A roundup of poetry volumes, 2010 - 2019

Here's a roundup of volumes of poetry published between 2010 and 2019. It's not a comprehensive list, but does give some sense of the output among black writers over the last ten years.

[Related: A checklist of book lists]

2010
• No Surrender by Ai
• Crave Radiance by Elizabeth Alexander
• Shahid Reads His Own Palm by Reginald Dwayne Betts
• Suck on the Marrow by Camille T. Dungy
• Skin Inc. by Thomas Sayers Ellis
• Lighthead by Terrance Hayes
• Holding Company by Major Jackson
• My Father’s Kites by Allison Joseph
• Mule by Shane McCrae
• My Old Man Was Always on the Lam by Tony Medina
• Up Jump the Boogie by John Murillo
• Morning Haiku by Sonia Sanchez
• Hard Times Require Furious Dancing by Alice Walker
• Issac Murphy I Dedicate This Ride by Frank X. Walker

2011
• Ascent: Poems by Doris Davenport
• Bringing the Shovel Down by Ross Gay
• Mule & Pear by Rachel Eliza Griffiths
• Head Off & Split by Nikky Finney
• Negro League Baseball by Harmony Holiday
• The Chameleon Couch: Poems by Yusef Komunyakaa
• Silver by Jason McCall
• Double Shadow: Poems by Carl Phillips
• the new black by Evie Shockley
• Life on Mars by Tracy K. Smith
• The Armageddon of Funk by Michael Warr
• Ardency by Kevin Young

2012
• The Vital System: Poems by C. M. Burroughs
• The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton 1965-2010 by Lucille Clifton
• We Did Not Fear The Father: New and Selected Poems by Charles Fort
• Coffle by Reginald Flood
• me and Nina by Monica Hand
• Rhyme Scheme by Tracie Morris
• The Ground by Rowan Ricardo Phillips
• Shoulda Been Jimi Savannah by Patricia Smith
• Errancities by Quincy Troupe
• Thrall by Natasha Trethewey

Digital Humanities Club: Week 8

For our November 19 session, we spent time checking out the audio editing program, Audacity. We were taking a break from our semester-long work with collages. We had worked with the program in the past, so some of the students were familiar with it.

Moving from graphic design to audio also gave us a chance to consider our preferences. Some students are really committed to image work, while others would prefer to work with music. In a perfect world of course, we'll come up with projects that allow us to combine our interests.

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

A conversation with educator-organizer Jay Gillen

Yesterday a group of students in our GAME and FAME programs met with educator, organizer, and author Jay Gillen. During the session, Gillen had a conversation with our students about youth activism and empowerment. He discussed the Algebra Project and how high school students have incorporated the program in Baltimore schools.

At various points, Gillen would ask, "so what do you think?" He was inviting students into the conversation. They enjoyed participating and shaping the direction of what was discussed.

Several students shared their thoughts. The discussion of challenges faced by students in Baltimore resonated with our folks, many of whom are from Chicago and St. Louis. We had just recently been discussing ways that schools diminish creativity. We had also begun talking about ways that students might push school systems to change, and how they might take alternative paths.

At one point while discussing some of the projects led by young people in Baltimore, Gillen noted that the students received pay for their work. That really intrigued our group, and they had many opinions and responses when Gillen asked what they thought about receiving monetary compensation to share their own skills and expertise while serving other students and communities.

Gillen's book The Power in the Room: Radical Education Through Youth Organizing and Employment (2019) focuses on "a youth-run cooperative enterprise in which young people direct their peers’ and their own learning for a wage." Raising that idea during the discussion was new and interesting for the students.

At the close of the session, a few students stayed to follow up with Gillen. They wanted to learn more about what he was discussing. Some stayed even longer to talk with me about the possibilities of extending similar conversations with more groups. We agreed to take a look at Gillen's book so that we might figure out ways to cover it with more people next semester.

Related:
• Collegiate Students

15 memoirs by black women, 2015 - 2019

Lakenzie Walls

2015: The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl by Issa Rae
2015: Ordinary Light: A Memoir by Tracy K. Smith
2016: You Can’t Touch My Hair: And Other Things I Still Have to Explain by Phoebe Robinson
2017: We Are Never Meeting In Real Life by Samatha Irby
2017: Hunger: A Memoir by Roxane Gay
2017: The Mother of Black Hollywood A Memoir by Jenifer Lewis
2017: This Is Just My Face Try Not to Stare by Gabourey Sidibe
2017: Real American A Memoir by Julie Lythcott- Haims
2018: This Will Be My Undoing: Living at the Intersection of Black, Female, and Feminist in (White) America by Morgan Jerkins
2018: When They Call you A Terrorist, A Black Lives Matter Memoir by Patrisse Khan- Cullors & Asha Bandele
2019: Thick: And Other Essays by Tressie McMillan Cottom
2019: The Yellow House by Sarah M. Broom
2019: When You Learn The Alphabet by Kendra Allen
2019: The Pretty One: On Life, Pop Culture, Disability, and Other Reasons to Fall in Love With Me by Keah Brown
2019: Black Is The Body: Stories from My Grandmother’s Time, My Mother’s Time, and Mine by Emily Bernard

Related:
• A checklist of book lists

----------------
Lakenzie Walls is a graduate student in English at SIUE and a contributing writer for the Cultural Front.

Haley Reading Group: “Dr. Space Junk Unearths the Cultural Landscape of the Cosmos”

[The Best American Science and Nature Writing (2018)]

In “Dr. Space Junk Unearths the Cultural Landscape of the Cosmos,” Dovey focuses on the work of Alice Gorman, a space archeologist. According to Gorman, we should treat “space as a cultural landscape with richly layered scientific, political, and religious meanings, instead of an empty vacuum that anybody…can venture into with impunity” (142).

Dovey focuses on the lengths Gorman must take in order to study the materials left over from the space age. Since Gorman cannot do fieldwork in space, she must be creative in her attempts often studying left over debris in order to single out satellites to connect the “dots of our history in space in ways non-specialists can understand” (144).

What is one important way that you shifted, expanded, or at least reconsidered your views of space as a result of reading this article?

A Roundup of African American single-author studies

Pulling together lists of black autobiographies and biographies had me thinking about another fixture in African American literary studies--the single-author book-length study. These are works that analyze aspects of a writer's works.

So here's a roundup of titles. Certainly, what's presented here is just a small portion of what's been produced.

• 1970: Richard Wright: An Introduction to the Man and His Works by Russell Carl Brignano
• 1972: Claude McKay: The Black Poet at War by Addison Gayle
• 1972: The Emergence of Richard Wright: A Study in Literature and Society by Keneth Kinnamon
• 1973: From LeRoi Jones to Amiri Baraka: The Literary Works by Theodore R. Hudson
• 1974: Many-Colored Coat of Dreams: The Poetry of Countee Cullen by Houston A. Baker, Jr.
• 1976: The Art and Imagination of W.E.B. Du Bois by Arnold Rampersad
• 1985: The Poetry and Poetics of Amiri Baraka the Jazz Aesthetic by William J. Harris
• 1990: Voice of a Native Son: The Poetics of Richard Wright by Eugene E. Miller
• 1991: Richard Wright's Art of Tragedy by Joyce Ann Joyce
• 1994: The World of Richard Wright by Michel J. Fabre
• 1999: A Nation Within a Nation: Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones) and Black Power Politics by Koomozi Woodard
• 1999: Understanding Gloria Naylor by Margaret Earley Whitt
• 1999: Understanding August Wilson By Mary L. Bogumil
• 2000: Quiet as it's Kept: Shame, Trauma, and Race in the Novels of Toni Morrison by J. Brooks Bouson
• 2000: Toni Morrison by Linden Peach
• 2000: The Identifying Fictions of Toni Morrison: Modernist Authenticity and Postmodern Blackness by John N. Duvall
• 2001: Amiri Baraka: The Politics and Art of a Black Intellectual by Jerry Watts
• 2002: Toni Morrison's “Beloved” and the Apotropaic Imagination by Kathleen Marks
• 2003: Liberation Memories: The Rhetoric and Poetics of John Oliver Killens by Keith Gilyard
• 2003: Toni Morrison: Playing with Difference by Lucille P. Fultz
• 2004: Understanding Charles Johnson by Gary Storhoff
• 2004: I ain't Sorry for Nothin' I done: August Wilson's Process of Playwriting by Joan Herrington
• 2004: Toni Morrison and Motherhood: A Politics of the Heart by Andrea O'Reilly
• 2004: Wild Blessings: The Poetry of Lucille Clifton by Hilary Holladay

• 2005: The Death-Bound-Subject: Richard Wright's Archaeology of Death by Abdul R. JanMohamed

• 2006: Understanding Rita Dove by Pat Righelato
• 2007: Understanding Jamaica Kincaid by Justin D. Edwards
• 2007: Can’t I Love What I Criticize? the Masculine and Morrison by Susan Neal Mayberry
• 2007: Black Looks and Black Acts: The Language of Toni Morrison in The Bluest Eye and Beloved by Ritashona Simpson
• 2007: The Cambridge Companion to Toni Morrison by Justine Tally
• 2008: Toni Morrison and the Idea of Africa by La Vinia Delois Jennings
• 2008: Toni Morrison's Developing Class Consciousness by Doreatha Drummond Mbalia
• 2009: African Spiritual Traditions in the Novels of Toni Morrison by K. Zauditu-Selassie
• 2009: Claude McKay, Code Name Sasha: Queer Black Marxism and the Harlem Renaissance by Gary Edward Holcomb
• 2009: Charles Johnson in Context by Linda Furgerson Selzer
• 2010: Race, Trauma, and Home in the Novels of Toni Morrison by Evelyn Jaffe Schreiber
• 2011: Toni Morrison by Pelagia Goulimari
• 2012: Understanding Etheridge Knight by Michael S. Collins
• 2012: Pauline Hopkins and the American Dream by Alisha Knight
• 2013: Spectrality in the Novels of Toni Morrison by Melanie R. Anderson
• 2013: The Radical Fiction of Ann Petry by Keith Clark
• 2014: Toni Morrison's Fiction: Revised and Expanded Edition by Jan Furman
• 2014: James Baldwin and the Queer Imagination by Matt Brim
• 2014: Understanding Colson Whitehead by Derek C. Maus
• 2014: Richard Wright and Haiku by Yoshinobu Hakutani
• 2016: The Lives of Frederick Douglass by Robert S. Levine
• 2017: Love and Narrative Form in Toni Morrison’s Later Novels by Jean Wyatt
• 2017: Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Theology by M. Cooper Harriss
• 2018: Robert Hayden in Verse: New Histories of African American Poetry and the Black Arts Era by Derik Smith
• 2018: James Baldwin and the 1980s: Witnessing the Reagan Era by Joseph Vogel
• 2018: James Baldwin and the Heavenly City: Prophecy, Apocalypse, and Doubt by Christopher Z. Hobson
• 2018: Looking for Lorraine: The Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry by Imani Perry
• 2019: Building the Black Arts Movement: Hoyt Fuller and the Cultural Politics of the 1960s by Jonathan Fenderson
• 2019: Understanding James Baldwin by Marc Dudley

Related:
• A checklist of book lists

A Bibliography of Black Writer Biographies

Although this list, like so many of my lists, is ongoing, I first began working on it on October 1, 2004. That's when I attended a lecture at the University of Kansas by Jean Fagan Yellin discussing her biography of Harriet Jacobs. More importantly, the lecture was hosted by Maryemma Graham's Project on the History of Black Writing, an important source of my bibliographic projects. That lecture was also where I first met Joycelyn Moody, and among other topics, she and I began discussing biographies of black writers.

[Related: 50 Black Autobiographies and Memoirs, 1845 - 2019]

What follows is a list of some of the biographies that have come up in my discussions of African American literary studies.

• 1899: Frederick Douglass by Charles Chesnutt
• 1948: Frederick Douglass by Benjamin Quarles
• 1950: The Life and Writings of Frederick Douglass by Philip S. Foner
• 1968: Richard Wright: A Biography by Constance Webb
• 1970: The Most Native of Sons: A Biography of Richard Wright by John A. Williams
• 1971: Oak and Ivy: A Biography of Paul Laurence Dunbar by Addison Gayle
• 1973: The Unfinished Quest of Richard Wright by Michel Fabre
• 1977: Zora Neale Hurston: A Literary Biography by Robert Hemenway
• 1980: Slave and Citizen: The Life of Frederick Douglass by Nathan Irvin Huggins and Oscar Handlin
• 1980: Richard Wright: Ordeal of a Native Son by Addison Gayle
• 1984: Jean Toomer, Artist: A Study of His Literary Life and Work, 1894-1936 by Nellie Y. McKay
• 1984: From the Auroral Darkness: The Life and Poetry of Robert Hayden by John Hatcher
• 1986: The Life of Langston Hughes: Volume I: 1902-1941: I, Too, Sing America by Arnold Rampersad
• 1987: Claude McKay: Rebel Sojourner in the Harlem Renaissance by Wayne F. Cooper
• 1988: Richard Wright, Daemonic Genius: A Portrait of the Man by Margaret Walker
• 1988: The Life of Langston Hughes: Volume II: 1941-1967: I Dream a World by Arnold Rampersad

• 1990: A Life of Gwendolyn Brooks by George E. Kent
• 1991: Frederick Douglass by William McFeely
• 1991: Richard Wright's Art of Tragedy by Joyce Ann Joyce
• 1992: Claude McKay: A Black Poet's Struggle for Identity by Tyrone Tillery
• 1992: Nikki Giovanni by Virginia C. Fowler
• 1993: W. E. B. Du Bois, 1868-1919: Biography of a Race by David Levering Lewis
• 1994: James Baldwin: A Biography by David A. Leeming
• 1998: Dudley Randall, Broadside Press, and the Black Arts Movement in Detroit, 1960-1995 by Julius E. Thompson
• 2000: W.E.B. Du Bois: The Fight for Equality and the American Century 1919-1963 by David Levering Lewis
• 2000: Chester Himes: A Life by James Sallis
• 2001: Frantz Fanon: A Biography by David Macey
• 2001: Richard Wright: The Life and Times by Hazel Rowley
• 2002: Ralph Ellison: Emergence of Genius by Lawrence P. Jackson
• 2002: Wrapped in Rainbows: The Life of Zora Neale Hurston by Valerie Boyd
• 2003: Harriet Jacobs: A Life by Jean Yellin
• 2004: Warrior Poet: A Biography of Audre Lorde by Alexis De Veaux
• 2004: Wrestling with the Muse: Dudley Randall and the Broadside Press by Melba Joyce Boyd
• 2004: Wild Blessings: The Poetry of Lucille Clifton by Hilary Holladay
• 2004: Alice Walker: A Life by Evelyn C. White
• 2006: Claude Mckay: The Literary Identity from Jamaica to Harlem And Beyond by Kotti Sree Ramesh and Kandula Nirupa Rani
• 2007: Ralph Ellison: A Biography by Arnold Rampersad
• 2008: Ida: A Sword Among Lions: Ida B. Wells and the Campaign Against Lynching by Paula J. Giddings
• 2009: To Tell the Truth Freely: The Life of Ida B. Wells by Mia Bay
• 2010: John Oliver Killens: A Life of Black Literary Activism by Keith Gilyard
• 2011: Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention by Manning Marable
• 2012: And Bid Him Sing: A Biography of Countée Cullen by Charles Molesworth
• 2013: Nikki Giovanni: A Literary Biography by Virginia C. Fowler
• 2014: Visible Man: The Life of Henry Dumas by Jeffrey B. Leak
• 2016: The Lives of Frederick Douglass by Robert S. Levine
• 2017: Chester B. Himes: A Biography by Lawrence P. Jackson
• 2017: A Surprised Queenhood in the New Black Sun: The Life & Legacy of Gwendolyn Brooks by Angela Jackson
• 2018: The New Negro: The Life of Alain Locke by Jeffrey C. Stewart
• 2018: Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom by David W. Blight
• 2018: Looking for Lorraine: The Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry by Imani Perry

Related:
• A checklist of book lists

Black boys, teachers, and creativity

Last week, I was talking with a class of first-year black men about ways that they felt their creativity was diminished in high school. We were discussing their experiences as black boys in high school, after covering this popular TED talk by Ken Robinson entitled "Do Schools Kill Creativity?"

At one point, the guys worked in small groups listing barriers to creativity. When we convened as a class and looked over the lists, we noticed a pattern. In many cases, students raised issues concerning their conflicts with teachers.

They noted that the teachers gave "strict instructions" and did not allow them to address a variety of topics. At one point, a student said that "we care about ideas," and apparently, they had not been allowed to explore enough of those ideas in their schools.

During the discussion, I wondered if some of their problems with teachers were problems of curriculums. Were the teachers simply following mandates and thus unable to attend to the explorations that the guys sought? To what extent was diminished creatively at their schools cumulative and structural?

All of this is obviously something I'll need to think about much more.

Related:
• A Notebook on Collegiate Students

The trouble with black poetry studies

The field of black poetry has had expansive growth over the last twenty years. Well, in some ways. Today, we have more poets, more volumes of poetry, more retreats, more MFAs and MFA program, more awards and fellowships. There just hasn't been notable growth in the scholarly realm.

Black poetry studies struggles. There are reviews of individual books, sure. There are interviews here and there, and an occasional profile. But take a look through scholarly journals -- African American Review, Callaloo, CLA Journal, MELUS, etc. --- and you'll see relatively little scholarship on contemporary black poetry during a moment when everywhere else the field is growing.

I think there are a lot of reasons why we've seen so little by way of criticism and extended commentary. For one, people aren't exposed to the study of contemporary African American poetry early on in, say, high school, and then in college. Too, with relatively few specialists in the field in any given place, there aren't many special classes on contemporary,  and not enough is being passed on to new generations of scholars and commentators who might focus on black poetry.

There has been tremendous financial investment in contemporary poets and poetry publications. The same can't be said of the investments in the development of black poetry scholars and writing about poetry. Of course, there's isn't enough investment in critical discourses in artistic realms well beyond contemporary black poetry.

Finally, there are many more artforms capturing people's attention these days. Folks in literature, for instance, are studying and writing about film, television shows, YouTube series, music, comic books, and so forth. Contemporary black poetry comes in low on this list of topics to write about.

Moving forward, I'll try to explore some of the issues in a little more depth with the hopes of seeing where there's room for improvements.

Related:
• What if contemporary African American poetry had Black Arts-like scholarly support?
• 50 scholarly books on black poetry, 1997-2018
• A partial list of Black Arts-related scholarship, 2004 - 2015

50+ Black Autobiographies and Memoirs, 1845 - 2019

Here's a roundup of black autobiographies. This list contributes to my ongoing bibliographies. It's no doubt a partial list.

1845: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass
1849: Narrative of the Life of Henry Box Brown by Henry Box Brown
1853: Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup
1855: My Bondage and My Freedom by Frederick Douglass
1860: Running a thousand Miles for Freedom by William and Ellen Craft
1861: Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs
1901: Up From Slavery by Booker T. Washington
1940: The Big Sea by Langston Hughes
1942: Dust Tracks on a Road by Zora Neale Hurston
1945: Black Boy by Richard Wright

1965: The Autobiography of Malcolm X as told to Alex Haley
1965: Manchild in the Promised Land by Claude Brown
1968: Coming of Age in Mississippi by Anne Moody
1968: Soul on Ice by Eldridge Cleaver
1969: I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings
1970: Crusade for Justice: The Autobiography of Ida B. Wells by Ida B. Wells
1971: Gemini: An Extended Autobiographical Statement...on being a Black Poet by Nikki Giovanni
1973: Revolutionary Suicide by Huey P. Newton
1974: Angela Davis: An Autobiography by Angela Davis
1974: Gather Together in My Name by Maya Angelou

When You Can’t Dance, Pt 1

From "The Dance"

Lakenzie Walls

“You can dance? I don’t believe it.”
“I can’t even imagine you dancing.” — Issa Rae, The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl

In Issa Rae's memoir The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl, she revealed that she bragged in high school about her excellent dancing skills when she received an invitation to a friend's party. The response she received in return was just as amusing as her dancing ability.

The ability to dance well is the epitome of coolness and expected of black people. When Rae lied about her dancing skills, I understood why she would go to great lengths to create the illusion that she can dance.

There's a popular myth that says black people can naturally dance or stay on beat. Many people hold onto these cultural beliefs that black people have an innate dancing ability, so it becomes peculiar when you encounter a black girl with no rhythm and two left feet.

Dancing is essential to black culture because it's rich in tradition. For example, "footworkin" was a popular dance in Chicago in the early 2000s, and I never participated publicly in the dance because I didn't want to be embarrassed myself. When people started to footwork at parties, I would ease my way to the back of the crowd and watch from afar.

I never learned to properly footwork or dance, but I still get invited to parties and decide to have a good time and join in with my awkward moves. Sometimes I may worry if people are watching me move rhythmless across the dance floor, but I don't let it consume my thoughts, and I focus on the moment.

Related:
• "Awkward Black Girls Really Do Exist"

----------------
Lakenzie Walls is a graduate student in English at SIUE and a contributing writer for the Cultural Front.

Haley Reading Group: “Dr. Space Junk Unearths the Cultural Landscape of the Cosmos”

[The Best American Science and Nature Writing (2018)]

In “Dr. Space Junk Unearths the Cultural Landscape of the Cosmos,” Dovey focuses on the work of Alice Gorman, a space archeologist. According to Gorman, we should treat “space as a cultural landscape with richly layered scientific, political, and religious meanings, instead of an empty vacuum that anybody…can venture into with impunity” (142).

Dovey focuses on the lengths Gorman must take in order to study the materials left over from the space age. Since Gorman cannot do fieldwork in space, she must be creative in her attempts often studying left over debris in order to single out satellites to connect the “dots of our history in space in ways non-specialists can understand” (144).

What is one important way that you shifted, expanded, or at least reconsidered your views of space as a result of reading this article?

East St. Louis postcard collages

collage of church postcards

This semester our East St. Louis Digital Humanities Club has devoted considerable time to experimenting with collages. The works that they produced served as the content for our recent exhibit Re-imagining East St. Louis. The exhibit included collages and videos.

Here are a sample of some of the collages the high school students produced.

Collage of school postcards

collage based on assortment of postcards

collage of city park postcards 

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

Digital Humanities Club: Week 7

student looking over videos for the upcoming exhibit

On our November 5 session, we completed some work and made way for new directions. First, I gave the students a preview of the upcoming exhibit. We looked over the panels that we would use. They also got a chance to view the various videos produced by college students.

For the rest of the time, some students did some finishing touches on postcard collages for the upcoming exhibit. Some other students began experimenting with audio, which we'll devote more time to moving forward.

Next up, we'll start thinking about future projects. I expect that there'll be some divergence in what students do. Some will want to continue working with collage, while others are interested in moving on to audio production.

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

Re-imagining East St. Louis: postcard project

On November 7, for our Public Thinking Event, we coordinated a mixed media exhibit based on East St. Louis postcards from the Andrew J. Theising Collection. On the one hand, we showed collages that were created by members from the East St. Louis Digital Humanities Club. The club members are high school students from the SIUE/East St. Louis Charter School.

We've been working on the East St. Louis postcard collages for a few weeks now, as part of the activities that we do when we meet each week. The high school students got a chance to consider historical views of their city. They also had the chance to produce artistic interpretations as they pulled from and worked with the postcard collection.

In addition to the collages, I worked with a few undergrads and a graduate student to produce short videos focusing on aspects of the postcards. We played and looped the videos during the activity. I've coordinated dozens of exhibits over the years, but this was one of the few in the library that included music.

One student, Terrance Wellmaker, produced videos using bridge, downtown, and school postcards. Another student, Naseem Dove produced videos on city park and church postcards. Joshua White, a graduate student, produce a video based on the collages composed by the high school students.     

East St. Louis postcard collages video

My recent work with a group of young creators resulted in some cool artistic productions. This video features East St. Louis postcards from the Andrew J. Theising Collection. The collages were composed by members of the East St. Louis Digital Humanities Club. The video production and music are by Joshua White.

• East St. Louis City Parks postcards
• East St. Louis & St. Louis bridges postcards
• A Notebook on the Andrew J. Theising Research Collection

East St. Louis City Parks postcards

A group of creators recently collaborated with me to produce artistic productions focusing on the Andrew J. Theising Collection. This video and music were produced by Naseem Dove.

Related: 
• East St. Louis postcard collage video
• East St. Louis & St. Louis bridges postcards
• A Notebook on the Andrew J. Theising Research Collection

East St. Louis & St. Louis bridges postcards

As part of our ongoing work on East St. Louis postcards from the Andrew J. Theising Collection, a group of young creators collaborated with me to produce a few different artistic productions.

This video was produced by Terrance Wellmaker. The music is by Naseem Dove.

Related: 
• East St. Louis City Parks postcards
• East St. Louis postcard collage video
• A Notebook on the Andrew J. Theising Research Collection

Visiting the STEM Center

On November 5, as part of our continuing Scholarly Connections and Rewarding Engagements project, we visited the university's STEM Center. The goal was to give students a brief introduction to the center and make them aware of some what the center offers.

Relatively few of the 60 students had ever visited the Science building. And none of them had ever stopped by the STEM Center. Most said that they did not know it was here.

We took a look at posters about past and current projects produced by the STEM Center. Some of the students were particularly interested in a poster about forensics since we are completing a unit on crime writing. The subject of forensics came up frequently among our students who are studying criminal justice and biology who are interested in forensic science.

The  STEM Center visit also made it possible for students to participate in hands on activities. Staff at the center shared an assortment of devices and tools that are available for check out. Students spent time looking over and playing with the items.

There was a model of average adult skull that seemed to capture everyone's interest. The skull has 22 individual parts/bones that can be taken apart and reassembled. It was difficult for folks to avoid working with it.

Haley Reading Group: “Of Mothers and Monkeys”

[The Best American Science and Nature Writing (2018)]

In “Of Mothers and Monkeys,” Caitlin Kuehn details the journey of watching her mother battle cancer while she conducts medical research on monkeys. Kuehn struggles with a question of ethics and morals while trying to decipher how much research should be conducted on animals, even for the purpose of medical research that could potentially save someone like her mother.

Kuehn writes, “it is hard to remind myself that medical research has a purpose. Some days it is as clear as cancer. Some days I just do not know” (152). She compares the needles, procedures, and panic her mom endures to the way the monkeys are treated in her medical research facility. Although she is torn about the ethical questions, she settles for the idea of having more time with her mother on earth.

In brief, what’s one question you would now raise as a result of reading this article? How did this article prompt you to raise that question?

"Awkward Black Girls Really Do Exist"

By Lakenzie Walls

“Let me introduce myself. My name is J and I’m awkward and black. Someone once told me those were the two worst things anyone could be.” --"The Stop Sign," The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl

Although the previous statement is debatable, it made think about my blackness. Who are the awkward black girls?

I was late to Issa Rae’s The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl. I discovered Rae’s now popular HBO show Insecure at the beginning of 2017 during a hectic spring semester. I finished the season in a record-breaking one day!

After I finished Insecure, I began searching the web for similar content. I came across an article highlighting Issa Rae’s achievements and her first featured YouTube series, The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl, which originally aired from 2011 and 2013. Throughout the web series, I notice she used the phrase “Awkward black girl” to describe herself.

Rae’s character embraces her awkwardness in candid moments that make her relatable. Finally, someone who understands me! That’s how I felt after repeatedly watching every episode of the web series.

A host of black women are writing about their lives and experiences in specific environments. While exploring concepts related to awkwardness, I will examine contemporary creative nonfiction that focuses on black women's narratives.

Related:
• When You Can’t Dance, Pt 1


----------------
Lakenzie Walls is a graduate student in English at SIUE and a contributing writer for the Cultural Front.

Dalyn Wells delivers State of Accessibility address

Last week, I attended the Champions of Accessibility Celebration Dinner, hosted by the office of Accessible Campus Community & Equitable Student Support (ACCESS). I was especially moved by the "State of Accessibility" address delivered by Dalyn Wells.

Dalyn is a Mass Communications major with a minor in creative writing major. I had seen him around campus for a couple of years, and this semester, he's a student in one my classes.

During his address, Dalyn discussed the challenges of navigating campus as a person with physical disabilities. "There have been numerous occasions where I thought to myself,' I don’t want to do this anymore,'" he said, noting some of the troubles he faced gaining even the most basic access. "If you had asked [back then] me would I recommend SIUE to a person with disabilities," he said, "I would of said 'no,' but if you asked me that same question today I would say 'yes.'"

What changed? He pointed out that his overall experience at the university greatly improved based on an expansion of ACCESS and particularly the arrival of an important advocate: Dominic Dorsey, director of the office of Accessible Campus Community & Equitable Student Support (ACCESS).

Dalyn provided three recommendations for additional improvements on campus:

• "First, I think we should invest in shuttles that would transport people with physical disabilities everywhere on campus and certain places off campus. The weather in this area is so unpredictable, it can be hot one day and cold the next."

• "Secondly, why do doors have to be so heavy, especially when they don’t have the button to open themselves? How are we supposed to gain the knowledge that we need to receive our education, when we can’t even open the door? It feels like you are denying us that right even though we pay our tuition like everyone else on campus."

• "Third, we need to have better communication when it comes to rooms. There are some rooms that are more accessible than others as far as space and the way that they are made. Seating is important when it comes to people with disabilities. If a teacher has a student with disabilities he or she should meet with the student prior to the first day of class to make sure that the room is easily accessible to the student."

Related:
• The Champions of Accessibility Celebration Dinner
• Scenes from the Champions of Accessibility Celebration Dinner

Scenes from the East St. Louis Digital Humanities Club: Weeks 1 - 6

A collection of images from the first 6 weeks of our after-school digital humanities club in fall 2019.

• Week 1: September 17

• Week 2: September 24

• Week 3: October 1

• Week 4: October 8

• Week 5: October 22

• Week 6: October 29

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

Digital Humanities Club: Week 6

For the session on October 29, we were putting the finishing touches on collages that we'll use for an upcoming exhibit. The guys who attended had a good time, as always, working and talking with our undergraduates.

The exhibit we'll curate will include images of the postcards, some of which will be presented in collages we've worked on over the last couple of months.

Sample of one of the collages

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

Blogging about poetry in October

[Related content: Blogging about Poetry]

• October 28: Black Poetry: A Timeline, 2000 - 2019
• October 24: Year in African American poetry entries
• October 1: Blogging about poetry in September