The Audacious Ministry of Zilpha Elaw

“Audiences will be thrilled by the story of Zilpha Elaw’s travels and celebrity, which has been awaiting a stellar storyteller like Kimberly Blockett. Blockett’s archival work uncovers new information about decades of Elaw's life. This groundbreaking research allows Blockett—and those who will build on her work—to raise new questions about the ways in which Black women practiced religion beyond the scope of conventional circuits of religious exchange and authority.” - P. Gabrielle Foreman, Founding Director, The Colored Conventions Project, and Paterno Family Professor of Liberal Arts, Penn State

“Kimberly Blockett’s meticulous research into Zilpha Elaw not only provides much-needed information about a literary figure about whom most scholars and students know very little, but also suggests a model for delving into the lives of little-known authors. Blockett offers a fabulous and unexpected story, complex and multi-faceted, of a black woman who embraced itinerancy and defied expectation of her place and role.” - Elizabeth McHenry, author of To Make Negro Literature