Ione Ione

Bio

Ione is the author of Pride of Family, Four Generations of Women of Color (Summit Books, 1991; paperback, Avon Books, 1993). Pride of Family is a New York Times Notable Book of the Year and on the New York Public Library’s list of 25 Books to Remember. Her memoir was inspired by the 1868 diary of her great grandmother, Frances Anne Rollin, author of both the earliest-known diary written by a black southern woman and the first full-length biography by an African American. Her writing on Njingma Mbandi appears in Spirits of Passage (Simon and Schuster, 1997) and Hot Flashes (Faber and Faber, 1996). Ione is also the playwright and director of the play Njingna the Queen King: The Return of a Warrior, which premiered at Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Next Wave Festival in December, 1993. This play has been performed each year since its opening and will be the subject of a course: Music theater, Community Building through Njingna the Queen King, taught by Ione and Pauline Oliveros at Mills College in Oakland in the fall of 1998. A West Coast premiere is anticipated in the year 2000. Ione has been a frequent contributor to The Village Voice, The Christian Science Monitor, Ms., Essence, Vogue, Oggi, and numerous other publications. Her journals were published by Ballantine Books (Om {rovate {ages” American Women’s diaries, 1830s-1970s). She travels extensively, giving readings and lectures and presenting workshops that focus on myth and memory, heritage and dreams.