Stay informed with Keith Gilyard’s latest reflections on literacy, education reform, and Social Justice. New ideas and insights are shared regularly through thought-provoking blog posts.
The Promise of Language has a different purpose than my previous memoir writing, most notably....
If, as a young Ebonics speaker and gospel-inflected and sermon-inflected Jocko lover in Harlem, I....
In March 1969, the Fisk graduate made a literary splash in New York City as....
While operating within a lifelong lyrical odyssey, his journey to build “roads of odes” (22),....
As Republicans and Democrats agree, this election discourse is weird. For one, Republican pundits are....
“Glad to be out for convo and the coldest beer,” exclaimed Semple Jenkins, seated next....
By now, most media followers have heard about how the house was set afire, that....
Scottie Scheffler was arrested in Louisville for disobeying a detective’s traffic command and dragging him....
When my students and I read Sing, Unburied, Sing, we were aware that author Jesmyn....
The success of the excellent movie American Fiction has brought renewed attention to Percival Everett’s Erasure,....
When I saw a teenage Beyoncé play the lead in Carmen: A Hip Hopera, which....
As I turned back into the Language Lane, I was reminded of the continual vibrancy....
The fuss fading over the Brawl in Montgomery. The rap song been made by Gmac....
Today, Chris Wallace reminded me why, besides the Trump fetish they pretend not to have,....
After Cornel West announced his quest to run for president as the Green Party nominee,....
Eugenia Rho and her research colleagues have demonstrated in a recent study that the verbal....
At times, you have been asked which prior literary scene you would want to visit.....
During the first two years of the pandemic, my partner, Michael, and I were accorded....
Some of My Favorite CCCC 2023 Moments that Ain’t Got Nothing to Do with the....
If you wait twenty years for something, you figure the payoff should be special. It....
A while back I received in the mail an envelope containing a short newspaper article....
The borough of Queens usually has been an afterthought, if that, in conversations about Black....
“I have not seen you in a few days, Semple.” “Been holed up at my....
On the anniversary of the beginning of Kristallnacht, the anti-Jewish rampage in the Third Reich....
America’s favorite word echoed throughout the hallowed Ethel Barrymore Theatre this past weekend during the....
We are not ones to hold grudges. We have always sided with Antigone on such....
Supreme Team, the limited series directed by Nas and Peter Scalettar for Showtime, is mostly....
On the seventy-seventh anniversary of his birth, I recall the stunning epic poem, Jazz in....
I have not agreed with John McWhorter on much, particularly regarding his ignorant remarks about....
As is frequently noted, one person’s freedom fighter is another person’s terrorist. One’s suicide bomber....
Semple Jenkins and Junior Boyd bumped into each other outside of a coffee shop they....
After having the privilege of conversing with Haki Madhubuti and Joanne Gabbin this past Wednesday....
Way behind because of personal matters, I wanted to post this last month. These remarks,....
Colson Whitehead’s The Nickel Boys obviously has much to recommend it. A gripping tale about....
After maneuvering and maneuvering, I finally ran out of shelf space for books at home.....
Seems the Color Purple movie is a quiet staple of holiday-season television. Many see it....
I never tire of teaching Their Eyes Were Watching God because I’m always interested in....
I start by apologizing to my good friends Glenn Cooper and the late Leroy Charles.....
To illustrate the point of textual conversations in American literature, I had students read Toni....
As we know, somebody will always come to your party, eat up as much food....
Semple hadn’t talked to his good friend in a while. Texting felt too clumsy, so....
I mentioned in the last post that I once commented about the need for a....
As Manny Pacquiao nears the end of his boxing career, we are hearing the story....
When Leroy Howard Dewer, Jr. hit Senior Lieutenant Richard Maroney with a two-piece in A....
Semple was perplexed as he sat on Boyd’s sofa engaged in the news streaming from....
After a wait of more than three decades, we have a new installment of Ishmael....
“Perhaps the black intellectual we still have the most to learn from is David Walker.”....
Next month, Amistad, an imprint of HarperCollins, will release The Minister Primarily, a novel by....
“Wait, Junior Boyd. You’re fading out. You must be moving around. Oh, that’s better. Watch....
My introduction to the energetic, charismatic wordsmith DMX was in the winter of 1998. I,....
Frank Money, despite his name, contends with more misfortune than any of Toni Morrison’s major....
In class yesterday, a perplexed student asked if Daniel Sullivan, a central character in Larry....
When you reach for the new poetry volume by Ishmael Reed, you just wonder which....
As a kid, one of my favorite movies was the 1989 boxing documentary Champions Forever.....
I never knew explicitly why David was my father’s favorite Biblical figure. But if you....
On the occasion of my ENGLISH 467 class discussing Richard Wright’s classic novel, I post....
In 2017, while attending the Rhetoric Society of America’s Summer Institute at Indiana University, I....
In 1986, approximately a decade before her death, Toni Cade Bambara declared at the National....
In a sociolinguistics class back in graduate school, Professor Roger Cayer told us about an....
Cold wind whipped across the masks of the two men as they passed the police....
Taught by Women: Poems as Resistance Language, New and Selected is a love letter, a....
Winning is one of those funny words that people use when they mean another word.....
“Well, in being a virtuous leader, that’s where your ability to use the third liberal....
“What’s up, Semple Jenkins. You’re moving pretty fast out here.” “Tryna get home with this....
Only on rereading Langston Hughes’s The Big Sea for my course on African American Autobiography....
Once I was at a composition conference headquartered in downtown Nashville. Some colleagues and I,....
I missed a good speech on September 15, 1970. The person that gave it, Chuck....
It is fairly easy to see that white nationalism is largely an expression of fascist....
The virtuoso poet Audre Lorde opened her popular poem “Power” with the following lines: The....
When I thought I was going to visit China, I began thinking about the picture....
With more and more professional sports events being televised, I’m drawn back to the fun....
“Whadup, Junior Boyd?” “I’m doing just fine,” Semple Johnson.” “I see you out here in....
Amid several notable responses, CNN legal analyst Laura Coates made a great linguistic move on....
A small casualty of COVID-19 was my first scheduled trip to China. In anticipation of....
Be assured that I had no intention of landing overseas and telling folks over there....
Never been all that easy to get Black doctoral students through English departments. They know....
