Category Archives: Cities

Essay 1 Outline Gabe Rojas

Posted on February 16, 2016 by Gabe

Industrial Genres and The Jungle Outline Introduction State topic: The intermix of the Industrial Gothic and Industrial Epic. State thesis: In order to advocate his socialist motives and critique the turn-of-the-century industrial complexes at the end of his novel, Upton … Continue reading →

Posted in Cities, Contemporary literature, Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Frank O’Hara, Amiri Baraka: “The Day Lady Died”

Posted on March 19, 2014 by wcd2

March 19, 2014 Frank O’Hara and Billie Holiday had probably never met, never exchanged a single word. There’s no record of the two of them at any gathering. What I found instead is an image of Amiri Baraka and … Continue reading →

Posted in Cities | Tagged " New York Post, "The Day Lady Died, Amiri Baraka, Billie Holiday, Black Music, Frank O'Hara, Jonas Mekas, Living Theater, Mal Waldron, Three Books | 1 Comment

Amiri Baraka’s luck

Posted on January 15, 2014 by wcd2

January 15, 2014 He must have been one of the most photographed – certainly in the 60s, and probably long after that. But the picture that’s most stuck in my head is actually one in USA Today, taken late in … Continue reading →

Posted in African-American literature, African-American music, Cities, jazz, Media | Tagged Amiri Baraka, jazz, John Coltrane, New Yorker, Newark, USA Today | Leave a comment

Not New York

Posted on January 8, 2014 by wcd2

January 8, 2014 I’m about to head off to Chicago, also about to teach my freshman seminar: “Cities.” Chicago again, New York, San Francisco. The books are the usual suspects, but not all of them (for San Francisco I’m … Continue reading →

Posted in Cities, contemporary poetry, Nineteenth-century literature, Twentieth century literature, Uncategorized | Tagged Allen Ginsberg, Bethel Maine, Camden, Chicago, David Jackson, Edidon, Faulkner, Guatemala, James Merrill, Junot Diaz, Maltese Falcon, Mark Neveu, Miami, Michael Chabon, New York, Oxford Mississippi, Patterson, Richard Blano, San Francisco, The Golden Gate, Vikram Seth, Washington DC, Whitman, William Carlos Williams | Leave a comment

Iowa alums: Rita Dove, James McPherson, Ayanna Mathis

Posted on October 30, 2013 by wcd2

October 30, 2013 There would have been no marriage between Rita Dove and Fred Viebahn if it had not been for Iowa City. She was at the Writers’ Workshop, getting her MFA in 1977; he was from Germany, a Fulbright … Continue reading →

Posted in African-American literature, Cities, Contemporary literature, Dance, Germany | Tagged Ayanna Mathis, Chiba University, Fred Viebahn, International Writing Program, Iowa Writers' Workshop, James McPherson, Meiji University, Rita Dove, UNESCO | Leave a comment

Ilium, Iowa City: Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five

Posted on October 23, 2013 by wcd2

October 23, 2013 For someone interested in the twentieth-century epic, Slaughterhouse Five is a no-brainer. How else would one call a story set in Ilium, talking about war, about death and the counterfactual? But did I ever stop to think about … Continue reading →

Posted in Boostores, Cities, Climate change, Contemporary novel, Environmentalism, epic, public universities, Science fiction, Twentieth century literature | Tagged Dresden firebombing, Floods 2013, Guggenheim Fellowship, Iliad, Ilium, Iowa City, John Irving, Kurt Vonnegut, Prairie Lights Bookstore, Slaughterhouse-Five, World War II | Leave a comment

Oscar Hijuelos, The Fourteen Sisters of Emilio Montez O’Brien

Posted on October 16, 2013 by wcd2

October 16, 2013 This week saw the passing of Oscar Hijuelos: guitar-playing, cake-loving (I suspect), also lover of bountiful, sometimes over-stuffed prose. His father was the morning-to-lunch shift cook at the Biltmore Hotel, so he definitely knew a thing or … Continue reading →

Posted in Caribbean literature, Cities, Contemporary novel, Cuba, Diaspora, Food in literature, Latin America, Latino/a literature, Music | Tagged A Simple Habana Melody, Cuba, Harlem, Mambo KIng Plays Songs of Love, Oscar Hijuelos, Our House in the Last World, The Fourteen Sisters of Emilio Montez O'Brien | Leave a comment

Turkish Munich

Posted on July 3, 2013 by wcd2

July 3, 2013 Last time I came by train. What struck me immediately, getting out of the station, was the city’s Turkish population, out in force, women wearing head scarves and not looking conspicuous, walking comfortably up and down … Continue reading →

Posted in African-American literature, Afro-Asian alliances, Cities, Diaspora, Germany, Middle East, Race, Racial violence, Turkey, Twentieth century literature | Tagged "A Mad Negro Confined in Munich, Another Country, Armenian, Croatian, Engin Cezzar, Indian, James Baldwin, Jewish, London, Ludwig Maximilian University Munich, Martin Luther King, Medgar Evers, Robert Lowell, Slovenian, The Fire Next Time, Turkish | Leave a comment

Langston Hughes’s Children Literature

Posted on May 31, 2013 by wcd2

May 31, 2013 My class, “Regional, National, Global,” has no special focus on children’s literature, but it does seem to come up a lot. I think it’s because of Langston Hughes — the uncertain borders of his poetry, holding a … Continue reading →

Posted in Africa, African-American literature, African-American music, Children's literature, Cities, collaboration, Educational institutions, Ethnicity, Experimental poetry, jazz, Modernist poetry, Music, print medium, Twentieth century literature, World history | Tagged Arkansas, Bob Ericson, First Book of Africa, Franklin Watts, Langston Hughes, Sarah Robbins, University of Chicago Lab School | Leave a comment

Beyond a Boundary: C. L. R. James in Glasgow

Posted on May 13, 2013 by wcd2

May 13, 2013 Scotland and the Caribbean? The architecture of Glasgow tells a dramatic story. Here, in the center of town, is the many-pillared Gallery of Modern Art, monumental even for a museum, which used to be the … Continue reading →

Posted in Americas, architecture, Atlantic, Caribbean literature, Cities, Colonization, Contemporary Art, film medium, Global South, oceans, Race, scale, slavery, Sports, Twentieth century literature, Universities | Tagged African National Congress, Atlantic trade, BBC, Beyond a Boundary, C. L. R. James, Cambridge University, cricket, F W de Klerk, Gallery of Modern of Modern Art, Guradian, John Arlott, Middlesex, Mike Brearley, Mike Dibb, Nelson Mandela, Robert Hill, Scotland, Selma James, Sout Africa, suger cane, tobacco, University of Glasgow, West Indies, William Cunninghame | Leave a comment