By M. Shawn Copeland.
Katie Geneva Cannon was beautiful in heart, mind, soul, and body. Always and in all ways, she moved and thought and acted and lived with dignity, grace, and courage. She was brilliant, and so intellectually creative, artistically talented, generous, sensitive, large-hearted, and large-souled. Kate never hesitated to tell the truth, to say aloud what was right, just, and true (and what ought to be) and always did so without varnish or concession. She could, would, and did speak the most difficult truths—directly, simply, piercingly—even as she embraced her interlocutors with grace and generosity. Profound dignity and courage carried her through spiritual, personal, and intellectual assault. Kate’s insight and frank speech, foresight and sage advice saved many careers, rescued many dissertations, and improved more manuscripts than anyone will ever know. She knew the conditions that could thwart life and so urged us to new understandings for our doing, knowing, and being. Katie Geneva Cannon was a true “womanist legend”—embodying the virtues, gifts, and graces for which every womanist, every black woman yearns.
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Want to read more? Click here for full (free) access to Copeland’s reflection at JSTOR: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/jfemistudreli.35.1.11.
Next to Stacey M. Floyd-Thomas’s “Katie’s Canon: Enfleshing Womanism, Mentoring, and the Soul of the Black Community“
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This piece originally appeared in the Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion Issue 35.1, Spring 2019.