Black History Month Special Series

Dr. Sarah Webster Fabio. Photo used with permission of her daughter Cheryl.
Dr. Brooks Robinson in the late 1970's. Photo used with his permission.

Pacifica Network is pleased to offer The Literary Corner: Black Writers of the World, a special radio series for Black History Month. 

This is a limited series, courtesy of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture and the series’ Producer and host, Professor Brooks Robinson.

This series was recorded in the  late 1970’s as a collaboration between Black scholars at the University of Wisconsin.  Literary scholars and writers provide critical analysis of Black world literature, including African and African American fiction/non-fiction, Essays, Poetry, and Drama.  

The Literary Corner: Black Writers of the World, is offered in memory of Professor Sarah Webster Fabio (1928-1979), poet, educator, Black Arts Movement icon, and one of the Literary Corner’s analysts.

1. Introduction to the Literary Corner—Part I

  • Host: Brooks Robinson. Guests: Professor Sarah Fabio, Professor Edris Makward and Professor Daniel Kunene all from University of Wisconsin in Madison
  • A discussion about the origins of black world literature and characteristics that distinguish black world literature from European, or non-black literature. There is a discussion about carryover of oral literature from Africa, such as folklore, spiritual songs, blues, shouts, hollers and work songs that Africans could hold in their heads. Professor Fabio discusses individuals who have made contributions to African American literature, such as Charles Chesnutt, who she says popularized folklore in his short stories, Lucy Terry, Phillis Wheatley, Francis Harper of the abolitionist movement, Jupiter Hammond. She also mentions that Williams Wells authored the first black novel Clotel, in the mid-nineteenth century.

2. Introduction to the Literary Corner Part—II

  • Host: Brooks Robinson. Guests:  Professor Sarah Fabio, Professor Edris Makward and Professor Daniel Kunene all from University of Wisconsin in Madison
  • A continuation of discussion about differences between African and African-American literature; the relationship between African American writers and European literature; similarities and differences between South Africans and African Americans; the “corruption” of the African “voice” in African American literature; subalterns’ ability to distort their “voice” in order to speak to their masters/oppressors. The episode concludes with a discussion on how to go about analyzing and defining black world literature.

3.  Meet Sarah Fabio

  • Host: Brooks Robinson. Guest: Professor Sarah Fabio, University of Wisconsin, Madison. Interview conducted by Professor Edris Makward, University of Wisconsin, Madison
  • Some topics discussed include Fabio’s use of poetry as a young child as a form of expression; poetry’s significance in preserving black culture; her other forms of communication: novels, short stories, essays, literary criticism and drama; Dr. Fabio’s poetry and spoken-word poetry albums. She also reads her poems:  “My Own Thing,” “Sassafras Toned; My Grandma Sat,” and “For My People.”

4.  Meet Daniel Kunene

  • Host: Brooks Robinson. Guest: Professor Daniel Kunene University of Wisconsin, Madison
    Interview conducted by Professor Edris Makward, University of Wisconsin, Madison
  • A discussion about Dr. Kunene’s diffidence as an early writer; the role of grief in his writing, in particular his own father’s death; writing in different languages e.g. English and Sotho; as well as how the suffering of the South African people has impacted his work. Additionally, Dr. Kunene reads some of his poems, including “Voices” and “The Running is a Dance.”

5. Introduction to Afro-American Fiction/Prose Part I

  • Host: Brooks Robinson. Guest: Professor Sarah Fabio, University of Wisconsin, Madison
  • Sarah Fabio takes an historical approach to recounting some of the prominent figures of African American fiction. Some of the topics discussed in this episode are William Wells Browns’ fiction, especially his novel Clotel, Or The President’s Daughter, which was published in London; Charles Chesnutt’s fiction (The Goophered Grapevine); Paul Lawrence Dunbar’s fiction and poetry (Sport of the Gods);  fiction writers in the early 20th century and the challenges of African American fiction writing at that time; the impact of WWI on African American fiction; the impact of some early 20th-century  writers/works such as Langston Hughes’ Not Without Laughter, Claude McKay’s Banjo and Jean Toomer. The conversation concludes with a discussion of Jean Toomer’s Cane and the experimental form that the book takes.

6.  Introduction to Afro-American Fiction/Prose Part II

  • Host: Brooks Robinson. Guest: Professor Sarah Fabio, University of Wisconsin, Madison
  • Tracing African American fiction from the end of the Harlem Renaissance to the 1970s. Some topics discussed include: African-American fiction writers that emerged and/or published works between the end of the Harlem Renaissance and the 1950s, such as Richard Wright (Native Son, Black Boy and Uncle Tom’s Children), Ralph Ellison (Invisible Man), Charles Himes, Ann Petry, Frank Yerby as well as Willard Motley (Knock On Any Door); short story writers in the mid-20th century such as James Baldwin, William Melvin Kelley, John Killens, Mary “Ellen” Vroman, Julian Mayfield, Ernest Gaines, Christine Hanna and LeRoy Jones; Contemporary writers; works of the 1970s such as John Killens (And Then We Heard the Thunder and The Cotillion), Julian Mayfield (The Hit), Chester Himes  (The Third Generation), John Weaver (Sissy!), John Williams (The Man Who Cried I Am), “Jimmy” Baldwin (Go Tell It On The Mountain); newly emerging writers such as Toni Morrison, Toni Cade Bambara, Alice Walker and Ismael Reed. Toward the end of the interview, a discussion about whether black writers will change their approach to writing given the persistence of racial issues. 

7. Darwin Turner on Jean Toomer and Frank Yerby

  • Host: Brooks Robinson. Guests: Dr. Darwin Turner
    Participating Analysts: Professor Edris Makward and Professor Sarah Fabio, both from University of Wisconsin, Madison
  • Dr. Darwin Turner discusses some activities he is involved with, including editing material written by Jean Toomer. Also discussed: Toomer’s view of race in America; whether Toomer eschewed his Black background after publishing Cane; as well as whether Toomer resisted being referred as a Black writer after publishing Cane. Professor Turner is asked about writer Frank Yerby – whether Yerby evaded racial identification in order to gain publication; a possible sequel to The Dahomean, that would be dedicated to Dr. Turner and his wife.

8. Joseph Skerret on Richard Wright and Ralph Ellison

  • Host: Brooks Robinson. Guest: Professor Joseph Skerrett
    Participating analyst: Professor Sarah Fabio, University of Wisconsin, Madison

  • Comparisons between Wright’s and Ellison’s views on the role of the writer; the extent to which books by Black writers are addressed to white audiences; Wright’s and Ellison’s political ideologies; comparisons between how Wright and Ellison use their work. Toward the end of the discussion, Professor Turner also discusses some of Richard Wright’s unpublished works that he encountered while doing research on the author.

9.  Kenneth Chambers on John A. Williams

  • Host: Pam Johnson. Guest: Dr. Kenneth Chambers
    Participating analyst: Professor Sarah Fabio, University of Wisconsin, Madison
  • A discussion about John A. Williams’ novel The Man Who Cried I Am and works that it has been compared to; comparisons between Williams’ work and those of other Black writers; the reasons Williams and his work are not more well known; as well as the prevalence of interracial relationships in Williams’ works and the message he would like to convey regarding interracial relationships. Also, a discussion about problems some African American writers face in publishing their works, and the impact of the Black Arts movement on publishing.

10. Addison Gayle on Black Literary Criticism

  • Host: Pam Johnson. Guest: Addison Gayle
    Participating analysts: Professor Sarah Fabio, Professor Edris Makward, both from University of Wisconsin, Madison
  • A reading by Addison Gayle, reciting an excerpt from one of his works titled “A Blueprint for Black Criticism.”  Topics discussed include: freedoms of creative writers; ideology Gayle would like to put into his work; views as a Black aesthetic or lack thereof; the most promising young Black writers of the day, such as Brenda Wilkinson and Sonia [Sanchez]; as well as whether it is legitimate for Black writers to increase the Black audience.

11.  Introduction to African American Poetry with Eugene Redmond Part I 

  • Host: Brooks Robinson. Guest: Poet Eugene Redmond
  • Poet Eugene Redmond begins by reciting a poem, then introduces some of the earliest African American poets, such as Phillis Wheatley, Jupiter Hammon, Briton Hammon, George Moses Horton, Gustavus Vassa (also known as Olaudah Equiano) and Frederick Douglas. Topics discussed include a brief overview of Phillis Wheatley’s life, and race consciousness (or lack thereof) in her work; how the first African enslaved people in the New World expressed their experiences or envisioned a new world in a new language; the development of folk literature and folk poetry; the development of written and oral protest poetry; writers in the 19th and 20th century, such as Albery Whitman, Paul Laurence Dunbar and James Weldon Johnson; the different schools of poetry, such as plantation and dialect; the use of unrealistic dialects by white writers. The discussion concludes with Eugene Redmond outlining the contributions and legacy of Paul Dunbar by listing institutions that have commemorated him through eponyms.

12. Literary Corner: Black Writers of the World – Introduction to African American Poetry with Eugene Redmond—Part II

  • Host: Brooks Robinson. Guest: Poet Eugene Redmond
  • A discussion of the Harlem Renaissance. Some of the themes and individuals discussed in the episode include the Harlem Renaissance; James Weldon Johnson’s contributions to African American poetry; black poets that emerged in the 1930s and 1940s, such as Frank Marshall Davis, Robert Hayton, M. Carl Holman, Gwendolyn Brooks and Melvin Tolson; Gwendolyn Brooks’ rise to prominence; black poets of the 1950s such as Lance Jeffers, Percy Johnston, Jay Wright, Henry Dumas, Clarence Major, Ted Joans, Bob Kaufman, and Russell Atkins; individuals of the early 1960s such as Larry Neal (Liberator magazine), John Henrik Clarke (Freedomways magazine) and several others; crucial figures of the Black Arts movement such as Ed Bullins, Leroy Jones (also known as Amiri Baraka) and Haki Madhubuti. The episode concludes with Eugene Redmond reading one of his poems, “I Can Never Unlove You.”

13.  Sonia Sanchez’s Life and Work –  

  • Host: Pam Johnson
    Guest: Writer Sonia Sanchez
    Interview by: Pam Johnson and Sarah Fabio, Professor, University of Wisconsin
  • Beginning with an excerpt from “Poem Number Seven,” a discussion of Sonia Sanchez’s work and experiences as a writer. Some of the topics include: projects Sanchez was working on at the time of the interview, such as a collection of poetry called Haikus/Tankas & Other Love Syllables, a novel called After Saturday Night Comes Sunday, and a play on Bessie Smith; her early childhood and experience attending Hunter College; the genesis of her writing career and meeting individuals such as Louise Bogan (at NYU), Leroy “Amiri Baraka” Jones and A.B. Spellman; writing for children/young audiences, especially her children’s book The Adventures of Fathead, Smallhead and Squarehead. The episode concludes with Sanchez reading some of her poetry, including a poem called “Poem at Thirty” from her book, Homecoming and others from A Blues Book for Blue Black Magical Women.

14.  Haki Madhubuti’s Life and Works

  • Host: Pam Johnson
    Guest: Poet Haki Madhubuti
  • Pam Johnson talks to Madhubuti who  “has been called one of the most radical Afro-American poets of the 1960s and 70s because of his writings on black nationalism.” Topics discussed: Madhubuti’s childhood in Detroit and his reaction to his mother’s death when he was sixteen years old;  joining the United States Army and his subsequent radicalization; some of his prominent works, such as Think Black, Black Pride, Don’t Cry, Scream, Book of Life, as well as Enemies: The Clash of Races. The episode concludes with Madhubuti reading his poem “Rise Vision Comin”

15. Ron Karenga’s Life and Works

  • Host: Brooks Robinson
    Guest: Dr. Ron Karenga
    Interviewed by: Professors Sarah Fabio and Edris Makward, University of Wisconsin
  • Dr. Ron Karenga comments on and critiques the poems of the 1960s. Dr. Karenga discusses his views about literature being an instrument of change. Topics include: the importance of literature; ideological struggle being necessary for political struggle; Dr. Karenga’s foray into poetry and his transition from writing essays to writing poems; Dr. Karenga’s incarceration under the Raegan administration; the reciprocal/mutual influence of Dr. Karenga and black poets such as Sonia Sanchez and Amiri Baraka; the three elements  of the black aesthetic: functionality, collectivity, and commitment to a new society. Most of the last half of the program features Dr. Karenga reading some of his work, including his poem, “Your Seasons Are Always Softness.”

16. Margaret Danner’s Life and Works

  • Host: Brooks Robinson
    Guest: Writer Margaret Danner
  • Interviewed by: Professors Sarah Fabio, University of Wisconsin
  • Margaret Danner begins by saying that, “Poetry isn’t white. Poetry isn’t black. Poetry is individual and it attains the creative height that makes it belong to mankind.” A conversation about the First World Festival of Negro Arts, 1966, in Dakar, Senegal and how 1966 was a rebirth for Danner because she found so many of her friends on their native soil (in Africa)—the familiarity of walking down the street and seeing individuals such as Langston Hughes, St. Claire Drake and Sarah Fabio. Also discussed:  how Margaret Danner acquired Boone House; how she met individuals such as Robert “Bob” Hayden there; the significance of Detroit as a cultural hub; Margaret Danner’s experience working with Dudley Randall on their book Poem Counterpoem; the relationship between poets and librarians; her inspiration for writing poetry; her experience of writing poetry when she was a child.

17. Intro to Afro-American Essays with Sarah Fabio and Thomas Schick

  • Host: Brooks Robinson
    Guest: Professor Thomas Schick
  • A discussion about the Afro-American essay and its purpose. Individuals and/or subjects covered in this episode include the free blacks who authored some of the first African American essays; “A Narrative of the Proceedings of the Black People, During the Late Awful Calamity in Philadelphia in the Year 1793” written by Richard Allen and Absalom Jones; essayists such as James Forten, Lydia Child and Robert Purvis; Edward Wilmot Blyden’s writings; David Walker’s Appeal; Martin R. Delany and Robert Campbell; late 19th century essays/essayists such as W.E.B. DuBois (The Souls of Black Folk) and William Wells Brown (“The Black Man, His Antecedents, His Achievements by 1863”); essayists during the Harlem Renaissance, such as Alaine Locke (editor of The New Negro magazine); critiques and literary analyses, such as James Baldwin’s “Nobody Knows My Name,” and critiques by Ralph Ellison and Richard Wright; contemporary essayists such as Malcolm X and Eldridge Cleaver. The episode concludes with discussing the importance of independent magazines and pamphlets such as Negro Journal, Phylon from Atlanta University, and CLA Journal, “that always kept the essay alive.”

18. Introduction to African Poetry with Brooks Robinson

  • Host: Brooks Robinson 
  • Brooks Robinson discusses the three major themes in African oral poetry; non-English, 19th-century, written poetry (French, German, Arabic); African poetry in the 1930s and 1940s; Anglophone African poets/poetry such as Wole Soyinka, John Pepper Clark, Gabriel Okara and Christopher Okigbo; differences between the negritude poets of the 1930s-40s and the anglophone African poets; East African poets/poetry such as John Mbiti and Shabaan Robert; comparisons between East and West African anglophone poetry; anglophone poets/poetry from southern Africa such as L.D. Raditladi, B.W. Vilakazi, Vernon February, Daniel Kunene and Dennis Brutus.

19. Dennis Brutus’ Life and Works

  • Host: Brooks Robinson
    Guest: South African poet, Dennis Brutus. 
  • A conversation about how and when Brutus began writing poetry; Brutus’ first poetry piece; Brutus’ attempts to challenge South Africa’s apartheid structure; his participation in the sporting boycott of South Africa during apartheid that led to the country being banned from the Olympics; retribution Brutus faced because of his anti-apartheid activities, including his imprisonment; Brutus’ published works, including Letters to Martha, a collection of poetry he penned while in Britain, exiled from South Africa. Brutus also reads some of his poetry, including “one for the children who died in the 1976 Soweto massacre” and “A Sequence for Beatriz Allende.”

20. Vernon February’s Life and Works

  • Host: Brooks Robinson
    Guest: Professor Vernon February
  • A discussion of creole literature and Professor February’s works entitled “Vernon February’s Life and Works.”  Topics include: the role black writers should play in the world, Professor February’s inspiration for researching creole literature; a comparison between Negritude (Francophone) writers and Surinamese writers; a discussion of the works of the Surinamese scholar Heim Eersel. Professor February reads some of his own poetry and poetry by Hein Eersel; poems such as “They Shoot Children, Don’t They” and several others.

21. Edward Brathwaite’s Life and Works

  • Host: Brooks Robinson
    Guest: Edward Brathwaite

  • A conversation about the work of Edward Brathwaite: Brathwaite’s childhood and his Methodist upbringing; the impact of emigrating to England on his writing, such as his experience of racism; the impact of emigrating to Ghana on his writing and the way African culture helped him appreciate the Caribbean; the relationship between Africa and the New World; cultural, linguistic and phenotypical similarities between Ghanaians and West Indians; the connection between his work in Jamaica and his previous work. Brathwaite reads two of the poems from his book Rites of Passage and “Starvation” in a West Indian dialect.

22. Introduction to African English Fiction/Prose with Brooks Robinson

  • Host: Brooks Robinson 

  • Brooks Robinson discusses African English fiction/prose: the initial African prosaic fiction writers andcontemporary writers. Some of the subjects covered in this episode include Olaudah Equiano’s first novel, published in the 1790s; Thomas Mofolo and his novels Moeti oa bochabela, Pitseng and Chaka; writers from West Africa such as Gabriel Okora (Voices); Amos Tutuola, and Chinua Achebe (Things Fall Apart); writers from Eastern Africa, most of whom appeared in the 1960s, namely Josiah Kariuki (‘Mau Mau’ Detainee and Child of Two Worlds), Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’ (Weep Not, Child and The River Between). At the end of the episode, Robinson reiterates the fact that the discussion exclusively addressed African English literature, since African writers were writing in French, Arabic and other languages before they began to write in English

23. Eldred Jones on Chinua Achebe

  • Host: Brooks Robinson
    Guest: Professor Eldred Jones
  • A discussion with Professor Eldred Jones about the life and works of Nigerian novelist, poet, professor and critic, Chinua Achebe. The discussion covers Achebe’s novels: Things Fall Apart, No Longer at Ease, Arrow of God, and the way Achebe uses them to analyze the Igbo/Nigerian situation; the breakdown of an African/Igbo traditional society, after its first encounter with European missionaries; new missionary impact and imperialism; and other major themes in Achebe’s work apart from struggle and conflict; and impact of the Nigerian civil war (also known as Biafran war) on Achebe and his work.

24. Jonathan Peters on Wole Soyinka

  • Host: Brooks Robinson
    Guest: Professor Jonathan Peters
  • A discussion of the life and work of Wole Soyinka: Her early works; Jero’s Metamorphosis; comparisons of Wole Soyinka and other major African writers such as Léopold Senghor and Aimé Césaire; major themes that Soyinka explores in his writing, such as nonlinear history and violence; Soyinka’s imprisonment during the Nigerian civil war; movement beyond nihilism in Soyinka’s work; Change and lack of change in Africa and  potential for development where people and culture intermingle and interface; the possibility for change in the cycle of violence.

25. A Comparative Analysis of African and Afro American Literature with Mildred Hill and the Conclusion of the Literary Corner Series

  • Host: Brooks Robinson
    Guest: Dr. Mildred Hill

  • This closing edition of The Literary Corner series includes a summary of the conversation on African and African American literature by examining the similarities among diasporic black literature. Topics include: patterns/similarities between African and African American written literature that are nonexistent in traditional American and English writing, divided into two main categories: thematic features and stylistic features; thematic features in four subcategories: rituals, folklore/religion, family, and the Africans’ confrontation with the West.  At the end of the episode, Robinson thanks all those who he claims were responsible for the Literary Corner: his cohost, Professor Pam Johnson, as well as his regular analysts, Professors Daniel Kunene, Sarah Fabio and Edris Makward.