1999-2000: Discovering The Intuitionist, The Boondocks & Afrofuturism

I somehow discovered Colson Whitehead's The Intuitionist, Aaron McGruder's comic strip The Boondocks, and this framework related to race and technology developed by Alondra Nelson around the same time when I was beginning my graduate studies at Pennsylvania State University.

Nelson had been organizing formal discussions about afrofuturism by 1998 and a public forum in 1999. Whitehead's novel was published in early 1999, and McGruder's comic strip was syndicated in April 1999.

Why We Do (and need) Black Studies @ SIUE

[By Danielle Hall]

I was recently asked by one of my colleagues (who would be identified as a white male), “why is there a need for a separate black studies department?” I am certain that some would have a similar argument, especially since there is no separate “white studies” department (although I must note that in recent years “White or Whiteness Studies” have flourished in academia).

Because of the profundity of my answer that such a question would warrant, I did not have an immediate response, but somehow I felt that if he had those questions, certainly there are others at SIUE who question the purpose of our Black Studies program. So the question about “why the need for black studies?” provided me, instead, with the opportunity to articulate why our program at SIUE is necessary and to enlighten those who are unfamiliar with the history of the organization of Black Studies programs nationwide as departments, as academic disciplines (majors/minors), and as areas of specialization and why they are indispensable.

Black Nerds & African American Literature

This semester, I'm teaching an African American literature course entitled "Black Nerds Unite," which focuses on representations of "black nerd" figures in literature and in a field other fields.

Although discussions of bookish and sometimes socially awkward African American figures have been popular for some time now, the basis for my course was, in part, a short essay by scholar Trudier Harris entitled "Black Nerds" from her book Summer Snow: Reflections from a Black Daughter of the South (2003). 

Black Cultural Calendars: Jay-Z's BPP Reference

Earlier this week, Dometi Pongo was telling me to check out "Murder to Excellence" from Jay-Z's and Kanye West's album Watch the Throne. Dometi is going to write a few pieces about the album and that song here later.

I had listened to "Murder to Excellence" in passing before when the album was released but listened again closer after Dometi mentioned it. On this listen, I noticed one line in particular when Jay-Z goes: "I arrived on the day Fred Hampton died."

Collegiate Black Men Exchanging Ideas

Earlier this week, I was rapping with one of our contributors, Vince, mostly catching up since I hadn't seen him since we traveled to New York with the rest of the crew back in May.

We then bumped into Sean -- a now third-year student who I could swear just showed up to campus yesterday. These positive, progressive young guys are here with me one minute then graduating the next. #timeflies

Sean and Vince start going back and forth on this and that, and then Vince informs Sean that he really needs to check Race Matters by Cornel West. Vince notes that he picked up a copy when we were in New York, and he goes on to make the case for why it's important to read.

A Fire Like Hers: Sonia Sanchez’s morning haiku

[By Cindy Lyles]

Many people may be used to the fiery, uncensored, mind-speaking representation of Sonia Sanchez that made her a well-known, instrumental poet during the Black Arts Movement in the 1960s. That Sonia approached topics of love, race, gender, sexuality, faith, and life with a unique edge that classified her as strong-willed. However, her most recent collection of poetry, morning haiku, illuminates a silent yet watchful, gentle kind of strength worth exploring.

In morning haiku, Sanchez takes time to praise or share in the pain of the honorees of each haiku, including Emmitt Till, Eugene B. Redmond, Sarah Vaughn, and Oprah Winfrey. Each haiku demonstrates solidarity and support between the poet and her honorees that moves readers to also respect and revere those to whom she dedicates her haiku.

ESPN's Presentation of a Virtual White Michael Vick

An upcoming ESPN magazine will focus on quarterback Michael Vick. What's getting quite a bit of chatter right now is the image that accompanies one of the issue's articles entitled "What if Michael Vick Were White?" by the writer Touré.

Photo illustration by D'arcy Hyde for ESPN The Magazine

The image is digitally altered to show what Vick would like white. Touré, for his part, was "dismayed" that ESPN created and used that image with his article. Touré's article raises some useful, interesting points. In fact, he states why a simplified imagining of a black person as white is "so facile, naive, shortsighted and flawed that it is meaningless."

At the moment though, the content of the article is overshadowed by the digitally altered image of Vick. That image is a troubling approach in many respects, but fits into a long history of re-presenting black folks.

Years ago, Newsweek ran a darkened image of O.J. to suggest or perhaps promote the idea of his supposed murderous activity. ESPN got in the game this time by running a whitened image of Michael Vick.

Jazz, Cultural Capital, and Black Poetry

This week, I was talking to the young brothers and sisters in the program that I work with at the university about "cultural capital," this idea that "forms of knowledge, skills, education, and advantages that a person has" give them "higher status in society." Those different forms are often passed along to children from parents or home environments.

We were talking about cultural capital in relation to various classroom and university contexts, and somehow we ended up talking about the ways that groups of well-to-do and white students had certain advantages, at least in the mainstream collegiate "field."

Later, I started thinking to myself about African American poetry and how certain forms of knowledge and education benefit poets. How has an understanding of black music, especially jazz and blues, helped some poets become even more prominent or gain higher status over the years?

The ongoing pre-publication buzz for Zone One

Last week, Colson Whitehead posted a link on his website to an excerpt from his upcoming novel Zone One. The excerpt appears on Scribd, a document-sharing website. The excerpt was posted on an account managed by Doubleday Publishing, Whitehead's publisher. 

The appearance of the excerpt is part of an ongoing series of promotional efforts for Whitehead's novel. "Promotional" might be the wrong word as it somehow misses what really goes on when it comes to spreading the word about literary fiction.  

Whitehead announced the title of his novel and date of publication (October 18) back in February. In March, a twitter account was established under the name @ZoneOneNovel. In April, Whitehead's comical piece about "the blessed distraction of technology" was published by Publishers Weekly's and generated quite a bit of interest on twitter.

Encountering Poems by Langston Hughes in Comic Strips

More than a year ago when I was studying a few different African American comic strips, I stumbled onto something unexpected. A couple of Stephen Bentley's strips for his comic Herb & Jamaal included poems by Langston Hughes.

First, on in his March 4, 2010 strip, I noticed that Bentley incorporated Langston Hughes's short poem "Acceptance."

Later, for his March 27, 2010 strip, Bentley incorporated one of my favorite poems by Langston Hughes, "Still Here."

The humor of Hughes's works seemed to lend themselves to the story arcs and personalities of Bentley's strip. Over the years, Bentley has incorporated quotations from a number of notable African American writers and cultural figures into the strips by people such as James Baldwin, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcolm X.

Evie Shockley's "improper(ty) behavior"

A couple of weeks ago, I got a chance to catch Evie Shockley on WPFW's radio program "On the Margin." She was being interviewed about poetry, her book the new black, and her thoughts about various cultural issues. She read a couple of her poems as well.

Listening to her read her poem "improper(ty) behavior" reminded me that I had not yet written about that piece, though I was drawn to it early on when I read the book. Evie's poem is a ghazal--a poetic form that consists of a refrain throughout the poem. Ghazals have several other distinct features, but by now, the form also has different versions, applied by poets.

Some Responses to Frederick Douglass

During the course of our Frederick Douglass activity, the participants offered a range of observations about the benefits of reading Douglass’s narrative. They also identified some of the challenges.

For example, several of the students mentioned that the vocabulary and style of writing in Douglass’s narrative made the material difficult at times. Justin pointed out that “It was hard trying to understand the lingo.” Sandra also mentioned “the large vocabulary.” Olivia wrote, “I struggled with some of the vocabulary, but it is nothing that I cannot look up in the dictionary.” Cool.

I admit, though, that some of Douglass’s writing style differs in many ways from what we read on a regular basis today. I imagine that's one additional reason that the reading was sometimes tough for folks.

The Frederick Douglass Summer Reading Program

The last 4 summers, Black Studies @ SIUE has worked with the university's Student Opportunities for Academic Results (S.O.A.R.) program to coordinate a common reading activity focused on Frederick Douglass's Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. Our common reading activity involves approximately 60 to 40 incoming first-year students each year.

Now that I think about it, I'm excited by the idea that Douglass's book is the first college book that more than 200 of our students have received over the last 4 years as they prepared to begin at SIUE.

During the course of the common reading activity, which begins in July, the students and I exchange letters and emails focusing on what we are experiencing as we read Douglass's narrative. I read Douglass during my first year as an undergraduate at Tougaloo College in Mississippi. I really enjoyed the book and returned to it often over the years.

The Poet (Tracie Morris) vs. the Rappers (of East St. Louis)

Tracie Morris performing poetry

When I first arrived in the area in 2003, I began volunteering at a high school in East St. Louis. I really should say volunteering and visiting. There was a wonderful English teacher at the school, and sometimes I simply sat in on her classes to listen and learn.

Each term, during my own presentations for the students, I would discuss African American poetry. I was also invited to discuss poetry at other schools in the city and in the region. Since the students were young and often more acquainted with the performance of black verse - as spoken word, as rap, as r & b, as gospel - than printed volumes of poetry or anthologies, I would often bring books and print-outs of poems as well as audio recordings.

Among every single audience of the many presentations I gave, there were always groups of young men who were aspiring rappers. Cool. These guys were quite confident in their skills and often brushed off the recordings of poets reading their works because those poets were only "aight."

I loved that response, because it was a good setup for the impending arrival of my lesson on poet Tracie Morris and her poem "Project Princess."

The Strength of Weak Ties in Nikky Finney's Sonnet Sequence

I was recently re-reading Nikky Finney's large sonnet sequence "Plunder," which focuses on George Bush, from her book Head Off & Split. The use of a common set of words in the opening of a sonnet drawn from the words at the close of a previous sonnet is part of what makes the interconnected sonnet sequence fascinating. In other words, the strength of weak ties gives a sonnet sequence its strength.

The "strength of weak ties" is actually a phrase most often associated with concepts developed by sociologist Mark Granovetter. The presence of many distant, loose, or apparent weak social connections make it possible for people to still benefit when they have an absence of strong ties to powerful people or institutions. I am borrowing (and likely misapplying) that concept to discuss the distant, loose, and seemingly weak ties that hold Finney's sonnet sequence together.

The Slow Hunch: Notations on Steven Johnson's Where Good Ideas Come From

I was chatting earlier today with @Amphitrit and @alondra on twitter about a piece "The Elusive Big Idea" by Neal Gabler. I suspect Gabler's article will make my "readings list" by the end of the week, so more on that later.

Conversing with @Amphitrit and @alondra, though, had me thinking back on this book Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation by Steven Johnson (2010), which I read last year when it came out. I wasn't blogging as much back then; otherwise, I'm sure I would've written about it.

Black Poetry published by Graywolf Press

We have a large number of number of volumes of poetry in our black studies poetry collection published by Graywolf Press. (The same can be said of books in our collection published by W. W. Norton, Knopf, and Third World Press).

Our collection has 104 volumes of poetry published between 2000 and 2011, and the following 10 were published by Graywolf Press:

When Black Poetry Isn't Written & Published, Does It Count?

Earlier this week, I came across an article "When Knowledge Isn’t Written, Does It Still Count?" about Wikipedia, "the world’s most used, and perhaps least understood, online reference work."

The article notes that "lately Wikipedia has been criticized from without and within for reflecting a Western, male-dominated mindset similar to the perspective behind the encyclopedias it has replaced." In particular, concerns have been raised about what to do about forms of knowledge that can not be easily cited. As it stands, English wikipedia at least does not accept entries that can not be cited, drawn from printed or published sources.

At one point in the article, Achal Prabhala, who made a short film about the limits of Wikipedia's "text-focused" format was quoted as saying that "Publishing is a system of power" that inevitably "leaves out people."

Some Black Studies Readings -- Aug. 7 - 13

Somehow, I read the pieces that caught my attention most this week just yesterday. Whatever the case, in case you missed them, here are a few good reads.

A Quick Word on Gettysburg by Ta-Nehisi Coates. TNC has become a mainstay on my weekly list of good reads at this point. This week, he was touring Gettysburg in preparation for a story. His blog entry offers a few thoughtful observations, including his point that "it's very tough to consider Gettysburg, as its commonly rendered in the American imagination, when you're black."

Witnessing Good Writers Become Better: T. Coates & C. Whitehead

I was *there* early on when Ta-Nehisi Coates and Colson Whitehead started taking big or at least decisive steps in their careers as writers. Granted, that doesn't have the same ring to it as saying I was court-side for some pickup games watching Jordan and LeBron before they were the Jordan and LeBron. But still, if you're into publishing histories of black writing, you take what you can get.

With Coates, I started following him on his first day in August 2008 over on The Atlantic blog. He was good back then and early on, which was one reason he was likely chosen to blog for the publication's site, but I would argue that he's gotten even better over the last few years.

10 Poems by African American Poets on Poemflow

A few weeks ago, I came across this site Poemflow, which presents a poem a day for folks with iPhones. However, ou can go to the site and see how the poem appears on an onscreen version of a device.  You have the choice to view the poem in parts as the words appear onscreen, or you can press "view full text" to look at the full version. 


I have identified 10 poems by African American poets that have appeared on the site.


Sci-Fi by Tracy K. Smith

The Fare-well Letters [excerpt] by Evie Shockley

George Moses Horton, Myself by George Moses Horton 

The Ear is an Organ Made for Love by E. Ethelbert Miller 

Rachel Eliza Griffiths's Trailer for her Upcoming Book of Poems

Well, poet Rachel Eliza Griffiths just disrupted my initial plan to take a break from blogging about poetry today. I just saw the book trailer for her upcoming volume of poems Mule & Pear. Since I've been hoping and waiting to see book trailers for volumes of poetry by African American poets, I couldn't resist at least mentioning the trailer here.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Playing in the Dark

Given the long history of troubling comparisons between black folks and primates in American history and society, I initially felt cautious about writing about the recent Rise of the Planet of the Apes movie here on this black studies site. Didn't want to open the door to a certain kind of harsh response.

Then, I remembered that, ummmm, the primary folks who read here wouldn't go there. So onward.

Despite a few now typical "post racial" approaches and moments throughout the movie, Rise of the Planet of the Apes had these interesting instances of 'playing in the dark,' which is to say these instances of engaging in seemingly lighthearted activities with racial undertones.

Elizabeth Alexander's "The Venus Hottentot" during the 1990s

The spring 1989 issue of Callaloo includes, as the lead poem, Elizabeth Alexander’s “The Venus Hottentot,” which would become one of her most well-known and widely cited pieces. The appearance in Callaloo was important, yet the poem received even more attention when it was published as part of Alexander’s first volume The Venus Hottentot and reviewed in The New York Times in 1990.

The Venus Hottentot was published by the University of Virginia Press as part of its Callaloo Poetry series. The coverage of Alexander’s book in the Times was remarkable for at least a four reasons. The Times rarely reviews: 1. volumes of poetry. 2. works by black writers. 3. first books by poets 4. volumes published by non-commercial or large presses.

Somehow, Alexander and her book overcame those odds, and the review of The Venus Hottentot in the Times raised the possibility that her work would gain more attention than poets -- African American and otherwise -- typically receive.

Jerry W. Ward as My Gateway Guide to Poetry during the 1990s

When it came to my education concerning the histories of and scholarly approaches to African American poetry, my professor at Tougaloo College, Jerry W. Ward, Jr. was the crucial connector.

During the fall of 1996, my sophomore year, I began taking classes with Ward, and he and I began a wide-ranging conversation about literature, politics, novelist Richard Wright, ideas, and just about everything under the sun. The conversation persists to this day. Interestingly, while I was at Tougaloo, Ward never taught a course focused solely on poetry.

C. Liegh McInnis's 1990s Groundwork in Mississippi

There are really way too many "beginnings" or opening developments during the 1990s to keep track of, but given my interest in certain poets, I am inclined to look in a few choice directions.

C. Liegh McInnis, a Mississippi poet, essayist, publisher, editor, and cultural activist that I have written about from time to time here has been especially productive over the last 10 years or so. But like so many literary and cultural artists who have excelled during the 1990s such as Jessica Care Moore, Terrance Hayes, Treasure Williams, and Kevin Young, to name just a few, C. Liegh began laying important groundwork as a poet during the 1990s.

The (Spoken) Word Heard Round the (Poetry) World: Jessica Care Moore at the Apollo

By the time a poet or any artist for that matter makes it to a big stage and does a powerful performance, there are countless lessons and practices that have taken place. There have even been whole series of productions before the performing artist was born that helped establish the stage and audience and artistic milieu.

I'll spare you the decades and decades history that led to the development of "Showtime at the Apollo" and its history of wonderful performances. I'll also spare you from the long extended histories of African American poetry and black performance. I'll assume, dear reader, that you're aware of all those histories.

That frees us up to begin discussing this one important moment in the history of black poetry in general and spoken word in particular.

Some Volumes of Poetry Published During the 1990s

This week, I've been focusing on issues related to African American poetry during the 1990s.

Books of Collected Works by African American Poets from the 1990s
Notable African American Anthologies Feat. Poetry from the 1990s
African American Poetry During the 1990s: Some notable occurrences

The following list provides a partial record of volumes published during the 1990s. It's certainly a partial list as there were far more than the 30 or so titles listed here published during the decade. Still, this list offers a glimpse or a primer for the work produced by several different poets.

1990
• The Venus Hottentot. By Elizabeth Alexander. University of Virginia Press
• From the Pyramids to the Projects. By Askia M. Toure. Africa World Press. 

1991
• The Eye in the Ceiling: Selected Poems. By Eugene B. Redmond. Harlem River Press
• Poetic Magnetic. By Jayne Cortez. Bola Press.
• Quilting: Poems 1987–1990. By Lucille Clifton. BOA Editions, Ltd.
• The Gathering of My Name. By Cornelius Eady. Carnegie-Mellon University Press.

1992
• Big Towns, Big Talk. By Patricia Smith.

10 Books of Collected Works by African American Poets from the 1990s

I've mentioned occurrences and anthologies related to African American poetry, now some books. The following titles are "collected" or "selected" works published during the 1990s. Works like these were especially useful for making modern readers aware of historically significant writers.  


The Hughes book may have been one of the most popular of the collected works to appear. Scholars interested in Wright were pleased to see the release of his haiku in 1998.

1990 – A Brighter Coming Day: A Frances Ellen Watkins Harper Reader. Edited by Frances Smith Foster.

1991 – My Soul’s High Song: The Collected Writings of Countee Cullen, Voice of the Harlem Renaissance, Edited by Gerald Early

Many Affluent African Americans Stay in Less Affluent Neighborhoods

Yesterday, a number of news outlets reported on the following recent Census finding:

Black and Hispanic Americans are more likely to live in neighborhoods with fewer important resources, like good schools, parks, and clean air, than whites are. And the difference in neighborhood quality can’t be explained by differences in household income, says a new analysis of 2010 census data from all US metropolitan regions. In fact, the average white household that earns less than $40,000 is in a more affluent, resource-rich neighborhood than a black or Hispanic household that earns more than $75,000

That's really something to consider. The article notes that African Americans have the "highest" exposure to poverty among various racial and ethnic groups.

There's no agreement yet on why black people who can afford to move to more "resource-rich" neighborhoods do not do so.

According to some perspectives, they have no choice. The ongoing prevalence or legacies of housing discrimination and lack of information about suitable neighborhoods prevent African Americans from living in more affluent environments even when financial resources are not the problem.

On the other hand, large numbers of African Americans could be deciding to stay in particular neighborhoods because of their shared values, histories, and cultural practices with residents that could transcend household incomes.

It's likely that there are multiple reasons why folks decide to stay in the environments that they do.

10 Notable African American Anthologies Feat. Poetry from the 1990s

As a followup to my list of notable occurrences in African American poetry from the 1990s, I decided to identify 10 notable anthologies that feature or include large numbers of poems by black poets from the that decade.

Certainly, there were more than 10 anthologies published during the course of those years. The following, inevitably partial, list provides a few of the collections that gained some notice.

1992 – In the Tradition edited by Kevin Powell and Ras Baraka

1992 – African American Poetry of the Nineteenth Century: An Anthology edited Joan R. Sherman

1992 – Black Southern Voice: An Anthology edited by John Oliver Killens and Jerry W. Ward, Jr. 

Twitter & B-Ball Legends: Kevin Durant at Rucker Park

The first notices went out yesterday evening on twitter.

"If you are in New York today be sure to check Kevin Durant making his debut at Rucker Park. Anybody else loving all these nba appearances," tweeted BIL. Rucker Park is located in Harlem and is viewed as one of the most revered streetball courts in the country.

A few hours later InsideHoops tweeted "Kevin Durant is playing #streetball in the EBC at #RuckerPark tonight!" It didn't take long for more than 30 people to retweet.

Later in the night, Hoopmixtape put out the early, though vague at this point note: "Hearing reports that Kevin Durant dropped 60, 63, 66, or 70 points at the Rucker tonight lol Either way thats murder." More than 70 people retweeted.

African American Poetry During the 1990s: Some notable occurrences

Lately on my blog, I have been writing about contemporary developments in African American poetry. But recently, I was inspired to look back and see what was happening during the 1990s to get us to this contemporary moment.

What follows is a cursory glance of a few notable occurrences related to poetry. 

1990 -- Elizabeth Alexander’s volume The Venus Hottentot is reviewed in the New York Times Book Review; Thylias Moss's Rainbow Remnants in Rock Bottom Ghetto Sky is a winner of the National Poetry series; first National Poetry Slam takes place in in San Francisco; Patricia Smith wins National Poetry Slam individual competition.

1991  --  Thylias Moss receives Whiting Foundation award; Eugene B. Redmond founds Drumvoices Revue literary and cultural magazine; Patricia Smith wins National Poetry Slam individual competition.

Blogging about Poetry in July 2011

Looking back, I was more active blogging about poetry than I initially thought. I finally made time to write about spoken word poetry a little more than I had in the past, which is good. I also tracked down and posted links to some early poems by Langston Hughes that were initially published in Poetry. Locating Hughes in early issues of Poetry also led me to Gwendolyn Brooks and Margaret Walker's presence in the magazine.

July 
 • July 31:  Working out, listening to Robert Creeley
• July 30: Jill Scott & Erykah Badu: From Spoken Word to R&B
• July 29: How Black Poets Challenged Literary Conventions
• July 27: Poets Who Read vs. Poets Who Perform
• July 25: Spoken Word Poetry & Black Intellectual Histories
• July 25: A Poet, A Rapper, and His Notebooks
• July 22: 5 Animated poems by African American poets
• July 21: Black Poetry published by Norton and Company
• July 19: 10 Poems (with Audio) by Black Poets on Poets.Org site
•July 17: Marking up Robert Hayden's "Frederick Douglass"
• July 16: 8 Lessons, Insights from the Sonia Sanchez Seminar
• July 15: Eugene B. Redmond and the EBR Collection
• July 15: Smartphones and Black Poetry: Some Preliminary Impressions
• July 14: Langston Hughes in Poetry magazine
• July 14: "We Real Cool" & "For My People" First Appeared in Poetry Mag.
• July 13: The Journey of Margaret Walker's "For My People"
• July 12: 4 Langston Hughes poems from 1926 Poetry Magazine
• July 10: Eugene B. Redmond's Epic East St. Louis Poem
• July 7: Black Poetry at the Strand Bookstore
• July 6: When Print, Performance & Online Cultures Converge: Amiri Baraka's "Dope"
• July 6: 10 Amiri Baraka poems on youtube
• July 5: 104 African American Volumes of Poetry by Publisher, 2000-2011
• July 4: Keeping Poetry Alive in Mississippi: C. Liegh McInnis
• July 3: Eugene Redmond and the Ghosts of Dunham, Hurston, & Schomburg
• July 2: Blogging about Black Verse in June 2011