Welcome
Linda Janet Holmes is a writer, independent scholar, curator and long-time women's health activist. Her writing including articles in medical journals and essays in feminist journals has been pivotal in contributing to a resurgence of international recognition of the significance of African American midwifery practices. Her book, Listen To Me Good: The Life Story of an Alabama Midwife, published by Ohio State University Press, 1996, was co-authored with Margaret Charles Smith, a traditional African American midwife.
Her recently completed book, A Joyous Revolt: Toni Cade Bambara, Writer and Activist, (Praeger Press) is now available. This first biography on a transformative black fiction writer, activist, filmmaker and cultural worker includes previously unpublished letters, journal notes and extensive interviews with Bambara’s family members and friends. Holmes is also co-editor (with Cheryl Wall) of the anthology Savoring the Salt: The Legacy of Toni Cade Bambara, published by Temple University Press, 2008. More than four decades ago, "The True Story of Chicken Licken," the first work of fiction by Holmes, appeared in Toni Cade Bambara's Tales and Stories for Black Folks, Doubleday, 1971.
Holmes, former director of New Jersey’s Office of Minority and Multicultural Health, now lives in Hampton, Virginia. Her most recent work focused on collecting oral histories from Hampton Institute Civil Rights Veterans who were in the forefront of the 1960's Movement to desegregate public spaces in Virginia. The oral history interviews are posted on the Hampton History Museum Website.
Holmes is currently working on her second book on midwives. This book will include the voices of diverse midwives of African descent across the diaspora, past and present.
Safe in a Midwife's Hands has received acclaim from Ms. Magazine and other reviewers.