AFRO-PWW Projects

The Jay Z Mixtape, created by Kenton Ramsby, is a Scalar open access book published through the African American Studies PWW series housed at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. This innovative digital humanities publication offers a brief glimpse into the creative output of the Brooklyn rapper by organizing online content into a single composition. From Tableau Public visualizations to an assortment of YouTube videos, this publication reveals the interconnectivity of Jay Z artistry across 12 solo albums through three broad categories: Language, Collaborations, and Musical Samples.

Works-in-progress include a Scalar book by Tyechia Johnson titled, Mapping City Limits: Post-1960s writings of James Baldwin, James Emanuel, and Jake Lamar. This online interactive book expands the perspective of Paris within the African-American expatriate tradition through a mapping of the city in the writings of Baldwin, Emanuel, and Lamar. Johnson maps beyond the myth of African-American inclusivity in Paris and shows how this myth is represented in their writings and/or in their lived experiences. This publication will contribute to the field of “digital humanities” through projects built on digital platforms on Google Earth/Google Maps, Neatline with Omeka, and Scalar. The project expands the field of transnational African-American literature, and creates a new cultural memory of African-American writers in Paris.