Curriculum Vitae
Education:
Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, 1969-1973
B.A., Scholar of the House in History, 1973, Summa Cum Laude
Clare College, The University of Cambridge, Cambridge, England, 1973-1979
M.A., English Language and Literature, 1979
Ph.D., English Language and Literature, 1979
Employment:
W. E. B. Du Bois Professor of the Humanities; Professor of English; Chair, African and African American Studies; Director, W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research, Harvard University, 1991 to present
John Spencer Bassett Professor of English and Literature, Duke University, 1990 - 1990
W.E.B. Du Bois Professor of Literature, Cornell University, 1988 - 1990
Professor of English, Comparative Literature, and Africana Studies, Cornell University, January 1985 - 1988
Associate Professor of English and Afro-American Studies, Yale University, July 1984 - June 1985
Assistant Professor of English and Afro-American Studies, Yale University, July 1979 - July 1984
Lecturer in English and Afro-American Studies, Director of Undergraduate Studies, Yale University, July 1976 - June 1979
Prizes / Awards:
Multiculturalism Award, Fairleigh Dickinson University, 1999
American Academy of Arts & Letters, 1999
National Humanities Medal, 1998
"Hero Among Us" -- Boston Celtics, 1998
The Pass Award, 1997
Time Magazine, "25 Most Influential Americans"
National Magazine Award (Finalist 2 categories), 1997
Roger Joseph Prize 1997
1997 New England Award for Editorial Excellence
Distinguished Editorial Achievement, Critical Inquiry, 1996
The Richard Ellman Lectures, Emory University, 1996:
Tikkun National Ethics Award, 1996
Distinguished Editorial Achievement, Critical Inquiry, 1996
1995 Humanities Award, West Virginia Humanities Council
Golden Plate Achievement Award, 1995
W. D. Weatherford Award, 1995
1995 Humanities Award, West Virginia Humanities Council
West Virginian of the Year, 1995
Lillian Smith Book Award, 1994
Chicago Tribune Heartland Award, 1994
Norman Rabb Award, American Jewish Committee, 1994
"Best New Journal in the category of Business/Social Sciences/Humanities" by the Association of American Publishers, Transition Magazine, 1993
George Polk Award for Social Commentary, 1993
African American Students Faculty Award, 1993
Golden Plate Achievement Award, 1993
Potomac State College Alumni Award, 1991
American Book Award, 1989
Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Race Relations, 1989
Candle Award, Morehouse College, 1989
(Honorable Mention), John Hope Franklin Prize, American Studies Association, 1988
Zora Neale Hurston Society Award for Cultural Scholarship, 1986
Yale Afro-American Cultural Center Faculty Prize, 1983
Academic Honors:
Clarendon Lecturer, Oxford University, 1992
Richard Wright Lecturer, Center for the Study of Black Literature and Culture, University of Pennsylvania, 1990
Virginia Commonwealth Professor, 1987
(Visiting Professor)
Princeton University Council of the Humanities
Lectureship, Spring 1985
Scholar of the House, 1972-1973
Phi Beta Kappa, 1972 (junior year)
Yale Five-Year B.A.: Africa (1970-71)
Honorary Degrees:
University of St. Thomas, Minnesota
Hamilton College, 1999
Potomac State, 1999
Fairleigh Dickinson, 1999
Toronto University, 1998
Pace University, 1998
Long Island University, 1997
North Central College, 1997
Lawrence University, 1997
University of Palacky, Chezk Republic, 1996
Nazareth College, Rochester, New York, 1996
Haverford College, Haverford, Pennsylvania, 1996
School of the Visual Arts, New York City, 1996
Emory University, 1995
Colby College, 1995
Bethany College, 1995
Purchase College, 1995
New York University, 1995
Macalester College, 1995
Bates College, 1995
George Washington University, 1993
University of Massachusetts Boston, 1993
Williams College, 1993
Bryant College, Rhode Island, 1992
Harvard University, 1991
University of Bridgeport, 1991 (declined)
University of New Hampshire, 1991
University of West Virginia, 1990
University of Rochester, 1990
Pratt Institute, 1990
Dartmouth College, 1989
Fellowships:
Bellagio Conference Center, 1992
Woodrow Wilson National Fellow, 1988-89, 1989-90
Mellon Fellow, National Humanities Center,
Research Triangle, 1989, 1989-90
Center for Advanced Behavioral Studies, Stanford (1988) Declined
Associate Fellow, W.E.B. Du Bois Institute, Harvard
University, 1987-1988, 1988-1989
MacArthur Prize Fellow, 1981-1986
Whitney Humanities Center, 1983-1985
Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship for Minority
Scholars, 1980-1981
Ford Foundation National Fellowship, 1976-1977
Mellon Fellowship, University of Cambridge, 1973-1975
Phelps Fellowship to work and travel in Africa, 1970-1971
Research Grants:
Harvard Guide to African American History
Working Group Black Jewish Relations
Image of the Black in Western Art
Black Periodical Fiction Project, NEH, 1982-1984,
1986-88, 1988-1990, 1990-1992, 1992-;
Ford Foundation, 1984-1986;
Rockefeller Foundation, 1990
Menil Foundation Grant, Image of the Black Project, 1981-1983
Professional Associations:
Council on Foreign Relations
American Antiquarian Society
Union of Writers of the African Peoples
Association for Documentary Editing
African Roundtable
African Literature Association
Afro-American Academy
American Studies Association
Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History (Life)r
Caribbean Studies Association
College Language Association (Life)
Modern Language Association
The Stone Trust
Zora Neale Hurston Society
Cambridge Scientific Club
American Civil Liberties Union National Advisory Council
TransAfrica Forum Scholars Council
German American Studies Association
National Coalition Against Censorship
Saturday Club
New England Historic Genealogical Society
American Philosophical Society
Natural Trust for Historic Preservation
Committees:
Potomac State College, Board of Advisors
Pulitzer Prize Committee
National Advisor Council, American Civil Liberties Union
Advisory Board, of the Frederick D. Patterson
Research Institute
The National Commission on Civic Renewal
Fred M. Hechinger Institute on Media and Education
Advisory Board, National Endowment for Democracy
The College Board's National Task Force on Minority High Achievement
Advisory Board, Prometheus
Advisory Board, Facing History and Ourselves
National Endowment for Democracy
Nieman Foundation Advisory Committee
The National Commission on Civic Renewal
Humanities Quad Planning Committee
Search Committee with Sociology
Search Committee with History
Search Committee with English
Search Committee with Kennedy School
Co-Founder, Oak Bluffs Institute
American Repertory Theatre, Board of Directors
Advisory Committee, Native American Program
Advisory Committee, Literary and Cultural Studies
Lincoln Center Theatre, Board of Directors
Whitney Museum, Board of Directors
Museum of Fine Arts, Board of Directors
Cultural Diversity Committee
Lexington Public Schools, 1992-
Humanities Center Committee, (1991-
Amistad Membership Committee (1990-
Commission on Preservation and Access, (1989-
American Studies Association, Nominating Committee, (1989-1992)
Schomburg Commission for the Preservation of Black Culture (1987-
Chairman, Harvard University Overseers' Committeer
to Visit the Department of Afro-American Studies, (1986-1990)
Selection Committee, Ritz Paris Hemingway Prize (1986-1989)
Visiting Committee, Afro-American Studies, Amherst College (1986)
Selection Committee, Anisfield-Wolf Book Award (1992-
Advisory Committee, PBS Adult Learning Series
Advisory Committee, McCarter Theatre Center for the Performing Arts
Advisory Committee, Black Community Crusade for Children
Advisory Board, MLQ: A Journal of Literary History
Advisory Committee, The Humanities Circle
Advisory Committee, Human Rights Program, Harvard Law School
Center for the Humanities Committee
Scholars Council, TransAfrica Forum
Executive Committee, Cambridge Theatre Company
Nominating Committees for Senior Search
Committee on Instruction
MacArthur Foundation National Conversation Scholar's Committee
American Civil Liberties Union, Medal of Selection Committee
Selection Committee, Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship in Humanities Studies
Advisory Committee, The Humanities Circle
Steering Committee, Action Council in the Balkans
Judge, The 1994 Pen/Spielvogel Prize
Nominator, Capote Literary Criticism Prize
Advisory Board, Consortium for Academic Partnership
Advisory Board, The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
Advisory Board, Rabbi Marc H. Tanenbaun Foundation, Inc.
Advisory Board, Toni Morrison Society
Honorary Committee, of The House That Peace Built
Editorial and Advisory Positions:
Co-Editor, Transition magazine
Editor, Black Periodical Literature Project
Series Editor, The Zora Neale Hurston Library (Harper Collins)
Advisory Editor, "Perspectives on the Black World" (G. K. Hall)
Advisory Editor, "Contributions to African and Afro-American Studies" (Greenwood Press)
Advisory Editor, "Critical Studies in Black Life and Culture" (Garland Press)
Advisory Editor, Middle-Atlantic Writers Association Review
Advisory Editor, A Dictionary of Cultural and Critical Theory, 1990-
Associate Editor, Journal of American Folklore
General Editor, The Norton Anthology of Afro-American Literature
Board of Editors, Critical Inquiry
Board of Editors, American Quarterly (retired)
Board of Editors, Studies in American Fiction
Board of Editors, Black American Literature Forum
Board of Editors, PMLA
Board of Editors, A/B
Board of Editors, Cultural Critique
Board of Editors, ANQ
Board of Editors, Zora Neale Hurston Forum
Board of Editors, UMI Research Press Series, "Challenging the Literary Canon"
Board of Editors, LIT
Board of Editors, GRIO'
Board of Editors, Yale Journal of Law & Liberation
Board of Editors, Research in African Literatures
Board of Editors, Stanford Humanities Review
Board of Editors, Oklahoma Project for Discourse and Theory
Board of Editors, American Literature
Board of Editors, Contention
Consulting Editorial Board, Journal of Urban and Cultural Studies
Book Review Editor, Black American Literature Forum
Advisory Board, Black Writers: A Selection of Sketches from Contemporary Authors
Advisory Board, Modern Language Quarterly
Advisory Board, LIT: Literature in Transition
Advisory Board, Writers Nights, Lincoln Center
Advisory Board, New Museum of Contemporary Arts
Advisory Board, African Labour History
Advisory Board, Center for the Study of Black Literature and Culture
Advisory Board, Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society
Advisory Board, Diacritics
Advisory Board, The Everyman Library
International Honorary Advisory Board, University of Colorado at Boulder
National Advisory Board of the Media Alternatives
Advisory Board, Blackboard Entertainment
Advisory Board, The Strand
Advisory Board, Rivista internazionale di studi nordamericani
Editorial Board, Journal of Narrative and Life History
Editorial Board, Ethnic and Racial Studies
Advisory Board, Passages
Fred M. Hechinger Institute on Media and Education
Boards of Directors
Managing Director, Harvard Square Netcasting
Fletcher Foundation Advisory Board
Director, Educational Netcasting Foundation
Managing Director, Africana.com
Board of Trustees. Judge Baker Children's Center
Board of Directors, Afropaedia LLC
Board of Directors, Denham Management Ltd.
Board of Directors, Pulitzer Prize Board (1997-)
Board of Directors, Perseus Book Group
Board of Trustees, Bates College
Board of Directors, Library of America
Board of Trustees, Lawrence University
Board of Directors, Concord Academy
Board of Directors, Brookings Institute
Board of Directors, European Institute for Literary and Cultural Studies
Board of Editors, Prometheus
Board of Directors, Museum of Afro-American History, African Meeting House
Consultant, The James Weldon Johnson Papers Project
Board of Directors, African-American Newspapers and
Periodicals: A National Bibliography and Union List
Board of Directors, Studio Museum in Harlem
Board of Directors, Phillips Brooks House Association
Board of Directors, Museum of Afro-American History
Board of Directors, Lincoln Center Theater Project
Board of Directors, Studio Museum
Advisory Board, National Coalition Against Censorship
Board of Directors, Rabbi Tanenbaum Foundation
Executive Board, Pen American Center
Board of Directors, Whitney Museum
Board of Trustees, Core Knowledge Foundation
Board of Trustees, Djerassi Resident Artists Program
Board of Directors, The Amistad Research Center
Honorary Director, Harlem Educational Activities Fund, Inc.
Advisory Board, The National Duke Ellington Awards
Advisory Board, Montgomery College Humanities Institute
Biographical Listings:
Who's Who in America
Who's Who in the World
Who's Who in Black America
Who's Who in The East
Who's Who in Technology and Research
Dictionary of Literary Biography (Modern American Literary Critics), Vol. 67
Black Writers
Contemporary Authors
Publications
Books:
Figures in Black: Words, Signs, and the Racial Self (Oxford University Press, 1987).
The Signifying Monkey: Towards A Theory of Afro-American Literary Criticism (Oxford University Press, 1988).
Loose Canons: Notes on the Culture Wars (Oxford University Press, 1992)
Colored People: The Future of the Race (Knopf, 1996), with Cornel West
Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Black Man (Random House, 1997)
German Edition of Colored People, 1998
Wonders of the African World (Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1999)
Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience (Perseus, 1999)
The African American Century: How Black Americans Have Shaped Our Century (Perseus, 2000)
A Memoir (Alfred A. Knopf Inc., 1994)
Edited Books:
Black is the Color of the Cosmos: Charles T. Davis's Essays on Black Literature and Culture, 1942-1981 (Garland Press, 1982)
Our Nig; or Sketches from the Life of a Free Black, In a Two Story White House, North. Showing that Slavery's Shadows Fall Even There. By Harriet Wilson (Random House, 1983)
Black Literature and Literary Theory (Methuen, 1984)
The Slave's Narrative: Texts and Contexts, with Charles T. Davis (Oxford University Press, 1985)
"Race," Writing, and Difference (University of Chicago, 1986)
Wole Soyinka: A Bibliography, with J. Gibbs and K. Katrak (Greenwood Press, 1986)
The Classic Slave Narratives (New American Library, 1987)
In the House of Osugbo: Critical Essays on Wole Soyinka (Oxford University Press, 1988)
Series Editor, The Oxford-Schomburg Library of Nineteenth-Century Black Women Writers (Oxford University Press, 1988), 30 volumes
The Souls of Black Folk, by W. E. B. DuBois (New York: Bantam Books, 1989), Introduction, pp. 7-29
The Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man, by James Weldon Johnson (New York: Vintage, 1989)
Three Classic African American Novels (Vintage Books, 1990)
Their Eyes Were Watching God, introduction by Mary Helen Washington (New York: Harper and Row, 1990)
Jonah's Gourd Vine, introduction by Rita Dove (New York: Harper and Row, 1990)
Tell My Horse, introduction by Ishmael Reed (New York: Harper and Row, 1990)
Mules and Men, introduction by Arnold Rampersad (New York: Harper and Row, 1990)
Voodoo Gods of Haiti, introduction by Ishmael Reed (Harper and Row, 1990)
Reading Black, Reading Feminist (New American Library, 1990)
Mulebone: A Comedy of Negro Life, edited with George Bass (New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 1991)
The Schomburg Library of Nineteenth-Century Black WomenWriters (Oxford University Press, 1991), 10 Volume Supplement
Critical Perspectives Past and Present, co-edited with K.A. Appiah. Volumes on Toni Morrison, Richard Wright, Gloria Naylor, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, and Alice Walker. (New York: Amistad Publishers, 1993)
Voices of Triumph: Leadership (Alexandria: Time-Life Books, 1993), p. 1
Voices of Triumph: Perseverance (Alexandria: Time Life Books, 1993), p. 1
Voices of Triumph: Creative Fire (Alexandria: Time-Life Books, 1994), p. 1
Frederick Douglass: Autobiographies, annotated by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (New York: Library of America, 1994))
Richard Wright: Critical Perspectives Past and Present, with K. Anthony Appiah (New York: Amistad, 1993)
Zora Neale Hurston: Critical and Perspectives Past and Present, with K. Anthony Appiah (New York: Amistad Press, 1993)
Toni Morrison: Critical Perspectives Past and Present, with K. Anthony Appiah (New York: Amistad Press, 1993)
Gloria Naylor: Critical Perspectives Past and Present, with K. Anthony Appiah (New York: Amistad Press, 1993)
Alice Walker: Critical Perspectives Past and Present, with K. Anthony Appiah (New York: Amistad Press, 1993).
Langston Hughes: Critical Perspectives Past and Present, with K. Anthony Appiah (New York: Amistad Press, 1993)
The Complete Stories of Zora Neale Hurston, (Harper Collins, 1995)
Identities, with K. Anthony Appiah (University of Chicago, 1996)
African-American Women Writers, 1910-1940, General Editor: 10 Volumes:
a) Alice Moore Dunbar-Nelson, The Dunbar Speaker and Entertainer
b) Jennifer Burton, ed., The Prize Plays and Other One-Acts
The Norton Anthology of African American Literature (New York: W.W. Norton, 1996
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (New York: Laurel Books, 1997). 150th Anniversary Edition
The Dictionary of Global Culture (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1997)
Josephine Baker and La Revue Nègre, with Karen C. C. Dalton (New York: Abrams, 1998)
Pioneers of Black Atlantic: Five Slave Narratives from the Enlightenment, 1772-1815, with William L. Andrews (Washington D.C.: Civitas Books, 1998)
W.E.B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk, A Norton Reader, with Terri Hume Oliver (W.W. Norton, New York, 1999)
The Civitas Anthology of American Slave Narratives from the Enlightenment, 1772-1815 (Civitas, 1998)
Africana: An Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience (New York: Perseus, 1999)
Edited Special Numbers of Journals:
"Black Textual Strategies: Theory," Black American Literature Forum (Winter 1981)
"Black Textual Strategies: Practice," Black American Literature Forum (Spring 1982)
"'Race,' Writing, and Difference," Critical Inquiry (Fall 1985, Fall 1986)
"On Wole Soyinka," (Part I) Black American Literature Forum (Fall 1988)
"On Wole Soyinka," (Part II) Black American Literature Forum (Winter 1988)
"African and African-American Literature," PMLA Special Issue (January, 1990)
"Identities," Critical Inquiry, with K. Anthony Appiah (Summer, 1992)
Forthcoming Books:
Race and Reason: Black Letters in the Enlightenment (Oxford University Press)
Essays:
"Of Negroes Old and New: The Harlem Renaissance," Transition, no. 46, pp. 44-67
"Black London: Extra-Territorial," Antioch Review, Spring 1976, pp. 301-317
"Portraits in Black," Harper's Magazine, June 1976, pp. 16-25
"They Think You're An Airplane, But You're Really A Bird," in The Book of Hurdles, ed., Herbert Sacks (Athenaeum, 1978), pp. 193-212.
"Preface to Blackness: Text and Pretext," Afro-American Literature: The Reconstruction of Instruction, eds.,Stepto and Fisher (Modern Language Association, 1979), pp. 44-71.
"Dis and Dat: Dialect and the Descent," in The Reconstruction of Instruction, eds., Stepto and Fisher (Modern Language Association, 1979), pp. 88-121.
"Binary Oppositions in The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass," in The Reconstruction of Instruction, eds.,Stepto and Fisher (Modern Language Association, 1979), pp. 212-233.
"Being, the Will, and the Semantics of Death: Wole Soyinka's Death and the King's Horseman," Harvard Educational Review (February 1981), pp. 163-173.
"Sterling Brown's Poetry," Black American Literature Forum (Spring 1981), pp. 39-42
(Revised and expanded version of "Songs of a Racial Self," The New York Times Book Review, January 11, 1981)
"Criticism in de Jungle," Black American Literature Forum (Winter 1981), pp. 123-127
"Phillis Wheatley and the African Muse," in Critical Essays on Phillis Wheatley, ed., William H. Robinson (G. K. Hall, 1982), pp. 215-234
"Charles T. Davis and the Critical Imperative in Afro-American Literature," in Black is the Color of the Cosmos: Essays on Afro-American Literature and Culture, 1942-1981, Charles T. Davis, edited by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (Garland Press, 1982), pp. xi-xxxv.
"A Poet in Peril," The New York Times (September 1982), Op-Ed Page
"Parallel Discursive Universes: Fictions of the Self in Harriet E. Wilson's Our Nig," in The Language of Blackness.
"Introduction," Our Nig (Random House, 1983), pp. xi, lix.
"On 'The Blackness of Blackness': A Critique of the Sign and the Signifying Monkey," Critical Inquiry (June 1983), pp. 685-723
"Criticism in the Jungle," in Black Literature and Literary Theory (Methuen, 1984), pp. 1-27.
"Race, Writing, and Difference," Mississippi College of Law Review (Spring 1984), pp. 287-97.
"The Language of Slavery," in The Slave's Narrative: Texts and Contexts, eds., Davis and Gates (Oxford University Press, 1985), pp. xi-xxxiv.
"Writing 'Race' and the Difference It Makes," Critical Inquiry (September 1985), pp. 1-21.
"A Myth of Origins: Esu Elegba and the Signifying Monkey," Art Papers (November 1985), pp. 31-34.
"James Gronniosaw and the Trope of the Talking Book," Southern Review (Spring 1986), pp. 252-73.
"'What's Love Got To Do With It?': Criticism, Integrity, and the Black Idiom," New Literary History 18 (1986-87), pp. 345-62.
"Talkin' That Talk," Critical Inquiry (Autumn 1986), pp.203-210.
"Ishmael Reed," Dictionary of Literary Biography, Vol. 33, pp. 219-32.
"Introduction," The Classic Slave Narratives (New York: Methuen, 1987).
"Wole Soyinka," in Nobel Prize Winners, ed. Tyler Wasson (H. W. Wilson Company, 1987)
"A Geography of Perception," The New Theater Review, vol. 1, no. 2 (Summer 1987)
"The Black Person in Art: How Should S/he Be Portrayed?" (edited), Black American Literature Forum, vol. 21, nos. 1-2 (Spring-Summer 1987), pp. 3-24.
"The Black Person in Art: How Should S/he Be Portrayed?" Part Two, Black American Literature Forum, vol. 21, no. 3, (Fall 1987), pp. 318-332.
"Introduction," The Classic Slave Narratives (New American Library, 1987), pp. ix-xviii.
"A Black and Idiomatic Free Indirect Discourse," in Zora Neale Hurston's 'Their Eyes Were', Harold Bloom (Chelsea House, 1987), pp. 73-87.
"In Her Own Write," Series Introduction, The Oxford-Schomburg Library of Nineteenth-Century Black Women Writers (Oxford University Press, 1988), 30 Volumes.
"'. . . and bid him sing': J. Saunders Redding and the Criticism of Afro-American Literature," Introduction To Make A Poet Black (Cornell University Press, 1988), pp. vi-xxviii.
"The Voice in the Text," in Millenarianism and Messianism in English Literature and Thought, 1650-1800, edited by Richard Popkin (E. J. Brill, 1988), pp. 193-210.
"Talking Black," Village Voice Literary Supplement, no. 69 (November, 1988), pp. 20-22.
"James Gronniosaw and the Trope of the Talking Book," in James Olney, ed., Studies in Autobiography (Oxford, 1988), pp. 51-73.
"Significant Others," Contemporary Literature (vol. 29, no. 4,Winter 1988), pp. 606-624.
"The Trope of the New Negro and the Reconstruction of the Image of the Black," Representations (Fall 1988), pp. 129-156.
"On the Rhetoric of Racism in the Profession," in Literature, Language, and Politics, ed. by Betty Jean Craige (University of Georgia, 1988).
"Binary Oppositions in Chapter One of Frederick Douglass's Narrative," in Frederick Douglass's Narrative, ed. by Harold Bloom (Chelsea House, 1988), pp. 59-77.
"Introduction: On Wole Soyinka," Black American Literature Forum (vol. 22, no. 3, Fall 1988), pp. 421-424.
"Jay Saunders Redding, 1906-1988: A Eulogy," Black American Literature Forum (vol. 22, no. 4, Winter 1988), pp. 805-809
"Computer Applications at the Black Periodical Literature Project," (with Anthony Appiah and Cynthia D. Bond), pp. 31-37, Literary Research: A Journal of Scholarly
Method and Technique (vol. 13, no. 1, Winter 1988)
"Authority, (White) Power, and the (Black) Critic; or, It's All Greek to Me," Cultural Critique, no. 7, pp. 19-47. Revised version in Critical Projections, ed. Ralph Cohen (Routledge, 1989)
"Color Me Zora: Alice Walker's (Re) Writing of the Speakerly Text," in Intertextuality and Contemporary American Fiction, ed, Patrick O'Donnell and Robert Con Davis (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989), pp. 144-170
"Whose Canon Is It, Anyway?" The New York Times Book Review, February 26, 1989, p. 1
"Introduction," The Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man (New York: Vintage, 1989), pp. v-xxiii
"What's In A Name?" Dissent (Fall, 1989), pp. 487-496
"Academe Must Give Black Studies Programs Their Due," Chronicle of Higher Education, September 20, 1989, p. A-56
"TV's Black World Turns--But Stays Unreal," New York Times, Sunday, November 12, 1989, Section 2, pp. 1, 40
"Canon-Formation, Literary History, and the Afro-American Tradition: From the Seen to the Told," in Afro-American Literary Study in the 1990's, edited by Houston A. Baker, Jr.,and Patricia Redmond (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989), pp. 14-39
"Narration and Cultural Memory in the African-American Tradition," in Talk That Talk: An Anthology of African-American Storytelling, edited by Linda Goss and Marian E. Barnes (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1989), pp. 15-21
"On the Rhetoric of Racism in the Profession," ALA Bulletin(Vol. 15, No. 1) Winter 1989, pp. 11-21
"The Master's Pieces: On Canon Formation and the African American Tradition," South Atlantic Quarterly (Winter, 1990), pp. 89-113
"The Master's Pieces," in Reconstructing American Literary and Historical Studies, Gunter Lenz, Hartmut Keil, Sabine Brock-Sallah, eds. (Frankfurt: Campus/Verlag, 1990), pp. 169-92
"Critical Remarks," in Anatomy of Racism, edited by David Theo Goldberg (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1990), pp. 319-329
"The Face and Voice of Blackness," in Facing History: The Black Image in American Art, 1710-1940, edited by Guy C. McElroy (Washington: Bedford Arts and the Corcoran Gallery of Art, 1990), pp. xxix-xix
"Talking Black," in The State of the Language, edited by Christopher Ricks and Leonard Michaels (Berkeley: University of California, 1990), pp. 42-51
"Zora Neale Hurston," in The Zora Neale Hurston Library (New York: Harper and Row, 1990), 4 Volumes, pp. 207-217
"Tell Me, Sir,...What Is 'Black' Literature?" PMLA (January1990), pp. 11-22
"Oracular Wisdom," Village Voice Literary Supplement (February, 1990), p. 10
"Censorship and Justice: On Rushdie and Soyinka," Research in African Literature (Spring, 1990), pp. 137-139
"Establishing the Identity of the Author of Our Nig," (with David Ames Curtis) in Wild Women in the Whirlwind, edited by Joanne M. Braxton and Andrée N. McLaughlin (New Brunswick: Rutgers, 1990), pp. 48-70
"The Master's Pieces: On Canon Formation and the Afro-American Tradition," in Conversations: Contemporary Critical Theory and the Teaching of Literature, edited by Charles Moran and Elizabeth F. Penfield (Urbana: National Council of Teachers of English, 1990), pp. 55-76
"2 Live Crew, Decoded," New York Times, June 19, 1990
"The Case of 2 Live Crew Tells Much About the American Psyche," Letter, New York Times, Sunday, July 15, 1990, Section Four, p. 18
"Statistical Stigmata," in Deconstruction and the Possibility of Justice, Cardozo Law Review, vol. 11, nos. 5-6 (July/August, 1990), pp. 1275-1291
"Blackness Without Blood," in Culture in an Age of Money: The Legacy of the 1980's in America, ed. by Nicolaus Mills (Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 1990), pp. 109-130
"From Wheatley to Douglass: The Politics of Displacement," in Frederick Douglass: New Literary and Historical Essays, ed. by Eric J. Sundquist (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990), pp. 47-66
"Foreword," Joe Appiah: The Autobiography of an African Patriot (New York: Praeger Books, 1990), pp. ix-xx
"Whose Canon Is It Anyway?" in Democracy, edited by Brian Wallis (Seattle: Bay Press, 1990), pp. 69-77.
"A Giant Step," New York Times Magazine, December 9, 1990, pp. 34-36
"A Bad Case of Academic Autism," New York Times, Section 4, The Week in Review, December 9, 1990, p. 5
"Why the 'Mule Bone' Debate Goes On," New York Times, Arts and Leisure, Sunday, February 10, 1991, pp. 5, 8
"'New Jack City' Violence," Entertainment Weekly, March 29, 1991, p. 10
"Harriet E. Adams Wilson," Dictionary of Literary Biography, in press
"Whose Culture Is It, Anyway?" New York Times, May 4, 1991, p.15
"Critical Fanonism," Critical Inquiry (Spring, 1991), pp. 457-471
" 'Jungle Fever' Charts Black Middle-Class Angst," New York Times, June 23, 1991, Section 2, p. 20
"On Patriotism," (Symposium), The Nation, July 15/22, 1991, p.91
"What Should We Teach About the Slave Trade?" New York Newsday, August 16, 1991, p. 58
"Delusions of Grandeur," Sports Illustrated, August 19, 1991, p. 78
"Beware Of the New Pharaohs," Newsweek, September 23, 1991, p. 47
"The Debate Has Been Miscast From The Beginning," Boston Globe Magazine, October 13,1991, pp. 26, 36-38
"Multicultist," Voice Literary Supplement, (October 1991), pp. 18-19
"Multicultural Madness," Tikkun (November/December, 1991), pp. 55-58
"'Authenticity,' or the Lesson of Little Tree," New York Times Book Review, November 24, 1991, pp. 1, 26-30
"Must Buppiehood Cost Homebody His Soul?," New York Times, March 1, 1992, pp. 11-13
"The Fire Last Time," The New Republic (June 1, 1992), pp. 37-44
Black Demagogues and Pseudo-Scholars," New York Times Op Ed (July 20, 1992), p. A15
"Afro-American Studies in the Twenty-First Century," Black Scholar (Summer, 1992), pp. 3-11
"Pluralism and its Discontents," Contention: Debates in Society, Culture, and Science (Fall, 1992), pp. 69-79
"The Uses of Anti-Semitism," Culturefront (Fall 1992), pp. 39-42
"The Welcome Table," in English Inside and Out: The Places of Literary Criticism, edited by Susan Gubar and Jonathan Kamholtz (New York: Routledge, 1992), pp. 47-61
"African American Criticism," in Redrawing the Boundaries: The Transformation of English and American, pp. 303-320
Literary Studies, edited by Stephen Greenblatt and Giles Gunn (New York: Modern Language Association, 1992), pp. 303-320
"Two Nations . . . Both Black," Forbes Magazine September 14, 1992, pp. 132-140
"Memoirs of an Anti-Semite," Village Voice (October 20, 1992), pp. 68-69
"Pluralism and Its Discontents," Profession 92, pp. 35-38
"Hybridity Happens," VLS (October, 1992), pp. 26-29
"On Transforming the American Mind," Social Education (October 1992), pp. 328-331
"Sour Grapes," Religion and Values in Public Life (Fall, 1992), pp. 1-2
"A Fragmented Man: George Schuyler and the Claims of Race," New York Times Book Review September 20, 1992, pp. 31, 42-43.
"Introduction," in Voices in Black and White: Writings on Race in America from 'Harper's Magazine' (New York: Franklin Square Press, 1992), pp. vii-xvi
"A Pretty Good Society," Time Magazine (November 16, 1992), pp. 84-86
"The Debate Has Been Miscast from the Start," in Current Issues and Enduring Questions, Sylvia Barnet and Hugo Bedau, eds. (Boston Bedford Books, 1992), pp. 473-477
"A Weaving of Identities," New York Times Op-Ed, April 14, 1993, p. A21
"Blacklash?" The New Yorker, May 17, 1993, pp. 42-44
"Blood and Irony," Economist, September 11, 1993, pp. 33-38
"Looking for Modernism," in Black American Cinema, edited by Manthia Diawara (New York: Routledge, 1993), pp. 200-207
"New Negroes, Migration, and Cultural Exchange," in Jacob Lawrence: The Migration Series (Washington, D.C.: Rappahannock/Phillips, 1993), pp. 17-21
"Cultural Equity?" in The Humanities in the Schools, edited by Stanley Katz (New York: ACLS Occasional Paper, No. 20, 1993) pp. 11-27
"The Life and Works of Juan Latino," in The Poetry of Juan Latino (forthcoming)
"The Same Difference: Reading Jean Toomer, 1922-1982," in Critical Essays on Jean Toomer, ed., H. L. Gates, Jr. (Howard University Press, in press).
"A Pretty Good Society" in Time (November 16, 1992), pp. 84-86
"Die gastliche Tafel: Mit James Baldwin und Josephine Baker," Merkus (vol. 48, no. 8) August, 1994, pp. 655-669
"Beyond the Culture Wars: Identities in Dialogue," Profession 93' MLA, pp. 6- 12
"Trivium Pursuits," ADE Bulletin 107, (Spring 1994), pp. 10-13
"Truth or Consequences: Putting Limits on Limits," in: The Limits of Expression in American Intellectual Life, ACLS Occasional Paper, No. 22, pp. 15-29
"Canon Formation, Literary History, and the Afro-American Tradition: From the Seen to the Told," in: Falling into Theory: Conflicting Views on Reading Literature, ed. by David H. Ritcher (Bedford Books of St. Martin's Press, Boston, 1994), pp. 173-181
"The Black Man's Burden," in: Fear of a Queer Planet: Queer Politics and Social Theory, ed. by Michael Warner (University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, London, 1993), pp. 230-239
"A Response: Multiculturalism and its Discontents," Black Scholar (vol. 24, No.1) Winter 1994, pp. 16-17
"Let Them Talk," The New Republic (September 20-27, 1993), pp. 37-49
"Race as the Trope of the World," in: Social Theory: the Multicultural and Classic Readings, ed. by Charles Lervert (Westview Press, Boulder, Colorado and Oxford, United Kingdom, 1993), pp. 590-597
"Races, Religions and Nations," Economist (September 11, 1993), pp. 37-42
"Delusions of Grandeur," in Improve Your Paragraphs, (Glencoe Macmillan/ McGraw-Hill, New York, 1994), pp. 550-553.
"Shaping the Future," Richard Newman, Humanities (vol. 15 No. 3 May/June 1994), pp. 18-20
"African American Criticism," in: Redrawing the Boundaries: The Transformation of English and American Literary Studies, ed. by Stephen Greenblatt and Giles Gunn, (MLA: New York, 1992), pp.
"A Liberalism of Heart and Spine," New York Times, March 27, 1994, Op-Ed Page
"Foreword," Voices of Triumph: Leadership (Alexandria: Time-Life Books, 1993), p. 1
"Foreword," Voices of Triumph: Perseverance (Alexandria: Time Life Books, 1993), p. 1
"Foreword," Voices of Triumph: Creative Fire (Alexandria: Time-Life Books, 1994), p. 1
"Said as Music Critic," Raritan (New Brunswick, New Jersey), pp. 108-116
"Niggers with Latitude," The New Yorker (March 21, 1994), pp. 143-148
"Nathan McCall's Makes Me Wanna Holler," The New Yorker (March 7, 1994), pp. 94-99
"Blood Brothers," Transition 63, pp. 164-177
"The Souls of Black Folk, by W.E.B. Du Bois," Alternatives to Afrocentrism, ed. by John J. Miller, (The Center for the American Community, Manhattan Institute, 1994), p.83
"Bad Influence," The New Yorker, (February 16, 1994), pp. 3-12
"Black Studies: Myths or Realities?," Essence (February, 1994), p. 138
"The Ethnics of Identity," Harvard College News, (July 1993), p. 1 and p. 9
"All Cultures are Not Equal; Political Truth Isn't Always the Mid-point," Current, (March 14, 1994), pp. 13-19
"In the Kitchen," The New Yorker, (April 18, 1994), pp. 82-86
"Memoir in Black and White," Boston Globe Magazine, (June 19, 1994), pp. 12-32
"War of Words: Critical Race Theory and the First Amendment," Speaking of Race, Speaking of Sex: Hate Speech, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties (New York: New York University Press, 1994), pp. 17-59
"Hosting 'The Bell Curve,'" Boston Globe, March 18, 1995, p.15
"Introduction," The Complete Stories of Zora Neale Hurston (Harper Collins, 1995), pp. ix-xxiii
"To 'Deprave and Corrupt,'" New York Law School Law Review (vol. xxxviii, nos. 1-4), pp. 401-442
"Colored People," in Brotherman: The Odyssey of Black Men in America (New York: Ballantine Books, 1995), pp. 85-91
"Heroes, Inc.," The New Yorker (January 16, 1995), pp. 6-8
"Salman Rushdie's 'East, West,'" The New Yorker (January 23, 1995), pp. 91-94
"On Writing," in Swing Low: Black Men Writing (New York: Carol Southern Books, 1995), pp. 98-113
"A Dangerous Literacy: The Legacy of Frederick Douglass," New York Times Book Review, May 28, 1995, pp. 3,16
"Blackness Without Blood." Legacy of Dissent: Forty Years of Writing from Dissent Magazine, ed. Nicolaus Mills (New York: Simon an Schuster, 1994), pp. 259-277
"Downtown Chronicles: Sudden Def." The New Yorker, June 19, 1995: pp. 34-42
"Good-bye Columbus? Notes on the Culture of Criticism." The American Literary History Reader, ed. Gordon Hunter (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995), pp. 245-261
"Wole Soyinka: Mythopoesis and Agon of Democracy." The Nobel Laureates of Literature: An Olympic Gathering (Athens, Georgia: The University of Georgia Press, 1995), pp. 187-194
"Foreword," Harlem On My Mind, Black Mind, 1900-1968, edited by Allon Schoener (New York: The New York Press, 1995), p.1
"Colin Powell and the Black Elite," The New Yorker, September 25, 1995, pp.64-
"Lifting the Veil," Inventing the Truth: The Art and Craft of Memoir, ed.William Zinzer (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1995), pp. 141-159
"Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Black Man," The New Yorker, October 27, 1995 pp. 56-66
"Sidney Poitier," Kennedy Center Honors, 1995, pp.
"Out of Touch," Civilization (January/February 1995,) p. 20
"Kernel of Light," The New Republic, December 18, 1995, p.12
"You Must Remember This," The New Yorker, December 25, 1995 and January 1, 1996 pp. 141-142
"Hating Hillary," The New Yorker, February 26 & March 4, 1996
"Albert Murray's Dangerous Mind," The New Yorker , April 8, 1996 pp. 70-81
"The Charmer," The New Yorker, April 29, May 6, 1996 pp. 116-131
"The Church," in Come Sunday: Photographs by Thomas Roma (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1996), pp. 7-12
"Joining the Black Overclass at Yale University," Journal of Blacks in Higher Education no.11, pp. 95-101
"The African American Century," The New Yorker, April 29 and May 6, 1996, pp. 9-10
"After the Revolution," The New Yorker, April 29 and May 6, 1996, pp. 59-62
"The Jackie Robinson of American Education," Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, no. 10, page 57
"Racism, Poverty, and the Talented Tenth," Black Collegian, April 1996, p. 29
"The Blackness of Blackness," in Cornerstones: An Anthology of African American Literature, ed. Melvin Donalson (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1996), pp. 880-913
"The Debate Has Been Miscast from the Start," in Current Issues and Enduring Questions: A Guide to Critical Thinking and Argument, with Readings, edited by Sylvan Barnet and Hugo Beday (Boston: Bedord Books, 1996), pp. 477-481
"White Like Me," The New Yorker, June 17, 1996, pp. 66-81
"Considerations on Fatherhood," in Faith of Our Fathers: African-American Men Reflect on Fatherhood, edited by Andre A. Willis (New York: Dutton, 1996), pp. 91-103
"Planet Rap," in Field Work: Sites in Literary and Cultural Studies, edited by Marjorie Garber, Rebecca L. Walkowitz and Paul Franklin (New York: Routledge, 1996), pp. 55-67
"The Hidden Belafonte" The New Yorker, August 26 & September 2, 1996, pp. 132-143
"Foreword," Black Profiles in Courage: A Legacy of African American Achievement, by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (New York Morrow, 1996) pp. ix-xiii
"Great Zimbabwe to Kilimatinde," in More Great Railway Journeys (London: BBC Books, 1996), pp. 191-221
"The Living Room," Home (Vintage Books, New York 1996), pp. 48-57
CD-ROM: "Black Literature, 1827-1940," (Chadwyck-Healy, 1997)
"Introduction," Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (New York: Laurel Books, 1997), pp. ix-xxiv.
"The Chitlin Circuit," The New Yorker, February 3, 1997
"Black London," The New Yorker, April, May, 1997
"Rhapsodies in Black Art of the Harlem Renaissance," Hayward Catalogue, 1997
"Living Large," September 15, 1997, pp. 88-
"The Naked Republic," The New Yorker, August, September, 1997
"The Next President," The New Yorker, October 20, 1997
"Harlem on Our Minds," Critical Inquiry, vol. 24, no. 1 (Autumn, 1997), pp. 1-12
"Time Bandits," January 26, 1998, pp. 83-
"The End of Loyalty," The New Yorker, March 1998, pp. 34-44
"All the Way to Timbuctou," The New Republic, April 20, 1998, pp. 17-19
"A Call to Protect Academic Integrity from Politics," The New York Times, (April 4, 1998), pp. 17-19
"The Two Nations of Black America," The Brookings Review (Spring, 1998), pp.4-8
"Madam's Crusade," Time Magazine, December 7, 1998, p. 165
"The White Negro," The New Yorker, May 18, 1998 pp. 62-66
"Las obras del Amo: Sobre la formación del canon y la tradición AfroAmericana," in El canon literario, edited by Enric Sullá (Madrid: Lecturas, 1998), pp. 161-187
"Net Worth," The New Yorker, June 1998, pp. 48-61
"Josephine Baker and Paul Colin: African American Dance Seen Through Parisian Eyes," Critical Inquiry, with Karen C. C. Dalton (Summer 1998) vol. 24, no. 4 pp. 903-935
"Postscript: Dorothy West," The New Yorker, September 7, 1998, pp. 82-85
"An Overview of Sources on the Life and Work of Juan Lattino, the 'Ethiopian Humanist,'" Research in African Literature , pp. 14-51
"Madam's Crusade," Time Magazine, p. 165
"Growing Out of the 1960's," American Legacy (Spring 1999), pp. 35-35
"The Perception of Black Literature as a Necessary Road to Membership in the Human Community," Journal of Blacks in Higher Education (Winter 1998/1999), pp. 108-109
"Rope Burn," The New Yorker
"The Last Sublime Riffs of a Literary Jazzman," Time Magazine, June 28, 1999, pp. 66-68
"One Internet, Two Nations," New York Sunday Times," "Week in Review," p. C-15
"Sanctuary," New York Times Book Review, November 14, 1999, p.14
"Black to the Future," Education Week, January 12, 2000, p.72
"Africa Can Regain Its Glory," (with K. Anthony Appiah) Wall Street Journal, January 28, 2000
Essays and Review Essays:
"Soul of a Black Woman," New York Times Book Review (February 19, 1978), pp. 13, 30-31
"Frederick Douglass and the Language of the Self," Yale Review (Summer 1981), pp. 592-611
"A Negro Way of Saying," New York Times Book Review (April 21, 1985), pp. 1, 43-45
"The Power of Her Sex, The Power of Her Race," New York Times Book Review (May 18, 1986), p.3
"Reclaiming Their Tradition," New York Times Book Review (October 4, 1987), pp. 3, 34-35
"The Hungry Icon: Langston Hughes Rides a Blue Note," Village Voice Literary Supplement (July 1989), pp. 8-13
"Remembrance of Things Pakistani," Village Voice Literary Supplement (December, 1989), pp. 37-38
"Murder, She Wrote," The Nation (July 2, 1990), pp. 27-29
"The Dame's Disciples: Iris Murdoch Leads the Pack," Village Voice (July 17, 1990), pp. 73-75
"Contract Killer," The Nation (June 10, 1991), pp. 766-770
"To 'Deprave and Corrupt,'" The Nation (June 29, 1992), pp. 898-903
"The Weaning of America," The New Yorker (April 19, 1993), pp. 113-117
"The Sword and the Savior," New York Times Book Review, September 12, 1993, pp.1, 34
"A Big Brother From Another Planet," New York Times (Arts and Leisure) September 12, 1993, pp. 51, 64
"Let Them Talk," The New Republic, September 20 and 27, 1993, pp. 37-49
"Black Creativity: On the Cutting Edge," Time Magazine, (October 10, 1994), pp. 74-75
"The Black Leadership Myth," The New Yorker, (October 24, 1994), pp. 7-8
"Why Now?" The New Republic, (October 31, 1994), p.10
"Bill T. Jones: The Body Politic,"The New Yorker,(November 28, 1994), pp.112-12
"The Last Sublime Riffs of a Literary Jazzman," Time Magazine, June 28, 1999, pp. 66-68
"An Essay on Encarta Africana," Black Collegian, October, 1999, pp. 140-175
"One Internet, Two Nations," New York Sunday Times, Section 4, October 31, 1999, p. 15
"Sanctuary," New York Times Book Review, November 14, 1999, p. 17
Book Reviews:
Psychology: Black and White," Race Today (London), October 1973
"Beulah Land," Time Out (London), March 22-28, 1974
"Sambos in the Sun?" (Review, Time on the Cross), The Spectator, December 24, 1974
"The True American," Harper's Bookletter, June 22, 1976
"The Other Side of Blackness," Harper's Bookletter, June 22,1976
"Seventh Heaven," New York Times Book Review, November 6, 1976
"Ishmael Reed's Flight to Canada," Journal of Negro History (January 1978), pp. 78-81
"The Parody of Form: Ishmael Reed's Fictions," Saturday Review (March 4, 1978), pp. 28-29
"The Original Source: Images of Africa in Black American Literature," Times Literary Supplement (September 22,1978), p. 1239
"On Afro-American Modernism," ADE Bulletin (May 1980), pp.34-36
"Chant of Saints," Black American Literature Forum (Fall1980), pp. 126-128. (Expansion of "On Afro-American Modernism")
"Myths of Oppression," American Book Review (September1980), p. 8
"The Aesthetics of Blackness," Times Literary Supplement (October 24, 1980), p. 1209
"Songs of a Racial Self," New York Times Book Review (January 11, 1981), pp. 11, 16
"Black Fiction," Black American Literature Forum (Spring1981), pp. 36-39. (Expansion of "The Aesthetics of Blackness")
"Call Him Ishmael--He's Still a Good Reed," Black Enterprise, April 1983
"More Than Just the Leaders of the Race," New York Times Book Review, May 1, 1983
"The Art of the Slave Narrative," Black American Literature Forum (Fall 1983), pp. 131-134
"Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl," New York Times Book Review (November 22, 1987) p.12
"Invented Lives," New York Times Book Review (October 4, 1987), p. 3
"Prophetic Fragments," Village Voice Literary Supplement, no.70 (December 1988), pp. 5-6
"Angela Davis," Village Voice Literary Supplement, no. 75 (June 1989), pp. 8-9
"Art and Ardor," The Nation (April 15, 1991), pp. 492-495
"Eros and Thanatos Both," American Book Review (July-August, 1990), p. 7
"Because It Is Bitter and Because It Is My Heart," The Nation (July 2, 1990), p. 27
"Shattering Family Myths," Newsday (January 27, 1991), Part II, pp. 21, 24
"Divided Loyalties in Black and White," Raleigh News and Observer (April 21, 1991), Section J, p.4
"City Of the Future," Washington Post Book World, September 29, 1991, p. 7
"Putting on the Ritz," Village Voice Literary Supplement (November 1991), p. 5
"Between the Living and the Unborn," New York Times Book Review (June 28, 1992), pp. 3, 20
"Epstein's sprightly debut in fiction," News & Observer (Raleigh, NC), (Feb. 23, 1992), p. 5G
"The Great Black Hope," Washington Post Book World (February 23, 1992), p. 1, 9
"Ordinary People, " New York Newsday FanFare section (April 12, 1992), p. 33, 38
"Federal Bureau of Literary Criticism," New York Newsday FanFare section (April 26, 1992), p. 36
"Experience can be a poor substitute for imagination," Boston Sunday Globe (July 19, 1992), p. B13
"Dishing Up the Dignity in Sorrow's Kitchen," Washington Post Book World (August 9, 1992), p. 4.
"Putney Swope is Dead," New York Newsday, "Fanfare," November 8, 1992, pp. 36-38
"Class of '93's Bright Lights Look Impressive in Their First Novels," Boston Globe, April 25, 1993, p. B38
"The Politics of African American Scholarship," Black Issues Book Review (January, February, 1999), p.28
Interviews / Profiles:
"Ted Joans: Tri-Continental Poet," Transition, No. 48 (April/June 1975), pp. 4-12
"Wole Soyinka: An Interview," Black World, August 1975, pp.3-48
"Cuban Experience: Eldridge Cleaver on Ice," Transition, No.49, Vol. IX (vi), pp. 32-44
"Marx and Race in Cuba: Eldridge Cleaver," Yardbird Reader, vol. V, September 1976
"James Baldwin and Josephine Baker: An Interview," Southern Review (Summer 1985)
"Wole Soyinka: Africa, Writing, and Politics," New York Times Book Review (June 23, 1985), p. 1.
"Post-Mortem for a Death," African Guardian, October 1,1987, pp. 29-30. (Soyinka Interview, Part I)
"Post-Mortem for a Death," African Guardian, October 8,1987, p. 33. (Soyinka Interview, Part II)
"Broadway Is Obscene," African Guardian, October 15, 1987, pp. 21-22. (Soyinka Interview, Part III)
"A Fight Back," African Guardian, October 22, 1987,pp. 28-29. (Soyinka Interview, Part IV)
"This is Beyond Theatre Criticism," African Guardian, October 29, 1987, pp. 21-22. (Soyinka Interview, Part V)
"Postmortem for a Death...," Laura Jones and Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Black American Literature Forum (vol. 22, no. 4,Winter 1988/1989), pp. 787-803
"An Interview with Wole Soyinka," River Styx, 30, pp. 1-27
"Final Cut: A Conversation with Spike Lee," Transition, 52 (1991), pp. 177-204
"On the African-American in American Art and Literature," Harvard University Art Museums (Fall, 1992), pp. 1-2, 8-9 (with James Cuno)
"Generation X," Black Film Review, vol. 7, no. 3, pp. 14-18
"Spike Lee: The Do-the-Right-Thing Revolution," Interview Magazine (October 1994), pp. 156-181
"Farrakhan Speaks," Transition 70, pp.140-168
"Black Culture," At Random (Winter 1997), with Geoff Shandler, pp. 38-41
Published Discussions
"Men Were Men, Men Were White," New York Times, May 29,1988, Section IV, p. 18
"Do The Right Thing': Issues and Images," New York Times, July 9, 1989, Section 2, pp. 1, 23
"On Cultural Literacy," New York Times, December 6, 1989, p. 26
Miscellaneous:
"Canon Confidential: A Sam Slade Caper," New York Times Book Review, March 25, 1990, pp. 1, 36-38
Interviews with Henry Louis Gates, Jr.:
Emerge, with Michele Wallace, November 1990, p. 76
Time Magazine, April 22, 1991, pp. 16, 18
Humanities Magazine, July/August 1991, pp. 4-10
"Interview with H. L. Gates, Jr.," with Jerry Ward, New Literary History (Autumn, 1991), vol 22, no. 4, pp 927-937
"An Interview with Henry Louis Gates, Jr,." with Charles Rowell, Callaloo, 14, 2 (1991): 444-463
U.S. News and World Report, March 1992
"The Artful Voyeur," with Anna Deavere Smith and Diane Wood Middlebrook, Transition 67, pp. 186-197
"Affirmative Reaction," with Cornel West, Transition 68, pp. 173-186
"How Do We Solve Our Leadership Crisis?," with Cornel West, Essence, June 1996, pp. 42-44
"Henry Louis Gates, Jr.," The Burnside Reader (Winter 1996), pp. 66-85
The Progressive (January 1998) pp. 30-32
Films:
"From Great Zimbabwe to Kilimatinde," BBC/PBS, Great Rail Journeys, Narrator and Screenwriter, BBC/PBS (1996)
"The Two Nations of Black America," Host and Scriptwriter, Frontline, WGBH-TV), February 11, 1998.
Wonders of the African World, BBC/PBS, Narrator and Screenwriter, BBC/PBS Six-part series, in production (1998).
"Leaving Eldridge Cleaver," WGBH, 1999
Wonders of the African World, PBS, October 25-27, 1999 (six-part series) (Shown as Into Africa on BBC-2 in the United Kingdom and South Africa, Summer, 1999)
On CD-ROM
Encarta Africana (Microsoft, 1999)
Encarta Africana 2000 (Microsoft, 1999)
Encarta Africana 3rd Edition (Microsoft, 2000)