Black writers redefine the struggle: a tribute to James Baldwin : proceedings of a conference at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, April 22-23, 1988 featuring Chinua Achebe ... et al. PDF
Preview Black writers redefine the struggle: a tribute to James Baldwin : proceedings of a conference at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, April 22-23, 1988 featuring Chinua Achebe ... et al.
A Tribute to James Baldwin : Black Writers Redefine the Struggle : Proceedings of a title: Conference At the University of Massachusetts At Amherst, April 22-23, 1988 Featuring Chinua Achebe ... [Et Al.] author: Baldwin, James publisher: University of Massachusetts Press isbn10 | asin: 0870236776 print isbn13: 9780870236778 ebook isbn13: 9780585153902 language: English Baldwin, James,--1924---Criticism and interpretation--Congresses, Literature-- Black authors--History and criticism-- subject Congresses, Blacks--Intellectual life-- Congresses. publication date: 1989 lcc: PS3552.A45Z92 1989eb ddc: 818/.5409 Baldwin, James,--1924---Criticism and interpretation--Congresses, Literature-- subject: Black authors--History and criticism-- Congresses, Blacks--Intellectual life-- Congresses. Page i Black Writers Redefine the Struggle A Tribute to James Baldwin Proceedings of a Conference at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst April 2223, 1988 featuring Chinua Achebe Irma McClaurin-Allen Andrew Salkey Michael Thelwell John Edgar Wideman Edited by Jules Chametzky Published by Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities Distributed by University of Massachusetts Press Page ii Copyright © 1989 by The Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities Distributed by The University of Massachusetts Press Box 429 Amherst, Mass. 01004 All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America LC 88-29585 ISBN 0-87023-677-6 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Black writers redefine the struggle. 1. Baldwin, James, 1924-Criticism and interpretationCongresses. 2. Literature, Modern Black authorsHistory and criticismCongresses. 3. BlacksIntellectual lifeCongresses. I. Baldwin, James, 1924-II. Achebe, Chinua. III. Chametzky, Jules. IV. University of Massachusetts at Amherst. PS3503.A5527Z57 1989 818'.5409 88-29585 ISBN 0-87023-677-6 British Library Cataloguing in Publication data are available. Page iii To James Arthur Baldwin 19241987 Page v TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface by Jules Chametzky vii I. Address Introduction by Michael Thelwell 2 "Spelling our Proper Name," by Chinua Achebe 5 II. Readings Introduction by Ketu Katrak 14 Chinua Achebe, Two Poems 15 Irma McClaurin-Allen, From a Biography of Leanita 23 McClain, and Three Poems Andrew Salkey, 4 Caribbean Women Poets 2 Poems by 33 Salkey Michael Thelwell, Letters from Death Row St. Catherine's 43 District Prison, Jamaica John Edgar Wideman, From a Novel-in-Progress: 53 "Presents" III. Panel Discussion: "I'll be Somewhere Listening" Introduction by Esther Terry 62 Participants: Chinua Achebe, Irma McClaurin-Allen, Michael Thelwell, John Wideman Notes on Contributors 82 Page vii PREFACE James Baldwin began his formal academic connection with the five- college community (Amherst, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke, Smith Colleges, and the University of Massachusetts) as a Five College Professor of Literature in 198384, teaching at Hampshire, Smith, and the University. This appointment was to last three years; thereafter he became a member of the W.E.B. DuBois Department of Afro- American Studies and a Distinguished Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities at the University of Massachusetts. He was highly satisfied with the latter arrangement. In addition to his pleasure in his colleagues and students his schedule allowed him to spend half his time at his home in France. Chinua Achebe taught at the University of Massachusetts in the English and Afro-American Studies Departments from 19721974, shortly after the Biafran War. After another year of teaching at the University of Connecticut he returned to Nigeria as a Professor of Literature at his old university at Nsukka in 1976, where he remained until his retirement in 1983. He has since taught at U.C.L.A. and in Canada, and enjoys Emeritus status at Nsukka. He was awarded a Fulbright Professorship at the University of Massachusetts for the 198788 academic year, at the invitation of the Afro-American Studies Department and the Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities. Understandably, the prospect of these two outstanding writers and major cultural figures teaching in the same place, in the same yearat our University, in factengendered considerable excitement, especially among those concerned centrally with black life and culture in our time. A group of five-college faculty members involved with black literary studies began to meet at the Institute to plan a conference in the Spring of 1988 that would revolve around Achebe and Baldwin: one the prototypical writer of Africaindeed, it would not be hyperbole to call him the father of modern African literaturethe other the preeminent living embodiment of the literature of the Black Diaspora. We determined at once that the occasion was not to be merely celebratory. It was to be a conference that would assess seriously where black writing, and beyond that the black struggle for full articulation, liberation, Page viii and recognition stood at this time and what its prospects and priorities might be. After much discussion, we agreed that the conference was to be called, challengingly we hoped, "Black Writers Redefine the Struggle." Then the shock of Baldwin's death. After our initial numbness and grief, we decided to go ahead with the Conference, retitling it as a tribute to James Baldwin and focussing upon his impact on Black writing. We decided, further, instead of going far afield, to feature those writers who were in residence, as it were, among us and who had known and loved the man and his work. To our great pleasure, although it should not have surprised us, I suppose, considering the calibre of the contributors, the resulting conference was not just solemn memorialit proved to be alive with wit, insight, variety, power and beauty. Or so it seemed to me. What follows are the proceedings of the conference held on April 2223, 1988 at the University of Massachusetts/Amherst, from Chinua Achebe's provocative and wise opening night talk, through the next day's extraordinary readings in several genres and voices by Chinua Achebe, Irma McClaurin-Allen, Andrew Salkey, Michael Thelwell, John Wideman, ably and graciously introduced by Ketu Katrak, to the concluding collaborative, jazz-like panel discussion chaired by Esther Terry. Let the reader judge and, I hope, be touched and changed by it. JULES CHAMETZKY DIRECTOR INSTITUTE FOR ADVANCED STUDY IN THE HUMANITIES ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I want to thank some of the people and organizations who made this
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