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.)
Introduction to Africana Studies 