Dreams and their meaning in African American life A belief in the power of dreams runs through African American life like a mystical thread, predicting the future, offering a glimpse of lost loved ones, informing decisions, and inspiring literature. Anthony Shafton distills a long time fascination with dreams into a seminal study of their place in black culture. More than 100 African Americans, both famous - such as literary lions John Edgar Wideman and Gloria Naylor - and ordinary men, women, and children, share their personal dream life and discuss its significance. Illuminating a wonderful variety of dreams, this book offers every reader insight into a centuries--old spiritual tradition. Anthony Shafton (Chicago, IL), a writer and independent scholar, has been researching and writing on the subject of dreams since the early 1980s. Shafton has an undergraduate degree in philosophy from Harvard and a master's in creative writing from Stanford. He is the author of several books, and occasionally writes for magazines. Shafton began researching African American dreams in 1990 and published on the subject in Dream Time, the magazine of the Association for the Study of Dreams.