Inspired by Twitter mention of Langston Hughes’ hand-drawn Christmas card in Yale’s Beinecke Library, I went looking for the Christmas cards. I recalled seeing in the Zora Neale Hurston Papers in Smathers Libraries at the University of Florida during two visits. The one above is a 1954 card from Mitchell Burroughs, her editor at… Continue reading zora and christmas
My trip to the University of Florida’s George A. Smathers Special and Area Collections for my ongoing research on Zora Neale Hurston’s time in Miami was cut short by the onset of the beginnings of bronchitis. A bartender in Gainesville’s airport suggested brandy to cut through the congestion in my chest, but he had none.… Continue reading a solitude
We did it, Antebellum America students! It was so great learning about our shared past with you. Told you by the time we got to the end of the semester you will have heard more than you want to know about “American character” as defined by French junior judge Alexis de Tocqueville and how it… Continue reading Students rocked Antebellum America presentations
I braided periwinkle extensions into my hair yesterday. As I head into the archive next week, I do as much with the blues. Blue as in pursued tranquility. It’s a busy and stressful moment in this country’s history. A dear friend confessed she recently cried for no reason. She’s not alone. As we age, such… Continue reading the blues
As I prep for “Music and Race in the UK,” a course I am scheduled to teach next summer in our Alabama at Oxford program, I have gone back and forth on whether to use Muscle Shoals in the course. After showing the documentary on the incredible music coming out of Alabama in the late… Continue reading muscle shoals
I am so glad I got up to the Birmingham Art Museum in Birmingham, Alabama, to see “Black Out,” an exhibit hailing the wonders and contradictions in silhouettes. Featuring the work of Kara Walker, Auguste Edouart and Kumi Yamashita, the viewer is invited to think about how what began as a claim to hierarchy can… Continue reading inclusive heaven?
Me to a Grad Student: I’m so geeked. Even tho’ I can see some of the stuff online, I can’t wait to touch some archival papers at the University of Florida’s Smathers Libraries again. GS in so many words: I hear you, Dr. Green. I have held in my hand the thinnest folder containing a… Continue reading joy of the archive
