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READING RICHARD WRIGHT ON THE EVE OF HIS 100TH BIRTHDAY
MONTHLY DISCUSSION SESSIONS JANUARY THROUGH DECEMBER 2007
REASON FOR THE PROJECT
The Natchez Literary and Cinema Celebration will feature Richard Wright and his works at the 19th annual NLCC, February 21-24, 2008, on the 100th anniversary of the year of Wright’s birth near Natchez in 1908. The NLCC Steering Committee thought it very important to prepare for the 2008 conference, since the eyes of the world will be on Natchez, the first of numerous cities worldwide which will celebrate Wright’s life and works. Thus a Natchez-area reading series was developed to take place during 2007. The series will feature Wright’s works. In July 2006 this special project was set in motion. It is called Reading Richard Wright on the Eve of His 100TH Birthday.
DETAILS OF THE PROJECT
Leaders of the Natchez Literary and Cinema Celebration invited interested parties to attend an inaugural meeting of the Natchez Richard Wright Centennial Planning Committee at Copiah-Lincoln Community College in July 2006 to make preliminary plans for the reading series in 2007. About 35 people attended from Natchez, Miss.; Jackson, Miss.; New Orleans, La.; Vidalia, La.; and elsewhere. From this group, a Steering Committee was formed. All members are from Natchez, Miss. They are: · Chairman Charles Merritt, former Natchez postmaster, and vice president, Natchez Association for the Preservation of Afro-American Culture · Charles Wright, kinsman of Richard Wright · David Dreyer, Natchez historian · Delecia Carey, head of school at Trinity Episcopal School · Frances Doss, English Department, Natchez High School · Tena Payne, retired educator, Natchez-Adams Schools · Ex officio: Carolyn Vance Smith of Copiah-Lincoln Community College, who serves as committee liaison with the Natchez Literary and Cinema Celebration The reading series will draw attention to numerous books by Wright, not just Native Son and Black Boy, two works that are well known. All sessions will be free of charge and open to the public. One of Wright’s books can be read prior to each monthly meeting. The books are available free of charge at Judge George W. Armstrong Public Library in Natchez. At each meeting one book will be discussed, with the public encouraged to participate freely. See below for list of books to be discussed. Informal discussion sessions will be led by Dr. Jerry W. Ward Jr., professor, Dillard University, New Orleans, a noted Richard Wright scholar. Notes to encourage thoughtful discussion are provided by Dr. Ward. See below for a list of points of discussion for each book. The sessions will be hosted by numerous institutions in Natchez and Vidalia. See below for list for sites, dates, times. Light refreshments will be served at each session. Sponsoring the year-long project are the Natchez Literary and Cinema Celebration, Copiah-Lincoln Community College, and the Natchez Association for the Preservation of Afro-American Culture. To partially fund the project, NAPAC received a grant from the Mississippi Humanities Council. Also to partially fund the project, donations were received to buy dozens of copies of other books by Wright from various groups, institutions, and individuals, representing a cross-section of Natchez. The books are bought at a discount by Mary Emrick of Turning Pages Books & More. They will be housed at Armstrong Library, where they are available free for checkout throughout the year. Additional support is from The Natchez Democrat, a daily newspaper, as well as numerous other agencies and institutions in the Natchez area. Serving as publicity chairman for the project is Kathy Moody of Natchez, a longtime member of the NAPAC board. Assisting is Mark LaFrancis, Director of Public Information, Copiah-Lincoln Community College, and Carolyn Vance Smith, Founder and Co-chairman of the NLCC.
SCHEDULE OF DISCUSSIONS TO BE LED BY DR. JERRY W. WARD, JR. DILLARD UNIVERSITY, NEW ORLEANS, LA.
Sessions will take place in Natchez, Miss., or as otherwise noted. All sessions are free of charge. Refreshments will be served.
READING RICHARD WRIGHT ON THE EVE OF HIS 100TH BIRTHDAY . JANUARY – DECEMBER 2007
MONTH LITERARY WORK DISCUSSION PLACE TIME/DATE
January Uncle Tom’s Children Alcorn State University, Natchez 6-8 p.m., Business Administration Auditorium Thurs., Jan. 18
February Lawd Today Copiah-Lincoln Community 11 a.m.-1 p.m., College (an NLCC session) Sun., Feb. 25 W.L. Nelson Multi-Purpose Room
March Native Son and Natchez Museum of African- 1-5 p.m., Rite of Passage American History and Culture Sat., Mar. 3 301 Main St.
April Black Boy Natchez Little Theatre 1-3 p.m., 391 Linton Ave. Sat., April 21
May 12 Million Black Voices Natchez High School Auditorium 2-4 p.m., 319 S. S. Prentiss Dr. Sat., May 5
June Eight Men Historic Natchez Foundation 1:30-3:30 p.m., 108 S. Commerce S. Sat., June 9
July This Other World: Haiku Concordia Parish Library, 1:30-3:30 p.m., 405 Carter St., Vidalia, La. Sat., July 21 August Black Power Natchez Visitors Center theater 1:30-3 p.m., 640 S. Canal St. Sat., Aug. 4
September The Color Curtain Armstrong Public Library 1:30-3:30 p.m., 220 S. Commerce St. Sat., Sept. 8
October Pagan Spain Trinity Episcopal School 6-8 p.m., 321 Hwy 61 South Thurs., Oct. 18
November White Man, Listen! Theater of the River Explorer, 3:30-5:30 p.m., docked at Natchez Sat., Nov. 24
December The Long Dream Cathedral School 2-4 p.m., 701 Martin Luther King Jr. St. Sun., Dec. 2
Discussion Topics for Participants to Consider Prior to Discussion Sessions
Suggested by Dr. Jerry W. Ward, Jr., Dillard University, New Orleans, La.
READING RICHARD WRIGHT ON THE EVE OF HIS 100TH BIRTHDAY
January, Uncle Tom’s Children 1. What does each story in this collection challenge readers to consider about the South and a sense of place? 2. Do female and male readers response in radically different ways to "Long Black Song"? 3. What are the main social issues in "Big Boy Leaves Home"? 4. Does "Down by the Riverside" seem to have unusual significance if we compare the Mississippi River flood of 1927 and Hurricane Katrina? 5. What is the importance of Christianity in "Fire and Cloud" and " Bright and Morning Star"?
February, Lawd Today 1. Did Wright make effective use of style and techniques in this novel ? 2. Does Wright's "use of radio broadcasts, card games, historical references, and his parodies of political systems,"(20) as Yoshinobu Hakutani claims in Richard Wright and Racial Discourse, seem ill-suited for the one dimensional characterization of the protagonist? 3. What does this apprentice novel (c. 1935) reveal about Wright's interest in psychology and sociology?. 4. What use does Wright make of African American folklore in the novel? 5. What do the irony and satire in the novel encourage readers to conclude about Jake Jackson?
March, Native Son and Rite of Passage 1. How does Wright’s depiction of adolescent psychology in Native Son differ from his treatment of the juvenile mind in Rite of Passage? 2. How does Wright use stereotypes in Native Son? In Rite of Passage? 3. How does the narrative voice function in Native Son? 4. Is Book III of Native Son a sociological critique of Books I and II? 5. To what extent does Wright’s essay “How ‘Bigger’ Was Born” help us to understand his characterization of Bigger Thomas in Native Son? 6. How does the modification of plot in the film versions of Native Son affect our regard for the novel?
April, Black Boy **Please read the HarperCollins or Library of America edition of Black Boy. The original edition (1945) printed only the Southern portion of Wright's original manuscript. 1. How does Black Boy challenge conventional ideas about what autobiography should be? 2. How did Wright's understanding of prejudice shape his responses to life in the South and in the United States? 3. Are the traumas Wright experienced in childhood and youth responsible for his essentially negative portrayal of women? 4. Can we discover parallels between the blues and Wright's autobiography? 5. Why was Wright initially attracted to Communism, and why did he ultimately reject it?
May, 12 Million Black Voices 1. Wright subtitled this book "A Folk History of the Negro in the United States." What is folk history? 2. Wright noted that even if black schools "were open for the full term our children would not have time to go." What does Wright help us to grasp about education for blacks in the twentieth-century rural South? 3. Do the Farm Security Administration photographs and Wright's text operate in harmony? 4. Does Wright betray a Marxist bias in his conceptualization of the book? 5. Is 12 Million Black Voices an atypical example of the photo-documentary books published in the 1930s and 1940s?
June, Eight Men 1. Does "The Man Who Was Almost a Man" teach a lesson about the consequences of adolescent rebellion? 2. Does "The Man Who Lived Underground" cast a strong light on the issue of marginal identity in American culture? 3. Does "Man, God Ain't Like That" seem to defy interpretation? 4. What is noteworthy about Wright's representation of race in these eight stories? 5. Why might some readers find the stories in Uncle Tom's Children more satisfying than those in Eight Men?
July, This Other World: Haiku 1. How might reading Wright's haiku illuminate his profound humanism? 2. Is there a strong relationship between Wright's use of images in his prose and in the haiku? 3. How faithfully does Wright follow the aesthetic imperatives of classical haiku? 4. What impression of Wright's sensibility do we gain from reading 817 of his haiku? 5. What is the "other world" referred to in the title of the collection?
August, Black Power 1. What cultural presuppositions influence Wright's observations about the Gold Coast [Ghana]? 2. How does Wright feel about being an African American in Ghana? Is his ambivalence extreme? 3. What primary audience does Wright address in his travelogue? 4. How might we judge Wright's advice to Kwame Nkrumah? 5. What does Wright try to communicate in his bold statement: THE WEST IS BEING JUDGED BY THE EVENTS THAT TRANSPIRE IN AFRICA?
September, The Color Curtain 1. What was the Bandung Conference? 2. How does Wright deal with issues of political alignment? 3. What is Wright's attitude toward Communism in 1955? 4. What might be valuable in Wright's refusal to assume an objective journalistic posture in the book? 5. Does Wright's treatment of religion and race help us to understand why these topics continue to have great importance in world affairs?
October, Pagan Spain 1. What does Wright seek to reveal about African components of Spanish culture? 2. Do Wright's personal view on religion in general and Christianity in particular lead him to make oddly biased statements about Spanish beliefs? 3. How does Wright present the paradox constituted by religion and politics in Franco's Spain? 4. How might we explain Wright's fascination with phallic images in Spanish culture? 5. Does Wright convince us that aspects of Spanish culture are indeed pagan?
November, White Man, Listen! 1. What did Wright hope to accomplish with the publication of these essays? 2. Does Wright contradict himself by at once criticizing and embracing Western ideas about tradition and industrialization? 3. Why might Wright's commentary on the psychology of the oppressed deserve special attention? 4. Is Wright's attempt to make a prophetic statement in the final paragraph of "The Literature of the Negro in the United States" still relevant? 5. What can be learned about the Cold War period from reading the political essays in this collection?
December , The Long Dream 1. To what extent does this work of fiction enlighten us about Southern history prior to the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement? 2. Is the developing relationship between father and son an exceptionally problematic one? 3. How does Wright use dream imagery in the novel? 4. What does Wright expose about economics and hypocrisy? 5. What might have motivated Wright to allude to the Rhythm Club fire of 1940?
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