Iceberg Slim - Mama Black Widow

Full title: "Mama Black Widow" by Iceberg Slim.

"Mama Black Widow tells the tragic story of Otis Tilson, a stunning black drag queen trapped in a cruel queer ghetto underworld. In hopes of escaping the racial bigotry and economic injustice of the South, Otis’ family journeys north from their plantation to an urban promised land. Once in Chicago Otis and his brother and sisters become prisoners to a wasteland of violence, crime, prostitution and rape. This is the gut-wrenching tale of the destruction of a family and the truest portrayal of homosexuality in the ghetto ever told." 

"Otis Wilson hesitates between the woman who wants him and the woman he wants to be. He struggles against his homosexuality and femininity, against these impulses that push him to cross-dress and that cause him to be rejected, despised, raped. He also recalls the tragic fate of his family, who left the plantations of the South to seek their fortune in the North, but found only the violence and misery of the ghetto. Collecting this testimony, Iceberg Slim gives us a biography of tragic realism."

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2013, English, Iceberg Slim, Otis Tilson,

Iceberg Slim - Mama Black Widow

"Mama Black Widow" is the French language edition of "Mama Black Widow" by Iceberg Slim, published in 2013. The book was translated into French by Gérard Henri.

"Mama Black Widow tells the tragic story of Otis Tilson, a stunning black drag queen trapped in a cruel queer ghetto underworld. In hopes of escaping the racial bigotry and economic injustice of the South, Otis’ family journeys north from their plantation to an urban promised land. Once in Chicago Otis and his brother and sisters become prisoners to a wasteland of violence, crime, prostitution and rape. This is the gut-wrenching tale of the destruction of a family and the truest portrayal of homosexuality in the ghetto ever told." 

Read more »

2020, Drag queen, French, Iceberg Slim, Otis Tilson,