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Richard Wright Expert Jerry Ward Will Speak at SIUE

(East St. Louis & Edwardsville) on June 26 & 28, 2007

 

 

Books by Jerry W. Ward  Jr.

Trouble the Water (1997) / Black Southern Voices (1992)

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Books by Richard Wright

 

Richard Wright: Early Works  / Black Boy  / Native Son  / Uncle Tom's Children / 12 Million Black Voices  / Richard Wright: Later Works

The Outsider  /  Pagan Spain Black Power  /  White Man Listen!  / The Color Curtain Savage Holiday / The Long Dream

Eight Men: Short Stories  / Haiku / American Hunger / Lawd Today!

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In preparation for the 2008 International Richard Wright Centennial, Dr. Jerry W. Ward, Jr., a Wright expert and professor of English and African World Studies at Dillard University in New Orleans, will give presentations on Wright in East St. Louis and Edwardsville (Illinois) on June 26 and 28. Both events are free.

On Tuesday, June 26, at 6:00 p.m., the Eugene B. Redmond Writers Club will host Ward in a workshop on Wright in the Library (Building B) of SIUE’s East St. Louis Higher Education Center, 601 J.R. Thompson Dr.

On Thursday, June 28, at 1:00 p.m., Ward will present a lecture and workshop on Wright (and the “creative experience”) in Peck Hall 2304 on SIU’s Edwardsville Campus. An East St. Louis drum troupe and members of the Writers Club’s Soular Systems Ensemble will also perform.

Wright (1908-1960), a best-selling author whose novel “Native Son” (1940) was the first book by an African American to become a Book of the Month Club selection, wrote 16 works of fiction, nonfiction (including “Black Boy,” 1955), and poetry. He was born in Natchez, MS, and wound his way, as a child, up through Memphis to Chicago where he wrote “Native Son” (which also became a movie).

A seminal figure in the development of modern African American literature and activism, Wright influenced generations of writers--including James Baldwin, Ralph Ellison, Toni Morrison, Amiri Baraka, Paule Marshall, Ishmael Reed, and Alice Walker--and inspired the Civil Rights and Black Arts/Black Power movements of the 1950’s and 60’s.

In addition to his Richard Wright Centennial projects, Ward is writing new articles for “Reading Race Reading America: Social and Literary Essays” and new poems for JAZZ SOUTH. The editor of “Trouble the Water: 250 Years of African American Poetry,” he is  co-editing the “Cambridge History of African American Literature” with Maryemma Graham of the University of Kansas. He is also a co-founder of The Richard Wright Circle and Newsletter.

(In July, the EBR Writers Club and “Drumvoices Revue” will issue a “Call for Kwansabas for Richard Wright.” Selected kwansabas (49-word, 7-line poems) will appear in the 2008 issue of “DR,” which is co-published by the Club and SIUE.)

Sponsors of Ward’s visit include SIUE’s College of Arts and Sciences, Department of English, “Drumvoices Revue,” Black Studies, and the EBR Writers Club. For more information call SIUE/EBRWC at 618 650-3991. Email: eredmon@siue.edu.

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posted 23 June 2007

 

 

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