Naming Black Poetry

A brief take on evolving labels for Black poetry, tracing shifts from Negro poetry to Black poetry to African American poetry through anthology titles reflecting changing cultural identities.

Written by Howard Rambsy II
Read by Kassandra Timm

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Related:

• Episodes of Remarkable Receptions

Racialized Anointments

A brief take on racialized anointments, tracing how media repeatedly elevate one Black writer at a time, narrowing attention while obscuring the broader landscape of African American literary production.

Script by Howard Rambsy II

Narration by Kassandra Timm

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Related:

• Episodes of Remarkable Receptions

Toni Morrison from Nine Appearances to Thousands

A brief take on Toni Morrison’s rise in graduate research, showing how dissertation data tracks her shift from minimal attention in the 1970s to central prominence in African American literary studies.

Script by Howard Rambsy II
Narration by Kassandra Timm

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Related:

• Episodes of Remarkable Receptions

Free Books

A brief take on free book distribution at SIUE, showing how giving students hundreds of titles and hosting browsing sessions sparked excitement and expanded opportunities for reading, conversation, and engagement with arts and humanities. 

Script by Howard Rambsy II 

Narration by Kassandra Timm

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Related:

• Episodes of Remarkable Receptions

The Fantastic Findings Forum

A brief take on the Fantastic Findings Forum, showing how short reflections demonstrate that brief insights can open new interpretive pathways in African American literary studies. 

Script by Howard Rambsy II 

Narration by Kassandra Timm

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Related:

• Episodes of Remarkable Receptions

• The Fantastic Findings Forum (PLL)

"Don't Susan Smith Me" -- Yes, Students Read Cornelius Eady's Brutal Imagination

Last spring I was on sabbatical, but I still wanted the students in the African American literary studies program I coordinate to read some selections I selected. I felt that they needed to read a couple of poems from Cornelius Eady’s Brutal Imagination (2001) and learn about the circumstances of Susan Smith.

Smith is the white woman who fabricated a story about a Black man kidnapping her children. She had, in fact, killed them. Eady composed an arresting volume of poems that characterizes the tendency toward brutal imaginings that project and create Black men as criminals. I discovered Eady’s book when I was in graduate school, and the work has stayed with me throughout my career.

I wondered if my junior colleagues received my messages and instructions to discuss some of Brutal Imagination with the young’uns. Apparently they did. When I showed up on campus this time last year, I would encounter students and jokingly say that I heard they weren’t taking their studies seriously. More than a few responded, “Nooo, Professor Rambsy, don’t Susan Smith me.” That is, don’t lie on me.

It was hilarious. They had transformed Susan Smith into a verb. When I joked with one student about not working hard enough, she responded that I was “Susan Smithing” her. I told another student that folks told me he’d been skipping class, and he said, “Nope, they trying to Susan Smith me. They lying.”

So, yes, I learned that, even though I was away, students in African American literary studies at SIUE were made aware of Cornelius Eady’s Brutal Imagination.

Related:

• A Notebook on Cornelius Eady

Blogging about Poetry in March 2026

[Related content: Blogging about Poetry]

• March 31: Why Cities, States Need Cultural Witnesses like Brian Gilmore

• March 9: Conversing Almost 30 Years with William J. Harris about Amiri Baraka

• March 1: Blogging about Poetry in February 2026

Another Chapter in the Howard vs. Howard Photoshoot Saga

For more than a decade, I successfully evaded university photographer Howard Ash, who had been working diligently, and continually failing, to get me to meet for a photoshoot. But he won on Monday after unfairly securing assistance from Associate Dean Elizabeth Cali and marketing associates Kalli Collins and Madelaine Deardeuff.

First, Cali, Collins, and Deardeuff worked with me on an article about the Black Lit Network that will appear in university publications. Then they informed me that I would need to update my headshot. As always, I was initially reluctant, but when I realized that it had somehow been more than ten years since my first photoshoot, I agreed.

Howard Ash, university photographer, preparing to take images

The first photoshoot I did with Ash took place in the Redmond Reading Room on the third floor of the library on March 18, 2015. When we scheduled this most recent one for March 30, 2026, I arranged for us to meet in the Eugene B. Redmond Learning Center on the second floor of the library.

Ash won this round of the Howard vs. Howard photoshoot saga, and I will now spend the next several years returning to my tried-and-true strategy: avoiding his camera.

Related:  

• Photoshoots in the Redmond Room (2015) and then the Redmond Center (2026)