Javelle Black

Death and the Afterwife Javelle Black

A conjure-woman from a fishing hamlet in the Virgin Islands migrates to a college town in the United States, bringing with her the diagnostic and curing powers she's honed in the Caribbean, as well as a keen interest in the kinds of ups-and-downs of human relations that drive life in a small community. She finds work cleaning homes for a secretary, a graduate student, a senior professor, the editors of the alumni magazine, and a dean, and quickly develops innovative ways, based on knowledge passed on to her by her Jamaican grandfather, to transcend the potential degradation of her servile position and become a central player in the personal lives of her employers. The story is told by Javelle Black, the granddaughter she brought up, who eventually becomes a confidante. "Death and the Afterwife" chronicles the creative role the grandmother played in helping her employers deal with the sexual jealousies, personal insecurities, and academic ambitions that will be all too familiar to any reader who has experienced life in a college town. Javelle Black was brought up by her maternal grandmother, a former higgler from the Caribbean who was working as a domestic in the United States. In college, she developed her creative writing skills in the Johns Hopkins Writing Seminars and then went on to become an elementary school teacher, winning the 2005 Kings County Teacher's Award for Excellence in Reading Readiness. She is the editor of Caribbean Stories, Short and Long: An Anthology (Mango Tree Press, 2013) and lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two teenage daughters.