ICYMI: The Last 2 Weeks in Black Writing and Culture (3/26-4/15)

The works of female artists are being featured in a resurgence of "women's only" or "group show" exhibitions across the country. Though the practice fell out of favor after the 1970's and 1980's, some curators are calling this reviving trend a "curatorial corrective," while female artists bristle at the thought of a "one and done" mentality that will not shift the overall landscape of the art world.

Angela Davis has spoken out about the candidates currently vying for the presidency, and she is "not impressed". In an interview with Democracy Now!, Davis discussed the need for a "new party" with a focus on labor, race, women, and other social issues she has advocated for throughout her career. She leveled critiques at each of the three frontrunners: from Donald Trump's fascism and white supremacist support, to Hillary's universalism as a  means to ignore race, to Bernie Sanders' "economic reductionism," Davis left nothing to question as to why she is remaining independent of offering endorsements to such a weak field for the nation's top executive office.

The Poetry Foundation recently offered a "Langston Hughes 101" discussion to introduce people to the work of a key figure in African American literary history. Several of his poems are summarized, and links to his own writings about poetry are also included. He is portrayed as a man of the community, and of the world. In the words of his poem "The Quick and the Dead" - "Better to be human / Than God - and lonely."

Black Panther #1, the new comic book series from Ta-Nehisi Coates and Brian Stelfreeze was released this week, and there are at least four reasons everyone (even people new to comic books) should check it out. The series promises a new storyline for T'Challa that pairs Coates' brilliant writing to a historically significant character in comic book culture.

We were saddened to learn of the passing of Kenneth Wiggins, creator of GeniusMode Inc. He was a visionary for the concept of Blacks in Tech and his absence will be greatly felt in the creative community.

And finally, if you're looking for trailblazers, check out The Root's 2016 Young Futurists who are making changes in the world around them.

Text Mining: Two Short Stories By Zora Neale Hurston and Richard Wright

[By Kenton Rambsy]

Often times, there is a major emphasis placed on the ideological differences between Zora Neale Hurston and Richard Wright. In some respects, the tendency to highlight their differences overshadows their similarities. Besides, perhaps their writings have more in common than accounts of the differences imply.

I recently decided to focus on what the writers had in common specifically concentrating on how they used language in their short stories. To aid in my investigation, I used the text-mining program Voyant to analyze Hurston’s “Sweat” (1926) and Wright’s “Big Boy Leaves Home” (1938). Voyant is a free text analysis program that allows its users to sift through digitized texts and pinpoint similarities and differences among a number of texts.

On Digital Scholarship...Blogging and other Technologies

[By Professor Jerry Ward]

Scholars in all disciplines may acknowledge that change, both as a concept and as a practice, is inevitable.  Many of them welcome the dazzling promises of emerging technologies, for they are convinced that the creation and transmission of knowledge in a future must be digital.  Digital technology enthralls. The kind of change it promotes can have a profound, irreversible impact on methods of research, on our choices of what is valuable and what is trivial, and on our understanding of how “revolutionary “ paradigms and epistemes function in disciplines and in interdisciplinary work.  Such change can be overwhelming.  It encourages older, traditional scholars to be cautious and skeptical.  To be blunt, a few of us honestly want to know what is at present only a matter of speculation in cognitive sciences: the consequences of long-term exposure to electronic forms on the brain.  Will it be the case half a century from now that man’s higher order cognitive operations have been so altered that independent critical thinking will be minimal?

Digital Humanities: Blogging About Black Culture

[By Kenton Rambsy]

In his 2010 remix to his hit song “Power,” Kanye West tells his listeners “Now we all ain’t gon’ be American Idols /But you can least grab a camera, shoot a viral /Huh? Take the power in your own hands.” Kanye’s emphasis of taking the “power” into your own hands speaks to the ways that the use of new technologies during the contemporary era provides users with opportunities to participate in cultural and artistic production.