Memory and Remembering in Black Writing Revisted

[By Crystal Boson]           

 After exploring the heavier side ofmemory, it is equally as important to look at its decolonizing aspects.  It is evident that in a large body of Black Writing, memory serves as a tie that strengthens both individuals and communities.  This memory can serve as an embodied family lineage, as is evident in Toni Morrison’s Beloved, or as a larger cultural narrative, as represented in Octavia Butler’s Fledgling, and Alex Haley’s Roots. 

Tradition and Acknowledgement in Combat Zones

Jerry W. Ward, Jr., Professor of English at Dillard University, is the author of The Katrina Papers: A Journal of Trauma and Recovery (UNO Press, 2008). Professor Ward has been a faithful guest blogger for the HBW offering literary criticism on Richard Wright, James Baldwin, and creative writing entries.

Our tradition of black writing is coterminous with the tradition of black literature; whether we speak of literature or of writing depends on how we choose to the position our necessary and creative acts of expression.  Writing refers to specific uses of verbal literacy either in script (handwriting) or print (mechanical reproduction). On the other hand, literature (which embraces a dimension named orature or oral literature) refers to deliberately isolated instances of writing. Typical examples of writing are emails or letters between friends, captions linked to images, folklore, personal statements attached to applications, blogs and legal documents. Literature is constituted by fiction and non-fiction, play scripts and screenplays, poems, the sound-crafting of lyrics by Billie Holiday, Alberta Hunter, Curtis Mayfield, Nina Simone or Marvin Gaye, and blurred genres in want of adequate description. Our rich, robust traditions cause problems in the conduct of everyday life, not because they are arbitrary but because we make them interchangeable in varying degrees. 

          

How Richard Wright’s Mother and Grandmother Taught him to Revere the Imaginative

[By Kenton Rambsy]

A consideration of Richard Wright’s childhood provides an opportunity for continuing to unpack the often hidden baggage associated with “self-taught” education. Wright’s maternal grandmother and mother were likely key and early contributors to the young Wright’s intellectual development.   

Hazel Rowley writes in Richard Wright: The Life and Times that Wright’s mother Ella Wilson Wright was a significant figure in his educational development by teaching her son how to read at an early age when his father abandoned the family, and it became Wright’s responsibility to run errands around their neighborhood, leading him to develop his educational abilities (21). Since Wright’s mother was aware of the fact that her son did not have access to schooling year-round, she tutored him to ensure that he would have the basic knowledge to be a fully functional person in a literate society.

Literary Vantage Points: Multiple Perspectives of James Baldwin

In our second installment of Literary Vantage Points, we have collected brief interviews from a number of professors to get their perspectives about various authors. In this particular feature, we asked three literary scholars—Professors Sandra Govan, Jerry Ward, and Bob Butler—to describe their initial impressions of author James Baldwin and discuss the legacy of her work.

The goal of these interviews is to reveal the diverse nature of African American literature. These three scholars provide very different responses about how they became acquainted with James Baldwin and the aesthetic value of her work. Please join us as we begin a new chapter of HBW history.

Video Editing: Howard Rambsy Sr.
Video Concept: Kenton Rambsy
Video Footage: Crystal Boson and Yuan Ding