Digital Humanities Club: Week 4

On Wednesday, February 27, we continued working with remixes of student vocals on audio compositions. We did short remixes of Amiri Baraka's poem "RhythmBlues."

We're still working our way up to producing longer audio productions that include both vocal and music.

In the meantime, we've been experimenting and working on honing our skills. The overall process can take a while we're learning. Unlike with regular classes, we only meet once per week. So it takes a while.

Still, we're learning and building skills along the way. So far, the club members have mostly been working alone, aside from assistance from our team leaders. A goal moving forward will be to produce more collaborative work.

Related:
• The East St. Louis Digital Humanities Club Spring 2019

Mat Johnson and Black Book History

I've spent some time over the last several years noting that we've been witnesses to a subtle though significant movement of sorts among black men writers. They've collectively been producing a continuous, interrelated body of outstanding works. Mat Johnson is an important contributor to what's been produced. 

He's published novels, graphic novels, comic books, and a tremendous amount of resistance tweets. He's like his contemporaries Ta-Nehisi Coates and Victor LaValle in that way, writing across multiple genres. Johnson's humor corresponds to aspects of works by Colson Whitehead and Aaron McGruder.

When you consider Johnson's publishing record during the 21st century, you see why I think it's so necessary to include him in considerations of contemporary Black Book History. What follows are a list of his books:

2000: Drop
2003: Hunting in Harlem
2006: John Constantine Hellblazer: Papa Midnite (Tony Akins and Dan Green, artwork)
2007: The Great Negro Plot: A Tale of Conspiracy and Murder in Eighteenth-Century
2008: Incognegro: A Graphic Mystery (Warren Pleece, illustrator)
2010: Dark Rain: A New Orleans Story (Simone Gane, illustrator)
2011: Pym
2012: Right State (Andrea Mutti, illustrator)
2015: Loving Day

Related:
• Black Book History, February 2019

Bad men, poetry, and Black Book History

For nearly two decades now, I have been tracking poems about bad men. Sometimes those bad men are folk heroes, and other times they are historical figures. They are unruly and defiant. And they are important muses for African American poets.

Cornelius Eady offered an important intervention in the domain of poems about bad men with his book Brutal Imagination (2001). The central figure is the fictive black man who allegedly kidnapped two children. The book is haunting and offers a critique of racist views and narratives.

Kevin Young made an original contribution to the production of bad man poetic treatments with To Repel Ghosts (2001), about the painter Jean-Michel Basquiat. There's also Tyehimba Jess with leadbelly (2005) and Adrian Matejka with The Big Smoke (2013), about Jack Johnson.

For more than 100 years, artists have produced poems or song lyrics about bad men. What's new is how many books of poems have been dedicated to the characters in recent years. Here's a short list of works on bad men or black man historical figures:

2001 - Cornelius Eady's Brutal Imagination
2001 - Kevin Young's To Repel Ghosts: Five Sides in B Minor
2001 - Marilyn Nelson's Carver
2004 - Gary Copeland Lilley's The Subsequent Blues
2004 - Frank X  Walker's Buffalo Dance
2005 -Tyehimba Jess's Leadbelly
2008 - Gary Copeland Lilley's Alpha Zulu
2008 - Frank X. Walker's When Winter Come
2009 - Rita Dove's Sonata Mulattica
2010 - Frank X. Walker's Isaac Murphy: I Dedicate This Ride
2011 - Kevin Young's Ardency
2013 - Adrian Matejka's The Big Smoke

Related:
• Black Book History, February 2019

Haley Reading Group: “The Case for Leaving City Rats Alone”

[The Best American Science and Nature Writing (2017)]

Becca Cudmore details the work of two scientists who study the over-population and disturbances of rats in popular cities. The scientists state their initial reason for the study stemmed from their desire to “address health concerns” since people believe rats carry bacteria and diseases (59).

The scientists learned that rats adapted not only to the human environment but also to pre-human existence and likely stole food from other organisms before us (60). Scientists used this study to expose the many diseases rats carry their adaptive qualities and touch on the best way to prevent them from disturbing humans.

What did you find most interesting or surprising about what the article covered? Why did that point or information interest you?

Ta-Nehisi Coates, Remarkable Receptions, and Black Book History

Ta-Nehisi Coates has had an extraordinary publishing career over the last 5 years in particular. In 2014, he published "The Case for Reparations." In 2015, it was Between the World and Me. In 2016, Black Panther. In 2017, he published his articles as a book in We Were Eight Years in Power. In 2018, he took on writing duties for Captain America. And later this year, he'll publish his first novel, The Water Dancer.

Rarely in the history of African American writing has a figure produced so much work that has been so widely and actively covered. We've had many prolific writers, but the receptions that have followed Coates's works are quite remarkable. The reception is tied to the quality of his works, yes, but also his productivity and ability to move across a few different modes of writing have facilitated the many responses to his works.

I've written about the remarkable receptions before, but it still doesn't feel like enough. I plan to keep documenting and developing the writing to highlight the significance of this moment. More so than only highlighting Coates, I want to figure out what has led so many people -- supporters and detractors -- to converge on this one writer. And, I want to to discuss the implications and consequences.

In the meantime, it's definitely worth citing Coates and his reception in the context of Black Book History in the contemporary era.

Related:
• Black Book History, February 2019
• A notebook on the work of Ta-Nehisi Coates

In a Dataset of Their Own: comparisons of black artists & black artists

[abstract for an upcoming presentation at Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities]

Several important reports and studies have made us aware of the dismal practices of inclusion in the film industry. By drawing on extensive bodies of data, researchers have usefully highlighted the relative struggles of “minority” actors in relation to their “majority” counterparts. But what do we find when we concentrate on black artists and black artists? This presentation explains some discoveries that emerge when we construct and analyze a dataset comprised of black actors and directors. The presentation also highlights the significance of formulating projects that merge African American Studies and digital humanities.

Entries:
• Notes on a black actors and actresses dataset
• Black actors and actresses by birth year
• A roundup of reports on diversity and film

Reginald Hudlin, Black Panther, and Book History

Where do comic books fit within considerations of Black Book History? I'm sure we'd want to add books focusing on Black Panther to the mix. The individual issues, trade paperbacks, and other versions of the book no doubt add to our views of T'Challa, Wakanda, and the film.

Reginald Hudlin was the first writer that I read on Black Panther. He wasn't the first to write the character, but he was who I initially discovered. He served as an important gateway into the character.

With the creative team of John Romita Jr. as penciller, Klaus R. Janson as inker, and Dean V. White as colorist, Hudlin's run on Black Panther began in 2005, and included 41 issues. Later, trade paperbacks were released. More recently, Marvel produced Black Panther by Reginald Hudlin: The Complete Collection Vol. 1 (2017), Black Panther by Reginald Hudlin: The Complete Collection Vol. 2 (2018), and Black Panther by Reginald Hudlin: The Complete Collection Vol. 3 (2018), all of which I'll have to pick up soon.

On the one hand, we can place Hudlin's Black Panther books in conversation with collections by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, Don McGregor, Christopher Priest, Ta-Nehisi Coates, and others. At the same time, if we think of the work in the context of Black Book History, then we might align Hudlin's take on T'Challa with protagonists in books by Richard Wright, Toni Morrison, and Colson Whitehead, among others.

Related:
• Black Book History, February 2019

Greg Tate, Essays, and Book History

Greg Tate has to be one of our greatest essayists, right? He's unquestionably an wildly audacious and inventive writer. If there's any doubt, you could take a look at his books Flyboy in the Buttermilk (1992) and Flyboy 2 (2016), which collect many of his articles.

Overall, there has been relatively little scholarship on the essay as a form. Just recently, Cheryl A. Wall published On Freedom and the Will to Adorn: The Art of the African American Essay (2019). Hopefully, Wall's work will inspire further studies of a form of writing that is integral and pervasive yet nonetheless understudied on its own.

When and if we do advance studies of essays, Tate's work will likely become vital objects of inquiry. His turns of phrases, his energetic writing, his multiple allusions, his densely packed individual paragraphs. The very style of his works, well beyond simply the content or what his essays are about, signal a tremendous intellect and creator.

Tate attracted large followings when he was publishing in The Village Voice from 1987 - 2005. However, I suspect many new readers will discover his work as a whole through Flyboy and Flyboy 2. Books often serve as storage devices and galleries for works that initially appeared in newspapers and magazines.

Such is the case with Tate's essays. His books make the writings available to us in one place, perhaps giving us a clearer sense of the interconnectivity of his creative output. While he first earned widespread notice through the production of essays, issues pertaining to Book History might determine the extents to which new readers encounter his past writings.     

Related:
• Black Book History, February 2019

Graywolf Press, Black Writers, and Book History

Alright, so if we started writing a contemporary history of black book based on small to mid-size publishers, we'd certainly want to acknowledge Graywolf Press. Over the last several years in particular, they have been one of the major forces in the production of books, especially poetry, by African American writers. Elizabeth Alexander, Tracy K. Smith, Kevin Young, Danez Smith, and many more have all published with Graywolf.

Many of the largest presses in the country publish a relatively small number of poets each year. They are more likely to invest in novels and nonfiction. We have a few African American presses, but they perhaps not enough to sustain the many African American poets out there.

Graywolf, therefore, has stepped in and filled a void. Their catalog includes much more than African American books, and they are hardly the only press to publish works by black writers. Still, their reach and influence has been hard to deny.

The willingness of Graywolf editors to publish hybrid and experimental works has also been important. Most notably, they published Claudia Rankine's Citizen: An American Lyric (2014). Is it a book of poems? Poetic essays? Both? Something else? Whatever it might be, Citizen generated more attention than any other book that has been categorized as poetry. Graywolf notes that more than 250,000 copies of the book are print.

The success and widespread visibility of Citizen has no doubt brought Graywolf Press to the attention of an even larger number of African American poets. Rankine's book and the rise of Danez Smith, among others, has made the press a desired location for even poets who are publishing with different presses.

There's much more to say about the significance of Graywolf to Black Book History during the 21st century. For now, here's an impartial list of works by black writers that they've published.

Graywolf
2000: Domestic Work by Natasha Trethewey
2000: Pastoral by Carl Phillips
2001: Antebellum Dream Book by Elizabeth Alexander
2002: Bellocq's Ophelia by Natasha Trethewey
2002: From the Devotion by Carl Phillips
2002: Cortege by Carl Phillips
2003: The Body's Question Tracy K. Smith
2004: Coin of the Realm: Essays on the Art and Life of Poetry by Carl Phillips
2004: Don't Let Me Be Lonely: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine
2004: The Venus Hottentot (reprint) by Elizabeth Alexander
2005: American Sublime by Elizabeth Alexander
2005: The Maverick Room by Thomas Sayers Ellis
2006: Recyclopedia: Trimmings, S*PeRM**K*T, and Muse and Drudge by Harryette Mullen
2006: Lions Don't Eat Us by Constance Quarterman Bridges
2009: Praise Song for the Day by Elizabeth Alexander
2010: Crave Radiance: New and Selected Poems (hardcover) by Elizabeth Alexander
2010: Skin Inc.: Identity Repair Poems (hardcover) by Thomas Sayers Ellis
2010: Missing You, Metropolis by Gary Jackson
2011: Life on Mars by Tracy K. Smith
2012: The Grey Album by Kevin Young
2012: Crave Radiance: New and Selected Poems (paperback) by Elizabeth Alexander
2013: Skin Inc.: Identity Repair Poems (paperback) by Thomas Sayers Ellis
2013: Urban Tumbleweed: Notes from a Tanka Diary by Harryette Mullen
2013: Scratching the Ghost by Dexter L. Booth
2014: Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine
2014: The Art of Daring: Risk, Restlessness, Imagination by Carl Phillips
2015: Turning into Dwelling by Christopher Gilbert
2016: Bestiary by Donika Kelly
2017: Don't Call Us Dead by Danez Smith
2017: Bunk: The Rise of Hoaxes, Humbug, Plagiarists...Fake News (hardcover) by Kevin Young
2018: Wade in the Water (hardcover) by Tracy K. Smith
2018: A Lucky Man (short stories, hardcover) by Jamel Brinkley
2018: Bunk: The Rise of Hoaxes, Humbug, Plagiarists...Fake News (paperback) by Kevin Young
2018: This Mournable Body: A Novel by Tsitsi Dangarembga
2019: The White Card: A Play by Claudia Rankine
2019: Wade in the Water (paperback) by Tracy K. Smith
2019: A Lucky Man (short stories, paperback) by Jamel Brinkley
2019: Heed the Hollow: Poems by Malcolm Tariq

Related:
• Black Book History, February 2019
• Graywolf Press and African American Poetry
• The Graywolf Press black poetry mix & Christopher Gilbert
• Graywolf brings Christopher Gilbert to a new generation of readers
• Select Graywolf Press Books by Black Writers, 2000 - 2013
• Black Poetry published by Graywolf Press

Taking on Killmonger: Bryan Hill & Juan Ferreyra

Back in February 2018, I was thinking about Killmonger. I had seen Black Panther, and I was moved by Michael B. Jordan's performance as T'Challa's nemesis. I had been doing research on the creative power of bad men in creative works, and the significance of Killmonger advanced some of my ideas.

Well, here we are a year later, and Killmonger is on my mind again. Really, I've been thinking on the figure for the last few months, as I'm following writer Bryan Hill and artist Juan Ferreyra as they've been producing a series for Marvel on the Black Panther villain.

It's a mini-series that will only contain 5 issues. They're up to #4 so far. In just a small number of works, they've produced outstanding work.

I first discovered Hill with his work on the mini-series Michael Cray, which was a spin-off from the larger story-line with The Wild Storm. I thought the work was solid, and so I took note when Marvel announced that there would be Killmonger series.

The Black Panther film led to another spin-off with Nnedi Okorafor and Leonardo Romero on Shuri. There are some other previous related works with The Rise of the Black Panther by Evan Narcisse and Paul Renaud as well as World of Wakanda and Black Panther & the Crew. So all of those add to expanding the Black Panther universe.

Killmonger takes us in a different direction, though, for a couple of reasons. For one, we're getting an in-depth story on a villain, a black villain. That's not something we get everyday.

It's common to have Joker and Lex Luthor backstories. It's not difficult to come across extended work on Magneto and Doctor Doom. But an extended past for a black villain? Nah, folks have mostly passed on that.   

This Killmonger story is also unique as far as current Black Panther series go because of the New York setting. It's not been unusual to see T'Challa in New York. He was there in Black Panther & the Crew, and in some past iterations of Black Panther. But in issues #1 - #3, Hill and Ferreyra really made use of the setting in the city.

I in fact think that the city setting gave the story an energy that it would not have had by having the story set somewhere else, including Wakanda. Ta-Nehisi Coates has done really important work, giving us a fuller sense of the geography of the fictive African nation. Yet, as I've learned following Killmonger, New York City, as a setting and place in our imaginations, creates all kinds of possibilities for comic book writers and artists.

A fight scene takes place on top of a parking deck

For one, it's easier to have appearances from various other superheroes and villains. In one issue, Bullseye appears out of nowhere and causes havoc. His appearance would've seemed less plausible in other environments.

The city environment also makes multiple viewing angles possible for artists. Hill and Ferreyra really maximize some of those possibilities too. There's a sense early on in the series when a group of mercenaries jump through a window in apartment where Killmonger is staying. The tight confines and the familiarity of the city room give the scene power.

I wasn't fully aware of Ferreyra's work prior to Killmonger. I had glimpsed his artwork here and there, but it was this series that led me to sit up and really pay attention. What he's doing with double spreads and just with the drawing and coloring in general has been moving.

Over on Twitter, Ferreyra regularly presents drafts and completed versions of his drawings on different titles. He produces wondrous work. It's been a delight just looking over his many creations.

On Killmonger, we have Hill and Ferreyra bringing their talents together. The results that we witness with each book are a combination of skilled creators converging on this common

The other day as I was drafting notes for this post, I noticed a comment from Hill on Twitter. He noted that "confrontational work makes my escapism better. Sometimes, I have to get dirty." He was referring to American Carnage, but to the extent that Killmonger is confrontational as well, I think the character necessitates Hill getting dirty.

One place where the work gets confrontational is in Killmonger's building anger. There are close-ups in #4, where Killmonger has been betrayed and hit in the face. He's preparing to respond, and we see his gritting, blood-stained teeth and face. It's an audacious image. The kind of image that recalls some of the close-ups of the Joker, but here, we're seeing an enraged black man.

Hill and Ferreyra are doing amazing work here. They're breaking new ground on the representation of a black villain and a black man in comics. It's been fascinating watching this work unfold. 


Related:
• A notebook on comic books
• Juan Ferreyra, double-page spreads, and brain power
• Juan Ferreyra's masterful artwork on Killmonger

Digital Humanities Club: Week 3

For our session on February 20, we used voice recordings that the club members produced and worked on making re-arrangements to them.

We're up to a few things. For one, we're giving the young folks experience recording and listening to their own voices. Second, we want to see what kinds of alterations we can make. Finally, we'll eventually add instrumentals to the readings.

Related:
• The East St. Louis Digital Humanities Club Spring 2019

Jay-Z and Black Book History

The hardcover and paperback editions of Decoded

It's not often that we can discuss rappers in the context of Black Book History. Then again, when we consider the extensive body of publications focused on hip hop, it makes sense. In addition to people writing about Jay-Z, he's also the author (with dream hampton) of a book, Decoded (2010, 2011).

During his book tour for the book, Jay-Z made a point of constantly advancing the idea that rap is poetry. His comments and visibility were vital to elevating the conversation about the links between the art forms.

Decoded is a book about Jay-Z's upbringing and experiences as a rapper. He discusses discovering rap and becoming enamored by the art. He reflects on his time on the streets of New York City, and he offers observations on rap music.

The book is visually stimulating. It includes a range of colorful photographs. Some words are presented in enlarged fonts. The diversity of images makes the book a joy to read.

Decoded is additionally distinct because it showcases Jay-Z's annotations of his own lyrics. The release of the work showcasing rap lyric annotations coincides with the rise of the popular annotation site Rap Genius, which launched in 2009.

On the one hand, Jay-Z's book corresponds to a variety of contemporary African American literary works by writers such as Ta-Nehisi Coates and Colson Whitehead. At the same time, Jay-Z's memoir connects to a long line of African American autobiographies, including Frederick Douglass's Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845), Richard Wright's Black Boy (1945), and The Autobiography of Malcolm X (1965), to name just a few.

It's not a stretch to imagine assigning Jay-Z's work in a class on African American literature. There are perhaps some linkages between his thoughts on black culture and those raised by figures like Toni Morrison and Zora Neale Hurston, among others.

Whatever the case, when and if we're writing a contemporary history of Black Book History, then we should consider a significant work like Jay-Z's Decoded.

Related:
• Black Book History, February 2019
• A Notebook on Jay-Z
• A notebook on rap music, hip hop

Amiri Baraka and Black Book History

Amiri Baraka was constantly producing works it seems. This month, I've been highlighting Black Book History, and so here I wanted to provide a partial list of some of Baraka's books to give just a sense of his incredible output.

1961: Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note
1963: Blues People
1964: The Dead Lecturer: Poems
1964: Dutchman 
1964: The Slave
1965: Home: Social Essays
1965: The System of Dante's Hell
1966: A Black Mass
1967: The Baptism and The Toilet
1967: Tales

1967: Black Music
1968: Black Fire: An Anthology of Afro-American Writing (co-edited with Larry Neal)
1969: Four Black Revolutionary Plays
1969: Black Magic
1970: It's Nation Time
1970: JELLO
1971: Raise Race Rays Raze: Essays Since 1965
1975: Hard Facts
1979: The Sidney Poet Heroical

1983: Confirmation: An Anthology of African American Women (edited with Amina Baraka)
1983: The Autobiography of LeRoi Jones
1984: Daggers and Javelins
1991: The LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka Reader (edited by William J. Harris)
1995: Transbluesency: The Selected Poems of Amiri Baraka/LeRoi Jones (edited by Paul Vangelisti)
1995: Wise, Why's Y's
1996: Funk Lore: New Poems
1996: Eulogies
2000: The Fiction of LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka
2003: Somebody Blew Up America & Other Poems
2004: Un Poco Low Coup

2006: Tales of the Out & the Gone
2011: Digging: The Afro-American Soul of American Classical Music
2012: Razor: Revolutionary Art for Cultural Revolution
2013: Amiri Baraka and Edward Dorn: The Collected Letters (edited by Claudia Moreno Pisano)
2015: S O S: Poems 1961-2013 (edited by Paul Vangelisti)

Related:
• Black Book History, February 2019
• A Notebook on the work of Amiri Baraka

Alondra Nelson, Afrofuturism, and Black Book History

The story's been told many times, and still not quite enough. During the late 1990s, a graduate student named Alondra Nelson organized and facilitated a discussion group about black diasporic engagements with technology and science fiction. She brought together all these people from across the country and on the other side of the Atlantic to discuss Octavia Butler, the mechanics of black music production, and all manner of technological developments. Nelson established a frame for the discussions: Afrofuturism.

Since the late 1990s and early 2000s, the concept of Afrofuturism has really taken off. Black Panther is Afrofuturist. Janelle Monae is Afrofuturist. All that visual art is Afrofuturist. And 20 years ago, we had some other ways of talking about  AfroFuturism -- those of us from Nelson's list would say "AF" for short. For some of us, AF involved the development of critical frameworks for thinking and talking about the intersections of black history/culture and technology or speculative fiction.

These days, the conversations about AF have largely resided in the arts. However, we do have some threads that developed in other areas as well. In this regard, consider Nelson's Body and Soul: The Black Panther Party and the Fight against Medical Discrimination (2011) and The Social Life of DNA: Race, Reparations, and Reconciliation After the Genome (2016). She doesn't talk in a direct way about Afrofuturism, not like how we speak of it in the arts, but it's nonetheless subtly there.

Her works thoroughly describe and illuminate the convergence of black folks and technological processes. The centrality of Alondra Nelson and those two publications to Afrofuturist thought are thus what makes me cite them in my ongoing considerations of Black Book History.

Related:
• Black Book History, February 2019
• Afrofuturism

Haley Reading group: The Intuitionist, 69 – 105

[The Intuitionist (1999)]

We've been pushing forward in Colson Whitehead's The Intutionist.

Since the first time I read the novel, I've been fascinated by this scene where two enforcers kidnap a reporter and begin breaking his fingers (74-77). On the one hand, the scene is painful as you consider this guy going through the torture. At the same time, the way Whitehead writes about the scene makes it kind of humorous, or at least like something out of a comic book or television show.

I think the contrasting responses and the style of writing of the scene make it so memorable to me. But what do you think about that scene? What stands out to you about it? Take some time to review that section (74 - 77), and let us know what you think.

Haley Reading Group: “Linux for Lettuce”

[The Best American Science and Nature Writing (2015)]

Lisa M. Hamilton follows the story of Jim Meyers, a broccoli plant breeder and college professor, as he struggles to fight off patents for plant breeding. Hamilton states that although plant breeding was regarded as a collaborative effort, the increase in patents “discourage sharing” and are stifling (74).

Hamilton exposes the impact patents will have on plant breeders and farmers. This article focuses on the collaborative effort of farmers to discourage all patents and maintain group-sharing practices.

What did you find most useful about the article, and why?

Allison Joseph and Black Book History

I've followed Allison Joseph's work for years. I'm usually commenting on her individual poems, but it's worth noting that she's been quite productive producing volumes of poetry. She's published at least 18 books.

She's been plugging away, steadily publishing collections. I've enjoyed the poems individually, and it's been something to think about her work in total. Maybe someday, a publisher and editor will gather all of her many poems and put them together in a single, large volume. We can hope.

When I think of the many interrelated volumes in my personal collection, I often consider the books by Joseph. Her works also contribute to my varied thoughts about Black Book History.

Related:
• Black Book History, February 2019
• A notebook on Allison Joseph

Toni Morrison and Black Book History

Toni Morrison turns 88 today. Her book The Source of Self-Regard: Selected Essays, Speeches, and Meditations was released last week. Her works remain a fixture on college syllabi. She is our most critically acclaimed novelist.

She was an editor for several books, including works by Gayl Jones, Toni Cade Bambara, Angela Davis, Lucillie Clifton, and on and on and on. She edited The Black Book. She's served as the basis for dozens of scholarly books and book chapters.

The many editions of her books mean we have multiple book designs to consider. A couple of years ago, folks at Literary Hub displayed 75 different covers of Morrison's Beloved (1987). When I was making the case for 1969 - 1994, as the greatest years in black women's writing, I was no doubt giving considerable weight to Morrison's contributions. 

I've been working to formulate a few pointed reasons for why we need to take Black Book History more seriously in our studies of African American literature. I'm sure that a close look at the production and reception of Morrison's books will assist me in solidifying my ideas.

Related:
• Black Book History, February 2019

Ai and Black Book History

Ai was well known for her dramatic monologues. She'd write in the voice of a wide variety of people, often those in struggling positions. She also sought to imagine and display the inner thoughts of politicians and celebrities, here and there.

About 20 years ago, I attended a reading that Ai gave, and I was struck by her noting that her books sold well for her publisher W. W. Norton & Company. I've rarely heard poets speak of good sells the way she did.

I wanted to make sure I noted Ai's works as I considered Black Book History.


Related:
• Black Book History, February 2019

Lucille Clifton and Black Book History

For years, decades even, supporters of the arts have celebrated Lucille Clifton, who died in 2010, as a beloved literary figure. She is cherished and referred to as a kind of cultural mother even. Toni Morrison did not necessarily disagree with the praises, but she found them lacking. She wrote that:

I am startled by the silence in these interpretations of her work. There are no references to her intellect, imagination, scholarship or her risk-taking manipulation of language. To me she is not the big mama/big sister of racial reassurance and self-empowerment. I read her skill as that emanating from an astute, profound intellect--characteristics mostly absent from her reviews. The personal courage of the woman cannot be gainsaid, but it should not function as a substitute for piercing insight and bracing intelligence.

What is sometimes downplayed is how prolific she was over the course of her career. She published well over 20 books and hundreds of poems.

Moreover, her designation as a Black Arts era writer is regularly overlooked. Her first publications appeared in the late 1960s and early 1970s, right in line with the flourishing arts produced by African American at that time. Morrison was the editor of her first collection.

After Clifton's death, an edited collection of Clifton's work was published providing us with a clearer sense of her tremendous output, which includes her contributions to Black Book History.

Related:
• Black Book History, February 2019

The New Jim Crow and Black Book History

In the 21st century, few black books have gained as much attention among the grassroots and beyond as Michelle Alexander's The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness (2010). The book generated widespread attention and was crucial to raising awareness about racial injustices associated with the imprisonment of so many people, especially black men, and the so-called war on drugs.

The New Jim Crow began to really circulate when it was released in paperback in 2012. Organizations facilitated reading groups focusing on the book. Alexander became a widely sought-after keynote speaker, and various readers regularly recommended that others take a look at her work.

I coordinated only one reading group on The New Jim Crow back in 2013, but Alexander's work has been a frequently referenced work in my classes. It's one of the books that at least some of my students have already heard about every semester. It's rare for a contemporary work of nonfiction to be so widely known among students outside of college classroom contexts.

Of the hundreds of thousands of books published each year, only a small fraction gain any special attention, and only a fraction of that fraction receives notice years after initial publication. Alexander's The New Jim Crow is one of those exceptional works, which is why I thought of it as I considered Black Book History. 

Related:
• Black Book History, February 2019
• Retelling origin stories of Afrofuturism and The New Jim Crow
• Black fathers, African American literary studies, and special collections

Frederick Douglass and Black Book History

Frederick Douglass's The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845) remains one of our most well-known works of African American literature. The book has also appeared in more editions -- at least 400 -- giving the work yet another distinction.

I've collected a few dozen editions of The Narrative. I got the idea to pay closer attention to different printings and editions after pursuing research on the publishing histories of Richard Wright's autobiography. Later, I recognized that publishers frequently reproduced Douglas's first autobiography (he wrote three).

Douglass's Narrative has out of print about 10 years after it was first published. It was brought back into print with an edition produced in 1960. Since that time, the book has been a mainstay in college curriculum and in scholarly discourse. Many libraries possess multiple copies of Douglass's Narrative, and you are sure to encounter the work when and if you visit bookstores.

The Narrative, or more specifically, those many editions of Douglass's autobiography contributing to making the work a crucial text in Black Book History.

Related:
• Black Book History, February 2019

Haley Reading Group: “Altered Taste”

[The Best American Science and Nature Writing (2017)]

Maria Konnikova’s article “Altered Taste” follows the story of a restaurant, The Fat Duck, redesigned in the hopes of altered customer’s reception of their food. Konnikova parallels The Fat Duck with neurogastronomy or the concept that flavor and taste “do not originate in what we eat but in what our minds derive from the experience” (11).

This article points out the complicated relationship between the brain, the food we eat, and our relationship to both things. Konnikova focuses on the importance of neurogastronomy, and what this research can mean for the food we digest.

What aspect of Konnikova’s article did you find most useful or interesting? Why? 

Jason McCall, cultural reference, and Black Book History

Many poets leave wide-ranging popular cultural references out of their works. Not Jason McCall. His volume Dear Hero, (2013) highlights the wonderful possibilities of a contemporary black poet putting eclectic knowledge to good use.

He  makes references to dozens of characters and historical figures across time in his volume. There's Achilles, Andre the Giant, Chuck D, Doctor Doom, Katy Perry, Zeus, and many more all mentioned. He finds ways to incorporate these numerous figures, this diverse cast of characters into a book of poems.

I thought of McCall's Dear Hero, as well as his other volumes as I was reflecting on Black Book History. Too often, histories of the book concentrate on novels and famous nonfiction works. Poetry tends to receive less attention, and understandably contemporary poets perhaps doesn't fit within our sense of history.

Some additional volumes of poetry by McCall

Yet, a body of work like McCall's deserves our attention for signaling changes and possibilities. Years from now or at this moment, we could look to a book like Dear Hero, as a fascinating cultural catalog. McCall possesses artful and playful abilities mixing and matching as he creates this expansive inventory of Greek heroes and gods, professional wrestlers, singers, rappers, and comic book characters. 

Related:
• Black Book History, February 2019
• A Notebook on Jason McCall

Black Book History and the greatest 25 years in African American women's writing

As I've noted before, a case could be made that 1969 - 1994 represents the greatest 25 years in African American women's writing. We have outstanding works by everyone from Alice Walker, Sonia Sanchez, and Toni Morrison to Octavia Butler, bell hooks, Elizabeth Alexander, and Tricia Rose. There's a long list of contributions.

As I was reflecting on the publication of works over time, I thought about those many works by black women writers during that 25-year stretch of time. Like various other periodizations, those years are somewhat arbitrary. However, the emergence of a large and distinct group of black women writers in the late 1960s does stand out to me. And people have regularly acknowledged some of those writers.

But there's usually talk of the novelists, the poets or the essayists and scholars, with fewer discussions linking them or highlighting their collective contributions. And, we usually limit the talk of the contributions of the writers to the 1970s aside from a few exceptions such as Walker's The Color Purple (1982) and Morrison's Beloved (1987). Alright, but if we take Butler, bell hooks, Rose, and others into account, we could easily extend with an uninterrupted flow of works up the mid-1990s.

If we're thinking through various moments concerning Black Book History, we'd definitely be inclined to note many works produced during that 1969 - 1994 time frame. 

Related:
• Black Book History, February 2019
• The greatest 25 years in African American women's writing?
• Black men writers and creativity, 1995 - 2016

Third World Press and Black Book History

Founded in 1967 by Haki Madhubuti, Third World Press has been a crucial force in the publication of black books. The press has published poems, nonfiction, and novels. The company took the Black Arts imperative of "institution building" quite seriously.

The press has published works by some of our most respected and important writers, including Dudley Randall, Hoyt W. Fuller, Gwendolyn Brooks, Amiri Baraka, and many more. The longevity of the press has been quite impressive as well. Third World Press is, as noted on the company site, "the oldest independent publisher of Black thought and literature in the country."

A few years ago, Madhubuti donated nearly the full catalog of Third Press books to the Eugene B. Redmond Collection at SIUE. Seeing all those publications, which were published between 1970 and 2015, was a reminder of how vital the press had been to Black Book History over the last 50 years.

Related:
• Black Book History, February 2019
• Haki Madhubuti donates Third World Press books to EBR Center

Deborah Willis, photography, and Black Book History

By now, you've glanced through a few of those books of photos organized by Deborah Willis, right? Her collections showcase wonderful images of black folks across time. Really beautiful books. 

I've written about her works before, noting how she opened up a really vast world of images for me. The images include old black and white images as well as more up-to-date colorful photographs. She does a really good job charting our visual history. 

Willis's collections are significant documents in Black Book History.

Related:    
• Black Book History, February 2019
• Reading, Viewing & Sharing Deborah Willis's books

A Notebook on Nikki Giovanni

2024

• December 28: From Nikki Giovanni and Amiri Baraka to C. Liegh McInnis and others 

• December 9: Coverage of Nikki Giovanni's passing 

2019
• June 30: A notebook on the Furious Flower Nikki Giovanni seminar
• June 30: Margo Crawford discusses poetry and visual art at Nikki Giovanni seminar
• June 20: William J. Harris explains why Nikki Giovanni, other popular poets are often ignored
• June 19: Giovanni Scholars converge at Furious Flower
• June 18: Nikki Giovanni, collegiate black men, and power poses
• June 17: The many versions of Nikki Giovanni's Ego Tripping
• February 9: Nikki Giovanni and Black Book History

2018
• August 1: Poetry, high school students, and Nikki Giovanni's Power Pose

2014
• July 21: Nikki Giovanni's book cover appearances

2013
• January 27: Maya Angelou, Nikki Giovanni, and the popularity of poets

2012
• November 6: Nikki Giovanni -- The Great Gateway Poet
• September 30: Truth Is on Its Way by Nikki Giovanni
• September 3: Nikki Giovanni's ego-tripping and other poems for young people
• February 9: The Militant Appeal of Nikki Giovanni’s “Ego Tripping”

2011
• September 7: Nikki Giovanni & Black Arts Poetry
• June 21: Pleasant Surprises: Thomas Sayers Ellis, Nikki Giovanni & Poetry Magazine
• March 14: Nikky Finney, Nikki Giovanni, & the Black Poetry Best Seller List 

2009
• October 8: Nikki Giovanni's Bicycles

Related: 
• A notebook on the works of writers, artists & cultural workers

Nikki Giovanni and Black Book History

Quiet as it's kept, Nikki Giovanni is one of our most prolific writers. She's been actively publishing books since the late 1960s. What began with her early works during the Black Arts era has persisted for five decades.

At this point, she has published volumes of poetry, children's books, and collections of essays. She has published books of her conversations with James Baldwin and Margaret Walker. She has edited collections of poems.

All those publications contribute to the importance of Giovanni's contributions to Black Book History.

Related:    
• Black Book History, February 2019
• A notebook on Nikki Giovanni

Tyehimba Jess's Leadbelly and Black Book History

Tyehimba Jess's leadbelly remains a central text in my considerations of bad men and persona poetry. Jess offers a biography in verse as he traces the life, career, and inner thoughts of Huddie Ledbetter and people who associated with him.

Jess's leadbelly represents an important contribution to the many collections of persona poems by black poets produced during the 21st century. The book is complex and fascinating and gives us useful ways for thinking about what's possible with black persona verse.

In the context of Black Book History, what makes leadbelly particularly important is the work's status as a connector. The book links to several past works and then works produced later.

Related:    
• Black Book History, February 2019
• A notebook on Tyehimba Jess

Digital Humanities Club: Week 2

We continued our work on audio compositions this week. The students continued adding beats to poems. As always, they enjoyed themselves, and we also sharpened our approaches.

I'm looking forward to pushing the students to do some collaborative work on the productions. That'll really test our skills and patience.

Related:
• The East St. Louis Digital Humanities Club Spring 2019

Hip-Hop Studies and Black Book History

Over the last several years, writers -- especially journalists and some scholars -- published a large body of articles and  books on hip hop. As a result, the critical discourse on rap, or what we might call Hip-Hop Studies, has become a really expansive field.
Our collective knowledge on

The many books on rap music suggest the varied perspectives and histories of the art form. We have biographies, memoirs, critical analyses of lyrics, studies of music in distinct regions, writings about specific rappers and rap groups, and so forth. [Click here for a list of books on hip hop.]

Comprehensive considerations of Black Book History during the last 30 years would necessarily take into account books on hip hop.

Related:
• Black Book History, February 2019
• Books on hip hop

7 ways of thinking about African American Literature & Culture

Notations for a conversation about African American literary studies and the Library of Congress collections.

Harriet Tubman, culture hero

There are a wide range of subjects related to African American literature and history and approaches to covering those subjects in classroom contexts. But how might we make sure that what we cover is manageable at the same time congruent with core interests in the fields of African American literary studies? Our conversation will highlight a select number of areas that have been important for many teachers and scholars in the field. Those areas include information about slavery and liberation, keywords, and major writers. In addition, the session will orient or re-introduce participants to useful modes for sharing content such as audio recordings and visual images.

1. Keywords
2. Major writers and publications -- List of 50 books.
3. Slavery and struggles for liberation
4. Culture Heroes and historical figures
5. Black poetry -- A checklist of Library of Congress audio recordings
6. Movements and mobility
7. Documentation of history and culture

Related:
• A Roundup of Zora Neale Hurston recordings - Library of Congress

A checklist of Library of Congress audio recordings -- black poets and other writers

The Library of Congress has a rich collection of audio recordings of black poets and other writers reading their works. Here's a checklist of some of their holdings by year.

1963: Arna Bontemps - reading
1970: Kamau Braithwaite - reading
1971: Michael S. Harper - reading
1972: Lucille Clifton - reading 
1973: Leon Damas and Sterling Brown - reading
1973: Sterling Brown - reading 
1974: June Jordan - reading  
1974: Ishmael Reed and Allen Gingsberg - reading
1975: Dudley Randall - reading
1976: Gwendolyn Brooks, Robert Hayden, and Michael S. reading  - reading
1976: Jay Wright - reading
1977: Audre Lorde - reading
1977: Dolores Kenderick - reading

Library of Congress and major black writers

The Library of Congress has, as you'd expect, an enormous body of resources on black writers. That's important since African American literary studies relies so much on the idea of major authors. Here's a list of links related to some of prominent black writers.

Frederick Douglass
   • Frederick Douglass Papers at the Library of Congress
   • Douglass Timeline
   • Images

Toni Morrison
   • General 
   • National Book Festival

Richard Wright
   • Images

Ralph Ellison
   • Short biography
   • Images
   • Arnold Rampersad discusses his Ellison biography (2007)
 
Zora Neale Hurston
   • Images
   • The Zora Neale Hurston Plays at the Library of Congress
   • Hurston singing railroad chant "Let's Shake It" (1939)

Alice Walker
   • Short biography
   • Reading her poems (1979)

Related:
• 7 ways of thinking about African American Literature & Culture
• A roundup of Zora Neale Hurston recordings -- Library of Congress

A Roundup of Zora Neale Hurston recordings - Library of Congress

While Zora Neale Hurston is widely known as a novelist, she was also an anthropologist, and she spent extensive time recording and collecting black folklore materials. The Library of Congress has samples of many of her materials. Here's a roundup of some of those items.

Interviewer: How do you learn most of your songs?

Hurston: I just get in the crowd with the people and if they sing it, and I listen as best I can and then I start joining in with a phrase or two and then finally I get so I can sing a verse and then I keep on til I learn all the verses and then I sing them back to the people until they tell me that I can sing them just like them and then I take part and I try it out on different people who already know the song until they are quite satisfied that I know it and then I carry it in my memory.

Recordings from June 18, 1939, at the Federal Music Project Office, Jacksonville, Florida
• Georgia Skin
• Description of lining track
• Halimuhfack
• Mule on the Mount
• Let's Shake It
• Dat Old Black Gal
• Shove It Over
• Uncle Bud
• Crow Dance
• Wake Up, Jacob
• Let the Deal Go Down
• Tilly, Lend Me Your Pigeon
• Gonna See My Long-Haired Babe
• Oh, the Buford Boat Done Come
• Po' Gal
• Mama Don't Want No Peas, No Rice
• Evalina
• Oh Mr. Brown

Related:
• Library of Congress and major black writers