Coming into Being:

Abstract

In this chapter, the author bears witness to the life-changing effects of the self-liberating theory and practice of women of color feminism. By way of Alice Walker, she honors and describes the pedagogical approaches, as well as the spirituality, of four professors whose womanist attitudes—which were implied through their required reading assignments and classroom discussions—informed and liberated her personhood. Written in an epistolary style, her essay is a narration of her experiences in each of her professors’ graduate studies classrooms. She also includes original poems inspired by both classroom readings and her professors’ humanity in order to illustrate her transformation. Clearly, as she writes from a deeply heartfelt location, her “professors” of womanism made a life-changing impression on her.