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In 1977 the self-proclaimed activist group of black feminists and lesbians known as The Combahee River Collective published a statement in which they outlined their main political objectives to fight racism, sexism, homophobia, and class oppression simultaneously. Although many prominent activists were involved in the ...
One of the foundational texts of the genre is Ann Allen Shockley's novel, "Loving Her". Published in 1974, "Loving Her" is widely regarded as the first novel to feature a black lesbian protagonist. The book follows the story of Renay, a black woman who leaves her abusive marriage to a black man to enter a relationship ...
Shockley followed the publication of "Loving Her" with two more books, "The Black and White of It", a collection of short stories featuring various black lesbian protagonists, which was the first of its kind, and another novel, "Say Jesus and Come to Me". Other works began to arrive in the early 1980s which featured bl...
Cave Canem Foundation is an American 501(c)(3) organization founded in 1996 by poets Toi Derricotte and Cornelius Eady to remedy the underrepresentation and isolation of African-American poets in Master of Fine Arts (MFA) programs and writing workshops across the United States. It is based in Brooklyn, New York.
Cave Canem programs include an annual summer retreat, regional workshops, first- and second-book poetry prizes, anthology publication and national readings and panels. The organization has also published two anthologies, "Gathering Ground: A Reader Celebrating Cave Canem’s First Decade", edited by Derricotte and Eady (...
In September 2016, National Book Foundation awarded Cave Canem the Literarian Award for service to the American literary community.
Writing for "The New York Times" in 2015, Stephen Burt described Cave Canem as "a major incubator for the current renaissance in black poetry, which includes the poets Tracy K. Smith, who won the 2012 Pulitzer Prize in poetry; Afaa Michael Weaver, who won the Kingsley Tufts prize last year; and, most recently, Claudia ...
Currently held annually at the University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg, Pennsylvania, Cave Canem’s tuition-free retreat is a week of faculty-led writing workshops and poetry readings for African-American poets. Accepted applicants (fellows) may participate for a maximum of three summers within a five-year period. Past f...
Cave Canem Foundation sponsors two annual book prizes. One is the Cave Canem Poetry Prize, awarded for an exceptional first book by an African-American poet and published by the University of Pittsburgh Press; Natasha Trethewey won the inaugural prize in 1999 for her collection "Domestic Work". Other winners have inclu...
The second is the Cave Canem Northwestern University Press Poetry Prize, a second-book award established in 2009 that "celebrates and publishes works of lasting cultural value and literary excellence" by African-American poets. It is awarded every other year.
Established in 2001, these moderated discussions feature poets and scholars who "have played historic roles in African-American poetry." Participants have included Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott, Pulitzer Prize winner Rita Dove, and poet and activist Amiri Baraka.
Launched in 2008, Poets on Craft features “award-winning poets in the early-to-middle stages of their careers. Poets meet in moderated conversation, discussing aesthetics, the role of the contemporary poet and other topical issues.” Participants have included National Book Critics Circle Award finalist Major Jackson an...
Established in 1999, workshops for emerging poets of color are held semi-annually in New York City and, more recently, in Columbia, South Carolina, in partnership with the South Carolina Poetry Initiative. Instructors have included former Poet Laureate of Connecticut, Marilyn Nelson, Whiting Writers' Award winner Tyehi...
In 2016, Cave Canem became the first organization (rather than individual) to win the National Book Foundation's Literarian Award for service to the American literary community. The National Book Foundation's executive director Lisa Lucas said: "Cave Canem’s innovative and effective literary activism has been transform...
A Brighter Coming Day is a compilation of works by Frances Harper, written between 1853 and 1911.
It is edited and introduced by contemporary literary scholar Frances Smith Foster and divides the text into four sections representing different periods of Harper's life and including her letters, poetry, essays, speeches, and short fiction.
When Washington Was in Vogue is a Harlem Renaissance novel written by Edward Christopher Williams, set in Washington, D.C. in 1922-3. The first epistolary novel written by an African-American, it was originally serialized in the radical magazine "The Messenger" between January 1925 and July 1926 as "The Letters of Davy...
Additionally, the novel offers an analysis of 1920s society from the viewpoint of a conservative narrator. Davy, while educated and possessing a well-tuned aesthetic sense, is unquestionably the product of an earlier time. His and Caroline's early interest in each other stems from this difference, as her radical modern...
"When Washington Was in Vogue" was serialized in "The Messenger" as "The Letters of Davy Carr: A True Story of Colored Vanity Fair." Editors A. Philip Randolph, Chandler Owen, and George Schuyler gave no indication of the novel's authorship. Adam McKible identified the literary and historical merit of the novel while r...
Critical response to When Washington Was in Vogue was generally favorable. While some reviewers, such as "Kirkus Reviews", called the book "of academic interest only" due to its formulaic plotlines, others saw Williams's analysis of intra-racial social politics as a fascinating window into the period. "Publishers Weekl...
Black Panther: World of Wakanda is a comic book series and a spin-off from the Marvel Comics' "Black Panther" title. It published six issues before being canceled. The series was primarily written by Roxane Gay, with poet Yona Harvey contributing a story to the first issue. Alitha E. Martinez drew the majority of the a...
"Black Panther: World of Wakanda" won a 2018 Eisner Award for Best Limited Series. The series also won a 2018 GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Comic Book.
After the success of the "Black Panther" series relaunch in April 2016, written by Ta-Nehisi Coates, Marvel developed a companion piece set in the fictional African country of Wakanda, home to the Black Panther. Coates recommended Gay and Harvey to pen the series. He had seen Gay read a short story about zombies two ye...
The series debuted November 9, 2016 (with a cover date of January 2017). Harvey wrote a 10-page origin story for Wakanda's revolutionary leader Zenzi, and has said she drew on the example of Winnie Mandela as inspiration. Gay has mentioned the character of Olivia Pope in the first season of "Scandal" and the original U...
The series was canceled after six issues due to poor sales.
The first "World of Wakanda" story arc (issues #1-5) features Ayo and Aneka, two Wakandan members of the Dora Milaje, the Black Panther's female security force. Ayo and Aneka are also lovers. The first storyline also describes Zenzi, a revolutionary and villain in the "Black Panther" series.
The series' final issue, #6, is a standalone story by Rembert Browne and Joe Bennett about Kasper Cole and White Tiger.
The Sweet Breath of Life: A Poetic Narrative of the African-American Family is a 2004 photographic poetic narrative by Ntozake Shange and the photography collective Kamoinge Inc. The Kamoinge Workshop was founded in New York in 1963 to support the work of black photographers in a field then dominated by white photograp...
The book depicts the various aspects of everyday urban African-American life through poetic narrative. Through poetic narrative and accompanying photographs, the book deals with various themes such as religion, identity, and representation.
Critical reception for "The Sweet Breath of Life" has been positive and reviewers have compared the work to that of Langston Hughes and Roy DeCarava.
"Black Issues Book Review" judges some of the photos to be outdated and that some of the poems felt more like journalism than poetry, but also that when the poems and photography worked together they were "powerfully made" and "breathtaking". "Curve" rated the book highly, citing the photography as one of the book's hi...
Black Dixie: Afro-Texan History and Culture in Houston is a 1992 book edited by Howard Beeth and Cary D. Wintz and published by Texas A&M University Press. It is a collection of thirteen essays about the history of African-Americans in Houston. It was the first scholarly book to provide a comprehensive history of Houst...
The two editors were members of the Texas Southern University history department.
The book is divided into four sections, with the introduction being the first section and the others containing essays; the three essay sections are organized by theme.
There are a total of thirteen essays, which cover the 19th century and 20th century. They were not written specifically to be included in the book. Most of the essays were previously unpublished; while four were reprinted from academic journals, with three from the "Houston Review" of the Houston Public Library Houston...
The commentaries in the introductions of each article address social history, religion, and fraternal organizations, things not discussed in the essays themselves. Joseph A. Tomberlin of the "Mississippi Quarterly" wrote that "Linking the sections through the introductions gives the volume greater unity than one might ...
Beeth's opening section, "Historians, Houston, and History," discusses the state of scholarship in the newly-emerging field of urban studies; he stated that academics previously had biases against urban history and local history, there were very few such studies in previous eras, and there had been a lack of preservati...
The first collection of essays focuses on the 19th century.
Tamara Myner Haygood in "Use and Distribution of Slave Labor in Harris County, Texas, 1836–60" described the role of slaves in Houston as well as surrounding parts of Harris County. Haygood argued that slavery was important in developing Harris County as the economic patterns established during slavery continued to exi...
Barry A. Crouch in "Seeking Equality: Houston Black Women during Reconstruction" describes the role of women in trying to gain civil rights during the Reconstruction Era; much of the research originated from the archives of the Freedmen's Bureau.
"Richard Allen: The Chequered Career of Houston's First Black State Legislator" by Merline Pitre was originally printed in an academic journal. Pitre argued that the origins of the black middle class, which she characterized as "articulate, talented, and manipulative", may be explained by studying politicians like Alle...
The second collection discusses the late 19th Century and early 20th Century.
In "The Emergence of Black Business in Houston Texas: A Study of Race and Ideology, 1919–45," James M. SoRelle wrote about African-American businesses and how they, in order to attract black investors and customers, appealed to racial solidarity and pride as well the idea of "self-help" within the black community. SoRe...
Frances Dressman, in "Yes, We Have No Jitneys!': Transportation Issues in Houston's Black Community, 1914–1924," wrote about the rise and fall of black jitney services, which initially competed with trolley lines until the city government began shutting several of them down; this essay was originally published elsewher...
The other primary source article is "Houston's Colored Citizens: Activities and Conditions among the Negro Population in the 1920s," a 1928 article written by that was published by Clifton F. Richardson in a Houston area publication, the liberal white magazine "Civics". Richardson was a NAACP chapter president and the ...
Taylor characterizes the two primary source articles as "two of the most impressive entries". Alwyn Barr of Texas Tech University described the Greene and Richardson sources as "slightly more optimistic descriptions of business and social leaders and institutions in the period."
The final collection discusses 20th century efforts to end discrimination against black people. SoRelle discusses the discrimination in public schools, accommodations, transportation, and other publicly-used facilities; as well as police and Ku Klux Klan-related violence, between World War I and World War II, arguing t...
Robert V. Haynes, in "Black Houstonians and the White Democratic Primary, 1920–45," described the effort to end an all-white primary in the Democratic Party in the period 1920–1940, which culminated in "Smith v. Allwright" and the disestablishment of the said primary; this essay was originally published elsewhere.
F. Kenneth Jensen wrote about 1960 and 1961 sit-ins by Houston students, from Texas Southern University, at lunch counters at a Weingartens shop. According to Jensen, this resulted in the end of several discriminatory practices. Jensen argued that the urbanization of blacks augmented their resistance against discrimina...
Cecile E. Harrison and Alice K. Lain's piece discusses the rise and fall of Operation Breadbasket from 1966 through 1974.
Robert A. Bullard wrote about contemporary issues facing black people in the working class, stating that housing difficulties were occurring with low and moderate income individuals; at the time the conditions of housing of many blacks were poor, and most blacks lived in black neighborhoods. Bullard had previously publ...
The final chapter was written by Robert Fisher, who documented the city government's resistance against government programs and the effects of privatization; the author believes that many of the city's problems resulted from excess privatization. Haley stated that Fisher perceived as Houston "as the epitome of the priv...
The book won the September 1993 Ottis Lock Award for the Best Book on East Texas History.
Barr wrote that the book "is a valuable contribution that adds diversity to a general sense of the African- American and southern urban experience" and that "the chapters generally reflect sound research and thoughtful analysis" even though "some conclusions may stir debate".
Bolton wrote that the book "is an excellent example of African-American history, of urban history, and of collaborative effort."
Haley argued that the book demonstrated that "the black experience in Houston was quite similar to that in other places in the South"; he criticized how the book primarily used the viewpoint of elites, documented "only facets of the black experiences", and neglected the "experience of the black masses". He believed the...
Hirsch concluded that while the book is "a helpful initial reconnaissance" that has "interesting bits of information and insights scattered throughout", the book does not provide any comparisons nor does it give "a clear overall conception" of the black community in Houston, and therefore there is still "the need for a...
Marchiafava concluded that even though it "is not intended to be the final word on African Americans in Houston, the book is a major contribution for its effort to fill in a major gap in the city's history."
Taylor praised several of the articles, saying that the ones about Slavery and the post-U.S. Civil War Reconstruction Era "are among the strongest in the book". Taylor argued that while the book did discuss failed attempts to establish a black elite in Houston, the book had not covered adequate ground on describing rel...
Wooster wrote that the book has "well written" essays that are "based upon solid research in primary and secondary materials" and that the book "is a major contribution to our understanding of urban black culture in the South." He argued the book should have included ethnic composition maps and a chapter about the last...
The BAP Handbook: The Official Guide to the Black American Princess is a humor book released on June 21, 2001. The book was written by Kalyn Johnson, Tracey Lewis, Karla Lightfoot, and Ginger Wilson, and published by Broadway Books.
It is described by one of its writers as a humor book, written in a tongue-in-cheek manner.
The American Society of African Culture (AMSAC) was an organization of African-American writers, artists, and scholars. The society was founded as a result of the Congress of Negro Writers and Artists in 1956 based on the idea of the French "". In June 1957, the American Society of African Culture (AMSAC) was officiall...
In 1961, AMSAC opened an African office in Lagos, Nigeria. The opening was celebrated with a two-day festival of music performances, dancing, panel discussions, and art exhibited by Africans and African Americans on December 1961.
AMSAC had received federal tax exemption the year prior and thus large grants became available to the organization for specific projects from various entities. This financial backing was how they were able to organize the large festival in Lagos. The grants were later revealed as CIA pass-throughs.
After 1967, AMSAC's membership sharply declined after it was named as one of the organizations that was funded by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
The Justice Trilogy, also called the Justice Cycle, was a series of young-adult science-fiction books written by Virginia Hamilton. Considered philosophically significant by critics within the field of young adult literature, the series is also notable as one of the first young-adult science fiction novels by a signifi...
The New Negro: An Interpretation (1925) is an anthology of fiction, poetry, and essays on African and African-American art and literature edited by Alain Locke, who lived in Washington, DC, and taught at Howard University during the Harlem Renaissance. As a collection of the creative efforts coming out of the burgeonin...
"The New Negro: An Interpretation" dives into how the African Americans sought social, political, and artistic change. Instead of accepting their position in society, Locke saw the new negro as championing and demanding civil rights. In addition, his anthology sought to change old stereotypes and replaced them with new...
The anthology reflects the voice of middle class African American citizens that wanted to have equal civil rights like the white, middle class counterparts. However, some writers, such as Langston Hughes, sought to give voice to the lower, working class.
Part 1 contains Alain Locke's title essay "the New Negro" as well as the fiction and poetry sections. One of the poems, “White Houses,” represents the African American's struggle to confront and challenge the White House and white America, in order to fight for civil rights. It shows a figure being shut out and left on...
Part 2: The New Negro in a New World.
"The New Negro in a New World" includes social and political analysis by writers including W. E. B. Du Bois, historian E. Franklin Frazier, Melville J. Herskovits, James Weldon Johnson, Paul U. Kellogg, Elise Johnson McDougald, Kelly Miller, Robert R. Moton, and activist Walter Francis White.
The book contains several portraits by Winold Reiss and illustrations by Aaron Douglas. It was published by Albert and Charles Boni, New York, in 1925.
Alain Locke commonly draws on the theme of the "Old" vs. the "New Negro". The Old Negro according to Locke was a “creature of moral debate and historical controversy”. The Old Negro was restricted by the inhumane conditions of slavery that he was forced to live in; historically traumatized due to events forced upon the...
Some of the most prominent African American artist that were greatly influenced by the “New Negro” concept that reflected in their music and concert works were William Grant Still and Duke Ellington. Duke Ellington, a renowned jazz artist, began to reflect the "New Negro" in his music, particularly in the jazz suite "B...
Locke’s legacy sparks a reoccurring interest in examining African culture and art. Not only was Locke's philosophy important during the Harlem Renaissance period, but continuing today, researchers and academia continue to analyze Locke's work. Locke’s anthology "The New Negro: An Interpretation" has endured years of re...
Beyond Locke’s work being reprinted, Locke’s influences extend to other authors and academics interested in Locke’s views and philosophy of African culture and art. Author Anna Pochmara wrote "The Making of the New Negro." Journal articles by Leonard Harris, "Alain Locke and Community" and "Identity: Alain Locke’s Ata...
Locke’s influence on the Harlem Renaissance encouraged artists and writers like Zora Neale Hurston to seek inspiration from Africa. Artists Aaron Douglas, William H. Johnson, Archibald Motley, and Horace Pippin created artwork representing the “New Negro Movement” influenced by Locke’s anthology.
Flyy Girl is young adult/new adult literature and an urban fiction book written by Omar Tyree. The book was originally published by Mars Productions in 1993 and republished by Simon & Schuster for adults in 1996. The novel is regarded to be the genesis of the modern urban-fiction/street-lit movement that would later ga...
Flyy Girl is African-American coming-of-age story that follows Tracy Ellison from her sixth-birthday party in 1977 to her 17th birthday. Tracy grows up in the middle-class Philadelphia suburb of Germantown. The daughter of a dietitian and pharmacist, Tracy is beautiful, intelligent, and armed with self-esteem and a sas...
Tyree wrote two sequels to "Flyy Girl": "For the Love of Money" (2001) and "Boss Lady" (2006). Both were published by Simon & Schuster.
In July 2013, Lionsgate Entertainment's CodeBlack Films had acquired the rights to "Flyy Girl" with hopes of transforming the novel into a feature film. In February 2015, CodeBlack Films announced that "Dear White People" producer Effie Brown was hired to produce a film adaptation of the novel. Brown and her company, D...
On June 17, 2015, it was announced that Sanaa Lathan would star in and executive produce the film adaptation of Omar Tyree's trilogy that starts with "Flyy Girl". Lathan will portray Tracy Ellison, a successful businesswoman and workaholic who believes that money is always the key to happiness. Geoffrey S. Fletcher was...
A Dialogue is a 1973 collaborative work featuring a multi-topic conversation between writers James Baldwin and Nikki Giovanni. The preface was written by Ida Lewis, the afterword by Orde M. Coombs. It was published by J. B. Lippincott & Co.
This collection explores an array of themes connected to Black American life. Many of the included works contain elements of social criticism and messages of anti-racism. All but one were written in the early 1970s a "a socially and politically dynamic moment in the nation's history and a renaissance decade for black t...
The collection was met with mixed review, primarily in the realm of critical scholarship.
The Voice of the Negro was a literary periodical aimed at a national audience of African Americans which was published from 1904 to 1907. It was created in Atlanta, Georgia in June 1904 by Austin N. Jenkins, the white manager of the publishing company J. L. Nichols and Company. He gave full control of the magazine to t...
It relocated to Chicago following the Atlanta Race Riot of September 1906, and ceased publication in 1907.
The periodical published writing by Booker T. Washington, as well as work by a younger generation of Black activists and intellectuals: W. E. B. Du Bois, John Hope, Kelly Miller, Mary Church Terrell, and William Pickens. It featured poetry by James D. Corrothers, Georgia Douglas Johnson, and Paul Laurence Dunbar.
"The Voice of the Negro" was the first African-American periodical based in the South. It was originally published in Atlanta in 1904, and created by Austin N. Jenkins, the white manager of the publishing company J. L. Nichols and Company. However, he left complete control and responsibility over the magazine to the Bl...
Through the articles and editorials, "The Voice of the Negro" emerged as a vocal political magazine during the early 1900s. The magazine's role as a "political advocate in national and local politics" has content that consists of local and national political figures and how black and white people saw the quality of the...
"The Voice of the Negro" inspired black intellectuals across the nation and allowed Du Bois to start his political movement, the Niagara movement, in 1905. Which was made of "educated and elite blacks" and promoted political and social equality. The organization also created local organizations in seventeen of thirty s...
Though during Roosevelt's presidency, "The Voice of the Negro" criticized his role in the change of his racial policy and called his failures to call Congress's attention to open the nullification of the 14th and 15th Amendments. The black community also became outraged with Roosevelt's lack of action in the Brownsvill...
"The Voice of the Negro" became the black population's voice and reflected the anger and outrage of the black population.
There was a lot of racial violence occurring in Georgia in the beginning of the 20th century, but the event that impacted the magazine the most was the Atlanta Massacre of 1906. One of the main editors, Jesse Max Barber, was enraged at the speculations that the riot was caused by Atlanta's Black population, so he anony...
The first volume of "The Voice of the Negro," was published January 1904. Their goal was to keep the American people updated on the current history, educational improvements, art, science, race issues, sociological movements and religion. The price to subscribe to the issues were $1.00 per year.
Volume one was released in 12 different issues containing events that happened in that particular month. Each of these issues had different editors and contributors which made the content different in every issue.
Volume One No.1 had major contributors like Prof. William Scarborough, Prof. John Hope, Prof. Kelly Miller, Mr. S. A. Beadle and Prof. Silas X. Floyd. All these authors also contributed a short excerpts and poems, an example is S. A. Beadle's short story "If I Had a Million".
Volume One No. 2 had the same contributors as No.1 but introduced newer content from Kelly Miller, Jno. H. Adams Jr, J. Max Barber, W. G. Carver, Benjamin Brawley, H. M. Porter, L. A. J. Moorer, D. Webster Davis, and Silas X. Floyd.

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