– HBW collected tributes from a number of important writers and scholars to bid farewell to Chancellor Bob Hemenway, who – among many other accomplishments – wrote a foundational literary biography of Zora Neale Hurston. – ForHarriet shared 7 Black Women Science Fiction Writers Everyone Should Know. (One of the authors, Nalo Hopkinson, has a new short story collection out right now.) – Roxane Gay […]
The HBW Blog didn’t post ICYMI for 3 weeks while staff members were preparing for and working on the NEH Summer Institute Black Poetry After the Black Arts Movement. Since it has now concluded, we return to the regular blog schedule! – HBW celebrated the lives of Norman Jordan and Paul Vesey (Samuel Allen), two great writers and thinkers. – Jerry Ward discussed the effect […]
– HBW was saddened by the passing of author, journalist, educator and GEMS subject John A. Williams, whose invaluable contributions to African American letters cannot be overlooked. – Houston A. Baker reminisced about his relationship with Williams, who was “NOT…an easy person to get along with” but who served as “an exemplar of what can be achieved in the creative writing life.” – Maryemma Graham […]
– HBW remembered Dr. Jim Miller, a foundational scholar of twentieth-century African American cultural politics. doris davenport contributed a beautiful poem memorializing her friend. – New U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch took her oath of office using Frederick Douglass’s Bible. – The National Endowment for the Arts asked several artists and creators, including playwright Katori Hall and Sherri Young of the African American Shakespeare Company, […]
In the wake of the Charleston Massacre, the HBW Blog offers this compendium of suggested reading, in no particular order. – The Holy City: Charleston, a Remembrance, by Délana R.A. Dameron – BK Nation Statement on the Charleston, South Carolina Church Massacre, by Kevin Powell – No Sanctuary in Charleston, by Patricia Williams Lessane – Letter to My Mother After Charleston, by Carvell Wallace – […]
– Sesi Magazine recommends 21 Books Every Black Girl Should Read (plus one extra). – First Lady Michelle Obama continues to be an excellent graduation speaker, speaking frankly about the pressure to challenge racial stereotypes. – The American Black Film Festival is thriving in its nineteenth year. – Kendrick Lamar visited a ninth-grade English classroom that was using his album To Pimp a Butterfly as […]
– Black Words Matter: Poems by Baltimore Students took place 2 weeks after the death of Freddie Gray, allowing students space to write about police violence and racism. (The work of four students is shared at the link.) – Morgan Jerkins wrote about re-reading Claudia Rankin’s Citizen: An American Lyric in the wake of #BaltimoreRising. – Roxane Gay took on New York Times critic Janet […]