Writing Black Women’s Mythology: A Conversation with Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton

Abstract

In commemoration of the proclamation of the end of slavery in the United States on June 19, 1865, writer, activist, and performer Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton read from and discussed her memoir Black Chameleon at the 2023 Juneteenth Dialogue hosted by the Chair of American Studies at the University of Münster. The Juneteenth Dialogues are designed to enter into a discussion about systemic racism in the United States and to explore literary responses to the vulnerabilities of Black lives and strategies of (literary) resistance. With Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton, the focus of conversation was on the importance of mythology for Black women in the United States, the potentials of autobiographical writing, and the importance of literature today. Mythology, in Mouton’s work, builds on what Audre Lorde called “biomythography” to combine personal experience, popular culture, history, and received narratives that are part of ancient storytelling traditions. In Mouton’s hands, this becomes a technique for getting closer to some of the complex truths of a past grounded in enslavement. Mouton’s reading from Black Chameleon and the panel discussion that followed are the basis of this interview. It has been edited for clarity. We want to thank the audience of the 2023 Juneteenth Dialogues as well as Dr. Ortwin Lämke and Frederik Köpke from the Studiobühne for providing the space for this event.