Black arts scholars at Penn State

The conference on poetry at Penn State included several scholars doing work related to the Black Arts Movement. In fact, for a conference not necessarily focused on the 1960s/1970s, the gathering of black arts-affiliated scholars was especially large and inter-generational.

For one, you had scholars in attendance who began producing works several years ago in the field such as Keith Gilyard, Aldon Nielsen, and Tony Bolden. You had people who began producing books in recent years on black arts topics, including Evie Shockley, Meta Duewa Jones, and Margo Crawford. 

Keith  Leonard organized a panel on black arts, and he was joined by Crawford and Gershun Avilez. Two rising black arts scholars, Michael New and Sarah Rude Walker presented work in the field, and I got a chance to talk with Carter Mathes and Anthony Reed, both of whom have done and are doing black arts related work.

Related:
• Celebrating African American Literature: U.S. and Afro-Caribbean Poetry Conference at Penn State 
• The Black Arts Era
• James Smethurst's exceptionally thorough Black Arts Work