Image: The 135th St Branch (Now the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture) of the NYPL. Courtesy of the NYPL Digital Collections.
Class doesn’t meet on Wednesday 10/9 and 10/16 for Yom Kippur and a scheduled Monday. We meet next on Wednesday 10/23.
For Wednesday 10/23, we have our Midterm Exam in the first half of class then a guest lecture by saxophonist Tyrone Birkett in the second half. You’re expected to stay for the entire class!
Midterm format will be as follows: several short answer questions (approx 8) and one essay. You will have a choice of essay topics.
The midterm exam will focus on chapters 3,4, and 5.
Know: Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Du Bois, and Marcus Garvey. Be familiar with their political positions, organizations, the differences between them. (Re-reading Dr. John Henrik Clarke’s essay will help here in addition to the textbook chapters.) Think of how you might write an essay on them.
Know: The 3 Modal Periods in Africana history from chap 4
Know: Tendencies of the Black Power era from chap 4: Religious, Cultural, Political, Economic thrusts
Know: Legacy of nationalist influence on the Black Power era from chap 4
Know: Similarities in African religious traditions from chap 5
Know: Basic tenets of Maat/role of service from chap 5
Know: Basic tenets of Dogon/role of complementarity from chap 5
Know: Social ethics of MLK, NOI, Malcolm X from chap 5
To prepare for it, do the following:
READ the weekly updates on the course website! They point you to the specific sections of book chapters to focus on
Read the slide presentations on the Lecture Notes page
Read the sections of the book the notes are pulled from! The slides only give you an outline; you need the full discussion from the book for this to make sense!
In short, you have to spend some time and read/process/ understand the info!
Student hours: I’ll be on campus on the following Tuesdays and Thursdays if you can’t figure something out and want to meet: 10/10, 10/15, 10/17, 10/22. See the contact info for my email and office location. You can drop in on Thursdays from 5-6; email me for an appointment for Tuesdays
Quick highlights from 10/2 class:
- Reviewed selections from chapter 5 in (Black Religion) Maulana Karenga’s Introduction to Black Studies. See last week’s post for specific sections.
- Reviewed Dr. John Henrik Clarke’s essay “Image and Mind Control in the African World” (pp. 329-364) in Notes for an African World Revolution.
- See the Lecture Notes page for a copy of my presentation with highlights from the text
- Musical intro: John Coltrane: “Acknowledgement” from A Love Supreme–on YouTube here or listen to the entire album here.
Announcements:
- Lecture notes (my slide presentations) are posted on the Lecture Notes page
- NY State’s voter registration deadline is approaching for the November elections. Download an application here (PDF). New applications must be postmarked by 10/11 and received by 10/16. Changes in political party affiliation deadline is 10/11. Address change deadline is 10/16. You can also register/change info in person. Full details at the Board of Elections website.
- Save the date: The Black Panther Party film festival returns to Maysles Cinema in Harlem the weekend of 10/3-6.
Head of Temple University’s Africology department (and author of Afrocentrocity) Molefe Asante will be in New York this weekend:
Introduction to Africana Studies 