Ronald Allen was an African-American poet and playwright who described his work as a “concert of language.” The Detroit native employed intuitive configurations of language (i.e., image, trope, and metaphor) to invent new meaning and structures for the exploration and expression of language arts, including poetry and theater. Continue reading Profile: Ron Allen (1947-2010)
Elizabeth Alexander is an American poet, essayist, playwright, and the president of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation since 2018. Continue reading Profile: Elizabeth Alexander
The first Kansas State Colored Convention was a call from black Kansans to be granted a future of “Liberty, Justice and Equality” under the United States government. The first Kansas Colored Convention was held in Leavenworth, Kansas on October 13-16, 1863 in the African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) Church. The twenty-three delegates who attended the convention represented nearly seven thousand black Kansans. They discussed issues that … Continue reading Revisit: KANSAS STATE COLORED CONVENTION (1863)
Around 10 P.M. on Saturday, July 9, 1938, a mob (estimated by local paper to be two hundred strong) of white residents of Wapato, a small town in the Yakima Valley region of Washington State, instigated what the Yakima Morning Herald termed a “miniature race war.” For two hours, the mob rioted with clubs, hammers, sticks, and rocks with the aim to drive the small African American … Continue reading THE WAPATO RACE RIOT, 1938
Black Art Story 