This is the first of two sessions that will focus on contemporary African American poetry in preparation for our seminar with Prof. Evie Shockley in Week 6. Prof. Shockley has suggested readings to orient us in the field and to prepare us to engage with her own research on recent work on Black poetic and visual forms.

Readings: * Harryette Mullen’s ‘African Signs and Spirit Writing’ (1996)—on SOLO * Natasha Tretheway’s Thrall (2012), pp. 16-36 and 59-70. * Meta D. Jones, ‘Reframing Exposure: Natasha Trethewey’s Forms of Enclosure,’ ELH 82.2 (2015): 407-29—on SOLO

All seminars will be held on Zoom. For Zoom invitation and pre-circulated readings, please join the ALRS mailing list by sending a blank email to alrs-subscribe@maillist.ox.ac.uk.