Background
Beverly was born to Walter and Ernestine Varnado-Guy in Memphis.
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Beverly Guy-Sheftall
Edit ProfileEducation
She graduated high school at the age of 16 and attended Spelman College, where she graduated in 1966. From Atlanta University in English and a Doctor of Philosophy from Emory University in 1984 from the Institute of Liberal Arts.
Career
She is the founding director of the Spelman College Women"s Research and Resource Center, the first at a Historically Black College or University. She received an Master of Arts She founded the Spelman Women"s Research and Resources Center in 1981, the first of its kind at a Historically Black College or University. The Center also hosts the first Women"s Studies program at a Historically Black College or University.
In 1983, she became one of the founding co-editors of Sage: A Scholarly Journal on Black Women.
Guy-Sheftall"s publications include the 1995 anthology Words of Fire, about which one reviewer has written: "Fire can be used to burn down, burn away or burn through. Metaphorically, Words of Fire does all three.
The works it includes are conventional and controversial, reaffirming and disarming. Their overall effect is overwhelming.
With uncommon command and unparalleled thoroughness, the image of African-American women as progenitors, participants and propellants in the feminist movement emerges from Words of Fire — "a stronger soul within a finer frame."".
In 2004, students in her Feminist Theory class touched off a national conversation regarding the lyrics and depictions of women in music videos when they decided to engage rapper Nelly about his latest video "Tip Drill." In 2013, she was a featured feminist in the 2013 Public Broadcasting Service documentary Makers: Women Who Make America, which highlighted feminist history.
Politics
She contributed the piece "African American Women: The Legacy of Black Feminism" to the 2003 anthology Sisterhood Is Forever: The Women"s Anthology for a New Millennium, edited by Robin Morgan.
