Here's a checklist of 33 whiteboard animations that I've produced with collaborators.  2023 • May 6: The opening of Frederick Douglass's Narrative • May 6: A Pertinent Question by Frederick Douglass • May 6: When Eugene B. Redmond wondered about the meaning of a black poem • May 6: Sierra Taylor on language skills • May 6: Victoria Lefler on dance and storytelling • April 21: Jetpacks & the Spivey production • April 14: Casting Bias • April 14: Casting Cora • April 5: Casting across black diaspora • April 5: Preparing questions for Dometi Pongo • April 5: When Dometi Pongo was a stud ..read more

I was recently thinking about one of my entries, "What happened with African American poetry from 1977-1987?" from June 2012. Back then, I was wondering why we rarely hear about developments in poetry during that period in comparison to the Black Arts era of the 1960s and 1970s.   I produced a list of volumes by black poets published during the 1980s. Some of the names: Amiri Baraka, Jayne Cortez, Rita Dove, Lucille Clifton, and Nikki Giovanni, among others, are familiar. But, we don't  hear that much about that time period in literary history.  When I say that though, I ..read more

What follows is an incomplete list of volumes by black poets published between 1980 - 1989.  1980: The Yellow House on the Corner by Rita Dove 1980: Passion by June Jordan  1980: Two-Headed Woman by Lucille Clifton 1982: New Music - New Poetry (album) by Amiri Baraka with David Murray And Steve McCall 1982: The Mud Actor by Cyrus Cassells 1982: The Blues Don't Change: New and Selected Poems by Al Young 1982: Poems of Love and Understanding by Lenard D. Moore 1982: There It Is (album) by J ..read more

I view Howard French's Born in Blackness: Africa, Africans, and the Making of the Modern World, 1471 to the Second World War (2021), as an important, landmark work. I've produced a few entries on the book.  Entries May 19: Preliminary impressions of Born in Blackness May 19: Silencing the Past and Born in Blackness May 19: Coverage of Born in Blackness ..read more

Sadness. Pride. Anger. Confusion. Surprise. Gratitude. Disdain. Frustration. Dread. Admiration.   Look, I've been composing a list of the emotions, the recurring emotions that I'm experiencing as I listen to Howard French's powerful, meticulously researched book Born in Blackness: Africa, Africans, and the Making of the Modern World, 1471 to the Second World War (2021) ready by James Fouhey on Audible.  I'm really enjoying this book. I initially purchased the audio version, but became so intrigued by what I was learning that I decided to obtain a hard copy as well ..read more

In fall 1999, just as I was beginning graduate studies in literature, I stumbled onto Michel-Rolph Trouillot's Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History (1995). The book sent my mind running in all kinds of directions and stayed with me over the years.  A few days ago, I began reading Howard French's Born in Blackness: Africa, Africans, and the Making of the Modern World, 1471 to the Second World War (2021). Early on in the reading process, I began thinking of Silencing the Past. French invokes Trouillot's book in direct and indirect ways.  For one ..read more

Here's a round up coverage on Howard French's Born in Blackness: Africa, Africans, and the Making of the Modern World, 1471 to the Second World War (2021). According to Anver Versi, French's book "deserves to be regarded among the pantheon of works that have changed the world." 2023 • May 14: How Africa's history shaped the modern world - Yinka Adegoke - Semafor 2022 • November 16: Where in the (Modern) World is Africa? - Tomi Onabanjo - Chicago Review of Books • June 14: Howard French on "Born in Blackness" [audio] - The Portico Podcast • Jun ..read more

Ok, last  year, I ordered 250 copies of Friday Black (2018), a short story collection by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah and coordinated a series of online reading groups with students.   Today, Adjei-Brenyah's novel Chain-Gang All-Stars was released. I'm providing a roundup of  some of the coverage on the book here. • May 9: A Searing Indictment of the Prison Industrial Complex - Shelbi Polk - Shondaland •  May 5: Chain Gang All Stars,' by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah - Jenny Shank - Star Tribune • May 4: 5 Book Reviews You Need ..read more

Here's a roundup of articles on "the end of English major," which stirred up after an article by Nathan Heller in The New Yorker earlier this year. 2023 • May 3: Where Did All The English Majors Go? - Rebecca Sparacio - Cornell Sun • April 7: The end of the English major is just the tip of the iceberg - Sydney Emerson - Allegheny Campus • April 2: Letter from an English Department on the Brink - Sarah Blackwood - The New York Review of Books • March 9: The English Major, After the End - Andrew Newman - Inside Higher Ed • March 8: End of the English Major? Ha ..read more

"I was born in Tuckahoe, near Hillsborough, and about twelve miles from Easton, in Talbot county, Maryland. I have no accurate knowledge of my age, never having seen any authentic record containing it. By far the larger part of the slaves know as little of their ages as horses know of theirs, and it is the wish of most masters within my knowledge to keep their slaves thus ignorant. I do not remember to have ever met a slave who could tell of his birthday. They seldom come nearer to it than planting-time, harvest-time, cherry-time, spring-time, or fall-time. A want of information concerning my ..read more