Sunday, June 29, 2014

A partial timeline on Black South Literary Studies

As a complement to a blog entry on 11 scholars associated with black South literary studies, I provide the following timeline related to the work and careers of: William Andrews, Houston A. Baker, Jr., Thadious Davis, Joanne Gabbin, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Maryemma Graham, Trudier Harris, Karla Holloway, bell hooks, Deborah McDowell, and Jerry W. Ward, Jr.

1983: Graham founds the Project on the History of Black Writing (HBW) at the University of Mississippi.

1983: Faulkner's Negro: Art and the Southern Context by Davis is published.

1985: McDowell founds African-American Women Writers Series at Beacon Press. 

1985: Graham organizes symposium "Mississippi's Native Son: International Symposium on Richard Wright" at the University of Mississippi.

1986: To Tell a Free Story: The First Century of Afro American Autobiography, 1760-1865 by Andrews is published.

1987: Wintergreen Women Writers' Collective is created, with Gabbin, Harris, et all as founding members.

1988: Davis "Expanding the Limits: The Intersection of Race and Region" is published in the Southern Literary Journal.

1989: Duke University hires Gates to lead African American Studies program.

1990: The Richard Wright Circle is established with Graham, Ward, et al as co-founders.

1991: Harvard University hires Gates to lead African American Studies program.

1992: Baker serves as president of the Modern Language Association.
 
1992: Black Southern Voices, edited by John Oliver Killens and Ward is published.

1993: Ward and Kalamu ya Salaam edit two special issues of African American Review on the Black South.

1994: Colored People: A Memoir by Gates is published.

1994: Gabbin organizes the Furious Flower Poetry conference at James Madison University in Virginia.

1996: Bone Black: Memories of Girlhood by bell hooks is published.

1996: Holloway is appointed director of African and African American Studies at Duke University. 

1997: Norton Anthology of African American Literature is published with Gates, Andrews, Baker, McDowell, et al as editors. 

1997: Trouble the Water: 250 Years of African American Poetry edited by Ward is published.

1997: The Oxford Companion of African American Literature is published with Andrews, Harris, et al as co-editors.

1997: Leaving Pipe Shop: Memories of Kin by McDowell is published. 

1997: The Literature of the American South: A Norton  Anthology is published with Andrews as general editor and Harris et al as editors.

1997: University of Alabama hosts symposium "Myth, Memory and Migration: The Black South in the Cultural Imagination." Participants include Baker, Harris, Holloway, McDowell, and Ward.

1998: Call & Response: The Riverside Anthology of the African American Literary Tradition edited by T. Harris et al is published.

1999: Gabbin founds the Furious Flower Poetry Center at James Madison University.

2000: John Hope Franklin Center for Interdisciplinary and International Studies is established at Duke University. Holloway is a co-founder.

2001: Turning South Again: Re-Thinking Modernism/Re-Reading Booker T. by Baker is published.

2001: Baker and Dana Nelson edit special issue of American Literature entitled "Violence, the Body, and 'The South.'" 

2002: South of Tradition: Essays on African American Literature by Harris is published.

2003: Summer Snow: Reflections from a Black Daughter of the South by Harris is published.

2004: Gabbin organizes the Furious Flower Poetry conference at James Madison University in Virginia.

2007: I Don't Hate the South: Reflections on Faulkner, Family, and the South by Baker is published.

2008: The Richard Wright Encyclopedia edited by Robert Butler and Ward is published.

2008: The Katrina Papers: A Journal of Trauma and Recovery by Ward is published.

2009: The Scary Mason-Dixon Line: African American Writers and the South by Harris is published.

2009: The Wright Connection: Teaching Black Boy, Native Son, and Uncle Tom’s Children. NEH Institute on Richard Wright held at Univ. of Kansas; directed by Graham.

2009: Shaping Memories: Reflections of African American Women Writers edited by Lovalerie V. King, with essays by Graham, Harris, Holloway, et al.

2011: The Cambridge History of African American Literature, edited by Graham and Ward, is published.

2011Southscapes: Geographies of Race, Region, and Literature by Davis is published.

2012: "Sheer Good Fortune: Celebrating Toni Morrison" is hosted by Gabbin, Maya Angelou, and Nikki Giovanni at Virginia Tech. 

Related: 
A Notebook on Black South Literary Scholars

No comments: