1. Why are the women who are Walker's subject the way they are? 2. Walker asks, "How was the creativity of Black women kept alive, year after year and century after century, when for most of the years Black people have been in America it was a punishable crime for a Black per-son to read or write?" . How does she answer her question? And, in answering this question, how does she draw a line of cause and effect that begins and ends with two things normally not thought of as directly connected in this way?