Category Archives: Race

Animals in Chicago

November 6, 2013 It seems right that the theme this year for the Chicago Humanities Festival should be “Animals: What Makes us Human.”   This city, after all, used to be called (and maybe is still called) hog butcher for … Continue reading

Posted in Americas, Animals, Atlantic, Diaspora, Environmentalism, Ethnicity, indigenous communities, Race, Spanish, World history | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Mama Day: The Tempest in the Global South

October 2, 2014 Her name is Miranda (“Mama”) Day — yes, that Miranda, the one who said, “Oh, wonder! How many goodly creatures are there here! How beauteous mankind is!” Gloria Naylor is not the first to take on Shakespeare, of course. … Continue reading

Posted in Africa, African-American literature, Americas, Caribbean literature, Contemporary novel, Gender, Global South, Race, slavery, world literature | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Ralph Ellison, Gordon Parks: Photographers

Sept 18, 2014 The photos, under the title “A Man Becomes Invisible,” were in Life Magazine, 25 August 1952, close on the heels of novel’s publication earlier that year, on April 14. It was a coup.  Parks had been a … Continue reading

Posted in African-American literature, collaboration, Photography, Race | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Bono on Seamus Heaney

September 4, 2013 He was there at the funeral, of course, with Adam Clayton, and also wrote this short piece in the Guardian: “Every meeting I’ve ever had since I began full-time advocacy, I have brought with me a book … Continue reading

Posted in African-American literature, African-American music, contemporary poetry, jazz, Music, Race, Rock music, Twentieth century literature | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Zora Neale Hurston: American literature as World Literature?

August 14, 2013 The polemical essay, “World Lite,” just out in n+1, is perhaps generating more heat than light.  But it does raise an interesting question: what exactly is “world literature”?  How broad its scope, and what could be in … Continue reading

Posted in Africa, African-American literature, Caribbean literature, Catholicism, Colonization, Creole, Diaspora, Global South, Igbo, Latin America, peripheral networks, Race, slavery, Twentieth century literature, World religions | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

James Baldwin and Richard Wright: What quarrel?

August 7, 2013 It was all very public, well documented. Wright had started out being the central inspiration.   Baldwin’s essay, “Notes of a Native Son,” and his essay collection also of that title, are obvious tributes to the long … Continue reading

Posted in African-American literature, Global South, Race, Racial violence, Twentieth century literature | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Robert Pinsky, Ginza Samba

July 24, 2013 For years I hadn’t gone much beyond his translation of the Inferno.  I’d noticed a couple of things I didn’t like (might even have gone looking for them), and just stopped there, his own poetry getting all … Continue reading

Posted in African-American music, Black-Jewish alliances, collaboration, contemporary poetry, digital humanities, Ethnicity, jazz, mixed races, Music, Race, slavery | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Turkish Munich

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 , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Emily Dickinson’s Africa

June 19, 2013 Whitman’s “Ethiopia Saluting the Colors” (written during Sherman’s Savannah Campaign) has offended some readers; it also has the distinction of being set to music — by the African American composer, H.T. Burleigh. Dickinson’s Ethiopia isn’t so well … Continue reading

Posted in Africa, Contemporary novel, Global South, Nineteenth-century literature, Race | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

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

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 , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment