Lecture continues 10th anniversary of African American Studies celebration at MSU
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STARKVILLE, Miss. Ā ā In celebration of the 10th anniversary of the African American Studies program at Ļć½¶Ö±²„, distinguished author James Smethurst will discuss the black arts movement in the South.
Professor of Afro-American Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Smethurst will give a lecture Wednesday [Sept. 27] at 7 p.m. in Fowlkes Auditorium of the Colvard Student Union.
Smethurst investigates the origins, development, maturation and decline of the black arts movement in the South, and his lecture will focus on the grassroots impact and lasting influence that this movement left on the region, particularly in Mississippi.
āNowhere did black arts have more grassroots impact and a greater lasting influence than in the South, including Mississippi, birthplace of the Free Southern Theater, one of the first major Black Arts institutions,ā Smethurst said.
āBlack arts in the South gave, and continues to give, much to black expressive culture in general,ā he added. āAs the poet, critic, and political activist Askia TourĆ© observed, the Southern Black Cultural Alliance was the largest grassroots black cultural organization in the United States during that eraāreally it was unique in its regional coverage.ā
Smethurst will recount how the black arts movement changed American thought about what constitutes art and how the movement made Southern cities like Atlanta, Houston, Miami, New Orleans and Nashville major arts centers.Ā
Smethurst said some of the most recognizable names and faces of contemporary African American expressive art, such as Pearl Cleage, Samuel L. Jackson and Spike Lee, were nurtured by the movement.
āDr. Smethurst epitomizesĀ the scholar-intellectual-activistĀ that is at the center of the African American StudiesĀ criticalĀ enterprise,ā said Don Shaffer, associate professor of English and African American studies and mentor to Ļć½¶Ö±²„Presidential Scholars.Ā Ā
āDr. Smethurstās work hasĀ illuminated theĀ crucial intersectionsĀ between African American literary production andĀ political-social activismĀ in America.Ā Ā His work isĀ especially relevant as we celebrateĀ 10 years of African American Studies at MSU,ā Shaffer said, adding āSmethurstās work has shaped the discipline in profound ways and continues to do so.ā
Smethurstās primary research areas include African American literature, culture and intellectual history from the late 19th to late 20th centuries, with a particular emphasis on black cultural and political radicalism.
He is author of āThe New Red Negro: The Literary Left and African American Poetry, 1930-1946;ā āThe Black Arts Movement: Literary Nationalism in the 1960s and 1970s;ā and āThe African American Roots of Modernism: Reconstruction to the Harlem Renaissance.ā
Smethurst received his bachelorās degree in English from the University of Southern Maine, his masterās degree in English from the City College of New York, and his Ph.D. in English from Harvard University. Prior to teaching at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, he taught at the University of North Florida.Ā
For more information, contact LaShundra Townsend in African American Studies at 662-325-0587 orĀ ltownsend@aas.msstate.edu.
Part of the College of Arts and Sciences, MSUās African American Studies program offers courses leading to a minor in African American Studies. For more, visitĀ .
Ļć½¶Ö±²„is Mississippiās leading university, available online atĀ .