Black Writers & Afro-Mississippians & C. Liegh McInnis

I've been following C. Liegh McInnis's work since I was an undergraduate in Jackson, Mississippi, at Tougaloo College from 1995 - 1999. Back then, I primarily knew him as a poet, as he was organizing and participating in readings in the city. In passing back then, someone said, "he knows a lot about Prince." 

Later, I learned that C. Liegh's an expert on Prince, producing the book The Lyrics of Prince:  A Literary Look At a Creative, Musical Poet, Philosopher and Storyteller (1997, 2000, 2007). He's published essays, short stories, and volumes of poetry. When I went off to graduate school at Pennsylvania State University, one of my connections to the South and specifically Mississippi was C. Liegh's Psychedelic Literature newsletter. 

Over the years, I recall C. Liegh mentioning books and authors that are especially important to black folks in Mississippi, so I asked him to contribute to our podcast series, Remarkable Receptions. 

Given some recurring, overly simplistic views of Mississippi, C. Liegh points out why Afro-Mississippians hold Richard Wright’s Black Boy, Margaret Walker Alexander’s Jubilee, and John Oliver Killens’s ‘Sippi in high regard.

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Related:

• Episodes of Remarkable Receptions

• A Notebook on C. Liegh McInnis