[ By: Shawna Shipley-Gates ] In Part II DeAsia Paige and Shawna Shipley-Gates hold a conversation on the impact Black feminism has had on each of their lives and its continued use their everyday experiences. Paige also discusses her current work and plans for the future. *This conversation has been edited for length and clarity* Shipley-Gates: I’m glad you brought up feminism because I found […]
[By Victoria Garcia Unzueta] The Project on the History of Black Writing has been focusing on Zora Neale Hurston’s literary work for many years. With our upcoming NEH Virtual Summer Institute “Hurston on the Horizon; Past, Present and Future”, we wanted to share a collection of past HBW blogs focusing on Hurston and her impact in the realm of Black literature. The blogs range from […]
[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 […]
[By: Maryemma Graham] Margaret Walker (1915-1998) would have turned 104 this past July 7, 2019. The poet, novelist, educator and cultural critic was part of a distinct tradition of writing that is too easily forgotten. A tradition of truth-telling that makes us see and understand ourselves and our relationship to others differently. Walker’s history may not be as well known to some, but she was […]
Who’s Afraid of George Walker? George “Nash” Walker (1872-1911) was born in the aftermath of The Civil War in Lawrence, Kansas, the launching point of John Brown’s Raid on Harper’s Ferry, Virginia in the fall of 1859 and site of Quantril’s Raid in the summer of 1863. The post-Civil War demographics and abolitionist politics of the region empowered Walker in historically unprecedented ways and compelled […]
The works of female artists are being featured in a resurgence of “women’s only” or “group show” exhibitions across the country. Though the practice fell out of favor after the 1970’s and 1980’s, some curators are calling this reviving trend a “curatorial corrective,” while female artists bristle at the thought of a “one and done” mentality that will not shift the overall landscape of the […]
On June 14, 1916, Mrs. Charles W. French of Newton, Kansas, rose from her seat during the 16th Annual Session of the Kansas State Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs in Parsons, Kansas, to denounce the Jim Crow laws in the host city. Mrs. French stated that “[the women], regardless of color be admitted to theatres, and that some step be taken to investigate the reason […]