Black Literary Suite
The Black Literary Suite (BLS) is HBW's annual exhibit that has the goal of educating the larger community on lesser-known figures in literature and the arts. Accordingly, this experience also serves as an opportunity for members of the student-led HBW staff to learn and refine their research skills through the planning process. Past BLS exhibits have featured authors with a Kansas connection like Gwendolyn Brooks and Langston Hughes, Kansas sports figures to compliment the annual “Race and Sports Symposium,” and the ways Wikipedia presents information about Black writers.
The Fall 2017 Black Literary Suite theme is Reclaiming the Black Body: Women Writing Women
This year’s Black Literary Suite (BLS) brings together the work of group of black women writers in a themed exhibit “Women Writing Women: Reclaiming the Body.” Sponsored annually by The Project on the History of Black Writing, the exhibit is both a physical and digital interface that highlights known and little known writers who narrate culture and explore its contradictions. Acknowledging the primacy of physical violence against the female black body, “Reclaiming the Black Body” seeks to open up a new conversation through works that tells us a different story about agency and self-ownership, of making and remaking themselves, actively reclaiming their own bodies. “Reclamation” is defined as the process of claiming something back or reasserting a right. We use reclaiming here to refer to both the physical and ideological space that allows for innovative and powerful expressions of female sexuality and power. Our goal in this year’s Black Literary Suite is to engage in a conversation about the power that this legacy of black women’s writing has had.
Exhibit and Podcast
On display at the Kansas Union Gallery through the end of November, we are featuring 10 foundational writer and activists of the period. Join us for our Kickoff Reception at the Kansas Union Gallery on Wednesday, November. 8th starting at 4pm.
Please listen to this year's accompanying podcast to the exhibit here.
Panel Discussions
On Friday, November. 17th and Friday, November. 28th we will be moderating panel discussions on different key issues pertaining to the Black body and women writing women:
11/17: Performing the Body: The Black Female Body in Pop Culture at the Spencer Museum of Art from 3-4pm
Panelists
Rachel Atakpa
Simone Savannah
Michaela Warren
Morgan McComb, Chair
11/28: Freeing the Body: The Vision of a Liberated Future at the Sabatini Multicultural Resource Center (OMA) from 3-4pm
Panelists
Micha Cox
Chris Omni
Marilyn Ortega
Imani Wadud
Jameelah Jones, Chair
Twitterchats
To compliment our panel discussions, we are hosting four Twitterchats starting at 8PM(est) / 7PM(cst) on the following dates. You can follow us @ProjectHBW and follow our hashtags #BlackLitSuite and #HBW.
11/13: Performing the Body: The Black Female Body in Pop Culture
11/27: Freeing the Body: The Vision of a Liberated Future
Co-sponsors: Kansas Union Gallery, Office of Multicultural Affairs, Spencer Museum of Art, EGARC, and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
Social Media
Facebook: @ProjectHBW
Twitter: @ProjectHBW
#HBW #BlackLitSuite
