Reading with First-Semester Collegiate Black Men

Participants in the program, September 2005 

This fall will marks my 21st year teaching an African American literary and cultural studies course for a program for first-semester collegiate Black men here at the university. We've had a good time.

We read Frederick Douglass, Malcolm X, Toni Morrison, Amiri Baraka, and many others. We cover autobiography excerpts, essays, short fiction, poetry, rap, comic books, comic strips, whiteboard animations, and podcast episodes. 

So much has changed and remained the same over the last two decades working with the program. Keep in mind that when I began, I was working with Millennials (1986 - 1996), and for the last 10 years, I've been working with Generation Z (1997 - 2012). That means, I've seen evolving interests and views of the world. 

Some of young men are from Springfield, some from East St. Louis and Belleville, some from St. Louis, and many from the Chicago area. They arrive with varied academic capabilities. The have diverse musical preferences and interests in movies and video games. We have a good time on a variety of projects. 

Related 

• A Notebook on Black Boys, Black Men & Creativity

• A Notebook on Collegiate Students

How HBCUs Do More with Less: A Visualization by Emily Duru

By Kenton Rambsy

Emily Duru, a PhD student in English at Howard University, used Tableau Public to create a pair of visualizations that make HBCU funding disparities impossible to ignore. Her dashboard compares the top HBCUs to a sample of elite public and private PWIs, and the results are staggering. The combined endowments of the top 10 PWIs are more than 100 times larger than those of the top HBCUs.

 
Her work shows how HBCUs like Prairie View A&M and Howard University operate under intense financial pressure while producing some of the best outcomes for Black graduates. Prairie View A&M’s endowment is 133 percent smaller than Texas A&M’s, even though both are part of the same university system. At the same time, Howard’s endowment accounts for 29 percent of all private HBCU endowments and is still minuscule when compared to Harvard or Yale.

 
Emily’s visualization also breaks down operating revenue. She shows that while PWIs benefit from large government allocations, HBCUs rely heavily on tuition and private gifts. Public HBCUs in particular are vulnerable. Despite educating over 70 percent of all HBCU students, they receive far less state support than their PWI counterparts.

 
This visualization tells a story that is both urgent and structural. Emily’s work reflects the broader mission of the Black Data Lab at Howard: to turn raw data into clear stories that reach beyond academic walls. In a moment when federal funding and affirmative action are under attack, this kind of work pushes us to ask not just what the numbers say, but why the inequality persists. Her dashboard proves that data storytelling is a powerful method for truth-telling.

Related:

• Data Storytelling, Endowment Inequality, and the IF Retreat at Howard

Data Storytelling, Endowment Inequality, and the IF Retreat at Howard

Kenton Rambsy, Dana Williams, Keyanah Nurse

By Kenton Rambsy 

The American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) launched the Intention Foundry (IF) to support inclusive change in higher education. Funded by the Mellon Foundation and originally designed by Dr. Jovonne Bickerstaff, IF brings together scholars, administrators, and academic society leaders to pursue practical responses to long-standing inequities in the academy. Now led by Dr. Keyanah Nurse, IF emphasizes community building, intentional design, and collaborative problem-solving. 

This summer, the IF retreat took place at Howard University from June 3 to June 5, 2025. The event marked the culmination of a semester-long virtual institute. Alongside my co-steering committee members, Marian Toledo Candelaria and Jennifer Gammage, I helped develop and facilitate a curriculum centered on data storytelling. As the data storytelling specialist in the Center for Applied Data Science and Analytics (CADSA) at Howard, I brought elements of our instructional model to the retreat. Our work showed what happens when social justice priorities align with technical training and critical thinking.

We introduced participants to the FLOAT Method—Formulate, Locate, Organize, Analyze, and Tell—and guided them in using Tableau Public to build data stories. To anchor the institute, we used a shared dataset on HBCU endowments. This decision allowed participants to work from a common reference point and explore structural inequality through data. We added comparative figures from select PWIs to underscore the vast wealth gap.

 
Howard’s endowment stands at just over one billion dollars, the highest among HBCUs. Yet even that amount falls far behind elite institutions like Harvard, which holds over fifty billion. Most HBCUs operate with endowments below fifty million. This activity helped participants see how data can illuminate underfunding, especially when presented in accessible and visual formats.

Two of my Black Data Lab interns at Howard supported the retreat as technical assistants. Cierra Larke, a recent graduate from our data science program, created a visualization that mapped endowments and enrollment numbers across all HBCUs. Emily Duru, a PhD student in English, designed a dashboard  comparing top HBCUs with public and private PWIs.

In my opening remarks, I referenced the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision to end affirmative action. Justice Clarence Thomas, citing an NSF study, argued that HBCUs already produce a disproportionate number of Black judges, lawyers, and scientists. He framed that success as evidence that HBCUs do not need further support. His statement misreads the issue. Outcomes achieved under resource constraints should not be used to justify disinvestment.

The IF retreat demonstrated how data storytelling can clarify urgent problems and prepare scholars to engage broader publics. Howard provided a fitting setting for this work. We used the institute to cultivate technical fluency, historical awareness, and collective insight. It was a clear example of what becomes possible when equity-focused pedagogy meets the tools of data analysis.

Related:

• How HBCUs Do More with Less: A Visualization by Emily Duru

Mari Evans and Black Poetry After the Black Arts Movement

By Georgene Bess Montgomery

I have loved Mari Evans ever since I read her incredible poem “Who can be born Black and not sing the joy, the challenge of it? Who can be born Black and not EXULT?” So succinctly expressed, those lines captured the beauty, power, and magic of Blackness. For Mari Evans, a poet whose work epitomized both the Black Arts Movement and the Black Power Movement, I wanted to participate in the NEH “Black Poetry After the Black Arts Movement” to be immersed in poetry written by poets who perhaps were influenced by her work. 

The Seminar introduced me to more amazing poets whose brilliance and insightful examination took inside of Blackness to show us the beauty, the joy, the challenges of it, and told us to embrace it, to love it, and revel in it! I connected with scholars, some on a profound level like with my suitemate Tara Betts, whom I have invited to join via zoom a graduate class. I celebrate each time I see her on Facebook sharing another accomplishment—an invited lecture, a poetry reading, a new book of poetry. I teach the work of Tyehimba Jess and Evie Shockley. 

In so many ways, the Black Poetry After the Black Arts Movement profoundly influenced me, as a person, a scholar, and a writer. I am indeed thankful that I was selected to be a participant.

Related:

• Black Poetry After the Black Arts Movement: Reflections

The Importance of Black Poetry After the Black Arts Movement

By Laura Vrana

I had the privilege of being involved in the institute as a doctoral student, when my dissertation was still in the early stages. The richly stimulating intellectual environment of those weeks was invaluable for helping to formulate what became my dissertation—which is now, as of just last year and after much revision, my first academic monograph! 

Conversations led by the institute’s visiting scholars left significant footprints on the thinking that has became the book’s foundation, particularly in terms of enriching how I historicize the early-21st-century African American poetic landscape through attention to the precursor period of the Black Arts Movement. And several of the relationships I forged with fellow participants (both faculty and graduate student peers) during conversations about poets like Tyehimba Jess and Brenda Marie Osbey over dinners or late-night snacks have led to enduring collaborations on co-edited volumes and lasting mentorships.

It would not be an exaggeration to say that the career I am now making as a teacher-scholar of Black poetry would not have been possible without the initial willingness of those colleagues to invest in my growth, which has transformed into the bedrock of cherished friendships and professional guidance without which I would many times have felt lost in this field. I also regularly teach works by poets whose writing I first encountered during the institute. 

Related: 

• Black Poetry After the Black Arts Movement: Reflections

Lasting Impacts of Black Poetry After the Black Arts Movement

By Laura Vrana

On the occasion of the upcoming tenth anniversary of the July 2015 NEH-funded Black Poetry After the Black Arts Movement institute, convened by Maryemma Graham, Howard Rambsy II, and others at the University of Kansas, we asked participants: What were the biggest takeaways or lasting effects of the institute for you?

Tara T. Green: 

The lasting impact has been the exposure I had to African American poetry. My area of research is African American fiction and autobiography. I knew little about contemporary poetry and was reluctant to add any to my syllabi. I now regularly teach contemporary Black poets in my literature and African American Studies undergraduate and graduate courses.

Jocelyn Moody: 

Most immediately, I think one of the most lasting effects of the NEH was that I include scholarship and poetry by Meta duEwa Jones, Mullen, and Shockley more often into my teaching. Attending their readings was a profound experience for me. In fact, I hosted Shockley as a visiting poet at my institution within a couple of years after our KU time. Then, as an autobiography scholar, I included a brief discussion of Mullen’s Urban Tumbleweed in a recent book chapter. Another aspect of the NEH that I valued was the variety of critical perspectives offered through the diversity of participants. I appreciated that we represented so many different (types of) institutions.

Richard Schur: 

The NEH seminar altered the trajectory of my teaching and transformed my understanding of African American literature. I came into the experience well-versed in African American literature and music and had organized my African American literature classes around them. The seminar opened my eyes to the power of African American contemporary poetry and its diversity. Upon returning back to my campus, I set out to revise my African American literature courses around poetry, especially the spoken word. The result has been my students have been able to become acquainted with a deeper roster of seminal texts, and they too have come to share my love of poetry. The experience rekindled my love of poetry and even got me creating my own poetry.

Jim Donahue: 

The most lasting effect of this institute has been the connections with people I made, some of which continue to this day. In addition to the friendships made - and kept alive over social media - these connections have led to various professional opportunities, perhaps most importantly in helping to build a larger network to boost the signal of the excellent work done by the various Institute participants. I have shared my own work and, even more importantly, have had the work of others brought to my attention through the continued efforts of signal boosting engaged by the Institute participants. I have had the good fortune to attend multiple NEH Institutes in my professional career, and the 2015 Institute on Black Poetry After the Black Arts Movement continues to be the most active and engaged, 10 years after. This is a wonderful testament to all those involved."

Related:

• Black Poetry After the Black Arts Movement: Reflections

Black Poetry After the Black Arts Movement: Reflections

In July 2015, a group of us gathered, “Black Poetry After the Black Arts Movement,” an NEH-funded Institute that sought to respond to “the resurgence of interest in contemporary poetry, its expanded production and wide circulation.” 

 Ten years later, Laura Vrana, Sequoia Maner, and I decided to produce a notebook of entries reflecting on the institute. 

Entries: 

• Lasting Impacts of Black Poetry After the Black Arts Movement -- Tara T. Green, Joycelyn Moody, Richard Schur, and Jim Donahue

• The Importance of Black Poetry After the Black Arts Movement -- Laura Vrana

• Mari Evans and Black Poetry After the Black Arts Movement -- Georgene Bess Montgomery

Related 

• A Notebook on Black Poetry After the Black Arts Movement 

Building the Black Lit Network

We're discussing aspects of the Black Lit Network on June 17, at Washington University. 

The project began with a sketch of our Novel Generator Machine.

We eventually arrived at an updated version. 

At the time that we developed the Novel Generator, we worked on complementary work on novels and novelist.

• Covering Colson Whitehead 2016 - 2023

• The Largest Vocabulary Among Black Novels

• Black Panther Prints, Reprints, and Variants

• Sales and Reviews in First-Issue Comic Books

• Information on 100 African American Novelists

• A Dataset of Black Novels

• Scholarship produced on Toni Morrison

• Characters in Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon

• The Abundant Scholarly Output of Trudier Harris

• Trudier Harris: An Ambassador of African American literary studies

UNCF Mellon

• The Spence Tree: Charting UNCF-Mellon PhDs and EdDs

• The Diverse Career Paths of UNCF Mellon Fellows

• Transforming Academia: The Impact of Mellon Fellows from HBCUs

• UNCF-Mellon & Career Possibilities

• Tracking 21 Books by UNCF-Mellon Fellows

• UNCF-Mellon English Majors & PhDs