Fall 2019 Semester Wrap Up & Kwanzaa Events

 

First, that all of you for a good semester! I hope to see some of you in future classes and good luck with all your academic careers. To conclude everything, a few logistical details then links to some important events.

• Grades will be submitted to the CUNYFirst system on or before the deadline: Midnight December 28. You should be able to check your final course grade online after that. It may take a day or so to show the changes.
• Because of the volume of work right now, I can’t respond to individual emails for grades. I will return essays already submitted, but can’t answer individual questions. If I emailed you that I received your essay, I have it and will grade/return it. Use CUNYFirst to check your final grade and ask IT to help you if you can’t access the system for some reason.
• If you want to discuss papers, we can set up an appointment to do so during the break.
• If you signed up to receive emails from the course website here, follow the unsubscribe instructions at the bottom of the email to stop them. You don’t need to do anything to remove yourself from the text message list: I’ll remove everyone from that.

If you’re an Africana Studies major (and if not, you should be!), consider joining one of the professional organizations on the Resources page. Membership is inexpensive for undergraduate students and it connects you to a wider group of people working in the field. It will also give you a big advantage if you’re thinking about graduate school. Contact me in the new year if you need help sorting out which one might be right for you.

If you’re not an Africana Studies major, consider joining us. It’s also particularly good as a minor or double major and overlaps nicely with English, Sociology, Psychology, Social Work, Education, History Music and lots of others. The advantage: it’ll uniquely help you fit your work into the Black community and can be a big advantage when on the job market. See details in our department to sign up.

If anyone’s interested, I also teach a Contemporary Urban Writers course in the English Department, which is English 229. It focuses on Black, Puerto Rican, and Dominican New York City-based writers from the 1960s to the present. It’s Writing Intensive and meets the Creative Expression distribution requirement. There are 2 sections, meeting either on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons or evenings. More details here.

Now for the fun stuff. There are several New York City-area Kwanzaa events that you can attend yourself and the vast majority are designed to be family-friendly. Here are a few: [Updating as I get more info]

December 12th Movement celebrates Kwanzaa on Wednesday December 26 at Sista’s Place in Bedford Stuyvesant Brooklyn. It’s a short walk from the Nostrand Ave A train stop.

The first annual Kwanzaa at Sister’s Uptown Bookstore in Harlem is on on Saturday December 29 from 1-5 PM. They’re at 156th St and Amsterdam Ave. This one will be particularly child-focused.

National Association of Kawaida Organizations (NAKO) observes the 51st anniversary of Kwanzaa in Brooklyn on Saturday December 29 from 4-8 PM at JHS 258 with Dr. Maulana Karenga. Details here.

The Parkchester community in The Bronx will have a Kwanzaa celebration on Saturday December 29 from 4-8 PM with Dr. Leonard Jeffries, Jr. Details here.

The Board of Education for People of African Ancestry (BEPAA) holds its annual Kwanzaa celebration at the Dr. John Henrik Clarke House (286 Convent Ave. in Harlem @ 141st St, near City College) on Sunday December 31. Program runs from 6 PM – Midnight. Details TBA. Check back for more info.

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Week of December 19: Final exam!

Announcements:

• The final exam is on December 19 from 6-8 PM in our usual classroom. DO NOT MISS IT. THERE WILL NOT BE A MAKE-UP!
• Graded papers are coming–via email by next week like the midterm
• SAVE THE DATE: the Kwanzaa Celebration in Brooklyn mentioned by Dr. Segun Shabaka in class will be on Saturday September 29 from 4-8 PM at IS 258, 141 Macon St, Brooklyn NY. It is intentionally a family friendly program. You should plan on bringing children and there will be music and an exciting African dance presentation in addition to a talk by Dr. Maulana Karenga. There’s a small admission fee (that you can negotiate if you’re truly broke). Details at their website.
• [NEW] SAVE THE DATE: Parkchester’s annual Kwanzaa celebration in The Bronx is also on Saturday September 29 from 4-8 PM at St. Helena Church, 1315 Olmstead Ave in The Bronx. Among the speakers will be Dr. Leonard Jeffries Jr, whose essay we read the first week of class! There is a small suggested donation. Details here.
• [NEW] SAVE THE DATE: Annual Kwanzaa at the John Henrik Clarke House in Harlem (286 Convent Ave, near City College) on Monday December 31! Family friendly New Year’s Eve alternative. Check back for details of time/speakers, etc.
• If anyone’s interested, I also teach a Contemporary Urban Writers course in the English Department, which is English 229. It focuses on Black, Puerto Rican, and Dominican New York City-based writers from the 1960s to the present. It’s Writing Intensive and meets the Creative Expression distribution requirement. There are 2 sections, meeting either on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons or evenings. More details here.

Final exam overview

• Format will be two written blue book essays on the themes listed below. You will have a choice of essays
• Written notes and books will not be allowed

Areas to focus on for exam

• Role of culture
  • Dr. Karenga’s definition, Kawaida Theory interpretation
• Pan Africanism and different examples of how people we’ve looked at have approached it
  • Garvey, DuBois, Washington as Pan-Africanists
• Views/differences of Garvey, DuBois, Washington, Clarke on role of Education
• Worldview and differences between Eurocentric vs African Centered worldview
  • Focus on pp 8-9 from Karanja Carroll’s essay from our guest lecture
• Last part of Chapter 6 (Black Sociology) in IBS: approaches to gender, gender relations and “the connections”
• Cheikh Anta Diop’s importance/contributions to field of Africana Studies (from IBS)
• Intro to Chapter 9 (Creative Production) in IBS: Section 9.1, key debates in analyzing art

Quick highlights from 12/12 class:

• See the Lecture Notes page for my presentation (coming soon)
• Reviewed  “Can African People Save Themselves?” in Dr. Clarke’s Notes for An African World Revolution (pp. 383-420).

Week of December 12: Final class and review

Image: Detail fro X Clan To the East, Blackwards

Announcements:

• Our last class is next week (12/12)
• The final exam is on December 19 from 6-8 PM in our usual classroom
• SAVE THE DATE: the Kwanzaa Celebration in Brooklyn mentioned by Dr. Segun Shabaka in class will be on Saturday September 29 from 4-8 PM at IS 258, 141 Macon St, Brooklyn NY. It is intentionally a family friendly program. You should plan on bringing children and there will be music and an exciting African dance presentation in addition to a talk by Dr. Maulana Karenga. There’s a small admission fee (that you can negotiate if you’re truly broke). Details at their website.

On Wednesday December 12, we’ll have our final class meeting. Please bring Maulana Karenga’s Introduction to Black Studies textbook with you also, since the second half of the class will be a review for the final exam.

Read the following:

•  “Can African People Save Themselves?” in Dr. Clarke’s Notes for An African World Revolution (pp. 383-420).
• The Introduction of Chapter 11 in Introduction to Black Studies on Critical Thinking (pp. 425-429) and “An Ethics of Sharing” (pp. 474-479)

What to read/look for:

• What challenges does Dr. Clarke pose for the future of African people globally?
• What are the key points Dr. Karenga suggests are part of the critical thinking process?

Quick highlights from 12/5 class:

• See the Lecture Notes page for my presentation (coming soon)
• Reviewed first section of Introduction to Black Studies Chapter 9: “Black Creative Production”
  • Karenga outlines major artistic periods (in the US) and key debates in creative production
• Reviewed Maulana Karenga essay: “Black Art: Mute Matter Given Form and Function”
  • Dr. Karenga’s argument of hoe Black Artists should approach their craft
• Reviewed Langston Hughes essay “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain”
  • Hughes’s Harlem Renaissance (1923) argument for the role of the Black artist
• Reviewed Kenneth Warren’s essay “Does African American Literature Still Exist?”
  • Warren argues that because of assimilation, African American literature is a dying form
• YouTube clip of visual artist Faith Ringgold “Political Art“
• Excerpt from Black Theater: the Making of a Movement with James Earl Jones, Amiri Baraka, Dr. Barbara Ann Teer. Available in the Lehman College Library or streaming on Kanopy. (You’ll need to sign in with your Lehman, NYPL, or Brooklyn Public Library credentials to view.)

Week of December 5: Black Creative Production

Image: Self Portrait. Faith Ringgold. via artist’s website. 1965. Oil on canvas.

For Wednesday 12/5, we’ll go to chapter 9 in (Black Creative Production) Maulana Karenga’s Introduction to Black Studies. Read pages 361-369. Pay attention to the following concepts and time periods: the Black Aesthetic, Harlem Renaissance. Use the textbook section as a quick overview of the artistic debates and time periods.

Read (and print out) Maulana Karenga’s “Black Art: Mute Matter Given Form and Function,” a 3-page PDF on the Readings page. This is Karenga’s full essay that he references in the textbook.

Also read (and print out) poet Langston Hughes’ essay “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain,” online here

Counterpoint: read (and print out) “Does African American Literature Exist?” by Kenneth Warren from The Chronicle of Higher Education. Online here.

What to read/look for:

• What do Karenga and Hughes think art should do?
• What relationship should it have to the Black community?
• What does their relationship to the artistic/ musical establishment seem to be?
• Think about Warren’s argument in “Does African American Literature Exist?” Is he right? What arguments does he present?

Take brief notes of key points from each reading and we’ll go through them in class.

Announcements

• None this week

 

Weeks of November 21/28: Off week/ Kawaida with Dr. Segun Shabaka

Photo: Dr. Segun Shabaka. Credit: Joyce Jones/SugaBowl Photography

Announcement:

Wednesday 11/21 we will not meet because of the holiday the next day. CUNY has not cancelled classes though so check any other classes you may have scheduled.

Our next response paper is due on Wednesday 11/28. See the Assignments Page for details.

On Wednesday 11/28, we’ll have a guest speaker, Dr. Segun Shabaka, who will do a presentation on the background of Kwanzaa. Dr. Shabaka is co-chair of the New York chapter of NAKO: the National Association of Kawaida Organizations and  the Brooklyn-based cultural center The East, which was a strong presence in the 1970-mid 80s and were the founders of the still-running International African Arts Festival, held annually in Brooklyn over the Fourth of July weekend.

To prepare for his talk and our class session:

• (Re)read the section on Kawaida Theory in Introduction to Black Studies (pages 260-263)
• Watch the following presentation on Kwanzaa via YouTube (It’s 48 minutes long)
• Write 2-3 questions for Dr. Shabaka based on Dr. Karenga’s talk below.
• Write the paper assigned based on Dr. KArenga’s lecture

 

What to read/look for:

• TBA

Quick highlights from 11/14 class:

• Coming soon

Week of November 14: Africana Psychology with Dr. Karanja Carroll

For Wednesday 11/14, we’ll welcome a special guest speaker to lead tonight’s discussion:

Karanja Keita Carroll, Ph.D. is currently an independent scholar and adjunct professor of Africana Studies at Baruch College (CUNY) and the County College of Morris in New Jersey. From 2006- 2015 he taught at the State University of New York (SUNY) at New Paltz in the Department of Black Studies, as an Associate Professor of Africana/Black Studies. Since 2000 Dr. Carroll has provided a variety of education, pedagogy and social justice workshops throughout New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. He has also taught inside a variety of correctional institutions including: SCI-Chester, SCI-Graterford, Brookwood Juvenile Facility, Shawangunk Correctional Facility, Wallkill Correctional Facility and Sullivan Correctional Facility. His teaching and research interests revolve around African- centered theory & methodology, with an emphasis on social and psychological theory. His publications have appeared in Africology: The Journal of Pan African Studies, Western Journal of Black Studies, Journal of the International Society of Teacher Education, Critical Sociology, Race, Gender & Class and numerous edited volumes. He is also Associate Editor of Africology: The Journal of Pan African Studies. Dr. Carroll is an African-centered social theorist who is thoroughly committed to the African-centered imperative, one that is grounded in the creation and utilization of culturally-specific frameworks in order to understand and create solutions for humanity. Dr. Carroll is committed to “academic excellence and social responsibility” as originally articulated by the National Council for Black Studies.

To prepare for his talk: Read his essay “A genealogical analysis of the worldview framework in African-centered psychology.” The Journal of Pan African Studies 3, no. 8 (2010): 109-134. PDF online here.

Focus on the following sections:

• Worldview and Methodology, specifically pp. 8-9 understand the definitions and the difference between European and African worldview and how this affects methodology.
• Axiology, epistemology, and logic: (pp. 10-13) look for definitions and how Africana Studies approaches each one
• Cosmology, ontology, teleology, and ideology: (pp. 14-18) look for definitions and how Africana Studies approaches each one
• It will be helpful to write out brief definitions of the key terms in your notes as you read

Quick highlights from 11/7 class:

• Class was cancelled (by me)

Week of November 7: Black Politics [UPDATE: CLASS CANCELLED TONITE]

UPDATE: NO CLASS THIS WEEK

For Wednesday 11/7, read chapter 7 (Black Politics) in Maulana Karenga’s Introduction to Black Studies.

Also read “Kwame Nkrumah, The Political Rehearsal: His American Years” (101-113) in Dr. Clarke’s Notes for an African World Revolution. Also read “On Leadership” (pp.33-34) and “On Alliances” (pp. 39-40). Obviously this means you must bring the book with you.

Highlights from last class:

• Reviewed the parts of Chapter 6 on Africana Womanism  in Maulana Karenga’s Introduction to Black Studies (pages 265-283).
• Reviewed Clenora Hudson-Weems’s “Africana Womanism: an Overview” (PDF on the Readings page)Announcements

• Dr. Karanja Carroll’s guest lecture on Africana Philosphy’s been moved to November 14 instead of the original date on the syllabus. Guests are welcome. Details on the Guest Speakers page.
• Black Solidarity Day on Monday 11/6 at various venues in Brooklyn. Details at the December 12th Movement website.