My work on the Literary Lightworker as well as my life as a playwright is about the practice of preservation in order to avoid erasure. Love this piece! Mr. Ellison would be proud that you have lifted his name and masterpiece up before the world at this time indeed.
I read this book in school, 9th or 10th grade. It's come to my attention TWO times in ONE day now. First, earlier today, among a listing of National Book Award winners that my 84 yr old father and I were discussing, and now again in your post and blog. Some books linger in my subconscious and this one certainly has. I pay attention to synchronicities, so I will find my old copy and reread it. Thanks for bringing it back to my conscious awareness.
Hi, Gina! Thank you for stopping by. When you get that kind of confirmation, you absolutely should pay attention! :) Check out the audiobook version of Invisible Man. It’s brilliantly read by Joe Morton (“Papa Pope” from Scandal). Masterful performance.
This is one of the reasons I started the Black Writer Therapy podcast. People need to know that Black Women writers are out here elevating the literary landscape.
It is also I started Southern Momentum Publishing House. We are a small boutique, hybrid publisher for women and femme writers either from and/or writing about the South.
There is a chunk of Southern literature missing from the Southern literary canon. My BBB accredited publishing house is doing all we can to fill the mat space.
Thank you for this. I also have strong, resonant memories of reading Ellison’s Invisible Man in high school, about a half century ago now. I owe a debt of gratitude that as a white male high school student in a large public high school in a dominantly white small city in New Jersey I had an African American teacher, Mr. Randolph, who brought Ellison into my ken. And, ironically, given my own arguably sheltered experience, made the invisible visible. I felt keenly the injustice, pain, but also rich inwardness of Ellison’s man. I also love the Zora Neale Hurston and Maya Angelou quotations in your blog post. And in another perhaps ironic twist I feel I’ve benefited tremendously from Toni Morrison’s commitment to writing for a black audience, making the historical, psychological, and metaphorical layers all the more powerful for anyone white, imho, who chooses to engage. Thank you.
Honestly, it wasn’t a single book per se that opened my eyes- but being on social media and following other readers and then noticing that there were not a lot of diverse voices in traditional publishing.
That’s also why I became part of the novel revue committee in my district to try to adopt more diverse novels into the curriculum.
I love this book and it’s an important contemporary argument you’re making. The late great poet Michael Harper taught me this book in college and we talked so much about the jazz IN the prose. Sometimes I think the rhythm of words can create something even when visibility is still a big problem. Am I making sense? :) welcome to Substack, saw your lovely Note.
My work on the Literary Lightworker as well as my life as a playwright is about the practice of preservation in order to avoid erasure. Love this piece! Mr. Ellison would be proud that you have lifted his name and masterpiece up before the world at this time indeed.
Oh, I hope so! Thank you for reading!
So so true, Jevon, about the elite white bubble of publishing - I know @otherwordy and @talkingwriting would be interested in connecting with you
Yes, OK, and thank you for reading.
I would have to say, The Age of Acquiescence.
If you haven’t yet; check out Emmett Wheatfall’s Contradictions From An Uncertain Silence.
After reading it twice the other week I had to write this:
https://joepoulton.substack.com/p/an-unquieted-uncertain-review
OK. Thank you! I’ll check it out.
Oh and Chasing The Scream
I read this book in school, 9th or 10th grade. It's come to my attention TWO times in ONE day now. First, earlier today, among a listing of National Book Award winners that my 84 yr old father and I were discussing, and now again in your post and blog. Some books linger in my subconscious and this one certainly has. I pay attention to synchronicities, so I will find my old copy and reread it. Thanks for bringing it back to my conscious awareness.
Hi, Gina! Thank you for stopping by. When you get that kind of confirmation, you absolutely should pay attention! :) Check out the audiobook version of Invisible Man. It’s brilliantly read by Joe Morton (“Papa Pope” from Scandal). Masterful performance.
Thanks for the tip!
This is one of the reasons I started the Black Writer Therapy podcast. People need to know that Black Women writers are out here elevating the literary landscape.
It is also I started Southern Momentum Publishing House. We are a small boutique, hybrid publisher for women and femme writers either from and/or writing about the South.
There is a chunk of Southern literature missing from the Southern literary canon. My BBB accredited publishing house is doing all we can to fill the mat space.
Thank you for this. I also have strong, resonant memories of reading Ellison’s Invisible Man in high school, about a half century ago now. I owe a debt of gratitude that as a white male high school student in a large public high school in a dominantly white small city in New Jersey I had an African American teacher, Mr. Randolph, who brought Ellison into my ken. And, ironically, given my own arguably sheltered experience, made the invisible visible. I felt keenly the injustice, pain, but also rich inwardness of Ellison’s man. I also love the Zora Neale Hurston and Maya Angelou quotations in your blog post. And in another perhaps ironic twist I feel I’ve benefited tremendously from Toni Morrison’s commitment to writing for a black audience, making the historical, psychological, and metaphorical layers all the more powerful for anyone white, imho, who chooses to engage. Thank you.
Honestly, it wasn’t a single book per se that opened my eyes- but being on social media and following other readers and then noticing that there were not a lot of diverse voices in traditional publishing.
That’s also why I became part of the novel revue committee in my district to try to adopt more diverse novels into the curriculum.
I’m over teaching dead white dudes.
I love this piece! Powerful, profound, and necessary. 🤎
The Life and Religious Experience of Jarena Lee by Jarena Lee
I love this book and it’s an important contemporary argument you’re making. The late great poet Michael Harper taught me this book in college and we talked so much about the jazz IN the prose. Sometimes I think the rhythm of words can create something even when visibility is still a big problem. Am I making sense? :) welcome to Substack, saw your lovely Note.