African-American literature

Celestine’s poems are reflective—autobio- graphical. He is interested in exploring significant episodes of his life and the Afri ...

was an early talk-radio host (1978–1984), first on Pacifica’s WBAI-FM and then winning numerous awards for The Judy Simmons Show ...

up again with Shug” (85). The sense of value that Celie gets from Shug helps form the foundation on which she builds the courage ...

mains uncertain about her possible sexual orien- tation and identity, responds, “Carla, if you can’t accept me for who I am, no ...

first meets Sylvia, confesses that the time they have spent together has led him to “know how Dizzy must have felt when he heard ...

Dedicated to his mother, Slade’s “Black Ma- donna” combines the various themes found in his poems: deep love for his humble but ...

HAYDEN, and JAY WRIGHT. In addition to the novel excerpts, short stories, and commentary, Chant has art sprinkled throughout, in ...

Smith, William Gardner (1927–1974) Journalist, novelist, and expatriate William Gard- ner Smith was born and raised in south Phi ...

Fabre, Michel. From Harlem to Paris: Black American Writers in France, 1840–1980. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1991. Wi ...

her first volume of poetry, From Memphis and Pe- king. The President’s Daughter is the sequel to Sally Hemings, relating the tal ...

ist, and the fluidity of truth. Even as the narrative’s surface alleges no action on Alex’s part to “do any- thing,” the story i ...

While most critics thought that the novel was well written, many condemned its themes and subject matter. The content was too in ...

These streets hadn’t changed, though housing projects jutted up out of them now like rocks in the middle of a boiling sea. Most ...

of the American government and by racism and white supremacy. Julius’s tales not only condemn slavery but also criticize the sys ...

attended Rutgers University, where she became a prominent campus activist and writer and came to the attention of members of the ...

cated” the white population about the problem of race in America, it did contribute to the growth and development of the African ...

during the 1960s, “a time of fundamental social change” (66). “The new generation of whites,” Cleaver writes, “are rejecting the ...

Also in the 1940s, Childress helped found the American Negro Theatre (ANT), to nurture the dreams and hopes of aspiring black pl ...

by placing them behind a “vast veil” (DuBois’s trope for legal segregation), imposing definitions on blacks from a position of d ...

———. “Childress, Alice.” In Notable Women in the American Theatre: A Biographical Dictionary, ed- ited by Alice M. Robinson, Ver ...