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The Power of Words: Celebrating Black Voices
Hosted by Monore County Public LibraryLearn about the African American experience through the lenses of literature and film.
Event Details
“The Power of Words” is a biennial event sponsored by the Friends of Monroe County Public Library. Indiana University Alumni Association Lifelong Learning is proud to be a community partner in presenting two lectures by two distinguished scholars and teachers to learn about the African American experience through the lenses of literature and film.
The two lectures will be offered virtually via Zoom.
Tuesday, March 1, 7-8:30 p.m.
Generations in Motion: African American Portraits
“All growth is change, but all change is not growth.”
The above comment by essayist and novelist James Baldwin is a cue for this course’s exploration of the theme of transition in African American writing. This theme has been portrayed, dramatized and symbolized in countless ways throughout the history of formal and informal literature. Class readings and commentary will focus on examples of two emphases.
The first is physical migration, such as that from the rural South to the urban North, and from the Caribbean to the U.S. What memories accompany the luggage in these journeys? What are the specific expectations for the “new land”? (Consider here The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson).
The second form of transition is in accounts of growth and development into adulthood. Certainly, both transitions can occur simultaneously in the published works. (Consider Richard Wright’s classic, Black Boy). How are the meanings of adulthood articulated, modeled or challenged within these works? How might knowledge of these transitions and the questions they raise enter future conversations and understanding of cultural and political movements?
We will explore sample text from several short stories and a non-fiction narrative. Excerpts will be distributed electronically before the class.
About the Instructor
John McCluskey, Jr., is professor emeritus of African American and African diaspora studies and English at Indiana University Bloomington. He is author of two novels, Look What They Done to My Song and Mr. America’s Last Season Blues. His short fiction has appeared in numerous journals and collections including Ploughshares, Southern Review, Ancestral House: The Black Short Story in the Americas and Europe, Best American Short Stories and Calling the Wind.
Tuesday, March 8, 7-8:30 p.m.
Navigating Childhood and Society in Recent African American Films
Hollywood has not been kind to Black children. From its earliest beginnings, Black childhood has represented otherness and danger, if not servitude and ridicule, and has been designed and created for a non-Black audience. After a brief overview of some early motion picture renderings, this presentation will focus on recent films by Black screenwriters and directors that represent an alternate view of what the socialization of Black children reveals and explores. Among the films to choose from are: Moonlight (2016), The Hate U Give (2018) and US (2019).
About the Instructor
Audrey Thomas McCluskey is professor emerita of African American and African diaspora studies at Indiana University Bloomington. She served as director of the Black Film Center/Archive and the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center, as well as director of graduate studies in her department. She is author/editor of six books, most recently A Forgotten Sisterhood: Black Women Educators and Activists in the Jim Crow South, and numerous journal articles and book chapters that include Black film studies.
These courses have been approved by the Indiana State Library for four General Library Education Units (LEUs). Contact Grier Carson (gcarson@mcpl.info) for further information and requirements.
The cost to attend the courses is $25. Register at the link above.
For more information, contact the Monroe County Public Library at 812.349.3050.
The Power of Words program received support from an Indiana Humanities Action Grant.