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Category Archives: African American Lit
A Reading List is Not a Syllabus, Part III
See part I and part II. Another text I found to be impactful and which might enhance an anti-racist reading list is Ralph Ellison’s posthumously published short story “Boy on a Train.” It is a somewhat unique story in its … Continue reading
Posted in African American Lit, Reading
Tagged anti-racist, Boy on a Train, Jim Crow, literature, misogynoir, racism, Ralph Ellison, reading list
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A Reading List is Not a Syllabus, part II
For the first book post in this series about the anti-racist reading list, I’d like to discuss Harriet Jacobs’ 1861 book Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, which you can find and read for free on the Internet. … Continue reading
White People: We Don’t Need to be Everywhere
This is a post directed at fellow white people – I want to talk a little bit about spaces created expressly for people of color (POC), and why we need to stuff any objections to these kinds of spaces. I … Continue reading
Posted in African American Lit, Politics
Tagged Harriet Jacobs, POC, Strange Fruit Podcast, Veggie Mijas
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Booker T. Washington Checks Out of a Hotel…
1903 was a particularly difficult year for African Americans, as described in Douglas Blackmon’s book, Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II. In that year alone, at least 85 African Americans were … Continue reading
Posted in African American Lit, History, Teaching
Tagged Black, Booker T. Washington, classroom, Douglas Blackmon, Indianapolis, peonage, race, racism, teaching
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2017 Reading List
Happy New Year! We are officially in 2018. I find New Year’s Eve/Day to be a bit of a downer holiday. Celebrating the onward march of time can be a little depressing, but mainly as an academic, January is hardly … Continue reading
Posted in Academia, African American Lit, Profession, scholarship, Teaching
Tagged 2017, books, reading
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Alt, Schmalt
You may have heard about the new show concept announced from the creative team behind the HBO hit Game of Thrones. The new show, to be produced for HBO, is called Confederate and is set in a “grisly dystopian future” in which the … Continue reading
Posted in African American Lit, Pop Culture
Tagged African American, alt-history, Civil War, Colson Whitehead, Confederate, Television
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Checking Out THE STREET
I’ve been teaching Richard Wright’s Native Son for years in my American Literature since 1914 course. (See related posts under the tag for “Native Son”) But because the book has so many problematic components–rape, murder, violence against women, a really lagging … Continue reading
Posted in Academia, African American Lit, Feminism, Teaching
Tagged Ann Petry, literature, Native Son, Naturalism, Richard Wright, syllabus, The Street
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Fences…Meh?
This is going to sound awfully petty, or snobbish, but I finally got around to watching Fences, the filmed adaptation of the August Wilson play from 2016. Directed by and starring Denzel Washington, it essentially adapts the 2010 Broadway revival in … Continue reading
Posted in African American Lit, Pop Culture, Theatre
Tagged August Wilson, Denzel Washington, Fences, Film, Mykelti Williamson, theatre, Viola Davis
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A New Native Son, Part 2
Read Part 1 here As promised, I wanted to address a few more things regarding the proposed upcoming adaptation of Richard Wright’s Native Son. First, the way the novel links to our current political situation, and second, what Suzan-Lori Parks, the … Continue reading
Posted in Academia, African American Lit, Pop Culture
Tagged Black, Native Son, Suzan-Lori Parks
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A New Native Son, Part I
Content Note – discussion of fictional rape and murder follows. THIS IS NOT A DRILL, Y’ALL: Variety is reporting that Richard Wright’s novel Native Son will be adapted for film by Rashid Johnson and Suzan-Lori Parks. And I’m not sure I can effectively … Continue reading
Posted in Academia, African American Lit, Teaching
Tagged Black, Film, Native Son, Richard Wright, Suzan-Lori Parks, teaching
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