“The written word is the quiet force that moves hearts, shapes minds, and changes worlds.”
– Dr. Brenda Greene
Defining Ourselves offers perspectives on black literature in the 1990s by twenty-nine black writers and critics.The essays in this book are based on papers presented at the Fourth National Black Writers Conference at Medgar Evers College of the City University of New York, which focused on the question of whether or not black literature in the 90s is experiencing a renaissance to end all renaissances.