History of Black Writing (HBW)
University of Kansas- Ayesha Hardison, Associate Professor of English and of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, and Director, History of Black Writing, University of Kansas, and Co-Principal Investigator, Stories for All
Project Description
Since its establishment in 1983, the History of Black Writing (HBW) has committed to literary recovery work and public programming. What was once an extensive print collection has transformed into a digital archive with the launch of HBW’s Black Book Interactive Project (BBIP) in 2010. Moreover, for nearly four decades, HBW has amassed a sizeable media archive of lectures and interviews with Black artists and scholars that has never been made public before. As part of Stories for All, HBW will inventory its collection of audio cassettes, 8mm film, umatics, and VHS tapes (totaling over 300 artifacts), and then it will utilize this media archive to curate a digital exhibit about Black writers and their fiction. In addition to promoting Black storytelling, the Digital Black Storytellers exhibit will also explore how HBW’s efforts for literary recovery and public engagement through various technologies—which has evolved from print to audio cassette to BBIP’s searchable online database—helps preserve, document, and excavate the meaning of human stories for Black lives, literature, and culture. HBW’s digital storytelling exhibit will be historically situated, present-day minded, and forward thinking.
Project News
Peace, C. (2021, September 22). Project on the History of Black Writing Lecture Series Will Further Explore Zora Neale Hurston’s Life, Legacy. KU Today. https://today.ku.edu/2021/09/22/project-history-black-writing-series-will-further-explore-zora-neale-hurstons-life-legacy
Partner Details
Ayesha Hardison
Associate Professor of English and of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, and Director, History of Black Writing, University of Kansas, and Co-Principal Investigator, Stories for All
Bio
Ayesha Hardison is a literary and cultural critic of African American writing and representation. An Associate Professor of English and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Kansas, she explores questions of race, gender, genre, social politics, and historical memory in her research and teaching. Her book Writing through Jane Crow examines portrayals of Black women and the politics of Black literary production during the 1940s and 1950s.
