cooking the books

5 Jan 2011 news 0 Comments

Many thanks to Jenn Brissett for posting this on the CBS list: “Science fiction scholar Marleen S. Barr will present the paper “Why Science Fiction is Pertinent to Black Children’s Literature Pedagogy” at the “State of African American and African Diaspora Studies Conference” held in New York on January 8. Barr is scheduled to present at 10:15 AM in room C-205 at the CUNY Graduate Center.”  I live in NYC; I teach Black Studies—I should be going to this.  But until I saw Jenn’s post, I had no idea this conference was even taking place!  Maybe I’ve spent too much time reading and writing lately, though mega-conferences don’t generally appeal to me.  Still, it is my field…a former prof of mine from Toronto is on the same panel, so I’ll definitely be there on Saturday.

I’m not that creative in the kitchen but I do love designing a new course!  Lately I’ve been gathering ingredients resources for the course on neo-slave narratives that I’ll be teaching this spring.  I *think* I’ve narrowed down the reading list, though I’m still adding supplementary articles:

Prince, Mary.  The History of Mary Prince (1831).

Douglass, Frederick.  Narrative (1845).

Jacobs, Harriet.  Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861).

Butler, Octavia.  Kindred (1979).

Morrison, Toni.  Beloved (1987).

Gerima, Haile.  Sankofa (1993).

Spielberg, Steven.  Amistad (1997).

Jones, Edward P.  The Known World (2003).

Mosely, Walter.  47 (2005).

Christiansë, Yvette.  Unconfessed (2006)

James, Marlon.  The Book of Night Women (2009).

Perkins-Valdez, Dolen.  Wench (2010).

Dungy, Camille.  Suck on the Marrow (2010).

I might add Equiano to the mix, but then you have to talk about the controversy around his birthplace…and I don’t have a play, which isn’t good—every course needs a little drama.  Friends urged me to teach Wish, but I don’t think it’s fair for the prof to ask her students to critique her own book—not when their grade depends on it!  Anyway, I’m going to postpone my administrative duties and try to write today…nearing 12K words.

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