African American Studies at Beinecke Library

Collections, events, and news from the James Weldon Johnson Memorial Collection of African American Arts and Letters.

The Art of Collaboration: Studies in Creativity
February 19, 2018
The best creative collaborations call into question the mythologies of individual genius and invite us to consider the additive possibilities of thinking and working together.
New Acquisition -- Frederick Douglass Letters
February 9, 2018
The Beinecke Library is pleased to announce the acquisition of a small collection of Frederick Douglass correspondence with William L. Thomas.
Student Curators
December 29, 2017
Student curators in Melissa Barton’s African American Literature in the Archive (ENG 221/AFAM 212) class organized miny “Pop-Up” exhibitions from the James Weldon Johnson Memorial Collection as a class assignment in November.
Christmas Cheer from a Lean Year: The 1950 Holiday Cards of Langston Hughes (Hyperallergic)
December 15, 2017
African American Women Writers: A Top Ten List
November 11, 2017
Ten fascinating books, photos, collections, archives, documents and topics…related to wriiting African American Women Writers
POETRY READING: Rickey Laurentiis and Ocean Vuong
October 20, 2017
Please join us for two events with poets Rickey Laurentiis and Ocean Vuong
New Scholarship: Travis Scholl on "Essay and Archive"
October 16, 2017
Writer and scholar Travis Scholl’s “Reading Lyric: Essay and Archive” has been published in Fourth Genre 19:2 (Fall 2017), 165-170.
Daphne Brooks's Protest Music in America, AFAM 055 / AMST 026 / THST 096
September 27, 2017

Materials from Prof. Daphne Brooks’s seminar Protest Music in America and the Black Freedom Struggle Materials Relating to “We Shall Overcome,”...
American Literature in the World Conference: CFP
September 26, 2017
The conference hopes to broaden the scope of American literature, opening it to more complex geographies, and to a variety of genres and media.
New Student Research by Kelsea Jeon
August 30, 2017
During the Antebellum Era, abolitionists largely appealed to individuals’ morals when advocating for the anti-slavery cause.