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Jerome Cummings
Berry, Venise T. (1955– )
Venise Berry has devoted much of her professional
life to attempting to demonstrate how the media
portrays African Americans. “Stereotypical ideals
and attitudes have been formed and solidified over
decades into accepted ideologies and norms about
African Americans,” writes Berry in her ground-
breaking book Mediated Messages and African-
American Culture: Contemporary Issues (1996).
While growing up in Des Moines, Iowa, where
she was born in 1955, Berry became fascinated
with the media. She attended the University of
Iowa, where she received a bachelor’s degree in
journalism and mass communication (1977) and a
master’s degree in communication studies (1979).
Although she began her professional media career
in radio news in Houston, Texas, Berry left the
airwaves and entered the academic world, teach-
ing at Huston-Tillotson College while pursuing a
doctorate at the University of Texas, Austin. She
wrote the first drafts of her debut novel, So Good
(1996), in a scriptwriting class. After receiving her
doctorate in radio, television, and film in 1989,
Berry adapted the screenplay for publication as a
novel but found no interested publishers.
In the meantime, Berry returned to the Univer-
sity of Iowa School of Journalism and Mass Com-
munication in 1990, where she became the first
African American to receive tenure in 1997. Her
research in the areas of media, youth, and popular
culture and African-American cultural criticism
reflects an intersection of her experiences as both
a practitioner and an observer of mediated mes-
sages: “Although I don’t believe that the media
have an all-encompassing power or control over
their audience, I do recognize that they serve as a
primary source of communication in this coun-
try, and, therefore, their images and ideals can af-
fect specific people, at specific times, in specific
ways, depending on the context of the situation”
(Berry, viii).
Berry’s commercial publishing endeavors co-
incided with the publishing industry’s increasing
interest in African-American contemporary fic-
tion, enhanced by the success of TERRY MCMIL-
LAN’s novel Waiting to Exhale. Securing an agent
and a publisher, Dutton, Berry published So Good
(1996), which focuses on the relationships of sin-
gle and married 30-something African-American
women with careers and male-female relationship
problems. Reflected in the story are Berry’s trade-
marks of media criticism, intellectual discussions
of current issues, and intelligent protagonists.
Lisa, the heroine, pursues both a doctorate and
a good man. Her sister, Danielle, and her long-
time friend Sundiata round out the cast of cen-
tral characters. Although Danielle is married to a
loving husband, she is not sexually satisfied and
has an affair. Through Sundiata’s husband, a Ni-
gerian, Berry is able to explore cultural conflicts.
Critics describe Berry’s writing style as nonlit-
erary and journalistic, but they have lauded her
storytelling abilities and wit. So Good was a Black-
board best seller and an alternate selection of the
Literary Guild.
In her second novel, All of Me: A Voluptuous
Tale (2000), Berry focuses on the experiences of
her heroine, Serpentine Williamson, an over-
weight, ambitious news reporter who is tormented
by the stereotypes and labels thrust upon her by
society. Serpentine’s self-esteem finally collapses
under the pressure. Berry thoughtfully explores
the unconditional self-love Serpentine must em-
brace while recovering. All of Me garnered a 2001
Honor Book Award from the Black Caucus of the
American Library Association and the 2001 Iowa
Author Award from the Public Library Founda-
tion in Des Moines.
In Colored Sugar Water (2002), Berry takes
a sharp departure from her previous novels, yet
some familiar strains continue. Protagonists Lucy
Merriweather and Adel Kelly are best friends, 30-
something professional black women with male-
female relationship problems. However, Berry
uses them and the men in their lives to adeptly44 Berry, Venise T.