I started Interminable Rambling in August 2015. On this site, I provide reflections on African American, American, and Southern Literature, American popular culture and politics, and pedagogy. Interminable Rambling arose out of the blog I maintained for the Ernest J Gaines Center. There, I wrote about items in the center’s archives, Gaines’ works, and texts that related to Gaines and Louisiana. When I moved on from the center, I started Interminable Rambling as a way to maintain a writing schedule.
On July 5, 1852, Frederick Douglass stood in Corinthian Hall in Rochester, NY, in front of the Rochester Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society and told the crowd, “Feeling themselves too harshly and unjustly treated by the home government, your fathers, like men of honesty, and men of spirit, earnestly sought redress.” The British denied the redress, and…
What is the role of art in society? During the Harlem Renaissance, luminaries such as W.E.B DuBois argued that all art should serve as propaganda and should stem from classical traditions whereas others such as Langston Hughes sought to make art of and about the people, eschewing the position that art should be “lofty.” Throughout…
Over the past month, I’ve read Claude McKay’s Banjo (1929), his posthumously published Romance in Marseille (2020), and his memoir A Long Way from Home (1937). Numerous thematic threads run throughout these texts; however, as I read A Long Way from Home, one specific theme jumped out at me, specifically McKay’s discussion, at various points…
Growing up, I’d be riding with someone and as we drove through a parking lot, the person may look at a Cadillac or a car that was not parked correctly and say, “Gotta be a Democrat.” Or, while waiting in line somewhere, a person might say, “Look at that Canadian acting like that.” In each…
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Interminable Rambling 