Black Lives in America's History, Literature, and Present Day Culture
Wednesday, September 23rd 12 p.m. via Crowdcast
About the Event
Two scholars use their individual research of a literary icon and of community identities to drive a compelling and timely conversation. In Navigating the Fiction of Ernest J. Gaines, Keith Clark analyzes the themes of Ernest Gaines’ literature through the lens of twenty-first-century America, focusing on race and the enduring impact of slavery, black southern women’s voices, and differing interpretations of history. Karla Slocum’s book, Black Towns, Black Futures, explores historically black communities in the US and shows the complexity of their racial identity, their struggle with marginality, and ultimately their success and hope for the future. This talk will be moderated by Dr. Kalenda Eaton.
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About Karla Slocum
Karla Slocum is the Thomas Willis Lambeth Distinguished Chair in Public Policy and professor of anthropology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is also director of the Institute of African American Research.
About Keith Clark
Keith Clark is the author of Black Manhood in James Baldwin, Ernest J. Gaines, and August Wilson and The Radical Fiction of Ann Petry, and the editor of Contemporary Black Men’s Fiction and Drama. He is professor of English and African and African American studies at George Mason University, focusing on African American fiction and drama, black literary masculinity studies, and African American LGBT literature and criticism.
About Kalenda Eaton
Dr. Kalenda Eaton is an Associate Professor of Africana Literature in the Clara Luper Department of African & African American Studies at the University of Oklahoma. Her primary areas of research and teaching include 20th/21st century African American Literature; Women’s Studies; and studies of the Black American West. Dr. Eaton is an associate fellow with the Center for Great Plains Studies and a Fulbright scholar