| Directors: |
Dr. Wilfred D. Samuels, University of Utah |
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Dr. Jerry W. Ward, Jr., Dillard University |
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| Program Coordinators: |
Dr. Gloria Cronin, Brigham Young University |
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Dr. Nicole Aljoe, Northeastern University |
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Dr. Loretta G. Woodard, Marygrove College |
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| Thursday, 2 April |
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| 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm |
"The Wright Tool for the Right Job: A Writer's Craft Talk." William Henry Lewis, Author, In the Arms of Our Elders and I Got Somebody in Staunton |
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Reception |
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Location: Officers Club |
| Friday, 3 April |
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| 8:30 am |
Welcome and Introductions |
| 9:00 am-10:30 am |
Session #1: “A Hurricane Called Bigger” |
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Julia Wright, Keynote |
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--Location: Heritage Center 1B |
| Break: 15 minutes |
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| 10:45 am-12:00 pm |
Session #2- Round Table: Writing Richard Wright: Round Table |
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Chair: Jerry W. Ward, Jr., Dillard University |
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* “Richard Wright Today,” Robert Butler, Canisius College |
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* “Writing Richard Wright and the Fatherhood Legacy,” Virginia Whatley Smith, University of Alabama |
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* “Making the Wright Connection,” Maryemma Graham, University of Kansas |
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--Location: Heritage Center 1B |
| 12:00-1:30 pm |
Lunch: Randall Kenan, Novelist, Keynote |
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"From Bigger Thomas to Barak Obama: Richard Wright and the New African American Male" |
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Location: Heritage Center 1B |
| 1:30-3:00 pm |
Session #3 |
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Panel A: Politics and Aesthetics |
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Chair: Nicole Aljoe, Northeastern University |
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* Joseph McLaren, “Richard Wright’s Perceptions of Africa in Black Power,” Hofstra University |
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* Justin Z. Smith, “Black Brute: The Dread of Amalgamation Fictionalized by Richard Wright,” San Francisco State University |
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* Eliot Wilcox, “The Political Aesthetics of Wright, Baldwin, and Ellison and the Human Cost of Generational Shifts,” Brigham Young University |
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--Location: Heritage Center 1B |
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Panel B: Autobiography and Fiction |
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Chair: Loretta G Woodard, Marygrove College |
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* “From Bigger Thomas’s Physical Hunger to Black Boy’s Appetite for African American Narrative.” Cara Elana Erdheim,Fordham University |
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* “Waiting for Wings: Historical and Cultural Context to Images of Flight in Native Son and Black Boy.” Dave Fife, Brigham Young University |
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* “Bigger Thomas Jefferson: Rage, Redemption, and Transformation in Richard Wright’s Native Son and Ernest Gaines’s A Lesson Before Dying.” Durthy A. Washington, Air Force Academy |
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--Location: Heritage Center 1A |
| Break: 15 minutes |
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| 3:15-4:45 pm |
Session #4 |
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Panel A: Criticism and History I |
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Chair: Richard Yarborough, University of California, Los Angeles |
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* “Reading Writers Reading Wright.” Kristin L. Matthews, Brigham Young University |
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* “Changing Assumptions in Wright Scholarship: The Effects of National Security on Richard Wright in France.” Carlos Brossard, Independent Scholar |
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* “The Literature of the Negro in the United States: Richard Wright, Culture and the Practice of Modernity.” Edward L. Robinson Jr.,Claremont Graduate University/Ramkhamhaeng University |
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--Location: Heritage Center 1B |
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Panel B: Criticism and History II |
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Chair: Rosemarie Mundy-Shepherd, Albany State Univeristy |
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* “Richard Wright and Celtic Myth.” Robin Dizard, Keene State College |
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* “Richard Wright’s Emergencies.” Chuck Jackson, University of Houston-Downtown |
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* Fire and Cloud: Wright's Paradigm of the Marxist Impending Revolution." Logan T. Marshall, University of Utah |
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--Location: Heritage Center 1A |
| 5:00-7:00 pm |
Wine Reception |
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--Location: Commander's House |
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* Poster Exhibit: "The Transmission of Richard Wright's Black Boy, Marriott Library, Howard Rambsy II, Guide (View on your own) |
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Dinner on Your Own |
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Explore Salt Lake City, including the following: Family History Center at Temple Square http://www.utah.com/mormon/family_history.htm, and Mestizo Coffee House and Institute of Culture and Art 63 W. North Temple Suite #700 Salt Lake City, UT www.mestizocoffeehouse.com (801)596-0500 |
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| Saturday, 4 April |
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| 9:00 am-10:30 am |
Session #5-Round Table: Black Boy |
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* “The Transmission of Richard Wright's Black Boy,” |
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Howard Rambsy III, Indiana State University |
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Jerry W. Ward, Jr., Dillard University, Respondent |
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--Location: Officers Club, North Room |
| Break: 15 minutes |
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| 10:45 am – 12:15 pm |
Session #6-Round Table: Wright’s Haiku |
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Chair: Van Gessel, Brigham Young University |
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Toru Kiuchi, Nihon Univeristy, Japan |
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Yoshinobu Hakutani, Kent State Univeristy |
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--Location: Officers Club, North Room |
| 12:00-1:15 pm |
Lunch: Jeffery Renard Allen, Novelist, Luncheon Keynote |
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“With a Pan African Pen: Richard Wright and the African and African-African American Novel in the 21st Century” |
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--Location: Officers Club, South Room |
| 1:30-3:00 pm |
Session #7 |
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Panel A: The Haiku Moment |
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Chair: Irene Ota, University of Utah |
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* Jianqinq Zheng, “Image of the South in Richard Wright’s Haiku,” Mississippi Valley State University |
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* Thomas L. Morgan, “Inverting the Haiku Moment: Mobility and Isolation in Richard Wright’s Haiku: This Other World,” University of Dayton |
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--Location: Officers Club, North Room |
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Panel B: Within the African American Literary Tradition |
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Chair: James L. Hill, Albany State University |
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* "Richard Wright's Native Son as a Model for Understanding W.E.B. DuBois' 'Double Consciousness.'" Nathaniel Stephen McCauley, University of Utah |
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* "A Higher Power Confronts Wrightian Naturalism: Janie's Apotheosis in Their Eyes Were Watching God," Chase Kirkham,University of Utah |
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* "Masculinist Trap in Wright's Native Son and Eldridge Cleaver's Soul on Ice." Ryan Funk, University of Utah |
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* "Maintaining Hegemonic Masculinity in Richard Wright's 'Fire and Cloud'." Terra Davis, University of Utah |
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--Location: Offices Club, South Room |
| Break: 15 minutes |
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| 3:15-4:30 pm |
Session #8 |
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Panel A: (Re) viewing Richard Wright Across Genres: The Film, the Text and the Self |
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Chair: Australia Tarver, Texas Christian University |
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* “The Interpretative Lens: A Comparison of The Native Sons of Richard Wright in Film.” Keith O. Nelson, Criminal Justice and Community Liaison, Springfield, IL |
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* “The Existential Ethnic Self of Richard Wright’s Black Boy.” Michael Garcia, Hamilton College |
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* “Who’s Afraid of a Large Black Man?’: Resisting Hegemony in Richard Wright’s Eight Men.” Australia Tarver, Texas Christian University |
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--Location: Officers Club, North Room |
| 3:00-6:00 pm |
High School Teachers Workshop, Robert Butler, Director |
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Teachers Workshop Description |
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--Location: Commanders House |
| 7:00 pm- |
Evening Banquet, Officer's Club |
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* "Following Richard Wright." John Edgar Wideman, Novelist, Keynote |
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Conversation with John Edgar Wideman |
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Photo Exhibit Selections from 12 Million Black Voices from the Smithsonian in UMFA |
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| Sunday, 5 April |
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| 8:00-9:15 |
Session #9: Religion and Spirituality in the Works of Richard Wright |
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Chair:Graduate Student, University of Utah |
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* "'This Business of Saving Souls Has no Ethics’: Religious Tradition in the Works of Richard Wright.” Keith Byerman, Indiana State University |
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* "Revisiting the garden of Eden: Anti-Christian Imagery in Richard Wright's 'Big Boy Leaves Home.'" Corey Jacob Burton, Univeristy of Utah |
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* "'The Sanctifier of the Horrid Crime of Slavery': Richard Wright's Critique of Christianity." Abiodun Olufeko, University of Utah |
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--Location: Officers Club, South Room |
| 9:30-10:30 am |
Richard Wright: "Black Boy" Documentary by California Newsreel |
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Location: Officer's Club South Room |
| 11:00 am |
Church Activities for attendees with late travel plans |
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Calvary Baptist Church
1090 South State
SLC, UT 84111
Dr. France A. Davis, Pastor |
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