(*This interview was conducted in March 2010, but has recently been revised and formatted for Musings blog. The author has also added the introduction, which reflects back on the interview experience from the current perspective, and additional commentary.)

The media has always negatively depicted the iconic Black Panther party, so I had to figure out who the Black Panthers were. On February 21, 2024, I attended the event “Coöperism 10/13: The Black Panther Party and Cooperation” at Columbia University. The event featured speakers Flores Forbes, Jamal Joseph, Suzanne Cope, and Bernard E. Harcourt, among others. In my opinion, the conversation was taking place to raise the question: who is the future activist in America? And what must future activists in America do to challenge the status quo?

During the conversation, the speakers traced the historical origins of the Panther Party, which began in Oakland, California, in 1966 under the leadership of  Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale. But more importantly, the conversation focused on the blueprint that the party followed, such as the 10-Point Black Panther Program, a set of guidelines for the Black Panther Party that states their ideals and ways of operating, a combination of the Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence. The speakers pointed out this information as a means of stating what the next generation should consider when challenging the government and political hierarchy in the United States.

The conversation also centered on the survival programs that the Black Panther Party developed: the Breakfast Program, the Free Clinic Program, the Ambulance Program, and the Prison Pipeline Program. As much as I felt I discovered, I also believed I needed to learn more. In 2010, I interviewed Bro. Shep Shakur [pronounced Bruh Shep Shakur], a former Black Panther Party member or, as he would say, current comrade. Bro Shep educated me further while also giving me a firsthand account of prolific cultural and political figures such as Tupac Shakur and Reverend Al Sharpton, both of whom have a history with the Black Panther Party. I expected to learn one thing in this interview, but I wound up learning so much about being Black, and about myself being a New Jersey-born, Black, “whitewashed” man in America. Bro Shep insisted on a closed-door interview at City College in the Assata Shakur Room in the NAC Building, which is where the Black Panthers would gather during  Assata Shakur’s college days (Assata was a student at CCNY). Once inside the room, I was checked for wiring and forced to watch hours of VCR tapes and view archival documents and photos. I read the rules and was shown Mao’s Red Book to read from the Marxist doctrine of the Black Panther Party. It was an initiation and I passed. 

It is interesting to me now to consider how Shakur’s mission was to inspire me to consider ways of activism and student activism, while at the time I was more interested in landing this interview. At the time, CCNY was launching a Black Student Union (BSU) but received resistance from the campus and needed all of the supporters that they could get. I was a student at Medgar Evers College, a PBI (Predominantly Black Institution), which made me the perfect ally, but in actuality, I knew nothing about the Black experience. I was raised as an Afro-Native, and my mother’s mother was born on an Indian Reservation in Cherokee Nation, North Carolina, delivered by the sister of my maternal grandfather, my Aunt Tessie (an Indian Reservation midwife). My mom is named after my grandfather’s mother, Mellie. That was my history; it was focused less on Black culture, and more on being Native American. The year 2014-2015 was a very interesting period of my life, where I would discover that I could be more than a creative writer and was moving towards becoming more journalistic. At the time, I found a sense of belonging among other socially conscious African Diasporic people at City College. Again, I had no knowledge at the time about being Black, but I knew what being a writer was. The Black student body at City College was looking for a student writer who could be a liaison through CUNY. I was soon introduced to a future Black filmmaker named Naheem Adios, and together through his filming and my writing, we launched a Black Student Union that also included Lehman College. I hadn’t studied Black history beyond what I was required to study at Medgar Evers College, which was solely to meet course requirements and not for interest.

So Shakur taught me about myself that day in a way in which I needed to be told, and maybe that was what he saw in me, and I am forever grateful. He spoke of how the Black Panthers had to read for three hours every day, how the Panthers had to always walk with their Red Book in their back pocket at all times, and how important it was to be wary of fake prophets and cults of personalities and to never place anyone on a pedestal. All of these things made sense to me later on:  consider pop music today and how social media builds up artists into cult-like figures and their followers live by their every word. I was sweating profusely. I wanted to leave, but I couldn’t. I was being taught by an expert on student activism and based on what I see going on today in America and abroad I now know why Shakur was preparing me. I knew that I was learning something, and I knew that Shakur saw me as a worthy student who would pass on this knowledge, so therefore I am sharing chosen excerpts from our meeting.

Levi Wise-Catoe: Hi, can you tell our audience who you are and where you are from?

Bro Shep Shakur: I am Bro Shep Shakur. I am a Black Panther Party comrade, and I was born and grew up in the Bronx. 

LWC: Who did you look up to growing up in NYC? Who were your role models? 

BSS: Malcolm X was my role model as a kid.

LWC: Let’s talk about the Black Panthers and what you learned from the party.

BSS: Well the Black Panther’s colors were black and blue—sky is the limit, black is the panther. Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton founded the Black Panther Party in Oakland California. If a Panther is cornered and he can’t turn left or right, he’ll go straight for the aggressors.

LWC: That’s interesting I never knew that but it puts the panther association in a different context for me. What did the BPP represent for you?

BSS: For me, it represented a revolution, and also change: the constitution, the political system, the economic system, the whole country’s social structure—everything in America.

LWC: Was there anyone else in America that you felt was representing any sort of change at the time other than Malcolm X?

BSS: Fannie Lou Hamer was an influence on me.

LWC: How did you feel about Martin Luther King and the American representation of peace and justice?

BSS: Well, Martin Luther King’s views were beginning to change in 1968. He began attacking the war in Vietnam and standing up for the job unions in the U.S. and his last speech “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” spoke of that change and he was killed soon after.

LWC: Yes, on April 4th, 1968. 1968 was a turbulent year in America. Some might argue as turbulent as 2020—following the assassination of King, the country was on fire with activism.

BSS: 1968 was a year of social change. There were snipers set up on rooftops all across Harlem during the King riots. 

[Note: Shakur allowed me to view secret tapes of the Black Panther Party from its library of VH1 Tapes. I noticed Black snipers set up on my apartment building rooftop in Harlem, the Manhattanville Housing Projects, aiming guns towards the police below from 1968.]

LWC: This is interesting because that’s where I live. Can you tell me something that might surprise me to learn about the Panther Party?

BSS: Well you realize that Martin Luther King was being blackmailed by J. Edgar Hoover.

LWC: Really? 

BSS: J. Edgar Hoover’s whole agenda was to neutralize and destroy anything or anyone fighting for Black equality. The American government began a relationship with the southern sharecroppers to put LSD in their fruit/crops through pesticides. It sold those fruits in the supermarkets up north because Black southern sharecroppers could only sell to other Blacks, never whites, and all this to turn Black people against one another mentally through drugs.*

LWC: That’s an interesting assertion. Do you think that the government found other ways to carry this out?

BSS: The white FBI was investigating the Panthers. It was the U.S. government vs. the Panthers. The FBI would utilize whatever they had by—phone tapping, mail opening, offices bugged, informant ranks, police rank and provocateurs would testify.**

LWC: Wow, it’s horrible what went on back then, and possibly today we are just not being informed.

BSS: Did you know that Tupac Shakur’s biological father was an informant who was hired by the FBI to infiltrate the Black Panther Party?***

LWC: No, I’ve never heard that.

BSS: Yeah and once he turned state evidence against the party he went into the witness protection program. I never trusted Tupac’s biological dad and knew that he was up to something; which is how Afeni Shakur was imprisoned while pregnant with Tupac, who was born in prison.Tupac became a pawn for the media. Think about it—a thug was always considered to be a negative in the press until Tupac tattooed ‘Thug’ across his chest and then all of sudden ‘Thug’ became the blueprint for every young Black male rapper that has ever followed. Imagine the impact that would have been made if he had tattooed Black Pride or Black Excellence or something or anything other than thug?

LWC: That’s a good point and one that I never considered. 

BSS: Tupac wasn’t raised that way. He was the product of two Black Panthers. He was raised on education, knowledge, pride, Black history, and art; but unfortunately Hollywood created that image of the young Black thug that he played as Bishop in the 90s movie Juice (dir. Ernest Dickerson, 1992) and slowly but surely Tupac began to believe his own hype the more Hollywood sold him on that image. Then came the branding with the thug tattoo across his chest and then they had him and it was only a matter of time until he was no longer useful to them and then he was gone.

LWC: That’s such a tragedy.

BCC: But the way it works once the Black pawn is of no use, just like Tupac’s biological dad the informant—where he is now? Nobody knows.

LWC: The plight of the Black man in America. Who else tried to infiltrate that Black Panther Party? I’m sure there were others.

BCC: The Action Network’s founder Al Sharpton was another person who was hired to set up the Black Panthers.****

LWC: Really?

BSS: Yeah they [the Government] had him come to one of our meetings wiretapped… The government sent him to one of our meetings wearing a wire to find out information regarding Assata Shakur’s whereabouts to set us up, but we caught him and then threw him out.  Sharpton is one of them. 

LWC: Moving on, what else can you tell me about the Black Panther Party?

BSS: Through the Black Panthers Breakfast Program we fed more hungry kids than the government but that’s not shown in the media. I always felt as though the worst thing the Panthers ever did was to brandish a gun because that’s the only image of the Black Panthers that the media actually does show. 

LWC: So do you feel that the Black community is moving forward or backward?

BSS: We are definitely moving backward. These days Black people have this “I got mine. You go get yours attitude.” We can’t rely on our enemies to save us [note: the white establishment]. We need our own preparation. Back in the 70’s every college campus had a BSU (Black Student Union). The BSU’s came out of the Black Panther Party. There were over 600 Black Student Unions on college campuses back in the 70’s and today there are less than 60 that might still exist.

LWC: So how do we as a community protect and prepare if the social consciousness is no longer there? 

{Note: This interview was in 2014 but even today Black studies are under attack, woke culture is under attack, Governor DeSantis in Florida (Anti-Woke Agenda), CRT (Critical Race Theory) is under attack, and reparations for the descendants of the formerly enslaved are under attack. Who are the gatekeepers of this new woke movement and who are they being sent by? How can we protect and prepare in 2024?} 

BSS: By not listening to white news/media. We must prepare by organizing and spreading the word, by learning Martial Law and survival and emergency tactics. The Black Panthers set up the Free Clothes, Free Shoes, and Free Ambulance programs in Winston, Alabama because white ambulance companies wouldn’t pick up Black people and take them to the hospital. The Panthers had Free clinics, they set up Sickle Cell Anemia programs that nobody knew about, Lead Poison programs, Tuberculosis programs, and a teenage illiterate program. We took over Lincoln Hospital in the Bronx, helped out the Black community, set up a free busing prison program so that Black inmates could have visitors, and set up a police program. The Black Panther newspaper sold over a million copies at .25 cents a copy. What we were doing was never told and it was unheard of because we were Black independently owned taking care of our community. I was the paper’s last regional manager. We were the only newspaper that the white-owned media could never corrupt. 

LWC: I think today’s young activists could learn a lot from the methods and community created by the Black Panthers.

BSS: Indeed there are several misconceptions regarding the party. We have been demonized by today’s media when in fact a lot of governmental programs credited to the government were founded by the Black Panther Party. Again, yes we were wrong to brandish guns, but it made the white man or the U.S. government fear us.

LWC: How do you feel about a Black man being president such as President Obama? What do you think of him?

BSS: I don’t think of him. He’s doing what they want him to do. He can’t change anything. He got money from the internet to launch his grassroots campaign; but big corporate money too, he owes the government what it needs through large investments. He’s not the first Black president, he’s one of them, he’s not one of us.

LWC: How do you feel about social media today and its impact on the youth?

BSS: Technology today controls society. Kids can’t tell time anymore unless it’s digital. The concept of the video is to create misconceptions through images that brainwash kids: sex, money, and bling. I enjoyed Hip-Hop until it became rap; NWA brought in the gangster mentality which was all negative with no balance. If you look at clothes today everybody wears the same thing like robots and they must be told what to wear like robots… no individuality, everything is the same. In the ‘60s we wore tailor-made suits, shark skin suits, no sagging jeans—that’s prison culture, thug culture, and brainwashing. That’s how they used Tupac, the product of the Black Panthers, in the same ways they exploited the image of Black Panthers brandishing guns.

[Note: the Crips were formed out of the Black Panthers and the Bloods were formed out of the Crips. Which is interesting considering Bloods and Crip members developed Gangster Rap which Tupac became its cultural figure.]

 LWC: What made you become an activist?

 BSS: I was pissed off, that’s what helped me decide to become a Panther. I discovered the being when I was at Hunter College and then I learned even more once I joined the Black Panthers. People think that it was the men that controlled the Panthers but it was the women that kept the Panthers together. Once the women left, the party fell apart because the men began to turn against one another; Huey and Bobby were both trained by female comrades.

 LWC: Really?

BSS: Yeah I was as well, it was a woman who trained me to lock and load and how to clean out my gun. If I was in the military during wartime I would feel safer in combat with women by my side than to have men by my side because with men it’s always going to be an ego against the other man.

 LWC: But going back to what you just said about the government—they turned against each other in what way?

BSS: By placing certain members of the party on pedestals, as I warned you about previously. Once Huey got locked up, Bobby Seale took more leadership within the party in Huey’s absence. Then when Huey returned back home the party became divided because Huey felt that he was the face of the Black Panther party. The government got Huey addicted to crack and Huey became paranoid and didn’t trust anybody anymore. The Panthers started killing each other.

LWC: This was definitely not what I expected to learn during this interview.

BSS: Dr. Huey P. Newton, PhD, became a crackhead and was assassinated by the Black Guerrilla movement that wanted to make a name for themselves, so they went after the Black Panthers founding member.

LWC: Wow I’m not sure how to respond to that. How did you respond to that upon learning of it?

BSS: Keep in mind Huey thought that the New York Panthers were against him as well. Huey wanted to take over the party nationally once he returned from prison. He was no longer interested in working together with other comrades; he wanted to be its sole leader. His ego took over once he returned back home and paranoia also took over him. There were infiltrators within the party and we became split in two (east vs. west). Huey began receiving phony letters with fake signatures that New York comrades were out to kill Huey so he was convinced that the East Coast were out to kill him. He received death threats to Huey by mail coming from the East Coast and the Panthers became divided, East Coast vs. West Coast, and both coasts began to believe that we were out to kill the other Coast.

[Note: this was the same tactic that was used to divide rap music in the 90’s. East Coast vs. West Coast wars which led to the death of both Tupac and Biggie. After a while, I thought what I was hearing began to make sense.]

 LWC: But was that a good thing or a bad thing?

BSS: You decide.

In closing, I found it interesting when 17th National Black Writers Conference Honoree Paul Coates stated that the Black Panther Party talked too much, and he further argued that the rhetoric made the Panthers rather than its movement. Whereas in the beginning, I felt his opinion was off, I now understand what he was saying. It’s about the ‘powers that be’ and how they have used media and manipulation to give life to the professional agitators and instigators that create negative misconceptions to divide and conquer organizations such as BBP and others that are put in place to divide and conquer the powers that be. But I did leave with a deeper understanding of the ways in which media functions.

Editor’s Notes:

Original published date is March 2010

*The editor has been unable to verify the existence of a conspiracy to contaminate crops destined for Black households with LSD. However, the CIA ran a program for decades, called MKUltra, that experimented with the use of LSD and a range of other drugs for the purposes of mind control, brainwashing, and psychological torture. MKUltra frequently used nonconsensual, illegal methods. 

**The FBI did indeed investigate the Panthers. Through a counterintelligence program named COINTELPRO, the FBI actively surveilled and sabotaged the BPP. All of the methods described by Bro Shep—phone tapping, opening mail, bugging offices, seeding informants, writing fake letters that would sow division between members and chapters of the BPP—are known to have been used extensively as part of COINTELPRO’s attack on the Panthers. Many of the Party’s internal conflicts can be traced to these illegal interventions. COINTELPRO also directly targeted leaders through assassination, imprisonment, and the construction of false charges. Martin Luther King, Jr., Huey Newton, Bobby Seale, Fred Hampton, and many many others were targeted by the program. To this day, Assata Shakur remains the FBI’s most wanted woman. 

***The editor has been unable to verify whether or not Tupac’s father, Billy Garland, was an informant who was placed in the witness protection program. He was largely absent from Tupac’s life. 

****By his own admission, Sharpton has cooperated with the FBI. It is alleged that he pursued information relating to the whereabouts of Assata Shakur in the 1980s. 

The post Media Manipulation and Reflections by Former Black Panther Bro Shep Shakur appeared first on Center for Black Literature.

For some college students, working, volunteering, or possibly interning at campus events might feel like a dreadful task, possibly even a tedious chore, but for others, it may be  a life-changing event and something that you’ll learn from. I sat down with Medgar Evers faculty member Karen Thompson regarding her departure from working at the 17th National Black Writing Conference, and it was very rewarding. Here is what Thompson had to say about working at the conference event behind the scenes in the VIP section.

Levi Wise Catoe: If you could use one adjective to describe the 17th National Black Writers Conference, what adjective would you use?

Karen Thompson: Inspiring

LWC: Really?

KT: Yes, the conference inspired me to read more, and so I purchased a lot of the author’s books after meeting them in the Green Room, having conversations with them, and just hearing and vibing with them about their ancestry. The knowledge and experience were very inspiring from everyone, every one of the writers that I met.

LWC: Did you meet a lot of authors?

KT: All of the authors that were present at the conference came to the Green Room, and I was their host. 

LWC: Okay.

KT: I was responsible for the atmosphere. I played music, jazz, and soft jazz. I had an air freshener.

LWC: How were they to deal with?

KT: They were amazing. They were all amazing.

LWC: Were the writers approachable?

KT: Yes, actually, one of them asked me if I purchased her book. Ms. Hunter [panelist and author Karen Hunter]: I was able to connect with her. She was amazing. I bought Donna Hill’s books; I bought three of Eric Michael Dyson’s books; I bought three books by Tiya Miles.

LWC: A lot of people, according to the surveys, are big fans of Tiya Miles. What about Bernice McFadden? A lot of people came out for her as well.

KT: I spoke to everyone; they were all approachable, and they were really nice. When I asked them about their books, you could hear the passion in their voice. One of the authors, AJ Verdelle, wrote a memoir, kind of like a memoir. Her book was inspired by Toni Morrison.

LWC: Oh, I love Toni Morrison. She’s one of my favorites.

KT: Yes, Toni Morrison inspired her book; that’s what she told me. I asked her to recommend one of her books to me. She thought about it and then asked me, ‘Are you a writer?’ She said, ‘Because my book is more about young writers and how to get into writing.’ She shared with me her experiences with Toni Morrison—how they met, how they got along, and things like that—that inspired her. And then I realized I had read some of her books, but I hadn’t read her memoir about Toni Morrison. So after I’ve read her memoir, I can read some more; I also ordered that book following the conference.

LWC: Which book? What’s it called?

KT: The title is Miss Chloe: A Memoir of a Literary Friendship With Toni Morrison, by AJ Verdelle.

LWC: Oh, okay, Miss Chloe, I haven’t read that book yet either but I’d love to because I love Toni Morrison.

KT: Like I said I just ordered it after meeting and speaking to its author AJ Verdelle. That’s how inspired I was by her, by others, and just by the whole event.

LWC: Great, you were “inspired.”

KC: Yes.

LWC: Thank you so much for sharing your experience on working at the 17th National Black Writers Conference of 2024 that was held at Medgar Evers College. See you at the 18th National event.

The post Unveiling the Hidden Gems: Writers Behind-the-Scenes at the 17th National Black Writers Conference appeared first on Center for Black Literature.

Many people do not understand all the details and hard work that goes into putting on an extravagant event like the 17th National Black Writers Conference—but detailed oriented it was. Everything from the weekly Steering Committee to the regular Zoom conferences indicated that this was serious business and an undertaking worthy of the event. I couldn’t wait for the Tuesday evening Steering Committee meetings just to develop as an event planner. Every detail—from producing media and emailing volunteers to the welcoming committee, VIP handlers, and Promotional advertisements—had to be accounted for. I assisted in any way that I possibly could because week after week I became more interested in how not only the Center for Black Literature functioned but also how event planning functioned. I looked forward to expanding my knowledge of social media and spreadsheets and anything else that I had to master for the event to reach a wider audience. I wanted everybody in the world to be at the 17th National Black Writers Conference because it would be a testament to the hard work that I and everyone else was putting in, and most importantly the hard work that I had put in.

My work week began on Tuesday, March 19,  the last day of the Steering Committee meeting that I could not attend due to the fact that I had a 5:00 appointment with HR to complete my Teaching Artist application. I really regretted not being at that last minute because I felt as if I entered into the conference unsure about where to go; I knew that I would be doing Scholarly Papers, and I was asked to be part of Call-n-Response but I wasn’t sure about being a part of the Youth Summit, which also took place on Wednesday morning during Scholarly Papers, or if I would be needed throughout the conference elsewhere; in other words, I was confused…

Pre-Conference began on Tuesday, March 19th. It was said to have been a lively affair of “Art, Play & Joy: A Revolutionary Act of Faith & Healing” that I couldn’t attend because I was not on campus that night due to the fact I had a virtual class at the same time. There was also a Poetry Slam that took place that would prompt the conference director to say “We may need to create a First Friday event at Medgar Evers College monthly” similar to the Brooklyn Museum’s own much heralded First Saturday events.

Day One kicked off on March 20, 2024, in the biggest possible way with the explosive Michael Eric Dyson who was in conversation with writer Farah Jasmine Griffith, which I spoke of in more detail in a previous review. By Day Two I would now be taking center stage beginning with the conference’s early morning “Re-Envisioning Our Lives Through Literature (ROLL) Youth Summit” event that my students from Clara Barton High School would be attending with writer Jason Reynolds. I was going to be speaking as the Emerging Scholar at the Virtual Scholarly Presentations before noon. 

I woke up Thursday morning and it was a nightmare. I had no running water and noticed that Housing Inspectors were coming to inspect my apartment. I was a bundle of nerves because the Scholarly Papers event was streamed on Zoom and the last thing that I wanted to hear was someone yelling “HOUSING…” with a loud police knock on my door during my taping. I couldn’t shave because I had no running water. I was famished—I hadn’t eaten because I had no idea that the water would be shut off. Coming from the theater I had to view this event as a performance and imagine that I was on a stage, knowing that this would be the only way to overcome my embarrassment—on the one hand, of feeling dirty and unclean, and on the other, fearing being embarrassed by a loud bang on my door. I recorded myself all morning as I would if I were acting—listening to myself, timing myself, and then positioning myself from the phone to see where the light was coming from in my apartment and determining my best angle to record myself speaking so I had nothing to share with my family of me speaking. So for me, my personal regret regarding the conference is after all the dedication I put into it I wound up not recording myself during the two opportunities I had to shine. But In the end, I was very pleased with myself after my Scholarly Papers and felt the most confident although I was an Emerging Scholar.

Later that evening, I was still a bundle of nerves because the water still had not come on. I felt if I could just soak in a tub I would be able to relax. I again felt disgusting and unclean. I rushed out of my house to attend the Poetry Café and walked all the way up the stairs, my train being an elevated train, only to have to rush back down because I forgot my MetroCard at home. Now I’m running back home, already feeling dirty and musky from not washing all day, up 20 flights of stairs to get my MetroCard, and all the way back to 125th from 131st, and now I’m really running late…  Again my training in theatrical performance kicked in. I was revising my poems on the train so that I had no idea what I had written—again from nervousness, but for me, nervousness becomes performance. Just like my MetroCard, I left my poems on the podium in an attempt to race out knowing I felt uncomfortable because I still hadn’t washed.

I attended the conference on Saturday, when I arrived around 1 pm. I thought everyone was amazing. Khalil Gibran Muhammad, who was on the “Black Writers’ Letter To America” panel, is literally the man that I wanted to be as an early undergraduate. Before him, I wanted to be a poet and a performing artist, or possibly the Black male ‘Madonna’, because she challenged the status quo, but after him, I also wanted to be a scholar because he studied the reasons why. I wanted to be an intelligent Black man rather than just a creative one. I was introduced to Khalil Gibran Muhammad after he became director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, a Harlem-based branch of the New York Public Library system. This was around 2014 and it was a period of enlightenment for me. I had become more curious about Black culture and hearing that he was the great-grandson of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad made me more engaged with who he was. The Schomburg became a place that I often attended and would rarely miss an event and if by chance Muhammad were the moderator it made me even more interested in attending. I wanted to interview in the way in which he interviewed: his style, his laid back yet inquisitive mode of questioning— all of this further intrigued me, because he always knew his facts and proceeded to get the response that needed to be heard. My younger self wanted to be just like him. So for me, this was the panel discussion that lifted me up. Thank you, Professor Donna Hill, Dr. Khalil Gibran Muhammad, Dr. Greene, and the entire Center for Black Literature team and Steering Committee for the invaluable lessons I learned. 

The post Behind the Scenes at the 17th National Black Writers Conference: Stories of Triumph and Inspiration from an Intern and Student Emcee appeared first on Center for Black Literature.

On Friday, March 22, 2024, the National Black Writers Conference presented its summit keynote, a conversation with the 2024 NBWC Honorees Paul Coates, Peniel E. Joseph, and Bernice L. McFadden, with Gloria Browne-Marshall moderating. The event offered an opportunity for the honored authors to share their stories and discuss what writing means to them, followed by a Q&A session, which opened the mic to the audience for responses to the authors. The 17th NBWC is relevant to everyone but necessary for both the intergenerational and intragenerational African Diaspora communities. The conference takes place in a college setting, which aims to create an atmosphere oriented toward the future of Black America and positions Medgar Evers College as a vital space for both the Brooklyn community and for Black culture in NYC.

                 In the Summit Keynote, I found the moderator, Gloria J. Browne-Marshall, thoroughly prepared for the conversation. Browne-Marshall is a writer, civil rights attorney, playwright, and professor of constitutional law at John Jay College (CUNY). Browne-Marshall has also taught in the African Studies program at Vassar College. She directed her line of questioning towards both the panel and the attendees in a way in which everyone felt involved in the dialogue, but I must say that I found the panel imbalanced in the absence of Percival Everett, because Bernice McFadden, a creative writer, seemed unprepared for scholarly dialogue that precipitated between Peniel Joseph and Paul Coates. This was no fault of her own, it’s just that the journey of a creative writer is less expected, and more spontaneous. I have found it harder for others to understand sometimes how writing for some writers is not learned but found or discovered, whereas being expected to write something by assignment is more recognizable, and in some cases becomes more of a chore. This is especially true in a college setting, such as Medgar Evers College, where the conference took place, among students where the expectation to write by assignment is more relatable. This is why I felt McFadden had less engagement, because the conversation became more about social politics than creative writing, an area in which McFadden is a master. Her books, Sugar, The Warmest December, and The Book of Harlan, were all crowd favorites, as was McFadden herself.

Joseph, on the other hand, is a scholar, teacher, and public voice on race issues, especially the history of the Black Power movement. His discourse seemed to coincide more with the racial discourse and racial politics of Coates, which created a strong rhetorical discussion around race and, more specifically, an academic engagement with the so-called Third Reconstruction, which is the focus of one of Joseph’s books. This concept dominated the discussion such that the absence of Percival Everett didn’t feel missed due to the riveting conversation about the apparent Third Reconstruction.

           Paul Coates, an American publisher, printer, and community activist, had less to say than Joseph for sure. Coates, as a publisher, was more inclined to listen to writers speak than he was to speak on what it feels to be a writer; in fact, he possibly attended every panel discussion and was very interested in what every writer had to say. Coates had a keen interest in the discourse that Joseph had been speaking, which was interesting, to say the least. This idea that in the U.S. there were three eras of reconstruction—the period after the Civil War; the Civil Rights era; and the current period spanning the election of Barack Obama, the rise of Black Lives Matter, and the failed assault on the Capitol—is speculative yet compelling. 

An audience member asked the honorees to explain their writing processes and asked if the writers could give examples of how they stay motivated to continue writing, whether in creative, academic, and scholarly or rhetorical modes. McFadden spoke first and explained how writing, for her, is something organic and natural and how writing is beyond her control. She also stated that in her process, writing consists ofwords that spill out of her soul. In contrast, for Joseph, it is more of a routine to fulfill. Joseph responded to the question by saying if writing is something that you strive for, whether in the field of academic scholarly papers or creative writing, one should commit to at least an hour a day of writing just to motivate ideas, revisit concepts,and make it a practice every day to just write. Coates as a publisher had less to comment on that question but he did provide an earlier comment that I found riveting on the topic of rhetoric. He stated that felt that the Black Panther Party talked too much and that the rhetoric around the Black Panther Party made the Black Panther Party. This comment was controversial, to say the least, but coming from a comrade of the movement, it’s hard to argue considering I wasn’t there. His comment gave context to how subjective writing and language can be.

Towards the end of the panel, I loved a comment that Marshall gave to an audience member who was a teacher. The teacher asked the panel how to inspire young writers to write from history when they complain about being tired of hearing about Black history and slavery. Marshall responded, and I am paraphrasing, “Instruct your students to put down the pen. If you feel that the topic is too much to handle, take a deep breath, step away from the page, and then come back. Because if slavery is traumatic to you, yet you have never experienced it, imagine what it was like for the formerly enslaved who had to endure it. Think of how the formerly enslaved people suffered so that you (Black students today) can now be the writer that you aspire to be today. How dare you say you don’t even want to hear any more about it while standing on the shoulders of ancestors who withstood it?” And with that, I was awestruck. This was a great way to end a panel with a combination of hope and critical analysis; subjective but still critical.

After the conference, the organizers asked attendees to share their opinions about the 2024 NBWC. The opinions differed but overall were positive. One person exclaimed, “The art was powerful, it was healing, and it brought everyone together”; he added that everything was well organized and executed flawlessly.  According to another attendee,  “Being submerged in Blackness was a defining moment for me.” One attendee asked, “Can we make the conversation style more conversational, like a back-and-forth?” Others commended speaker Dr. Tiya Miles for her “excellent delivery, language skills, and knowledge” and shared their appreciation for  her “expertise and scholarship in African American history and material culture.” Attendees particularly valued “the opportunity to hear the author Tiya Miles, provide background about her writing process and her works. She also provided insight into historical relations between Native Americans and African Americans intertwined together in communities.” They also thought “Tiya Miles’ and Dr. Brenda Greene’s approach to the Q&A was great.” Some commented that “the conference, the gaining of insight, and the backstories of the relatable books were enlightening and amazing.” According to another attendee of the Dramatic Reading for Elders panel, “I really enjoyed listening to the memorial tributes of the Elders Group members. I also enjoyed hearing the stories written by the group members.” For many, the only complaint was that, “time was too short” or “the program on Black Diasporic Literature centers on writers from lesser-known and established Black and Black Indigenous writers: Canada, Dutch-Caribbean, Brazil, Australia, Papua New Guinea, and Germany”. The overall consensus by the end of the event regarding what could be done differently to improve upon it next time was, “Nothing at this time—everything was wonderful.”

        Overall, I found Dr. Brenda Greene to be an irreplaceable conference director. She sits in on every event overseeing and analyzing everything in a knowledgeable way which most wouldn’t. I confirm her interest and her commitment to both literature and the mission of the conference and if in fact it becomes Greene herself in the moderator’s seat nobody does it better. The community of Crown Heights definitely came out but I also noticed people from outside the Brooklyn community. I noticed parents with children which became part of the mission of the conference, “All That We Carry Where Do We Go From Here”; only the youth can answer that question, and only the current student body can offer a suggestion. My advice to Medgar Ever College is to make the National Black Writers Conference part of the syllabus. This would ensure that most of the student body is in attendance. There was a conversation that every student needed to hear—if not all panels were relevant to every student, there was at least one panel for everyone. I was happy to attend and I look forward to the preceding conferences. So there you have it: the 17th National Black Writers Conference of 2024.

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Levi Wise-Catoe: Hello Mr. Reginald Harris, the award-winning poet himself. Who are the poets that inspired you as a young writer? Was there any one poet in particular that you modeled yourself or your work/style after?

Reginald Harris: Hello Levi. It’s interesting that you ask this question. Someone else asked me recently who were my ‘models’ growing up, and I had to answer by quoting Lucille Clifton: “what did i see to be except myself?” I encountered very few Black poets in school growing up. I fell in love with Edgar Allan Poe, for example, but in terms of Black poets, Langston Hughes and Gwendolyn Brooks were the only ones I remember being exposed to. Even after I graduated from college (NOT an HBCU!) I had no idea there were so many living Black poets until I went to the Cave Canem retreat in 1997. It’s sometimes difficult to realize how different the world is, particularly in the world of education, from what it was in the 1960’s and ‘70’s. The official national celebration of Black History Month didn’t start until 1976 for example, less than 40 years ago. Not so much as a role model in terms of my poetry (although I’m sure it’s there), but when I met her, I was really struck by who Gwendolyn Books was as a person. Before she came to my college to give a reading, I had a lot of dumb ideas about how someone FAMOUS, the first African American Pulitzer Prize winner, was supposed to act. Then when she arrived, she looked and acted like my grandmother or an older member of the family. Very down to earth, very generous – she bought a copy of the book 84 Charing Cross Road for a student who was about to visit England and gave away copies of some of her chapbooks to us few Black students. And she read poems written by some Chicago high school students, as well as her own work, during her presentation, which was just amazing to me. Again, very generous. I thought, so THIS is the way you’re supposed to be as a writer in the world. She’s a great model to live up to in that way.

LWC: I loved Lucille Clifton as well. As a young writer, I was always told that poetry doesn’t pay or that being a Black writer doesn’t pay. I noticed that among your accolades, you also worked ‘survival jobs’. How would you advise a young poet pursuing a career in writing in terms of survival while awaiting that big publishing break, fellowship grant, or stipend to arrive?

RH: “Survival jobs” Octavia Butler did a lot of temp jobs, and even worked on an assembly line for a while, I think, so she would have time to write. Composer Philip Glass was back to driving a cab and moving furniture the day after his first opera Einstein on the Beach premiered at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York. All that’s to say, there’s no shame at all in doing what you have to do to live while making art. That too is a natural part of the process, and I’ve never thought otherwise. Don’t quit your day job—but keep working. Writing is not a career you go into if you want to make a lot of money—Some people would say if you wanted to make ANY money. There are people who have done well as writers, but most of them are nowhere near a Mr. and Mrs. Carter level of living large. Almost all of us have ‘day jobs’—usually teaching these days—and many are fortunate enough that their jobs involve some form of writing. The only ‘survival job’ I think I’ve had was my brief time as a ‘credit liaison’ for a magazine, a job I took because a friend worked there, and I needed the money. I was that person that calls you and says, ‘Your account is overdue—where’s our money?’ and I was 100% wrong for that job. I wanted to do the other jobs I’ve had, (whether I was successful at all of them is another question), and I learned a lot everywhere I’ve been. One important shift I made when I was at the library in Baltimore, though, was that instead of thinking of myself as a librarian that writes, I began thinking I was a writer that works at the library. I still think of ‘having a job’ as one thing, and ‘working’ (i.e., writing) as something else. So, you can put in your 40 hours a week or whatever to pay for food and rent, and then think “Okay, now I need to get some work done.”

LWC: What do you love most about being a Black writer? And do you see yourself as a Black writer or simply as a writer?

RH: Well, I am a Black writer, and I love being part of the continuing conversation within the African diasporic world. I totally understand, though, how some authors want to be thought of as writers first and Black second, because far too often ‘Black’ can be used as a modifier to diminish or pigeonhole you. I remember the first line of Hilton Als’s essay on Black poet Owen Dodson in The Women, where Als is helping to reorganize Dodson’s library, and the poet tells him, “Put the niggers over there.” It’s like that: you’re a Black Writer and so it’s assumed that you write a certain way or MUST write about despair or crime or something Quote BLACK Unquote all the time, or someone who’s not Black won’t get anything out of it (or will feel attacked), or everything you write is about Race and not ‘universal human issues.’ It’s easy to see how creative people would want to totally get away from crap like that. It’s not as bad as it was, but it is still there—Have you seen American Fiction?

LWC: What was that moment like in 2012 when you won the Cave Canem/Northwestern University Poetry Prize? Do you ever get used to the accolades, or is it always something that feels brand new every time?

 RH: My first response when I got the call about the award was, ‘You’re kidding, right?” And the person on the other side sounded like she was offended! “No, what do you mean I’m kidding? You won!” Being recognized for anything is wonderful, and for me, it usually feels new and unexpected. And I’m very grateful and happy when it happens.

LWC: How does it feel to be an LGTB author in a day and age of book banning and anti-woke agendas in which the communities of “others” are under attack? Does it make you want to distance yourself from the rhetoric or forge yourself head-first into the line of conservative fire?

RH: When I was in my 20’s, the only Black gay writers I knew were James Baldwin and me. Then my first partner took me to DC, and we saw Essex Hemphill and Wayson Jones perform, which was astonishing (and made me think “I’ll never write again” because Essex was so damn good). Black women and men created—and rediscovered—an African-American LGBTQ+ writing tradition in the late 1970’s and 80s, and the book banning forces and others want to erase that time and that tradition, to ‘return’ to some heterosexual, misogynist, white Christian Nationalist world that never actually existed. So, as a Black person, a Gay person, a writer, a library worker, I take all this very personally, and there is no ‘going back’ into their suffocating fantasy world. Even though we’re tired and the struggle will be long, their agenda must be fought.

LWC: Your book Autogeography touches on the themes of race and sexuality in a variety of landscapes and locations, from Havana, Cuba, to Baltimore, which is an amazing artistic achievement. I found it awe-inspiring and thought-provoking. Afrolatinidad is a part of the African Diaspora that is sometimes ignored, especially in the United States during election seasons. Considering this year’s theme of the Black Writers Conference, All That We Carry: Where Do We Go From Here?, as writers of the vast African diasporic communities, which include Afro-Latinos, Latinx, and Queer communities, where do we go as a community? 

RH: We have to recognize that we ARE a community, that we’re all in this together. There are differences between us, of course, between the experiences of those from across the African diaspora throughout the Americas, but there are many commonalities also. And we all suffer from dealing with life under white supremacy and white supremacist thinking. A few years ago, a friend got into a discussion with someone working at a Cuban restaurant in Jersey City over the lack of any mention of Africa in the thumbnail history of Cuba they had printed on their placemats. False histories like that just can’t continue to be repeated. 

LWC: Growing up in the Baltimore/Maryland area, what are your feelings regarding the Francis Scott Key bridge collapse? 

RH: Baltimore was (is?) very “East Side” vs “West Side.” I’m from the West Side and the Bridge is on the East Side, so I had very few opportunities to use it. And it was one of the few bridges I didn’t particularly like going over—it was too high, or I didn’t like the way the guardrails looked or something, I don’t know. It feels weird, sacrilegious, to say I didn’t care for it now that it’s gone. But it is painful. I’m deeply saddened—hurt, actually—by the loss of the Mexican and Central American construction workers during the accident and I think about them and their families a lot. Baltimore is such a difficult city, sad and wonderful and beautiful and terrifying, sometimes all at the same time. I’m still a Baltimorean (in exile) and the city really needs a break. We need time to grieve, and to think about what this might mean in terms of creating the kind of city that we want. 

LWC: What are your feelings regarding the racist attacks against Baltimore’s mayor being referred to as the ‘DEI Mayor’ following the bridge collapse?

RH: Do you mean the ‘Duly Elected Incumbent’? Mayor Scott’s response was terrific, I thought, when he said they can say what they want about me because it’s nothing compared to what our ancestors went through. And he’s right when he says it’s just a way for them to get away with calling him The N Word. I also love how the Governor said he didn’t have time for foolishness when a reporter tried to get him to make a comment about it also. Some people have not recovered from Barack Obama being elected president of the United States, and Donald Trump and his ilk have made even more visible this country’s racism—that was always there (usually) just below the surface.

LWC: What are your feelings regarding Morgan State canceling its recent homecoming football game after a shooting on campus that left five people injured? Do you think this attack against HBCU is fueled by the current, anti-Critical Race Theory, DEI, Affirmative Action right-wing propaganda?

RH: I’m not sure what the motive was behind the shooting, so I can’t say if it was related to Right Wing propaganda or not. I do know incidents like that can and will be used to fuel stereotypes of Black people and Black cities as violent and dangerous. It will be more fuel on the fire against college affirmative action programs—“see even their so-called college students are thugs! We can’t let them near Our Children!” Anything negative large or small will be used against us.

LWC: How was your young upbringing growing up in Maryland and how did it shape and inform you as a Black writer and as a Queer Black author? Which in some cases might be a double-negative.

RH: I saw the James Baldwin biography The Price of the Ticket when it came on PBS in 1989, and there’s a bit in there where an interviewer says to him, when you were starting out, you were Black, poor, and homosexual. You must have thought, “How disadvantaged can you get?” and Baldwin says, “No, I thought I’d hit the jackpot!” I’ve always loved that. We were working class, working poor, I guess, but I never felt ‘poor.’ I always thought we were middle class, and when I got a scholarship to a private high school—see, I was DEI before DEI!—I thought most of the people out there were rich and really rich. I’ve never looked at where I’m from or any situation I’ve been in from the point of view of it being a disadvantage. As Zora Neale Hurston said, “I am not tragically Colored.” And Baltimore really is a good place to get creative work done: a lot of great resources, close enough to the so-called “Big Time” of New York, yet far enough away that you’re not caught up in all that’s going on up here every day. As for being gay—there really is something to be said for being ‘different’ or out of the mainstream. The view of the world is in many ways clearer from over here. And just as Black people know more about white people than they know about themselves and the larger culture, so too Queers know more and can see things more clearly about so-called straight life than heterosexuals do. And look at who the individuals are that are the true creators and generators of art, music, and culture: mainly all of us over here ‘on the margins.’

LWC: Can you discuss Lambda and some of the things that they are doing in the LGTB community to raise awareness beyond the LGTB community for causes that are often overlooked?

RH: Over the years, Lambda Literary has been extremely important in promoting and championing LGBTQ+ books and authors. The Lammy awards have helped to raise the profile of a wide range of works from various communities in a wide range of styles and genres. The Writers in Schools program is doing essential work in introducing queer literature to young people. Lambda has also been very forceful in fighting against the various book bans going on around the country. Lambda is going through a transitional period right now—as with many organizations, COVID  and the immediate post-lockdown times were difficult, and things haven’t gotten fully back on track—but I’m sure it will always be an important part of the literary community.

LWC: What is the one thought that you would like to leave people with today? It can be a quote from an ancestor or a thought from the top of your head.

RH: I’ll use another James Baldwin quote. I think about the part about how the world is held together all the time: “Love has never been a popular movement. And no one’s ever wanted, really, to be free. The world is held together, really it is held together, by the love and the passion of a very few people. Otherwise, of course, you can despair. Walk down the street of any city, any afternoon, and look around you. What you’ve got to remember is what you’re looking at is also you. Everyone you’re looking at is also you. You could be that person. You could be that monster, you could be that cop. And you have to decide, in yourself, not to be.”

 LWC: Thank you so much for your wonderfully engaging responses. For me, my early inspiration from James Baldwin was his book Giovanni’s Room (1956), and believe it or not it was a straight white woman, Madonna, who introduced me to it when I read somewhere that she had obtained the rights to the book to remake it as a film. I agree with you, growing up I never felt poor. I grew up in the CCP projects in Paterson, NJ, and when I would watch The Jeffersons “Movin’ On Up”, I thought that was us because we also lived in a tall red brick building with a terrace.We lived on the 13th floor and the penthouse 15th floor. Yes, I did see American Fiction and read the book Erasure and thought that both were amazing!!!

RH: I have a strange relationship with Giovanni’s Room: I discovered an old 1950s paperback copy of it on a US Coast Guard Cutter in Mobile Alabama, which was weird enough. But then I read it in one night after a bad break-up. So it was a VERY emotional experience. I’ve been a little afraid of the book ever since because it has such personal meaning for me. PS: Percival Everett’s new book, James, is fantastic.

LWC: Duly noted… How are you feeling today in an adjective?

RH: ‘Emerging’ seems to be the adjective of the day for me today, particularly as it applies to myself as a person, a human being in the world.

LWC: Aren’t we all…? Thank you so much Mr. Harris for speaking with me.

RH: My pleasure!

The post Celebrating Diversity: The Remarkable Story of a Queer Black Writer’s Path to Recognition appeared first on Center for Black Literature.

Professor Orenstein is the co-author of two books, the 2015 Godless Grace: How Non-Believers are Making the World Safer Richer and Kinder, and the November 2019 publication of Darwin’s Apostles: The Men Who Fought to Have Evolution Accepted, Their Times, and How the Battle Continues. A primatologist by early training, he has written for numerous national and international freethinker and science publications.

Professor Orenstein is also a noted civil and human rights activist and a sought-after speaker on human rights, science education, and evolution acceptance. I chose to speak with Professor Orenstein after attending the 17th National Black Writers Conference to get a deeper understanding of Anthropology and how it can benefit an author/ writer’s writing process.

Levi W. K. Catoe Jr.: Hi Dr. David Orenstein, thank you for sitting and talking to me and our readers. I wanted to begin this conversation by discussing anthropology. Can you explain to the readers of Musings exactly what Anthropology is, in case they are unaware?

Dr. David Orenstein: Of course and first, I want to thank you for offering me this opportunity to talk with you and through you, speak to your readers. It is humbling. The formal and basic definition of anthropology is essentially the study of human beings. Here at the college though, I think we need to look at it more deeply. So for me and the other anthropology faculty, we’re more interested in answering the question, “what makes us human” and that takes place by having the most holistic and open worldview of humanity, from culture to biology, to past and present civilizations, to how we treat one another, how we interact with the planet and how, as activists, we can see the underlying reality that there is much MORE that binds us together than pulls us apart.  

LWC: During the 17th National Black Writers Conference there was a roundtable discussion regarding “Black Writers’ Letters To America,” which centered on forms such as archival slave narratives, oral histories, the Griot, and the history of America from the perspective of what Toni Morrison calls a Black gaze. How can ethnography be used to uncover Black histories in America in this day and age, as we are witnessing DEI, Critical Race Theory, and “Woke” agendas under attack, and in many cases young uninformed African Americans who say they are tired of hearing about slavery? How can writers use this research in fiction telling to inspire young readers to reconsider this Black gaze through ethnography? 

D.O.: I think that all cultural stories are powerful. History of our past, collectively and within ethnic groups is not just about what happened years ago. They are often cautionary tales about loss, survival, justice, power, and perseverance. Their importance to family and community is clear. So, it’s as much about how you capture, share, and acknowledge, and that last part is not monolithic. There will always be people who will discard or not care about the past. The important thing is for us to show its value to the other two-thirds of people who will listen and will wish to carry it forward. In this way, literature and anthropology are very much linked. It’s about carrying forward our ancestors and their experience while at the same time not living in the past, but also creating our own truths and lived experiences.

LWC: If someone were interested in the field of Anthropology what would their career options be as a trained anthropologist?

DO: Wow! That’s a great question. Anthropologists work everywhere! Many people think you have to be Indiana Jones or work as a stuffy academic, but in reality, a degree in anthropology opens doors to working in public service, healthcare, the media and entertainment, law and diplomacy, working for social and environmental justice, ensuring people’s cultural memories and artifacts are secured…really the list is endless. Plus, usually, anthropology graduates make between 60k-80k upon graduation. 

LWC: Personally, as a writer, I was drawn to anthropology due to its ability to draw you into cultures. I was also drawn to how the field focuses on building observational skills that not only benefit writers but also actors. Can you explain what Ethnography, the fieldwork of Anthropology, is and how to go about obtaining this information in Anthropology? 

DO: Sure, essentially ethnography is the study of human culture. We may think that when anthropologists are doing this type of work it’s done in some exotic place. But in reality, you can do ethnographic fieldwork anywhere humans gather. So that means studying how people act and react to one another, sometimes it’s about power relationships or gender, but it can also be looked at through other connections like ethnicity, language, and kinship. Then you look at rituals and see how people act within groups to verify their lifeways. It’s usually best to spend a great deal of time to get the best information, but it’s not fully necessary.  Plus there are so many techniques, like indirect or direct observation, participatory research, and surveys, really there are so many tools in the anthropologist’s toolbox to gauge human interaction. 

LWC: What are the various methods in Anthropology?

DO: Perhaps in cultural anthropology or ethnography, the two main methods are observation and interview. With observation, you try to look unbiasedly at how people interact within the context of culture, language, and geography. Interviews usually give you answers regarding self-perception. You see how the interviews and observations intersect, which gives you in real time a kind of “truth” regarding how people think, act, and produce culture. This also works in linguistic anthropology since language and culture exist to build on each other. You can’t have language without culture, and vice versa. In archaeology, you’re dealing with material artifacts created and left behind by current and past humans and their civilizations. It’s a fascinating area that helps tell the story of how humans for thousands of years created the simplest to the most complex technologies, which help tell the story of their civilization. In biological anthropology, you’re going deeper and further back into time, exploring our fossil past and the fossil and biological past of all species on the planet since life began. But this area also includes forensics, like the show “Bones,” and primate behavior, paleontology, hominid evolution, paleobotany, and so many other fields. 

LWC: What anthropological methods would most benefit writers who are interested in following in the shoes of a writer like the Black Harlem Renaissance author Zora Neale Hurston?

DO: Great question and another example of an important writer who took her anthropological training to fulfill her intellectual interests. Zora Neale Hurston really used her worldview to help document and understand the African American experience in so many deep and consuming ways both through ethnography but also through fiction and other literature. She studied at Howard and Bernard and was a supporter of other black writers in the 1930s. Her work gave meaning and connection to the lives of Southern Blacks both pre- and post-slavery and well into the latter half of the 20th Century. It’s hard to know if anthropology made Zora Neale Hurston or vice versa but the combination has given millions of her readers new life and understanding and isn’t that really what matters most? 

LWC: Zora Neale Hurston’s fieldwork became 100 pages of research in the 1931 Journal of American Folklore, under the title “Hoodoo in America, and her autoethnography Mules and Men, a book of Hurston’s detailed, first-hand research, infused with her reflections. Are these good examples of viewing literature from the Black gaze in your opinion? 

D.O.: Of course! Zora Neale Hurston’s ethnographic work as well as her other research is memorable on so many levels. In a way, it connects issues of identity to the way W.E.B. Du Bois contemplated double consciousness. So, scholars and activists across generations from various disciplines are coming to the research and issues that the Society of Black Anthropologists and the American Anthropological Association are STILL observing and gathering data to this day. It’s because culture doesn’t have an expiration date, although cultures can and do go extinct. Hurston’s work stimulates and ensures we remember and witness those who came before.

 LWC: Zora Neale Hurston’s role as an anthropologist is reflected in her work as a fiction writer through her incorporation of different cultures and societies, her exploration of Black American and Caribbean folklore, and her use of first-hand storytelling experience. Another example from the musical theater is “Westside Story” (1957), which began as “Eastside Story”, which chronicled the Lower East Sside’s Jewish and Catholic Irish conflicts during the turn of the century NYC. Later, it became Westside Story, about the now-demolished San Juan Hill, a lost Black and Jazz community that was removed during the urban renewal in the 1950s, leading to creating historical erasure. The story shows how ethnology can be used to creatively re-envision and re-imagine lost communities through theater and writing. How do you feel about this process of using ethnography in the way in which Michael Bennett, for example, created the play “A Chorus Line” (1975) from audition slates?

D.O.: Great question and I’ll answer it as holistically as possible because that’s the way I see things as an anthropologist. I think anthropology is all about not only documenting the past and present to increase our knowledge, but it is very much about creating allies in the social sciences, physical sciences, and certainly in the fine and performing arts. It’s an “all in” effort to develop and maintain history and cultural meaning. When we do this, we create new entrepreneurial ways to connect to people, places, and ideas. We’re all so different, so some people might be turned off by an academic article, but get excited to read literature about a culture, or they may see a play or artwork, and it can change their lives. Just as there’s not one right way to be a “human” there’s no one right way to discover our human connections, which are many and so diverse. Even though some people would like us to think differently. A child’s story about growing up in the Caribbean is my story. An immigrant’s story about the hardships of leaving home is equally my story. Every person and community has value and worth. The challenge specifically in ethnography and cultural anthropology is to collect, share, and inspire others to see us as connected and one human family.

LWC: Can you explain some of your research and experiences in Anthropology? What cultures have you encountered, and what countries have you traveled to? How many years have you been in the field? 

DO: I have been very fortunate in that my love of anthropology has connected me to many different people in places. My first book was an international ethnography, really an ethnology, looking at how people from across the globe work for social justice, human rights, and environmental justice as non-believers or atheists/agnostics in every country and continent. The idea is, can we be “good without god” and if so, who is attempting to heal the world not for the motivation of faith but non-faith. Certainly, there’s nothing wrong with helping others if your faith and spirituality ask that of you, but it was great research to see what motivates millions of people without faith to live with The Golden Rule. My actual research isn’t in ethnography, though. I study human evolution, paleontology, primate behavior, and science acceptance. So I’ve really been all over this planet doing research, presenting my findings, and working in these areas. For instance, this summer, I’m speaking in Helsinki and London, all on anthropology. I’ve also researched in Romania and other parts of Europe and spoken in Manilla, really it’s a long list.  In 2018, I was the faculty advisor and took MEC and CUNY students to Ecuador where we worked with indigenous peoples, and assisted in doing environmental research in the Amazon Rainforest and on the Galapagos Islands.

LWC: What inspired you to study Anthropology?

DO: Well, I’ll be honest. It was my father who took me to see Planet of the Apes in 1968 when I was a child of maybe six or seven. I was hooked on the idea of inter-species communication and that got me interested in studying the primates. Fast forward and when I was an undergraduate at CUNY, I spent time working with the Bronx Zoo gorillas, interning at the Brooklyn Museum, and also spent time in California meeting with Koko, the sign-language gorilla. 

LWC: Of the many cultures that you have met, what custom, if any, inspired or changed your way of thinking in terms of traditions that you may have been accustomed to previously?

DO: Well, I tend not to be too accustomed to many traditions and really try to keep a holistic open mind, heart, and imagination when I meet all people. I’m an optimist by perception, so I come from a humanistic point of view seeing the good in all people, even if all people aren’t good to each other all the time.

I do see how the connections and rituals are connected to the past and I like to bring that out in class when we celebrate holidays like Valentine’s Day, Christmas, or other secular and religious holidays. 

LWC: New York is a large city, but a small place once you leave because many of its traditions and peculiarities are unlike anywhere else. Most places do not have a 24-hour rail system (subway), 24-hour stores, and multicultural neighborhoods. I had relatives who came to New York to visit and said they had never seen an open fire hydrant and had to take pictures; these are little things that New Yorkers take for granted. Did that affect your view as you entered into other community spaces outside of New York City?

DO: Well, I think the benefit of being born in a diverse city like New York really lays the groundwork for understanding other people. I was born in Brooklyn in the early 1960s and lived the first 12 years of my life in the Marlboro Houses, a housing project on 86th Street. So, I was kind of born into diversity and never left. My friends then, like now, really came from everywhere. I grew up believing and seeing the truth of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King’s quote about living one day in a nation where we don’t judge anyone by the color of their skin but rather by the content of their character. 

LWC: What thoughts would you like to leave our readers with in terms of Anthropology?

DO: Sure, I’ll be happy to share. To me, anthropology is more than just a discipline with research interests and methodology. It is a perceptual way of living an open and humble way of life. Seeing the connections of people, culture, biology, and language is a daily event and a ticket to the best show on Earth! Of course, we also have to be mindful of the damage and dangers our species has done and continues to do related to how we care for each other and the planet. But, as noted before, as an optimist humanistic anthropologist, I conclude that we can get past the noise and build a loving world if we can be less tribal or at least see the “tribe” as all of us rather than just some of us.

LWC: Thank you so much for speaking with me. Cheers and thanks for sharing.

DO: You are very welcome, and I thank you for your time and attention. Thank you for offering me a platform to share. This is exactly what we should be doing, coming from so many different disciplines and perspectives to build a community. If your readers ever want to reach out to me, my office is on the first floor of the Bedford Building (1650 Bedford Avenue, Brooklyn N.Y., at CUNY/Medgar Evers College).

The post Exploring the Intersection of Ethnography, Anthropology, and Black Literature: An Interview with Professor David Orenstein appeared first on Center for Black Literature.

I was deeply impressed with the documentary and I felt empathy for the Madam Sara community. Because of the similarities in the African Diasporic experience, I connect to their experience in Haiti as if it were my own in the United States, although we were divided geographically through the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. I hope that everyone has a chance to view this film and that it sparks discourse around the Madan Sara and the ongoing struggle for national autonomy in Haiti. It’s a conversation that is centuries in the making and needs, more than ever, to be had. To learn more about the film and the “Madan Sara,” I caught up with the film’s co-executive producer, Lulaine Childs. 

Levi Wise-Catoe: Hi Lulaine! Could you please explain what the film Madan Sara is about and who the “Madan Sara” are?

Lulaine Childs: The women known as Madan Sara in Haiti work tirelessly to buy, distribute, and sell food and other essentials in markets throughout the country. Despite the obstacles faced by the women working in a sector that lacks investment, infrastructure, and state assistance, the Madan Sara continues to be one of the most critical parts of the Haitian economy and of who we are as a country. The Madan Sara documentary tells the stories of these indefatigable women who work at the margins to make Haiti’s economy run. Despite facing intense hardship and social stigma, the hard work of the Madan Sara puts their children through school, houses their families, and helps to ensure a better life for generations to come. This film amplifies the calls of the Madan Sara as they speak directly to society to share their dreams for a more just Haiti.

LWC: I loved the movie. What was your filmmaking process like? Was it an easy process or was it difficult? And if it was easy or difficult, how?

LC: Independent filmmaking is always a difficult process because funds are limited and time is of the essence. For this film, it wasn’t a particularly hard process because Etant, Tina, Natalie, Wesly, and the rest of the team really did the heavy lifting. I think having a good team in place is key to making the process easier because doing this alone would be very difficult even for the most seasoned filmmaker.

LWC: In the film, Haiti is depicted as a community held together by strong Black women and by Black women’s entrepreneurship. Do you feel that is something that connects to the Black community in the US as well, where the Black community is often held together by strong Black women?

LC: I think it’s a common thread among the African diaspora. The strong Black woman has been and continues to be the “poto-mitan” of the society [note: the “poto-mitan” is a pillar that is found as the central architectural feature of Haitian vodou temples]. Nothing moves without their participation. A lot of times the leadership of men is talked about and heralded. Oftentimes, Black women still have a hard time getting heard, although it has gotten better over the years. You find them being the head of a lot of households, they are the ones who are doing the organizing, and sometimes they are the faces of certain movements. Without the women being as strong as they are, Black communities all over the world would be in a state of chaos.

LWC: What is the message that you would like for people to walk away with after viewing your film?

LC: The Madan Sara, like all women who do their work in the global south, deserve to be praised and the issues that affect them need to be handled so the countries can move forward. Despite all the odds, the Madan Sara have been able to feed their families, put their kids through school, and maintain their lifestyle. However, in these modern times, Haiti as well as other countries where women do this work should find a way to help lighten the burden they carry doing the work. Things like health insurance, property insurance for their merchandise, safe streets, access to credit, clean workspaces, and adequate bathroom facilities at the market, are just some of the things that should be in place for them.

LWC: As a Haitian-American, do you feel more Haitian or American? Which culture defines your character, being Haitian or being a U.S.-American from Brooklyn?

LC: I’m definitely more American from Brooklyn, but the more I learn about Haiti it gives me a better sense of self, if that makes sense. I have come to integrate certain aspects of the culture to my lifestyle.

LWC: How does the strife in Haiti affect you?

LC: Personally, it doesn’t really affect me. My ties to Haiti are limited. However, I do have some colleagues and contemporaries from Haiti I work with, and through them and the news I get an understanding of how bad it is. People have basically had their lives upended because certain people in the country want to keep it on its knees. Anywhere black people are suffering whether it be Congo or Haiti, it’s a terrible situation. Even the situation in Palestine specifically with what’s happening in Gaza and what happened in Israel on October 7th, human suffering is a terrible burden to deal with.

LWC: How do you think your film may change the negative perception that people may have regarding Haiti? Haitians?

LC: I think after seeing the film people will learn something new about Haiti. I also think the film humanizes the Haitian woman who is working as a Madan Sara. When people read or watch the news, they may see a woman selling food in the public market and think nothing of it. I think after watching this film and really getting an idea of what this woman has to do to feed her family, it will give them a different idea of the country and its people.

LWC: In your own words, could you tell the audience of Musings blog why they should all go watch your film Madan Sara?

LC: I think the audience should see Madan Sara because they may learn something new about Haiti. Madan Sara is a different story from the usual stories of disaster and chaos that tend to circulate about the country. While most of those stories are about current events, stories about people like the Madan Sara exist and deserve to be told.

LWC: How do Haiti’s problems and social disorder affect the whole African Diaspora? Are we all impacted by the political rebellion taking place in Haiti? And how difficult was it for you to include gang warfare in your film?

LC: Haiti is arguably the greatest symbol of Black power in the world. Once the country declared its independence by defeating the French and keeping the other world powers at bay, it was a signal to the entire world—especially black people—that freedom and independence were attainable. However, since that time Haiti has suffered for it. Part of it could be a conspiracy by world powers to make Haiti look bad, as some would suggest. I think there are a lot of things happening at the same time. Corruption, bad and weak governance, the lack of true relationships with other countries, the inability to grow the economy, and the unfettered presence of NGOS, in my opinion, have all worked to put Haiti in its current state. I also think part of the disorder is due to the long-lasting impact of slavery and colonialism throughout the African diaspora. I think there are still things we are learning about how slavery was and the mental impact it had on our people. In addition, I think the very real emotional, mental, and physical trauma still rears its ugly head even in the ways we act and how the outside world views the African diaspora. That is the reason unity and economic independence are always talked about, but never really materialize.

LWC: How do you feel regarding current news about the Haitian gangs’ war against law enforcement and the freeing of Haitian prisoners? And how does this affect Black people in the U.S. who are also dealing with our own mass incarceration?

LC: The situation in Haiti continues to get worse because of the insecurity in the country due to the elected officials and others in their positions not doing their work. A situation like a prison break isn’t new in Haiti, but obviously, it is a terrible occurrence on top of the recent events taking place in the country. It just adds to the narrative of the country being chaotic, but it took years to get to this state. A lot of people abdicated their responsibility while in power or were just corrupt officials using their positions and their resources to cause damage to the country.  As far as Black people in the U.S. it just gives those who already have negative ideas about us somewhere they can point their finger, making it seem like there is a simple answer. Those same people will ignore everything that came before and the effect it had which may lead to a situation like what’s taking place in Haiti. Corruption, the institutionalization of bad ideas, and the abdication of responsibility by those in power, all play huge roles in the mass incarceration of Black people.

LWC: What film are you working on now?

LC: We are working on a comedy film called Mainland. We are also working on a documentary about the 1974 Haitian World Cup team. We are also helping other filmmakers promote and distribute their projects. One of them is a short film called N’AP Boule by Alexandrine Benjamin, a filmmaker from Haiti.

LWC: Thank you so much for your thoughtful replies, and best of luck in everything that you are working on. I look forward to your further success. Finally, as a filmmaker myself, I am interested if you are also utilizing the film competition route, which helps to build exposure and accolades.

LC: Yes, with this specific film, we entered different film festivals and won some awards. However, we didn’t want to stay in that loop. For documentaries, a lot of the time the different distribution companies that work in the space tend to have a formulaic way of marketing the film, and the ones that approached us about distribution I felt weren’t going to do a good job. So we decided to keep it ourselves and work on the film on our own. We have had a lot of success so far, we are just going to keep going with it.

LWC: Is there anything further that you would like to pass on as far as how someone may be able to find any additional information regarding your film?

LC: Not a problem, we have a website; feel free to use any additional information regarding the story: https://www.madansarafilm.com/

The post Madan Sara and Haiti Today: A Conversation with Lulaine Childs appeared first on Center for Black Literature.

Riggs made Black Is… Black Ain’t as he was dying from AIDS. Death is a major theme throughout the film as it chronicles Riggs’s illness and how his illness affected his life. In addition, Riggs speaks of his love for the church, his family, and his community and how all of those elements played a part in who he was as a person. But I was more specifically struck by how loved Riggs was. During the time this film was being made, AIDS was a stigma in many communities, and in many cases, victims of the disease were ostracized or shunned from their communities. However, Riggs was wrapped in love by all those around him and it was heartwarming to see. 

The film complicates reductive notions of race through the history of Creole people, who would sometimes separate themselves from Blacks or “pass” based on the light color of their skin. Riggs himself was from the New Orleans community of Creoles. In the film, he explores the loose definition of the term creole, which in reality refers to various communities including those who passed for white, those who did not, and also Native Americans who lived and intermarried amongst Blacks. 

In the discussion, an audience member pointed out how African Diasporic peoples have always found ways to share their stories, either through oral history and the figure of the Griot, or, in this case, by documenting their own lives. As moderator Novella Ford commented, these storytelling traditions work against “historical erasure”—when life goes undocumented, how can you prove that it happened? In this case, Riggs found a way by documenting his own experience, and he shows the ways in which his spirituality lifted him through this dark time of his life. But the tradition goes back to the beginnings of the history of the African Diaspora, which formed a strong connection to religion and culture, interconnecting religion with spirituality and leading Black people through their darkest periods. Black is… Black Ain’t reflects on this history and shows how, despite the church vilifying AIDS due to its association with the LGTBQ community, the church still stood as the foundation of Riggs’s strengths. Food was another source of strength for Riggs. In the film, you experience his joy of food, of Gumbo, of tradition, and of the memories of food in his life growing up.

Riggs does not portray himself as a victim. He expresses that being gay was never a regret in his life. This attitude transforms the stigma of being gay into a strength. It also raises the question of Black masculinity. Who are the gatekeepers of masculinity in the Black community, and how is this dynamic articulated geographically? At one point, an audience member questioned whether Riggs’s experience as a gay Black man who was loved was based on where the film was located. But shooting took place nationwide, and at least 95% of the film was based outside of New York. Nevertheless, would the perspectives raised in the film have been different had the entire Black community in the United States been part of the conversation? By portraying Riggs’s personal history alongside the national Black community, the moderators suggested how the film reflected “linked fate,” an acute sense of awareness that what happens to the group will also affect the individual member.

During the conversation following the film, an audience member pointed out how the Black community traditionally gathers during birth and death. Both events mark milestones within the community, and the film remains true to the cultural celebration of the emergence of life and of the passing of lives lived. The film felt like a baptism, or as if Riggs were taking communion and self-cleansing, returning to the purity of birth. At the same time that it is a beginning, it is also an ending. Riggs is witness to the obituary that he is writing for himself, coming to terms with his life and accepting his death. Some of the most striking scenes were shot in the Louisiana Bayou, a return to Riggs’s origins. At the end of the film, Riggs runs naked through the swamp in New Orleans, calling to mind the innocence of birth, a time when nudity is void of any feelings of guilt or shame; and, instead, natural and next to God.

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 Rustin is one of my all-time idols. I have been enamored of him since I learned about him, so I was excited to attend an event dedicated to his life and legacy at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, “Between the Lines: Bayard Rustin, A Legacy of Protest and Politics.” The event was a conversation between Michael G. Long, who edited the book of the same name, and Jafari Allen. Their exchange sparked many revelations and I left the event more aware than when I entered. I felt so much pity for the life that Rustin had to live, including the attack on his character that was rallied against him by other Black people and the distance that Martin Luther King placed between himself and Rustin out of fear of people assuming that he was also gay. I also learned that it was Coretta Scott King who introduced King to Rustin. Scott-King met Rustin during her college years as a fellow activist who practiced civil disobedience. She would ultimately introduce her husband King to civil disobedience tactics. Rustin recalled that his first time meeting King he was strapped with a handgun and that he never traveled without his gun. It was Rustin who told King that if he represented civil disobedience he would have to be willing to put away his firearm, which eventually he did. Nevertheless, this raises the question, who was King really? The “I Have A Dream” pacifist or the “Beyond Vietnam” radical? We will never truly know. What I did learn was that according to Rustin, King had no idea how to organize an event. Instead, it was Rustin who developed the blueprint for King’s early Civil Rights movement, at least until the day that King removed Rustin from his inner circle. Nevertheless, Rustin returned to organize the March on Washington, despite everything leveled against him by Adam Clayton Powel and Roy Wilkins. Someone noted during the discussion that “it’s funny how karma works given the fact that nobody remembers Wilkins’s legacy in comparison to the sudden interest in Rustin.” If I remember correctly, the comment was made by the moderator, NYU professor Dr. Jarafi Allen, based on the fact that the venue was standing room only, or that the Hollywood lens is now fixated on Rustin’s story, with an Academy Award-nominated movie based upon his life currently in theaters. Wilkins has not received the same interest from Hollywood, perhaps indicating that he is less marketable in the mainstream. Meanwhile, Rustin’s role as an activist for the LGTBQ community is also important for newer generations. Until recently, this legacy and all that he accomplished was invisible, but he has since become a symbol of the “others” and most notably the “forgotten others”. While in his lifetime he was shunned, rallied against, and betrayed by those that he benefitted, history has allowed his legacy the final word.

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Known as the “Mother of the Civil Rights Movement,” Rosa Parks’s early life has been overshadowed by her later involvement in the Civil Rights movement. The Schomburg event helped to shed light on her background and the experiences that shaped her activism for equal rights. Parks was a woman who didn’t receive enough flowers for the life that she lived. She was born in Tuskegee, Alabama, and raised there along with her younger brother, Sylvester. When Rosa Parks was a young girl, her father taught her to not trust white people, so even as a young child, she had an innate distrust of white people. She would grow up challenging whites early on, fighting for herself and her younger brother against the racist white children in her neighborhood. She was known to raise a fist in self-defense at a time when Blacks were not expected to fight back against whites, especially not a Black little girl. Parks’s contributions to the Civil Rights Movement are widely recognized, but her early life and the struggles she faced are less known.

Parks’s education was complicated in those days. A young Black girl wasn’t supposed to focus on education, and most Black children didn’t get past 6 th grade due to the Jim Crow laws of the time. Black schools were inferior (used and borrowed books, shacks, lack of resources, etc.), but Parks was able to extend her education when a local Black resident opened up a school for colored girls. Parks was able to continue her education on a work-study basis due to a lack of money.

Parks’s first ambition was to teach, but she also had a knack for sewing and was known to be the best seamstress in town. It was around this time that a Black teenager by the name of Claudette Colvin refused to give up her seat on the bus in Alabama, and she was arrested. It was March 2, 1955, 9 months before Rosa Parks would do the same thing. Colvin, however, was only 15 years old and was thought to be an unpredictable delinquent youth and a teenage mother. Although the NAACP was waiting for a moment to challenge the Jim Crow laws of the Alabama bus company, they did not seize on Colvin’s act to do so. It was not until Parks was on her way home after a long day of work and decided she would not be moved, changing the course of history. While Rosa Parks was not the first Black woman to refuse to give up her seat on the bus, her actions sparked a movement that led to significant progress in the fight for racial equality in the United States.

This historical event was not only important for Parks’s activism. It was also the moment that a young, newly appointed pastor at Dexter Avenue Church, the site where activists were organizing to begin the Alabama Bus Boycott, emerged into the public eye: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. King became involved in activism and the non-violence movement through his sermons during the meetings and began to incorporate these ideas into his sermons at the Dexter Avenue Church. However, he was not previously involved in non-violent civil disobedience. His wife, Coretta Scott King, however, had been an activist beginning in college. By contrast, King was actually a gun carrier at the time. To organize the Bus Boycott, Parks, Coretta, and the other Black women of the church and community set up carpooling so people would be able to get back and forth to work. Coretta cooked food for bag lunches and hot meals and drove her car to make sure that the community would not need the city’s buses for any reason whatsoever because they had one another. This would cripple the Alabama Bus company into near bankruptcy. By the end of the year, the courts passed a law to desegregate all city buses. Unfortunately, at this point, Parks became the sacrificial lamb. Instead of Parks receiving recognition as a hero for creating one of the single most successful boycotts in modern history, the NAACP was shut down in Alabama; and Parks received death threats, was fired from her job, and blacklisted. While Parks’s career moved in one direction, King, who never lifted a hand, a call, or a job to Rosa Parks once his career took off, was acknowledged for the success of the boycotts and became the face of the movement. Despite King’s abandonment, Parks and Coretta remained good friends.

I was unaware that Parks lived in the projects and never earned enough money to buy a house. She wasn’t a wealthy woman; although she was famous, she never received a paying job that offered her a pension with any type of benefit until she was in her 60s. Parks’s history speaks to how Black people treat their leaders, particularly to the backseat status of Black women who were involved in the Civil Rights movement but largely ignored or overlooked. The discussants at the event also addressed how Rosa Parks supported up-and-coming activists such as Malcolm X when he came to Chicago; indeed, the person that Malcolm X most wanted to meet was Rosa Parks. She would also serve as a mentor to the SNCC, CORE, and the Black Panther Party. I find Rosa Parks to be unsung and riveting, and so much more than the Black woman who refused to give up her seat on the bus. I would implore everyone to rediscover Rosa Parks.

The post The Rebellious Life of Mrs Rosa Parks: Event Review appeared first on Center for Black Literature.