Black Girl, Call Home: Full-Collection Quiz
How to Take This Quiz
This quiz covers all 120 chapters of Jasmine Mans’ Black Girl, Call Home. Questions mix multiple‑choice and short‑answer formats. Write your answers before checking the key at the bottom.
Part 1: Plot and Sequence (8 questions)
1. In Chapter 10, what word does the speaker’s mother use at the kitchen table that fractures the sense of safety?
- A. bitch
- B. dyke
- C. queer
- D. lesbian
2. In Chapter 21, what toy does the speaker play with for the first time at age twenty‑eight?
Short answer:
3. In Chapter 31, who recites the list of forensic instructions to the sexual assault survivor?
- A. a police officer
- B. a forensic examiner
- C. a therapist
- D. the survivor’s mother
4. In Chapter 11, what word does the speaker call her mother for the first time during an argument?
Short answer:
5. In Chapter 30, what troubling statement does one of the boys on Broad Street make?
Short answer:
6. In Chapter 25, the poem “Black Son” is a maternal elegy for which man killed by police?
- A. Michael Brown
- B. Sean Bell
- C. Trayvon Martin
- D. Eric Garner
7. In Chapter 91, “Sandra Bland: A Different Story,” what mundane errand causes her to miss the officer who would have arrested her?
- A. buying groceries
- B. searching for a cigarette
- C. walking her dog
- D. getting coffee
8. In Chapter 86, “Monologue: Mother Yells at (Insert Name of Black Girl Here),” where does the scene take place?
Short answer:
Part 2: Character Motivation (5 questions)
9. In Chapter 8, “Period,” the speaker declares resentment toward her mother. What is the source of that resentment?
- A. the mother’s strictness
- B. the sacrifices the mother made on the speaker’s behalf
- C. the mother’s silence
- D. the mother’s religious beliefs
10. In Chapter 9, why did the speaker’s mother prepare her to be a man’s wife?
Short answer:
11. In Chapter 1, what hairstyle does the speaker reject in favor of natural hair?
- A. braids
- B. shorn or straightened hair
- C. afro
- D. wig
12. In Chapter 24, the speaker critiques Jay‑Z’s statement that “we’ve moved past kneeling.” What is her motivation for doing so?
Short answer:
13. In Chapter 100, “Missing Girls,” what prevents the young woman from staying with the speaker?
- A. her parents
- B. her God forbids their relationship
- C. her fear of coming out
- D. her career ambitions
Part 3: Theme and Symbol (4 questions)
14. In Chapter 4, “Macaroni and Cheese,” what do the personified virtues of Grace and Mercy share?
- A. they are sisters raised by the same single mother
- B. they are cousins
- C. they are friends
- D. they are strangers
15. In Chapter 68, “HeLa,” what does the single word refer to?
Short answer:
16. In Chapter 39, “Your God,” what does the speaker reclaim for herself?
- A. church attendance
- B. spiritual autonomy – the right to define the sacred on her own terms
- C. biblical literalism
- D. priestly authority
17. In Chapter 111, “Pac‑Man,” the one‑word poem can be interpreted as a metaphor for what? (Accept any reasonable interpretation supported by the text.)
Short answer:
Part 4: Synthesis (3 questions)
18. How does the speaker’s relationship with her mother evolve across the collection? Give at least two specific examples from the outline.
Short answer:
19. The collection’s title appears in the acknowledgments as “(dial home).” How does this phrase capture the book’s central concern with belonging and self‑acceptance?
Short answer:
20. In several poems, Mans uses public figures (Whitney Houston, Sandra Bland, Serena Williams, Michelle Obama) to explore personal identity. Choose one and explain how the figure helps the speaker understand her own Black womanhood.
Short answer:
Answer Key
Plot and Sequence
1. B. dyke
The outline for Chapter 10 states that the speaker’s mother uses the word “dyke” at the kitchen table, fracturing the safety of home.
2. Nerf gun
Chapter 21 describes the speaker playing with a Nerf gun for the first time at age twenty‑eight during Christmas in Tulsa.
3. B. a forensic examiner
Chapter 31 is a poem in which a forensic examiner recites a series of instructions to a sexual assault survivor, asking permission at each step.
4. bitch
In Chapter 11, the speaker calls her mother a “bitch” for the first time during an argument, which ruptures their exchange.
5. One boy declares he would rather be a rapist than be raped.
Chapter 30 reports that a Black boy in the cypher circle says that exact statement, shocking the poet.
6. B. Sean Bell
Chapter 25 is a maternal elegy for Sean Bell, shot by NYPD in 2006. The poem is dedicated after Alysia Harris.
7. B. searching for a cigarette
In Chapter 91, the alternate‑reality poem imagines Sandra Bland searching for a cigarette and driving to a gas station, missing the officer by one block and four minutes.
8. The kitchen
Chapter 86 is set in the kitchen; the stage directions say “Mother rants at child in the kitchen” and the daughter sits at a wooden table while the mother cooks.
Character Motivation
9. B. the sacrifices the mother made on the speaker’s behalf
Chapter 8 is a two‑line poem in which the speaker declares resentment toward her mother for the sacrifices made on the speaker’s behalf.
10. Because her mother didn’t yet know the speaker was a lesbian.
Chapter 9 reveals that before the mother knew her daughter’s sexuality, she prepared her to be a man’s wife.
11. B. shorn or straightened hair
Chapter 1 is titled “I Ain’t Gon’ Be Bald‑Headed No More” and describes the speaker’s rejection of a shorn or straightened hairstyle in favor of natural hair.
12. She believes true justice has not been achieved and that the statement comforts the privileged rather than protecting the oppressed.
Chapter 24 critiques Jay‑Z’s 2018 comment, arguing that kneeling as protest remains necessary and that calls to “move past” it serve the comfortable.
13. B. her God forbids their relationship
In Chapter 100, the young woman says her God forbids the relationship; the speaker questions why God let her fall in love if it is forbidden.
Theme and Symbol
14. A. they are sisters raised by the same single mother
Chapter 4, “Macaroni and Cheese,” personifies Grace and Mercy as siblings raised by a single mother, evoking comfort and resilience.
15. The immortal cell line taken from Henrietta Lacks, symbolizing medical exploitation of Black women’s bodies.
The one‑word poem “HeLa” forces attention on that history, as noted in the chapter outline.
16. B. spiritual autonomy – the right to define the sacred on her own terms
Chapter 39 rejects inherited religious structures in favor of a self‑authored spirituality, reclaiming the speaker’s agency as a Black queer woman.
17. Possible answers: survival, cyclical struggle, consumption, the relentless nature of certain experiences.
The poem consists only of “Pac‑Man,” inviting interpretation of the arcade game as a metaphor for navigating a maze while avoiding threats.
Synthesis
18. Sample answer: The speaker begins with resentment (Chapter 8, “Period”) and conflict (Chapter 11, calling her a bitch), but later moves toward understanding and reconciliation. In Chapter 77, “She’s Waiting for Me,” she recognizes a maternal figure waiting for her return, and Chapter 78, “Where Home Is,” reframes home as an internal feeling shaped by memory, including the mother’s love. The acknowledgments (Chapter 119) thank her mother, showing closure.
19. Sample answer: “Dial home” appears with a phone number, turning the title into an instruction. Throughout the book, “home” is both a physical space (Newark, Nana’s house) and an emotional state of self‑acceptance. The phrase urges the Black girl to reach out, to claim her identity, and to return to herself—the core journey of the collection.
20. Sample answer (Sandra Bland): In Chapters 88 and 91, Mans humanizes Sandra Bland by describing her physical features and imagining an alternate reality where she survives. By doing so, the speaker connects Bland’s story to her own experience of being a Black woman whose body is scrutinized and endangered. The poems transform a news headline into a personal meditation on grief, visibility, and the will to survive.