Jane J. Phillips (born April 2, 1944), known as J. J. Phillips,Alan Govenar
"Mojo Hand: An Orphic Tale"
in ''Lightnin' Hopkins: His Life and Blues'',

Chicago Review Press Chicago Review Press, or CRP, is a U.S. book publisher and an independent company founded in 1973. Chicago Review Press publishes approximately 60 new titles yearly under eight imprints: Chicago Review Press, Lawrence Hill Books, Academy Chicago, ...

, 2010, p. 156. is an

African-American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. ...

poet, novelist and civil rights activist. Her best known work is the novel ''Mojo Hand'', first published in 1966, the story of a light-skinned upper-class young woman from

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, who after hearing a record by bluesman Blacksnake Brown seeks him out and becomes embroiled in an ultimately tragic relationship with him.

Biography

J. J. Phillips grew up in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

, California, in a progressive African-American family; her mother was a school teacher for 60 years, her father was

Pasadena Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial d ...

's first African-American attorney and real-estate developer. Phillips has said: "My immediate family was assimilated,

atheist Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...

, and were for all intents and purposes indistinguishable from Caucasians in visage and speech." Phillips studied at

Immaculate Heart College Immaculate Heart College (1905–1981) was a private, Catholic college located in Los Angeles, California. The college offered various courses including art and religious education studies. History The Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary f ...

, where as a freshman in 1962 she became interested in black roots music and travelled to

Raleigh, North Carolina Raleigh ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, second-most populous city in the state (after Charlotte, North Carolina, Charlotte) ...

, to join the civil rights movement. She worked on a

National Student Association The United States National Student Association (known as the National Student Association or NSA) was a confederation of college and university student governments in the United States that was in operation from 1947 to 1978. NSA held annual nati ...

voter-registration campaign and later joined a

Congress of Racial Equality The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) is an African-American civil rights organization in the United States that played a pivotal role for African Americans in the civil rights movement. Founded in 1942, its stated mission is "to bring about ...

-sit-in at a

Howard Johnson's Howard Johnson by Wyndham, still commonly referred to as Howard Johnson's, is an American hotel brand with over 200 hotels in 15 countries. It was also formerly a Chain store, restaurant chain, which at one time was the largest in the U.S., wit ...

restaurant, where she was arrested, spending 30 days in the county jail before returning to California. After reading ''

The Country Blues ''The Country Blues'' is a seminal album released on Folkways Records in 1959, catalogue RF 1. Compiled by Samuel Charters from 78-rpm recordings, it accompanied his book of the same name to provide examples of the music discussed. Both the boo ...

'' by

Samuel Charters Samuel Barclay Charters IV (August 1, 1929 – March 18, 2015) was an American music historian, writer, record producer, musician, and poet. He was a widely published author on the subjects of blues and jazz. He also wrote fiction. Early life a ...

, she listened to the music of

Lightnin' Hopkins Samuel John "Lightnin'" Hopkins (March 15, 1912 – January 30, 1982) was an American country blues singer, songwriter, guitarist and occasional pianist from Centerville, Texas. In 2010, ''Rolling Stone'' magazine ranked him No. 71 on its li ...

and determined to meet him, going with a roommate to

Houston, Texas Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

, to hear him play. She was expelled from Immaculate Heart College in January 1963,Govenar, 2010, p. 159. and has recalled: "I was extremely distraught. I wanted to be in school, but clearly the nuns didn't want me there. And soon after that I cam up with the idea to write a book that combined my fascination with Lightnin' with my abiding interest in herpetology, especially the blacksnake, which became the first name of the blues singer in ''Mojo Hand''." That debut novel, published in 1966, and reprinted 20 years later as ''Mojo Hand: An Orphic Tale'' (with restored Orphic references that were cut by the original publisher), has been characterised as a "blues lament in literary form". The ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'' reviewer wrote in 1986: "''Mojo Hand'' anticipates the lessons of much recent black women's fiction--here, the women hold things together, often literally tying random moments of humor and beauty into an at least tolerable daily tapestry. Phillips' novel is true to its African and Greek antecedents, showing the uncanny links between musical, mystical and sexual intoxication. The moral ambiguities of these ties have rarely been so economically, knowingly, or eloquently portrayed as here."James A. Snead
"Mojo Hand: An Orphic Tale by J. J. Phillips"
(review), ''Los Angeles Times'', April 20, 1986. An extract from ''Mojo Hand'' was included in

Margaret Busby Margaret Yvonne Busby, , Hon. FRSL (born 1944), also known as Nana Akua Ackon, is a Ghanaian-born publisher, editor, writer and broadcaster, resident in the UK. She was Britain's then youngest publisher as well as the first black female book p ...

's anthology ''

Daughters of Africa ''Daughters of Africa: An International Anthology of Words and Writings by Women of African Descent from the Ancient Egyptian to the Present'' is a compilation of orature and literature by more than 200 women from Africa and the African diaspora ...

'', published in the 1990s. In 2015, the novel was described by

Nat Hentoff Nathan Irving Hentoff (June 10, 1925 – January 7, 2017) was an American historian, novelist, jazz and country music critic, and syndicated columnist for United Media. Hentoff was a columnist for ''The Village Voice'' from 1958 to 2009. F ...

as the "most neglected book I know of".

Influences

Phillips was interviewed by Alan Govenar for his 2010 book ''Lightnin' Hopkins: His Life and Blues'', in which he discusses the fallacy that ''Mojo Hand'' is "thinly disguised autobiography" based on her affair with Lightnin' Hopkins. In speaking about the origins of ''Mojo Hand'', and setting out to tell "a story of one person's journey from a non-racialized state to the racialized real world", as was happening to her, Phillips said:

"I realized that the perfect vehicle for effecting this was my own bluesy Orphic quest, which I developed after I had seen
Marcel Camus Marcel Camus (21 April 1912 – 13 January 1982) was a French film director. He is best known for '' Orfeu Negro'' (''Black Orpheus''), which won the Palme d'Or at the 1959 Cannes Film Festival and the 1960 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Fi ...
's classic film ''
Black Orpheus ''Black Orpheus'' ( Portuguese: ''Orfeu Negro'' ) is a 1959 romantic tragedy film directed by French filmmaker Marcel Camus and starring Marpessa Dawn and Breno Mello. It is based on the play '' Orfeu da Conceição'' by Vinicius de Moraes, ...
'' several times, and which led me to Lightnin'. The movie is a version of the story of Orpheus and Eurydice set in the black ''favelas'' of Rio during Mardi Gras. Classical mythology and herpetology were two things I'd been keenly interested in for as long as I can remember. In addition, I'd come under the influence of the
existentialists Existentialism is a family of philosophy, philosophical views and inquiry that explore the human individual's struggle to lead an Authenticity (philosophy), authentic life despite the apparent Absurdity#The Absurd, absurdity or incomprehensibili ...
and outlaw writers, such as
Henry Miller Henry Valentine Miller (December 26, 1891 – June 7, 1980) was an American novelist, short story writer and essayist. He broke with existing literary forms and developed a new type of semi-autobiographical novel that blended character study, so ...
, Genet,
Sartre Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (, ; ; 21 June 1905 – 15 April 1980) was a French philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary critic, considered a leading figure in 20th-century French ph ...
, as well as Richard Wright, and I was irresistibly drawn to the idea of the anti-hero and the bad boy in literature and life."

Her poem "Brautigan's Brains" was inspired by an experience she had when working in the manuscript division of

Bancroft Library The Bancroft Library is the primary special-collections library of the University of California, Berkeley. It was acquired from its founder, Hubert Howe Bancroft, in 1905, with the proviso that it retain the name Bancroft Library in perpetuity. ...

at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

, rough-sorting the papers of

Richard Brautigan Richard Gary Brautigan (January 30, 1935) was an American novelist, poet, and short story writer. He wrote throughout his life and published ten novels, two collections of short stories, and four books of poetry. Brautigan's work has been publi ...

— which the library had acquired after his suicide — only to realize that she was handling the actual pages on which Brautigan had blown out his brains.

Family papers

J. J. Phillips' papers are held at

Emory University Emory University is a private university, private research university in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. It was founded in 1836 as Emory College by the Methodist Episcopal Church and named in honor of Methodist bishop John Emory. Its main campu ...

."J.J. Phillips Family Papers, 1900-2001"
Emory Libraries.

Awards

* 2008

American Book Award The American Book Awards are an American literary award that annually recognizes a set of books and people for "outstanding literary achievement". According to the 2010 awards press release, it is "a writers' award given by other writers" and "t ...

, Lifetime Achievement

Works

* Revised as ''Mojo Hand: An Orphic Tale'' (City Miner Books, 1985; Serpent's Tail, 1987). * Poems * "Nigga in the Woodpile", in ''KONCH'', Vol. 1, No. 2, pp. 32–34 (Spring, 1990). ** Revised and published online in ''Konch'' (2008). Corrected and republished with an accompanying essay as ''Nigga in the Woodpile: A Rant'' (Serendipity Books, 2008). * "Brautigan’s Brains" (2002). Later published online in ''Exquisite Corpse.'' * "Lines Gleaned from the ŠÀ.ZI.GA", ''Exquisite Corpse.'' * "Three Poems to the Eternal Beloved", ''Exquisite Corpse.'' * "Throat Song: A Threnody for Ibrahim Qashoush", ''Exquisite Corpse.'' Other * Editor and introduction to '' The Before Columbus Foundation Poetry Anthology: Selections from the American Book Awards, 1980-1990'' (W. W. Norton & Company, 1992, ).

References

External links

J.J. Phillips
at

Goodreads Goodreads is an American social cataloging website and a subsidiary of Amazon that allows individuals to search its database of books, annotations, quotes, and reviews. Users can sign up and register books to generate library catalogs and readi ...

Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library
Emory University
J.J. Phillips family papers, 1900-2001
{{DEFAULTSORT:Phillips, J. J. 1944 births Living people 20th-century African-American writers 20th-century African-American women 21st-century African-American writers 21st-century African-American women African-American poets African-American women writers American anthologists American Book Award winners American poets American women poets Poets from Los Angeles American women anthologists