Lost and Found in LA: Recovering the Life and Writing of Dora L. Mitchell

Tuttle will share her discoveries about Mitchell (1891-1970), a prolific code-switcher whose life and writing are nearly invisible in the historical record. As a Black woman one generation removed from slavery who sometimes self-concealed through racial passing, Mitchell was someone whose story was easily marginalized, ignored, and obscured and whose work was easily lost, but she reveals much about Black women's options for navigating California's literary landscape in the early 20th century.