Category Archives: Black Writers
Carolyn Rodgers Reads “Prodigal Objects”
What a treat for Carolyn Rodgers fans. Below hear the great poet read her poem “Prodigal Objects,” September 1999, in a show at North Central College, Naperville, Illinois. It was held to celebrate the release a few months earlier of … Continue reading
The Chicago Literary Hall of Fame
In mid-2009 Donald Evans, a Chicago writer, called me with an idea: a hall of fame for Chicago’s literary greats. Because of two of my books—Smokestacks and Skyscrapers (with David Starkey) and Black Writing from Chicago—Don wanted me to be in the … Continue reading
The Black Chicago Renaissance
In the opening line of her introduction to The Black Chicago Renaissance, Darlene Clark Hine writes that “beginning in the 1930’s and lasting into the 1950’s, black Chicago experienced a cultural renaissance that rivaled and, some argue, exceeded the cultural … Continue reading