New Hurston Studies and Beyond

[ By: Christopher Peace and Jade Harrison ] The following is the third installment of a three-part series recapping the events of the Project on the History of Black Writing’s 2021 NEH Summer Institute, Hurston on the Horizon: Past, Present, and Future. Dr. Kevin Quashie, author of Black Aliveness, or A Poetics of Being (2021), spoke about Zora Neale Hurston’s ever-evolving work as a literary […]

The “Other Hurston”- Broadening Communal and Digital Spaces

[ By: Christopher Peace and Jade Harrison ] Part two of our three-part series recapping the events of The Project on the History of Black Writing’s NEH Summer Institute “Hurston on the Horizon: Past, Present, and Future”. Week 2 of HBW’s NEH Summer Institute Hurston on the Horizon: Past, Present, and Future focused on different approaches to Hurston’s career by attending to her neglected texts, […]

ZORA! Festival Recap

[ By: Christopher Peace ] The Project on the History of Black Writing staff member, Christopher Peace, recently attended the 2021 ZORA! Festival of the Arts and Humanities as a third time graduate intern. Due to COVID-19, the festival was different from past years, taking on a hybrid zoom and socially distanced format. Peace recaps his experience with the festival this year, noting the differences […]

NABJ/NAHJ Virtual Convention

[By: Victoria Garcia Unzueta] Earlier this August, HBW gave me the opportunity to attend the National Association of Black Journalists/National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NABJ/NAHJ) Joint Convention in Washington, DC. However, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, my plans were shifted around and I ended up becoming part of history by attending the first-ever virtual NABJ/NAHJ Joint Convention. Partnered for the first time, NAHJ and NABJ […]

The Association of African-American Museums Conference, Roots of Revolution: Reaching Back | Pushing Forward

[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 […]

Furious Flower 25th Celebration: Day Two

Below is a response to Furious Flower’s  25th Anniversary Celebration from former and current HBW staff members and affiliates:   Portia Owusu, Ph.D., Visiting Assistant Professor / ACES Fellow of English in the Department of English at Texas A&M University:   The second day of the celebration demonstrated the community aspect of the Furious Flower Center since activities involved both invited guests and the general public. The […]

Furious Flower 25th Anniversary Celebration: Day One

Furious Flower Poetry Center has been at the forefront of Black poetry for 25 years. As the nation’s first academic center for Black poetry, Furious Flower was founded on the campus of James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia, and born out of a 1994 poetry festival titled “Furious Flower: A Revolution in African American Poetry,” organized by scholar Joanne Gabbin. The festival brought thirty presenters […]