Week of December 19: Final exam!

Hank Williams

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).

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