Black writers redefine the struggle: a tribute to James Baldwin : proceedings of a conference at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, April 22-23, 1988 featuring Chinua Achebe ... et al.

154 Pages·1989·0.55 MB·English

by  James Baldwin

A Tribute to James Baldwin : Black Writers
Redefine the Struggle : Proceedings of a
title: Conference At the University of
Massachusetts At Amherst, April 22-23,
1988 Featuring Chinua Achebe ... [Et Al.]
author: Baldwin, James
publisher: University of Massachusetts Press
isbn10 | asin: 0870236776
print isbn13: 9780870236778
ebook isbn13: 9780585153902
language: English
Baldwin, James,--1924---Criticism and
interpretation--Congresses, Literature--
Black authors--History and criticism--
subject
Congresses, Blacks--Intellectual life--
Congresses.
publication date: 1989
lcc: PS3552.A45Z92 1989eb
ddc: 818/.5409
Baldwin, James,--1924---Criticism and
interpretation--Congresses, Literature--
subject: Black authors--History and criticism--
Congresses, Blacks--Intellectual life--
Congresses.
Page i
Black Writers Redefine the Struggle
A Tribute to James Baldwin
Proceedings of a Conference at the University of Massachusetts at
Amherst
April 2223, 1988
featuring
Chinua Achebe
Irma McClaurin-Allen
Andrew Salkey
Michael Thelwell
John Edgar Wideman
Edited by
Jules Chametzky
Published by
Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities
Distributed by
University of Massachusetts Press
Page ii
Copyright © 1989 by
The Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities
Distributed by
The University of Massachusetts Press
Box 429
Amherst, Mass. 01004
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
LC 88-29585
ISBN 0-87023-677-6
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Black writers redefine the struggle.
1. Baldwin, James, 1924-Criticism and
interpretationCongresses. 2. Literature, Modern
Black authorsHistory and criticismCongresses.
3. BlacksIntellectual lifeCongresses. I. Baldwin,
James, 1924-II. Achebe, Chinua. III. Chametzky,
Jules. IV. University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
PS3503.A5527Z57 1989 818'.5409 88-29585
ISBN 0-87023-677-6
British Library Cataloguing in Publication data are available.
Page iii
To James Arthur Baldwin
19241987
Page v
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Preface by Jules Chametzky vii
I. Address
Introduction by Michael Thelwell 2
"Spelling our Proper Name," by Chinua Achebe 5
II. Readings
Introduction by Ketu Katrak 14
Chinua Achebe, Two Poems 15
Irma McClaurin-Allen, From a Biography of Leanita 23
McClain, and Three Poems
Andrew Salkey, 4 Caribbean Women Poets 2 Poems by 33
Salkey
Michael Thelwell, Letters from Death Row St. Catherine's 43
District Prison, Jamaica
John Edgar Wideman, From a Novel-in-Progress: 53
"Presents"
III. Panel Discussion: "I'll be Somewhere Listening"
Introduction by Esther Terry 62
Participants: Chinua Achebe, Irma McClaurin-Allen,
Michael Thelwell, John Wideman
Notes on Contributors 82

Page vii
PREFACE
James Baldwin began his formal academic connection with the five-
college community (Amherst, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke, Smith
Colleges, and the University of Massachusetts) as a Five College
Professor of Literature in 198384, teaching at Hampshire, Smith, and
the University. This appointment was to last three years; thereafter he
became a member of the W.E.B. DuBois Department of Afro-
American Studies and a Distinguished Fellow at the Institute for
Advanced Study in the Humanities at the University of Massachusetts.
He was highly satisfied with the latter arrangement. In addition to his
pleasure in his colleagues and students his schedule allowed him to
spend half his time at his home in France.
Chinua Achebe taught at the University of Massachusetts in the
English and Afro-American Studies Departments from 19721974,
shortly after the Biafran War. After another year of teaching at the
University of Connecticut he returned to Nigeria as a Professor of
Literature at his old university at Nsukka in 1976, where he remained
until his retirement in 1983. He has since taught at U.C.L.A. and in
Canada, and enjoys Emeritus status at Nsukka. He was awarded a
Fulbright Professorship at the University of Massachusetts for the
198788 academic year, at the invitation of the Afro-American Studies
Department and the Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities.
Understandably, the prospect of these two outstanding writers and
major cultural figures teaching in the same place, in the same yearat
our University, in factengendered considerable excitement, especially
among those concerned centrally with black life and culture in our
time. A group of five-college faculty members involved with black
literary studies began to meet at the Institute to plan a conference in
the Spring of 1988 that would revolve around Achebe and Baldwin:
one the prototypical writer of Africaindeed, it would not be hyperbole
to call him the father of modern African literaturethe other the
preeminent living embodiment of the literature of the Black Diaspora.
We determined at once that the occasion was not to be merely
celebratory. It was to be a conference that would assess seriously
where black writing, and beyond that the black struggle for full
articulation, liberation,
Page viii
and recognition stood at this time and what its prospects and priorities
might be. After much discussion, we agreed that the conference was
to be called, challengingly we hoped, "Black Writers Redefine the
Struggle."
Then the shock of Baldwin's death. After our initial numbness and
grief, we decided to go ahead with the Conference, retitling it as a
tribute to James Baldwin and focussing upon his impact on Black
writing. We decided, further, instead of going far afield, to feature
those writers who were in residence, as it were, among us and who
had known and loved the man and his work. To our great pleasure,
although it should not have surprised us, I suppose, considering the
calibre of the contributors, the resulting conference was not just
solemn memorialit proved to be alive with wit, insight, variety, power
and beauty. Or so it seemed to me. What follows are the proceedings
of the conference held on April 2223, 1988 at the University of
Massachusetts/Amherst, from Chinua Achebe's provocative and wise
opening night talk, through the next day's extraordinary readings in
several genres and voices by Chinua Achebe, Irma McClaurin-Allen,
Andrew Salkey, Michael Thelwell, John Wideman, ably and
graciously introduced by Ketu Katrak, to the concluding collaborative,
jazz-like panel discussion chaired by Esther Terry. Let the reader
judge and, I hope, be touched and changed by it.
JULES CHAMETZKY
DIRECTOR
INSTITUTE FOR ADVANCED STUDY IN THE
HUMANITIES
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I want to thank some of the people and organizations who made this