The Mechanics' Institute is delighted to share the news that one of our members has received a commendation from Library Journal. Lyzette Wanzer’s Trauma, Tresses, & Truth: Untangling Our Hair Through Personal Narrative (2022) has been listed as one of the ten best social science books of 2022.
Lyzette Wanzer has been involved with the writers' community at Mechanics' Institute since 2007, both as a participant and leader of the myriad activities offered by the Institute. She has hosted poetry and flash fiction readings, discussions on writing, and a host of classes to help our members thrive as professional writers. You may also remember her contributions to the Book’toberfest celebrations of long ago!
Trauma, Tresses, & Truth was conceived in the summer of 2020 during what she calls “the turbulent summer of racial reckoning” at the Association of Writers and Writing Pr
ograms (AWP) Conference in San Antonio. She had proposed and prepared a panel discussion about natural hair, and the session drew a standing-room-only crowd. At the close, several women approached and asked her where they could purchase the (then non-existent) book. In a conversation with Lyzette she said, “I didn't believe their idea had any legs as a book until Breonna Taylor and George Floyd happened, followed by the worldwide upheaval of demonstrations, curfews, marches, etc. That's when I wrote the book proposal, and by mid-October, I had four publishing offers.”
While still working on the book, she then decided to produce and host a conference titled Trauma, Tresses, & Truth: A Natural Hair Conference in August 2021. This event offered a two-day schedule of panels, workshops, speakers, and poetry and essay readings, all examining the policing, perception, and persecution of Black women’s natural hair. She ultimately featured 36 speakers over two days. The conference will be repeated in 2023, and if you would like to submit the deadline is December 31st of this year.
As Library Journal put it, “These collective episodes [in Trauma, Tresses, & Truth] explicitly expose the struggles that women of color endure in the many places where their natural hair has been weaponized against them. These real-life emotional experiences increase awareness about a form of systemic racism that is shocking to many; it also challenges readers to respect all hair types, a healing quest.”
Check out Trauma, Tresses, & Truth from our library and find out more about Lyzette and her work on her website at https://www.lyzettewanzermfa.com/.
