Chanequa Walker-Barnes - Too Heavy a Yoke: Black Women and the Burden of Strength

V ariations of the ideas in this text were previously published in my article The Burden of the Strong Black Woman, in the summer 2009 edition of the Journal of Pastoral Theology .

A great cloud of witnesses has shepherded this project from its inception to its completion. I am especially grateful for my dear friends and colleagues Kathryn Broyles and Cheryl Kirk-Duggan, who have provided continual encouragement and feedback on several chapters. My writing group membersTonya Armstrong, Tina Ndoh, and Daphne Wigginsreviewed the book proposal and were vital in shaping the present form of the project. And my CCDA cohort members affirmed my voice when I still wasnt sure that I had anything valuable to say.

This project was birthed during my time as a seminarian at Duke University Divinity School. I am forever indebted to Willie Jennings, who helped me rekindle my passion for an academic career when I thought it had been snuffed out. Conversations and courses with several Duke faculty members were vital in shaping this book and my transition from clinical psychology to pastoral theology, including Esther Acolaste, J. Kameron Carter, Mary McClintock Fulkerson, Amy Laura Hall, and Tammy Williams.

Several feminist and womanist colleagues encouraged me to pursue this project when I was tempted to let it go, especially Monica Coleman, Trina Armstrong, and Pamela Cooper-White. Renita Weems gave me a healthy dose of You are enough! sister-medicine when I was tempted to believe that my education and credentials were insufficient for this project and for a career in pastoral theology. My understanding of intersectionality was expanded by my participation in the 2009 Spelman-NWSA Women of Color Institute. I am grateful to its organizers, facilitators, and participants, including Beverly Guy-Sheftall, Allison Kimmich, Bonnie Thornton Dill, Andrea Smith, and M. Jacqui Alexander.

I express my sincere gratitude to the Louisville Institute for their award of a First Book Grant for Minority Scholars, which funded a research leave during which much of this book was written. The feedback from my cojourners in the 2012 Winter Seminar was immensely helpful.

I am grateful for the support of my students at Shaw University Divinity School, Duke University, and McAfee School of Theology. Students in my courses on African American women at Shaw and Duke provided fertile soil for testing the ideas expressed in this book. And my students at McAfee have been incredibly supportive in the final stages of the journey, being patient with the slow grading of their newest faculty member and expressing eagerness for the project. Special appreciation goes to Sharlyn Menard for her assistance with the footnotes and bibliography and for helping ease my load generally as I completed the manuscript.

I also wish to express my appreciation for the women of the SISTERS group at Compassion Ministries of Durham, who allowed me to be a part of their healing journeys and who intersected mine.

I am eternally thankful for my husband, Delwin, and son, Micah, who have sustained me through the writing process and beyond with their love, patience, and laughter (especially their laughter!). I am more blessed by them than they could possibly know.