{"id":6749,"date":"2008-04-28T22:46:45","date_gmt":"2008-04-29T04:46:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sistahsontheshelf.com\/blog\/?page_id=87"},"modified":"2008-04-28T22:46:45","modified_gmt":"2008-04-29T04:46:45","slug":"the-lowdown-of-sistahs-on-the-shelf","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/www.sistahsontheshelf.com\/?page_id=6749","title":{"rendered":"The Lowdown of Sistahs on the Shelf"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong><span style=\"color: #800000;\">What?<\/span><\/strong><br \/>\nSistahs on the Shelf is a website dedicated to black lesbian literature and authors. Features include monthly book reviews, a book database, links, info on new releases, and an online discussion group with discussions on various topics from literature to lifestyle topics.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: #800000;\"><strong>When?<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/span>The brainchild of Sistahs on the Shelf is a project I hatched for almost a year, but didn&#8217;t become a reality until August 2005.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: #800000;\"><strong>Where?<\/strong><\/span><br \/>\nRight here, at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sistahsontheshelf.com\">www.sistahsontheshelf.com<\/a>, of course!<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: #800000;\"><strong>Who?<\/strong><br \/>\n<\/span>I am a ravenous reader who&#8217;s been glued to a book since I could remember. I try to read a little bit of everything, however, like most readers, I am drawn to stories that mirror my experiences. This generally includes African-American and lesbian fiction. The reviews on the site are books I have read myself, and I try not recommend a book I haven&#8217;t read or heard good things about.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: #800000;\"><strong>How?<\/strong><\/span><br \/>\nWith Sistahs on the Shelf, I researched several literary Web sites and used my own membership experiences with several reading groups. It is a melange of everything I wanted to see within a reading site&#8211;a little bit of the things you wanted to see.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong><span style=\"color: #800000;\">Why?<\/span><\/strong><br \/>\nSo why Sistahs on the Shelf? The answer encompasses more than just an outlet for readers and authors of Black lesbian literature. It entails more than just an informational Web site with news and reviews about your kind of books. And it&#8217;s also much more than a place to express our views without criticism or prejudice.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">No, I was on a mission.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">As a member of online reading groups, the pivotal question women would ask was, \u201cWhat is there for us to read?\u201d They wanted to know where the black lesbian books were that are for us and by us.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">So the answer to me was simple: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sistahsontheshelf.com\"><strong><span style=\"color: #800000;\">Sistahs on the Shelf<\/span><\/strong><\/a>. I wanted to connect women with the books that describe our lives. I desired to give back something to our community given to me through the books I\u2019ve read and enjoyed, the first being April Sinclair\u2019s <em><a href=\"http:\/\/sistahsontheshelf.com\/?p=33\">Coffee Will Make You Black<\/a><\/em>. I wanted to help sistahs in the life realize that there are stories with our love, our feelings, our dreams and our interests at heart.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">My goal is create a space for us and fill a void I believe hasn&#8217;t been satisfied.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">So welcome to Sistahs on the Shelf. Enjoy what you find here and don&#8217;t hesitate to let me know what you think.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What? Sistahs on the Shelf is a website dedicated to black lesbian literature and authors. Features include monthly book reviews, a book database, links, info on new releases, and an online discussion group with discussions on various topics from literature to lifestyle topics. When? The brainchild of Sistahs on the Shelf is a project I [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":4209,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"spay_email":""},"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sistahsontheshelf.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6749"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sistahsontheshelf.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sistahsontheshelf.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sistahsontheshelf.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sistahsontheshelf.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6749"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.sistahsontheshelf.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6749\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sistahsontheshelf.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sistahsontheshelf.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}