Next Steps for Bigger Thomas
On the occasion of my ENGLISH 467 class discussing Richard Wright’s classic novel, I post this review of the most recent film version....
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KG1
Jan 10, 20214 min read
Revolutionary Acts of Language
In 1986, approximately a decade before her death, Toni Cade Bambara declared at the National Black Writers Conference that African...
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KG1
Dec 21, 20203 min read
Black American Sign Language
In a sociolinguistics class back in graduate school, Professor Roger Cayer told us about an article by James Woodward titled “Black...
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KG1
Dec 15, 20203 min read
Dr. Dr.
Semple addressed the man sitting on the park bench in weather too chilly for deep contemplation. “You look a little depressed, Junior...
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KG1
Dec 3, 20203 min read
“Defund the Police”
Cold wind whipped across the masks of the two men as they passed the police station out on the boulevard. “They delved into that topic...
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KG1
Nov 23, 20204 min read
How Women Taught the Poet
Taught by Women: Poems as Resistance Language, New and Selected is a love letter, a Black valentine, by Haki R. Madhubuti to women of all...
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KG1
Nov 6, 20202 min read
Winning Michigan
Winning is one of those funny words that people use when they mean another word. I mostly noticed this in connection with sports events....
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KG1
Nov 1, 20203 min read
Rhetoric Lessons in Street Fiction
“Well, in being a virtuous leader, that’s where your ability to use the third liberal art of rhetoric comes into play. You must be a good...
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KG1
Oct 12, 20203 min read
The New Thing
“What’s up, Semple Jenkins. You’re moving pretty fast out here.” “Tryna get home with this stationery to finish this letter to my folks...
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KG1
Oct 4, 20204 min read
From Langston Hughes to Muhammad Ali to Black Arts
Only on rereading Langston Hughes’s The Big Sea for my course on African American Autobiography did I ponder name and geography...
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KG1
Sep 26, 20203 min read
Composition and Satchel Paige
Once I was at a composition conference headquartered in downtown Nashville. Some colleagues and I, having never seen Fisk University,...
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KG1
Sep 26, 20204 min read
BIPOC
In the club of ethnic labeling, BIPOC tryna get it in. The term Black, Indigenous and People of Color is a well-meaning attempt in...
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KG1
Sep 15, 20205 min read
For Charles Rudolph Scott
I missed a good speech on September 15, 1970. The person that gave it, Chuck Scott, as we knew him, was a childhood friend, my next-door...
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KG1
Sep 1, 20202 min read
White Nationalism and Trump
It is fairly easy to see that white nationalism is largely an expression of fascist impulses. It would be hard not to when...
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KG1
Aug 27, 20202 min read
Poetry and Rhetoric
The virtuoso poet Audre Lorde opened her popular poem “Power” with the following lines: The difference between poetry and rhetoric is...
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KG1
Jul 29, 20202 min read
Laura Coates’ Linguistic Move
Amid several notable responses, CNN legal analyst Laura Coates made a great linguistic move on air the day of Attorney General Bill...
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KG1
Jul 25, 202011 min read
Black Panther and Wolf Warrior across Cultures
A small casualty of COVID-19 was my first scheduled trip to China. In anticipation of my participation in forums about culture, I became...
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KG1
Jul 22, 20203 min read
From the Barbershop to Chicken Night
Never been all that easy to get Black doctoral students through English departments. They know it and I know it. Research not needed to...
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