Introduction / Shirley A. Stave -- Hope from the ashes : Naylor, Faulkner, and the signifyin(g) tradition / Mark Simpson-Vos -- Divergent Paths to the South : echoes of Cane in Mama Day / Anissa J. Wardi -- Serving the second sun : the men in Gloria Naylor's Mama Day / R. Mark Hall -- Re-writing sacred texts : Gloria Naylor's revisionary theology / Shirley A. Stave -- Maternal Aesthetic of Mama Day / Julie Tharp -- Talking in metaphors : language, knowledge, and "Signifyin(g)" in Gloria Naylor's Mama Day / Carol Howard -- This mumbo-jumbo : magic and vocabularies in Gloria Naylor's Mama Day / Johnny Lorenz -- Return to sender : correspondence(s) in Gloria Naylor's Mama Day / Kerry Regan -- Toward a literacy of empathy : inhabiting Gloria Naylor's Bailey's Cafe / Carol Bender and Roseanne Hoefel.