WINNER: 2020 T YPOGRAPHY & DESIGN, 1ST PLACE, PHOTOGRAPHY (PORTRAIT & PERSONALIT Y), 1ST PLACE, WEBSITE, 3RD PLACE
Insight News
November 1, 2021 - November 7, 2021
Vol. 48 No. 44• The Journal For Community News, Business & The Arts • insightnews.com
Ray Carson/University of Florida Photographic Services, 1996. Used with permission of University of Florida, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Irma McClaurin, Ph.D., insight Culture and Education Editor, created The Irma McClaurin Black Feminist Archive (BFA) at the University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries.
INTERVIEW
Preserving Black women’s stories as a labor of love By Eshe Lewis, Ph.D. Cultural Anthropologist, Public Anthropology Fellow at SAPIENS An interview with anthropologist Irma McClaurin dives into the process and meaning behind
creating an archival home for Black feminist work. Stories about the lives of Black women often do not get preserved in the historical record. Anthropologist Irma McClaurin knows this all too well. Around two decades ago, McClaurin started
digging into the archives for a research project on Zora Neale Hurston, an acclaimed writer, poet, and playwright active during the Harlem Renaissance. Hurston’s career as a trailblazing anthropologist is less documented than her literary persona—likely because her fieldwork centered
on her own community in Eatonville, Florida, and other Afro-descendant peoples and traditions throughout the Americas at a time when these issues were largely disapproved of in academic spaces. In researching and writing about Hurston over the years, McClaurin found huge gaps in
the archival record—but the documents that were preserved gave her invaluable insights into Hurston’s life and career that other scholars had missed. That experience— along with others throughout her long career as an activist scholar, Black feminist speaker, poet, award-winning columnist,
Mississippi author examines politics, race, family, body, shame and place Master Creator Kiese Laymon presents “Save and Destroy Tomorrow: A Recitation of Faith” in Twin Cities7-8pm this Friday, Nov. 5 at the Mahmoud El-Kati Distinguished Lectureship in American Studies, at Hill Ballroom, Kagin Commons, Macalester College Campus, St. Paul, MN. The event is also available on Zoom – register at bit.ly/ElKati-Lectureship2021. A book signing follows the lecture. Laymon is a literary phenomenon. He is a reflection and representative of the genius of Black culture, perception and analysis. He sings. His command of the Word, divine. Below are excerpts taken from his website, www.kieselaymon.com, that accompany introductions of several of his ground-breaking literary works. Kiese Laymon is a Black southern writer from Jackson, Mississippi. Laymon is the author of the genrebending novel, Long Division and the essay collection, How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America. Laymon’s bestselling memoir, Heavy: An American Memoir, won the 2019 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction, the 2018 Christopher Isherwood Prize for Autobiographical Prose, the Austen Riggs Erikson Prize for Excellence in Mental
Photo by L. Brian Stauffer
Dr. Travis Dixon
Our voices, our truth, our narratives
Image: www.kieselaymon.com
Health Media, and was named one of the 50 Best Memoirs of the Past 50 Years by The New York Times. The audiobook, read by the author, was named the Audible 2018 Audiobook of the Year. Laymon is the recipient of 2020-2021 Radcliffe Fellowship at Harvard. Laymon is at work on several new projects, including the long poem, Good God, the horror comedy, And So On, the children’s book, City Summer, Country Summer and the film Heavy: An American
Memoir. He is the founder of “The Catherine Coleman Literary Arts and Justice Initiative,” a program aimed at getting Mississippi kids and their parents more comfortable reading, writing, revising and sharing. Kiese Laymon is one of the most unique, stirring, and powerful new voices in American writing. How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others
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The 2021 Sankofa Series explores the impact of media on the Black community. It examines the role of Black media in countering the false narrative of who Black people are and looks at the role of Black media in the shaping of an authentic image of African Americans. Dr. Travis L. Dixon, Professor of Communication and the Communication Alumni Professorial Scholar, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign delivers the 2021 Sankofa Series Lecture 5:45 -8:30 pm, Friday, November 12 at Wilder Center, 451 Lexington Parkway North, Saint Paul, The Sankofa Series is a community gathering and conversation on the theme Our voices, Our truth, Our narratives in Black and White Media. Dr. Travis L. Dixon is
a media effects scholar dedicated to investigating the prevalence of stereotypes in the mass media and the impact of stereotypical imagery on audience members. Dixon serves on the editorial boards of Communication Research, Howard Journal of Communications, Media Psychology, and the Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media. Much of his work has focused on racial stereotyping in television news. His more recent investigations examine the content and effects of stereotypes and counter-stereotypes in major news events, online news, and musical contexts. The Sankofa Series is organized by In Black Ink. This event is free and open to the public. To register, contact: Ambreasha Frazier, Sankofa
and consultant—compelled McClaurin to eventually start her own archive in 2016. The Irma McClaurin Black Feminist Archive (BFA) at the University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries is a growing repository of materials that reflect Black women’s
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Series Coordinator, In Black Ink, In Black Ink,(IBI) is a non-profit organization that creates spaces where the intergenerational stories about Minnesotans of African heritage can be shared, documented, and archived. IBI is a publishing arts initiative that provides support and opportunities in this field to communities that have been disenfranchised historically, and continue to be presently. Following is the interview with Dr. Dixon from 2020.
Is it possible to overcome our biases in the face of conflict? Interview By Craig Chamberlain
The images in the media have been strong and often disturbing in the wake of George Floyd’s death at the hands of Minneapolis police. We process them through our biases, both conscious and unconscious. That’s the domain of Travis Dixon, who studies media stereotypes and their impact as a professor of communication at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He spoke with News Bureau social sciences editor Craig Chamberlain. What comes to mind as you observe recent events?
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