Season 5: Episode 2 | Frances E. W. Harper’s Iola Leroy
College students are often excited to discuss the subtle radicalism of Iola Leroy by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper.
Season 5: Episode 1 | African American Novels and the 1990s
The 1990s gave way to a vibrant literary outpouring of African American novels that offered myriad representational possibilities freeing readers and writers alike.
Season 4: Episode 7 | Graphic Novel – Red, White, & Black
A graphic novel engages black history and Captain America.
Season 4: Episode 6 | The Story of Battle Royal
How an excerpt from an upcoming novel became a popular short story.
Season 4: Episode 5 | The Sisterhood, 1977 Photograph
A brief take on a photo titled “The Sisterhood, 1977,” which has been a source of inspiration for countless readers and viewers.
Season 4: Episode 4 | Black Writers & Afro-Mississippians
Here’s why Richard Wright’s autobiography Black Boy, Margaret Walker Alexander’s novel Jubilee and John Oliver Killens’s novel ‘Sippi are held in high regard by most black folks from Mississippi.
Season 4: Episode 3 | The Evolving Reception of The Bluest Eye
Here’s how a book can be initially misunderstood and ignored, then gain literary recognition and acclaim, become adopted by the education system and taught broadly, and then become banned.
Season 4: Episode 2 | Richard Wright’s Native Son
The story of Richard Wright’s Native Son, the first black American best-seller, a novel that is both a shocking page-turner, and a philosophical provocation stirring controversy to this day.
Season 4: Episode 1 | Toni Morrison and the Seven Days
Here’s how high school students at a school in Maryland responded to Toni Morrison’s the Seven Days from Song of Solomon.
Season 3: Episode 7 | Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man
Here’s the story of how Ralph Ellison’s novel Invisible Man became a defining midcentury Black novel.