[By: DeAsia Paige] On Tuesday, February 18, Harper Perennial released a new edition of Richard Wright’s classic memoir Black Boy to commemorate the 75th anniversary of that work’s publication. The coming-of-age story, originally published in 1945, chronicles Wright’s upbringing in the Jim Crow South, his eventual move to Chicago and evolution as a major writer through his involvement with the Communist Party. Black Boy explores […]
Following the Civil Rights Movement era of the 1960’s, the 1970’s ushered in a new decade of change for Black people in the United States. However, the beginning of the decade witnessed Black female authors exploring ideas like race and gender that were heavily contested in the 1960’s. In fact, some celebrated Black female writers launched their legendary literary careers in 1970. Thus, here’s a […]
The Project on the History of Black Writing mourns the passing of Kamau Brathwaite. The Barbadian poet and academic was 89 when he died in his home on Tuesday, February 4. Brathwaite’s writing mainly celebrated Caribbean voices and greatly contributed to the Caribbean’s literary landscape. Born in Bridgetown, Bahamas in 1930, Brathwaite’s poems examined African roots in the Caribbean, affirming the Afro-Caribbean identity and amplifying […]
[By: Christopher Peace] The Association of African American Museums Conference, “Roots of Revolution: Reaching Back | Pushing Forward,” took place from August 6 – 10, 2019 at the Westin Hotel in Jackson, Mississippi. Attending this conference near my hometown in Mississippi gave me the opportunity to visit family and witness one of the most well-organized and insightful Black-centered events I’ve ever seen, complete with […]
[By C. Liegh McInnis] The film A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, which chronicles the life of television icon Fred Rogers (aka Mister Rogers), reminded me that the “what” or the “subject” of art is equally as important as the “how” or the “crafting” of it. However, what gives Queen and Slim its power and beauty is the manner in which Lena Waithe and Melina […]
[By: Jade Harrison] On October 24th, 2019, Oscar award-winning director, screenwriter, and KU Film and Media Studies Professor, Kevin Willmott, delivered the 2019 Bill Tuttle Distinguished Lecture in American Studies. Established in 2008, the Tuttle Lecture honors the teaching legacy of Professor Emeritus Bill Tuttle, who taught in KU’s American Studies department, and focuses on his main research interests which include African-American history and culture […]
The Project on the History of Black Writing mourns the passing of Ernest J. Gaines. Gaines died from cardiac arrest in his Louisiana home on Tuesday. He was 86. Gaines was born the eldest son of sharecroppers and raised on a plantation in Pointe Coupée Parish, Louisiana. The rural South would become a permanent fixture in his writing because it was not only home […]