Monday, November 27, 2023

John A. Williams On His Literary Career during the 1960s and the larger social and political context of his seminal 1967 novel The Man Who Cried I Am

https://www.c-span.org/video/?171391-1/phillis-wheatly-awards

C-SPAN broadcast

July 19, 2002

Phillis Wheatly Awards

Three black authors were recognized for greatly affecting the black community in the first annual Phillis Wheatly Award ceremony. John A. Williams is the author of many novels, including The Man Who Cried I Am. Albert Murray was recognized for his many works, including The Omni-Americans. Sonia Sanchez received an award for her many poems and books, including Wounded in the House of a Friend.

John A. Williams Acceptance Speech - The King Alfred Plan

African American Literature Book Club

Learn More about John A. Williams' Work Here: https://aalbc.com/authors/author.php?...

The 1st Phillis Wheatley Awards Ceremony, hosted by QBR the Black Book Review took place in 2002. Significant black authors including John A. Williams, were honored. Williams was introduced by another important writer, Robert Fleming. Williams' acceptance speech was a retrospective of his career, addressing the 1960s context of the Black struggle for civil rights. He also gets into the infamous King Alfred Plan.

More about Robert Fleming: https://aalbc.com/authors/author.php?...

This video is a “highlighted excerpt” from the entire awards program recorded by C-SPAN2 BookTV.

View the entire awards ceremony at: https://www.c-span.org/video/?171391-...

Nina Simone (1933-2003)

"There's no other purpose, so far as I'm concerned, for us except to reflect the times, the situations around us and the things we're able to say through our art, the things that millions of people can't say. I think that's the function of an artist and, of course, those of us who are lucky leave a legacy so that when we're dead, we also live on. That's people like Billie Holiday and I hope that I will be that lucky, but meanwhile, the function, so far as I'm concerned, is to reflect the times, whatever that might be."

Editor's Bio

Kofi Natambu, editor of The Panopticon Review, is a writer, poet, cultural critic, and political journalist whose poetry, essays, criticism, reviews, and journalism have appeared in many literary magazines, journals, newspapers, and anthologies. He is the author of a biography MALCOLM X: His Life & Work (Alpha Books) and two books of poetry: THE MELODY NEVER STOPS (Past Tents Press) and INTERVALS (Post Aesthetic Press). He was the founder and editor of SOLID GROUND: A NEW WORLD JOURNAL, a national quarterly magazine of the arts, culture, and politics and the editor of a literary anthology NOSTALGIA FOR THE PRESENT (Post Aesthetic Press). Natambu has read his work throughout the country and given many lectures and workshops at academic and arts institutions. He has taught American literature, literary theory and criticism, cultural history and criticism, film studies, political science, creative writing, philosophy, critical theory, and music history and criticism (Jazz, Blues, R&B, Hip Hop) at many universities and colleges. He was also a curator in the Education Department of Detroit’s Museum of African American History. Born in Detroit, Michigan, Natambu currently lives in Berkeley, California with his wife Chuleenan.

The Panopticon Review

Monday, November 27, 2023

John A. Williams On His Literary Career during the 1960s and the larger social and political context of his seminal 1967 novel The Man Who Cried I Am

Phillis Wheatly Awards

John A. Williams Acceptance Speech - The King Alfred Plan

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