Open House

A warm and seductive meditation on the personal and political from a renowned columnist and “one of the great theorists of race and law” (Henry Louis Gates, Jr.).

With her trademark wit and insight, Patricia Williams relates stories from the many facets of her life—as a lawyer, scholar, writer, African-American, descendant of slaves, mother, and single, fifty-something woman—always aware of the ironies inherent in situations where her many identities don’t conform to societal expectations. The Open House of Williams’s imagination takes us on a funny, often provocative, and entertaining journey which includes Oprah, Williams’s Aunt Mary who passed as white, her Best White Friend, and tips on how to eat a watermelon without fear of racial judgment.

Author Biography

Patricia J. Williams, a recipient of the MacArthur “genius” award, is a columnist (“Diary of a Mad Lawyer,” The Nation), and a professor of law at Columbia University. Her previous books are Seeing a Color-Blind Future, The Alchemy of Race and Rights, and The Rooster’s Egg. She contributes regularly to Ms. and The Village Voice.