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Richard Wright-Black Volume 4, Number 1 Bibliography Supplement Issue Spring/Summer 1995 Richard Wright-Black Boy Rounds Scholarly Conference Circuit by Kelley Norman the audience thalOnly the fllm medium could convey: the disparity between Before Richard Wright-Black Ihe powerful literary voice of Wright's Boy airs on PBS on September 4, the written works and the soft speaking first fi lm documentary of Ihe writer voice of Ihe writer, whom few people will have toured scholarly literary con­ have heard. ferences from the West coast to the Reilly explored Ihe social causa­ East tion of America's racial conditions re­ The documentary's first stop was vealed in Wright's work, which the Modem Language Association in shocked white readers at the time: San Diego, California where it was "When Wright challenges the racial well-received by an audience of more discourse by tapping into an alterna­ than 200. The panel members were tive racial discourse in his fiction, he director/wri ter, Madison Davis Lacy, presents us with the complexity of producerGuy Land,and Wright scholar African-American subjectivity." Keneth Kinnamon of Ihe University of Norlheastem University and the Arkansas. Panel ists talked about the Boston's Museum of Fine Arts col­ process of making the film and an­ laborated on the Boston premiere of swered questions for 45 minutes. Black Boy. Three screenings, one of Appearing as the sole panelist at which featured panelists Madison the Louisville Conference on 20th Davis Lacy, Maryemma Graham and Century Liter tur ,T dier Harris of Julia Wright, attracted an audience that Emory University made several criti­ totalled more than 400. cal observations, particularl y about the An enthusiastic audience took filmic interpretation ofW right's work. advantage of the opportunity to query In her opinion, allhough some drama­ the panelists: Lacy shared critical tizations distort Wright's work and lend moments in Ihe making of the fLlm ­ a false impression to first-time viewers getting an interview with Ralph Ellison, of the tex , Ihe teacher who takes on a [or xample. Graham noted the impor­ more active role as facilitatorcan make tance of reading and viewing biogra­ good use of Ihe film. phy-incl udi ng film biography- as DanielleTaylor-Gulhrie, who pre­ one of Ihe several ways to know an sented at the plenary session of the author, but discouraged heavy reliance National Association of Humanities on any single biography. Education conference in Cincinnati , "For a writer as important as Rich­ Ohio with fe llow panelist John M. ard Wright," she offered, "all biogra­ Reilly of Howard Uill ersity, Ihought phies are important and each offers us that the film 's intent-to reveal Wright somelhing we can leam about the au­ the man an d artist- wa also its thor Ihat the olher doesn't provide." slrenglh. The film should not be con­ Julia Wright'S forlhcoming Mem­ sidered a definitive source of li terary oirs will give us yet anolher under­ interpretation, he said. standing of Wright, distinguishing be­ Tay lor-Guthrie stated Ihat this film tween the voice of Wright critics and "lays Ihe groundwork and emphasizes herown personal voice which she n ted key points of Richard Wright's life was absent from previous biographies. wilhout sensationalizing aspects of it, MELUS chairperson Amritjit and reveal Wright's growth as a ma­ Singh arranged two film screenings at turing statesman and artist through his the annual conference in Providence, works Black Power, Pagan Spain and RI, and invited Julia Wright to his White Man , Listen!" She also noted undergraduate seminar class on Ricb- that an ironic element was presented to Continued on Page 2 , Spring/Summer 1995 Page 1 Film Biography, From Page 1 unable to give her. The contrast be­ Louisiana. tween Aunt Sue's death in Bright and Expecting both cntlclsm lind ani Wright and Toni Morrison. After Morning Star- and Bessie's death in praise of his documentary, Lacy be­ a reading of the murder of Bessie in Native Son gives us aclue to the quali­ lieves that academic conferences are Native Son, Julia Wright suggested a ties Richard Wright respected in "the most appropriate arena" for this "horizontal" approach to that excerpt­ women, Wright noted. kind of critical discussion: "Let the freely associating from it to other pages At the American Literature film get the slings and arrows it de­ and episodes in other Wright works, Association's meeting in Baltimore, serves, but I know I could be far more before referring "vertically" to critical Maryland a screening of the first half­ critical than any of the academics about or academic interpretations. hour of the film accompanied a session what I could have done because I know Involving Singh's students in a foc using on the fi lm. Panelist Keneth what I was striving for." creati ve, circular search for the author's Kinnamon surveyed the process of Like many other scholars and own intent in having Bigger kill Bessie, composing the film, noting that only a viewers, he believes the film to be a Wright highlighted two key episodes few pieces of live footage were avaiJ­ strong documentary based on sound in Black Boy: the killing of the kitten able to Lacy; John R eilly scholarShip and intended for a broad and Uncle Matthew's killing of his contextualized Wright's work; and audience. He explains that in any own girlfriend so that she would not Yoshinobu Hakutani of Kent State filmic effort something is lost in the " tell." The students themselves then University commented on the visual process of simplifying an abundance volunteered that the Bessi -like kitten power of the film to supplement the of material to fit within a specific timc­ symbolized the plaintive, inarticulate teaching of the autobiography, sug­ frame: "These kinds of films lack of independence and self-control gesting that Wright evoked poetic sen­ colloquialize the material because you which Jim Crow Eth ics had taught the sibility as he wrote about alienation want a broad audienc ,many of whom child, Richard, to kill within himself if and described character and scene. many not have heard of Wright, to gain he were to survive. Jerry Ward and Mary mma Gra­ access to the material and his life. And, Wright then submitted that it was ham introduced Richard Wright­ if after seeing this film, viewers are not Bessie 's sex Richard Wright feared Black Boy and held a freestyle discus­ motivated to read Wright's works then but her lack of strength and her near sion with 50 audience members at the the film has done its job, because ulti­ addictive need for a protection that annual meeting of the College Lan­ mately the film is not the end-all of Bigger as a powerless black male was guage Association in Baton Rouge, Wright's work; Wright's works are." In This Issue The last half year has been an rent and past history would have in­ unusually active one for the Richard vited Wright's interests were he still Richard Wrighl-Black Boy Rounds Wright Circle. While the source of alive. Publication and professional Scholarly Conference Circuit that activity has primarily been the conference activities continue to in­ by Kelley Norman page 1 national tour ofRich ~rdWrighl--Black crease, marking the anniversary of his Boy, other factors signal the extent to classic autobiography. If all this ap­ Letter from the Editors page 2 which the newsletter continues to ex­ pears to be unconnected, we are re­ plore various ramifications of our na­ minded that Wright was committed to For Mumia Abu-Jamal tional and intemational landscape. In dismantling the categories into which by Julia Wright page 3 the nation and in the world at large, we could place the knowledge about academic and literary concerns share experience and the human expression Recent Publications page 4 equal time with a complicated public of that knowledge. What is personal is discourse which reminds us that free­ political, what ill private is indeed pub­ McCullers R calls Wright dom from oppression is never to be lic, and it has become increasingly y Carlos L. Dews page 5 taken for granted. Contributors have more difficult to se the individual in offered new insights on the relation­ opposition to the social. Certainly Reflec tions on the Black Male of the ship between Wright and Carson Wright's art was characterized by a 'Twenties and 'Thirties McCullers, a white southern writer heallhy tension regarding these seem­ by Clarence Hunter page 6 whom Wright seemed to prefer to ing polarities, a tension that served as Faulkner. This topic and indeed a driving force in his life, and one that Bosnia: A R turn to the Tyranny of Wright's views on southern white lit­ we replicate with this, our largest issue the Majority erature remain a relatively unexplored to dale. by Ri h Heyman page 8 aspect of southern intellectual history. Readers will welcome the special re­ Maryemma Graham Abstracts from 1994 MLA port on Bosnia, a country whose cur- Jerry W. Ward, Jr. Conference page 10 Page 2 Richard Wright Newsletter real-life Biggers, and he paid particu­ pending execution on August 17. He IFOR MUMIA ABU-JAMAL I lar attention to the letters he received would of course have criticized the from black prisoners who identified McCarthyist overtones of Abu-Jamal's by Julia Wright wilh Bigger. With the help of Dr. trial. He would characteristically have Frederic Wertham, the reputed psy­ argued thatajoumalist like Abu-Jamal Mumia Abu-Jamal has lost his last chiatrist who bad written Dark Leg­ who is capable of using "words as appeal and is now sentenced to go to end, Wright saved one of those prison­ weapons" would not have needed to the electric chair on August 17.
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