When author Lisa Braxton was growing up, celebrating Black history was a given in her Connecticut household. Each February, her parents took her and her sister to community events to hear local civil rights leaders give fiery speeches. Programs always ended with a rousing rendition of the Black National Anthem. Sometimes her mother's club sponsored Black history programs that needed child narrators, dancers, and singers. Mom always found a part for Lisa. When Lisa got to high school, she entered a citywide Black History Quiz contest and won second place. The plaque was nice, but the best part of the competition was discovering Black pioneers and leaders she'd never heard of. Little did she know that many years later she'd write a memoir centering on her parents who themselves have their place in the Black history of their Connecticut community through their entrepreneurship, political activism and volunteerism.
"Dancing Between the Raindrops: A Daughter's Reflections on Love and Loss" is a family story and a cultural story rich in Black history themes.
Nonfiction | Memoir | Family | African American
Paperback | 6 x 9 | 158 pages
Publication Date May 24, 2024
ISBN: 978-1961864061
A powerful meditation on grief, a deeply personal mosaic of a daughter's remembrances of beautiful, challenging, and heartbreaking moments of life with her family. It speaks to anyone who has lost a loved one and is trying to navigate the world without them while coming to terms with complicated emotions. Lisa Braxton's parents died within two years of each other-her mother from ovarian cancer, her father from prostate cancer. While caring for her mother she was stunned to find out that she, herself, had a life-threatening illness-breast cancer. In this intimate, lyrical memoir-in-essays, Lisa Braxton takes us to the core of her loss and extends a lifeline of comfort to anyone who needs to be reminded that in their grief they are not alone.
More About Lisa Braxton
Lisa Braxton is the author of the novel The Talking Drum, winner of a 2021 Independent Publisher (IPPY) Book Awards Gold Medal, overall winner of Shelf Unbound book review magazine’s 2020 Independently Published Book Award, winner of a 2020 Outstanding Literary Award from the National Association of Black Journalists, and a Finalist for the International Book Awards. She is an Emmy-nominated former television journalist, an essayist, and short story writer. She is on the executive board of the Writers Room of Boston, a writing instructor at Grub Street Boston, and the president of the Greater Boston Section of the National Council of Negro Women. Lisa is a member of the Psi Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.
She earned her Bachelor of Arts in mass media from Hampton University, her Master of Science in journalism from Northwestern University and her Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from Southern New Hampshire University.
