James Weldon Johnson Memorial Lecture

September 12, 2012

Arnold Rampersad
“Reflections on Nationalism and Literature”

Tuesday, September 18, 4pm
Beinecke Library, 121 Wall Street
James Weldon Johnson Memorial Lecture 
Contact: nancy.kuhl@yale.edu
Arnold Rampersad is the author of  many books, including: Ralph Ellison; The Life of Langston Hughes; The Art and Imagination of W.E.B. DuBois; Jackie Robinson: A Biography; Days of Grace: A Memoir (1993), co-authored with Arthur Ashe. He is the editor of volumes including Collected Poems of Langston Hughes; the Library of America edition of works by Richard Wright; and as, co-editor with Deborah McDowell, Slavery and the Literary Imagination. With Shelley Fisher Fishkin he was co-editor, of the Race and American Culture book series published by Oxford University Press. He has been awarded the National Humanities Medal and a fellowship from the  MacArthur Foundation. He is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society. He has taught at Stanford, Columbia, Rutgers, and Princeton.
The James Weldon Johnson Memorial Collection of Arts and Letters at the Beinecke Library was founded by Carl Van Vechten in 1941 in honor of James Weldon Johnson (1871-1938), poet, novelist, lyricist, diplomat, educator, and noted civil rights leader. The Collection celebrates the accomplishments of African American writers and artists from the Harlem Renaissance to the present.

Co-sponsored by the Department of African American Studies.