Archive - History of Black Writing Blog
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Black Literary History Making
The HBW Blog published regularly for ten years from 2011-2021 at the URL https://projecthbw.ku.edu. During that time, it served as a major forum for the exchange of information and ideas, as well as a robust network for scholars, teachers, and students from different disciplines around the world.
Guest contributors include leading scholars and writers, but most of the posts were conceived of, researched, and written by HBW's staff of undergraduate and graduate students. Its content consists of feature editorials, book reviews, memorials, and coverage of HBW programming. Altogether, 95 writers contributed more than 750 posts.
The HBW Blog Archive is searchable by topic, month and year, and contributor name.
| Blog Post/Link | Date |
|---|---|
| Nathaniel Mackey, Black Poetry after the Black Arts Movement Speaker, Awarded 2015 Bollingen Prize HBW is proud to congratulate poet Nathaniel Mackey, who will serve as a speaker at HBW’s upcoming NEH Summer Institute Black Poetry after the Black Arts Movement, on winning Yale University’s prestigious 2015 Bollingen Prize for American Poetry! .. | |
| In Honor of Richard Wright’s BLACK BOY (1945) Today, the HBW Blog is pleased to share a haiku by Julia and Malcolm Wright, Richard Wright’s daughter and grandson, in honor of the 70th anniversary of Richard Wright’s Black Boy (1945). .. | |
| Richard Wright’s BLACK BOY and Seven Decades of Wisdom Published by Harper and Brothers in 1945 as Black Boy: A Record of Childhood and Youth and by the Library of America in 1991 as Black Boy (American Hunger), Richard Wright’s classic autobiography has been a monument to intelligence, discipline, the exercise of relatively free will, and admirable use of self-reliance for 70 years. It has provided us with the racial wisdom that is most definitely needed in 2015 as we resist Cosmic Evil and conduct an endless quest for harmony in our lives. .. | |
| Trojan Flags for Cultural Study When policemen turn their backs to a mayor at the funeral of a police officer slain in the line of duty, is this symbolic act to be “read” as a sign of anger, disrespect, and resentment? Is it the equivalent of a jazz musician’s turning his back to an audience as he produces exquisite sounds? Is this positioning of the body in uniform, an embodiment of law and order, subject to decoding? The gesture is broadcast in the public sphere of television. Is it to be interpreted as a warning that American social dynamics are minimizing prospects for civic communication? Is ours a society wherein anything is everything? Is the turning of the back actually a turning back to a pre-history? .. | |
| Black Poetry after the Black Arts Movement Some of the biggest names in African American poetry will converge on KU this summer when the Project on the History of Black Writing hosts a two-week institute on the subject of Black Poetry after the Black Arts Movement. And HBW hopes that you’ll be a part of it... | |
| Black Writing and Blues Allegory American politics will popularize exegesis in 2015, and so too might the publication of Toni Morrison’s eleventh novel, God Help the Child. .. | |
| Martin Luther King, Jr. Day: Remembering and Forgetting on January 19 January 19, 2015 will be an ordinary day. It will not be, as a person from Maine might say, a “wicked good” day. It will be twenty-four hours occupying a square on a calendar, another SNAFU day in the United States of America. Nothing that is mind-shattering, body-alarming or soul-fracking will occur that did not already happen... | |
| Martin Luther King 2015: A Different Kind of Eulogy When Sojourner Truth took the podium at the Women’s Rights convention in Akron, Ohio, 1851, she became in an instant the quintessential symbol of triple jeopardy: she was a former slave, she was black and she was a woman. She made women and the anti-slavery community uncomfortable because she refused to keep the issues of slavery and women’s rights separate. Exposing her breasts to punctuate her womanhood, she left an indelible imprint on history. The words “Ain’t I a woman?” remain that continuous reminder that building a more equitable society is our ongoing work. Truth was relentless and fearless, traits that are hard to come by. .. | |
| A Missive on the Professional: An Open Letter to Howard Rambsy II Editor’s Note: On Monday, we posted Howard Rambsy II’s letter, “Is African American Literature Really American Literature?”, in which Rambsy argued that, in the eyes of higher education hiring committees, African American literature doesn’t really count as American literature. Today, HBW Lead Blogger Jerry W. Ward, Jr. responds. .. | |
| A Missive on the Professional: Is African American Literature Really American Literature? Editor’s Note: As the HBW Blog returns in 2015, we are excited to share a dialogue between Howard Rambsy II and Jerry W. Ward, Jr., about the current perception of the status of African American literature “within” American literature. Today, Howard Rambsy II’s take. .. |