Jerry Ward's Blogspot

JEALandewsrev William L. Andrews.   Slavery and Class in the American South: A Generation of Slave Narrative Testimony 1840-1865 .   New York: Oxford University Press, 2019.   ISBN   978-0-19-090838-6. 389 pp., hardback. William Andrews , E. Maynard Adams Professor of English at UNC-Chapel Hill, has had a distinguished career as a scholar of African American literary history.   He has written, edited, and co-edited approximately forty books.   The Literary Career of Charles W. Chesnutt (1980) served notice that Andrews had learned well from his mentor Blyden Jackson, and To Tell a Free Story: The First Century of Afro-American Autobiography 1760-1865 ( 1986) was widely recognized as a seminal work in studies of autobiography as portals for discovery in American history and culture(s).   It is fair to say that To Tell a Free Story secured Andrews' place as an authority   in the unfolding of literary historiography.   In...

Retired 2012 One works harder after retirement . The peoples program Primarily retired non-African American people. Until COVID-19 necessitated our ending face-to-face discussions, the weekly meetings with senior citizens produced many moments of discovery and joy. Blogs reveals where his mind is now. Not only on history but also on the era we are living through. The blogs make a certain freedom of thought possible.   I can be far more honest in blogs (and in poems) than in peer-reviewed articles.   As you are aware, history as a never-ending process and history as an objective/subjective record (narrative) of process are exceptionally important for me. What do I want to know about Jerry and why? I could give you an epic catalogue of items you should want to know, but it would be far better for you to construct a list of 15-20 items. Talk at two HBCUs Between 1970 and 2012 I taught at Tougaloo College (1970-2002) and D...

NOW AS A FUTURE May 15, 1970 ---Jackson, MS and Viet Nam In the trauma of war the Army Times told us of bullet-riddled Alexander Hall, the killing of   Philip Gibbs, the killing of   James Green, the killing of democratic dreams in Jackson, Mississippi. Misrule of military law condemned us to kill abroad to keep home safe for genocide. And we were dumb to explain ---why are we there --- to explain so complex a logic to our verdant selves. We are angry and condemned to never forget nor forgive. After all, the white power of insanity prevails, does it not? May 15, 2020 ---New Orleans What is the profit of crucifying Christ each year on a swastika, of finding nada in the span from Till to Gibbs and Green, of telling daily nightmares begot by Americans of no-color, of telling Breonna Taylor it’s a crime to sing a gospel song telling Ahmaud Arbery it's a crime to inspect an unfini...

WORDS AND CRISIS The opening stanza of the Lithuanian poet Tautvyda Marcinkevi čiūtè’s poem “Jazz” reminds me of why I created the word “ blacktrocute” to name an effect certain poems might have on readers   ---- I’m in a hurry, I’m already late for the jazz concert, and I have no/ idea what could happen in that jam-packed hall, face to face with/ the executioner who tediously consults his assistant and reads the / sentence from the notes that only he can see, maybe taking pity, or/ maybe opening an artery, chopping off a head, compelling everyone/ to howl with horror and fascination ---that executioner whose name/ is Music! Terribly in Love: Selected Poems (Sandpoint, Idaho: Lost Horse Press, 2020), page 62 The stanza suggests that Music has the power to punish while it gives dreadful pleasure, the power to attract and repel simultaneously. Marcinkevi čiūtè’ is but one of many European writers who grapple with vexed emotions when they hear jazz, classical Black Am...