the unit’s main themes before students respond to the prompt. Consider helping students view the concept of womanism as a critical framework for understanding much of Walker’s purpose and intention in the text. The resources below may help students develop a stronger foundation and understanding of this theme.

• This page from the Howard University Law Library explains the origins of the term “womanist” and how it fits into the broader fight against racism and sexism. The page includes a 3-minute video that further explains the philosophy around womanism.
• This resource features an excerpt from Walker’s introductory section to In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens, in which she defines who and what a womanist is.

2. Who is Alice Walker? How has her philosophy and activism been developed and received over the years?

Teaching Suggestion: Consider facilitating a discussion with students about how, like many of the figures Walker explores in her essays, Walker herself is a complicated and at times controversial voice. Part of Walker’s purpose in In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens is to bring a critical eye to complicated people, ideas, and events. It may be helpful to invite students to consider Walker herself through a critical lens as she says, in her own words in “To the Black Scholar,” “good criticism must be, I think, simple justice.”

• This article from The New York Times explores how Walker has been a controversial figure in her own right with some of her stances concerning social issues.
• This 8-minute archived interview between Walker and NPR’s Faith Fancher discusses how The Color Purple is a story about women loving and helping each other.

Personal Connection Prompt

This prompt can be used for in-class discussion, exploratory free-writing, or reflection homework before reading the text.

What is the relationship between the artist and politics? How might an artist bridge the gap between the personal and the political? What responsibility does an artist have to be socially engaged?

Teaching Suggestion: Consider reminding students that one of the unit’s main themes is How to be a Politically Engaged Artist and that these questions help set up a variety of topics addressed in Walker’s essays. To develop this prompt further and deepen discussion, consider following this Personal Connection Prompt with an exploration of and an additional question related to the poem linked below: How might art attempt to address the question, “Are we not of interest to each other?”

• This poem by Elizabeth Alexander explores the relationship between art, specifically poetry, and a connected humanity.