In his review of Diane Ravitch’s conversion polemic, The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education [New York Review of Book, May 13, 2010, pp. 16-19 ], E. D. Hirsch, Jr. makes a point worth pondering:

She [Ravitch] concludes that many public school teachers are currently ineffective partly because they have been poorly educated (17).

·        Seminar with Hazel Rowley, author of Richard Wright: The Life and Times

·        Discussion with Rowley, Jerry Ward, and Maryemma Graham of “Making Connections through Biography”

·        Technology workshop: Introduction to online collaborative work and teleconference software

·        Viewing and discussing Richard Wright-Black Boy (1995) with the film’s director Madison Davis Lacy

·        Seminar with Jerry Ward on “Between the World and Me”: The Wright Paradigm

·        Discussion with Ward and Howard Rambsy of "Making Connections through Poetry"

·        Seminar with Trudier Harris on “Reading Wright through Folklore: An Introduction”

·        Tour and Presentation by Saralyn Reece Hardy, Director of the Spencer Museum of Art on “Reading Wright through Images and Text”

·        Seminar with Howard Rambsy on “Boys to Men in Three Wright Short Stories”

·        Discussion with Tonya Wells-Abari and Marjorie Lancaster of “Wright: ‘Fighting with Words’ in the Contemporary Classroom"

·        Seminar with Carmaletta Williams on “Making Connection through Wright’s Short Story Cycle"

·        Viewing and discussion of the HBO film Long Black Song (1996) with Madison Davis Lacy

·        Lecture “Background to Native Son” by Jerry Ward

·        Demonstration by Tonya Wells-Abari of “Making Connections to Native Son for 21^st Century Students

·        Discussion of “Reading Wright, Reading Our Students” with Tonya Wells-Abari and Marjorie Lancaster

·        Three part seminar with Deborah McDowell on “Without the Consolation of Tears: Understanding Emotion in Native Son

·        Discussion of “Wright and Migration: The Mississippi to Chicago Connection” with Tony Harris and Howard Rambsy

·        Viewing and discussion of the film Soul of a People: Writing America’s Story (2009) with David Taylor, the film’s writer and co-producer

·        Field Trip and Tour of American Jazz Museum (Kansas City, 18^th and Vine)

·        Lecture by Tony Bolden on “Richard Wright, Jazz and Blues”

·        Lecture by Julia Wright (Wright’s oldest daughter) on “A Hurricane Called Bigger”

·        Presentation by Ward on “Six Versions of Native Son: The Novels, the Plays, and the Films”

·        Viewing the film Native Son (1951) and discussion with Julia Wright and Ward

·        Discussion of “Richard Wright and Religion: Personal Reflections” by Randall Jelks

·        Demonstration: Richard Wright in the Digital Classroom by Howard Rambsy and Tony Harris

·        Viewing of the film Almos a Man and discussion with Rambsy and Jelks

·        Seminar with Carmaletta Williams on “Reading Wright’s Women”

·        Workshop: Reading/Teaching Wright through Material Culture with the textile artist Marla Jackson

·        Discussion of “Teaching Wright and Curriculum Standards” by Frazier O’Leary

·        Seminar with James A. Miller on “Art as Life: Narrating Lived Experience”

·        Discussion of “Public/Private Schools and Richard Wright” by Frazier O’Leary and Emily Robbins

·        Seminar with James A. Miller on “The Politics of Art: Loss and Recovery”

·        Presentation by Howard Rambsy on “Covering Black Boy: A Visual Literary History of Wright’s Autobiography"

·        Working sessions with resident scholars and discussion leaders to produce materials for Sourcebook Demonstrations

Between the World and Me

By Richard Wright

And one morning while in the woods I stumbled
    suddenly upon the thing,
Stumbled upon it in a grassy clearing guarded by scaly
    oaks and elms
And the sooty details of the scene rose, thrusting
    themselves between the world and me. . . .

There was a design of white bones slumbering forgottenly
    upon a cushion of ashes.
There was a charred stump of a sapling pointing a blunt
    finger accusingly at the sky.
There were torn tree limbs, tiny veins of burnt leaves, and
    a scorched coil of greasy hemp;
A vacant shoe, an empty tie, a ripped shirt, a lonely hat,
    and a pair of trousers stiff with black blood.
And upon the trampled grass were buttons, dead matches,
    butt-ends of cigars and cigarettes, peanut shells, a
    drained gin-flask, and a whore's lipstick;
Scattered traces of tar, restless arrays of feathers, and the
    lingering smell of gasoline.
And through the morning air the sun poured yellow
    surprise into the eye sockets of the stony skull. . . .

And while I stood my mind was frozen within cold pity
    for the life that was gone.
The ground gripped my feet and my heart was circled by
    icy walls of fear—
The sun died in the sky; a night wind muttered in the 
    grass and fumbled the leaves in the trees; the woods
    poured forth the hungry yelping of hounds; the
    darkness screamed with thirsty voices; and the witnesses rose and lived:
The dry bones stirred, rattled, lifted, melting themselves
    into my bones.
The grey ashes formed flesh firm and black, entering into
    my flesh.

The gin-flask passed from mouth to mouth, cigars and
    cigarettes glowed, the whore smeared lipstick red
    upon her lips,
And a thousand faces swirled around me, clamoring that
    my life be burned. . . .

And then they had me, stripped me, battering my teeth
    into my throat till I swallowed my own blood.
My voice was drowned in the roar of their voices, and my
    black wet body slipped and rolled in their hands as
    they bound me to the sapling.
And my skin clung to the bubbling hot tar, falling from
    me in limp patches.
And the down and quills of the white feathers sank into
    my raw flesh, and I moaned in my agony.
Then my blood was cooled mercifully, cooled by a
    baptism of gasoline.
And in a blaze of red I leaped to the sky as pain rose like water, boiling my limbs
Panting, begging I clutched childlike, clutched to the hot
    sides of death.
Now I am dry bones and my face a stony skull staring in
    yellow surprise at the sun. . . .

Source: MUN Faculty

I would hurl words into this darkness and wait for an echo, and if an echo sounded, no matter how faintly, I would send other words to tell, to march, to fight, to create a sense of the hunger for life that gnaws in us all, to keep alive in our hearts a sense of the inexpressibly human.

America

                By Claude McKay

Dr. Maryemma Graham is a Professor of English at Kansas University. Her inspiration for the Wright Connection Institute stems from her long-term professional and scholarly interest in Richard Wright’s work and her desire to consistently integrate her scholarly interests and teaching. Dr. Graham has previously directed several NEH Institutes, including an International Wright Conference in 1985, “Mississippi’s Native Son.” She also co-chaired the internationally significant Richard Wright Centennial Committee and coauthored Teaching African American Literature: Theory and Practice. Her numerous other publications include The House Where My Soul Lives: The Life of Margaret Walker (in progress) and the Richard Wright Newsletter.

Dr. Howard Rambsy II is an Assistant Professor of English at Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville. Dr. Rambsy works closely with a charter school in East St. Louis, and he is particularly qualified to address the benefits of teaching Richard Wright in the secondary school classroom. Dr. Rambsy was the editor of the Paper on Language and Literature’s special edition on Richard Wright, and he is able to demonstrate the intersection of the visual and the literary with his innovative presentation, “Covering Black Boy: A Visual Literary History of Richard Wright’s Autobiography." His book, titled The Black Arts Enterprise and the Production of African American Poetry, is scheduled for release December of 2010. More on Dr. Rambsy.

Tony Bolden was born and raised in the Oakland / San Francisco Bay Area, but became interested in African-American literature as a student at Dillard University in New Orleans where he became the youngest member of Congo Square Writers' Union. The group's informal discussions established a theoretical foundation for Bolden, who went on to earn his PhD in English and teach courses on black writing and music at The University of Alabama and The University of Kansas. His books include: Afro-Blue: Improvisations on African American Poetry and Culture (University of Illinois Press, 2004) and The Funk Era and Beyond: New Perspectives on Black Popular Culture (Palgrave, 2008).

Saralynn Reece Hardy is the director of the Spencer Museum of Art at the University of Kansas. Previously, she was the Director of Museums and Visual Arts at the National Endowment for the Arts, where she received a Distinguished Service Award. Ms. Hardy coauthored Kansas Murals: A Traveler’s Guide. Her interests include societal integration of art and the need for artistic experimentation in academic life.

Dr. Trudier Harris is the J. Carlyle Sitterson Professor of English and Comparative Literature Emerita at the University of North Carolina: Chapel Hill. She is a renowned author and scholar, has received numerous teaching awards, including the Award of Distinction for the College of Humanities from Ohio State University in 1994. Among her books are South of Tradition: Essays in African American Literature and her memoir Summer Snow: Reflections of a Black Daughter of the South. The Scary Mason-Dixon Line: African American Writers and the South, published in 2009, was designated by Choice Magazine as an “Outstanding Academic Title.”

Dr. Randal Jelks is an Associate Professor of American Studies with a joint appointment in African and African American Studies at Kansas University. He holds appointments in History and Religious Studies, and he has published both scholarly and journalistic articles. His research and writing interests are in the area of African American Religious, Urban, and Civil Rights History. Last year Dr. Jelks wrote a widely-cited article titled “Obama, Wright, and Trinity.” He is in the final edits of a new book on Martin Luther King Jr.’s mentor titled The School Master of the Movement: Benjamin Elijah Mays, A Religious Rebel in the Jim Crow America. More on Dr. Jelks.

Visiting Scholar

E-mail: nymdl@ku.edu

Madison Davis Lacy is an Associate Professor of Film and Media Studies at the University of Kansas. He is also an award-winning film director, writer, and producer. His four Emmys include one for the critically-acclaimed documentary, Richard Wright: Black Boy. More on Mr. Lacy.

Visiting Scholar dem8z@virginia.edu

Dr. Deborah McDowell is the Alice Griffin Professor of Literary Studies at the University of Virginia. She is foremost an editor of African American literature projects, including The Norton Anthology of African-American Literature. Dr. McDowell also founded the influential African-American Women Writers Series for Beacon Press. Her books include The Changing Same’: Black Women's Literature, Criticism and Theory and Leaving Pipe Shop: Memories of Kin. More on Dr. McDowell.

Visiting Scholar: jam@gwu.edu

Dr. James Miller is Professor of English and Chair of American Studies at The George Washington University. Dr. Miller authored the pedagogically essential Approaches to Teaching Wright’s Native Son. Dr. Miller also wrote “Bigger Thomas’s Quest for Voice and Audience in Native Son,” and acted as a Media Consultant on the BBC’s Richard Wright—Black Boy. More on Dr. Miller.

Visiting Scholarl: hjrowley@yahoo.com

Dr. Hazel Rowley is the Australian scholar and author whose discovery of new materials prompted her to write the most recent Richard Wright biography, Richard Wright: The Life and Times. Dr. Rowley’s other widely-read and oft-translated books include the acclaimed Tête-à-Tête: The Tumultuous Lives of Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre. Dr. Rowley’s other scholarship includes numerous articles, including “Richard Wright in Paris.” More on Dr. Rowley

Visiting Scholar: cwilliam@jccc.edu

Dr. Carmaletta Williams is a Professor of African American Studies at Johnson County Community College. She is also the Executive Director for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Dr. Williams has extensive experience conducting teacher workshops, and she displays expertise on the topic of the short story cycle. Dr. Williams has extensive knowledge of Wright’s era due to her work and research on Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes. Her forthcoming book is titled My Dear Boy: The Letters from Caroline “Carrie” Hughes Clark to her son Langston Hughes: 1928-1938.

Visiting Scholar

Julia Wright, the eldest daughter of Richard Wright, is a much sought-after writer and speaker. Ms. Wright’s upcoming memoir addresses the profound influence of her father as well as her diverse experiences as an African-American living in Paris. More on Ms. Wright.

Native Son (1951) (B&W Ep) [VHS] (1949)

Richard Wright (Actor), Gloria Madison (Actor), Pierre Chenal

When originally released in Europe as Sangre Negra in 1950, Native Son—the film—was a long time coming for Wright. The author had fought for the integrity of his original novel enough to take up playing Bigger Thomas himself. When released for American audiences as much as 30 minutes of film was left on the editing room floor. It would be interesting to know what was left out, but one can make an educated guess.

For those of you who have read the novel this may not seem odd, but the main parts left out of the film have to do with miscegenation (Bigger kissing Ms Dalton) and Communism (the word isn't even mentioned!!). What is left is a dry husk of novel, but it leaves one to wonder what American audiences (or rather the censors) were ready to show in American theatres.

Several liberties were taken by the director (and Wright?) that may also prove interesting for further conversation. Bessie, Bigger's one-dimensional love interest, is killed in the movie also, but it comes to the reader/viewer in the form of a flashback in the prison scene (Fate).

Soul of a People: Writing America’s Story

By David Taylor

Americans faced crushing financial devastation during the Great Depression. But it was also a unique opportunity to capture the essence of our country . . . a people who refused to give up hope. Both witty and heartbreaking, Soul of a People is the powerful story behind a controversial public assistance program, the Federal Writers Project one of four arts programs of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Works Progress Administration.

Thousands of writers including Richard Wright, Saul Bellow and John Cheever traveled throughout the country to interview ordinary people for a series of state guidebooks. But controversy ignited when they portrayed not only our triumphs but our tragedies. A unique portrait of 1930s Americana, what they uncovered profoundly impacted the project, the nation, and modern literature.

Soul of a People

The WPA Writers' Project Uncovers Depression America

By David A. Taylor

Soul of a People is about a handful of people who were on the Federal Writer's Project in the 1930s and a glimpse of America at a turning point. This particular handful of characters went from poverty to great things later, and included John Cheever, Ralph Ellison, Zora Neale Hurston, Richard Wright, and Studs Terkel. In the 1930s they were all caught up in an effort to describe America in a series of WPA guides. Through striking images and firsthand accounts, the book reveals their experiences and the most vivid excerpts from selected guides and interviews: Harlem schoolchildren, truckers, Chicago fishmongers, Cuban cigar makers, a Florida midwife, Nebraskan meatpackers, and blind musicians.

Drawing on new discoveries from personal collections, archives, and recent biographies, a new picture has emerged in the last decade of how the participants' individual dramas intersected with the larger picture of their subjects.

America's Dream

1996  Movie, NR, 86 mins

Danny Glover (Actor), Wesley Snipes (Actor),

Bill Duke (Director and Kevin Rodney Sullivan (Director) 

Three African-American directors adapt short stories by prominent African-American writers (Richard Wright, John Henrik Clarke, Maya Angelou) in this trilogy made for HBO.

"Long Black Song": Alabama, 1938. Farmer Silas (Danny Glover) leaves his wife Sarah (Tina Lifford) and infant daughter alone while he takes his crops to town. Lonely and bored, Sarah entertains the sales pitches of a young white peddler, David (Tate Donovan), and makes love to him. When he learns what has happened, the outraged Silas wants to take out all of his frustrations at the world on David, but Sarah convinces him not to let his anger get the better of him.