"Hung Up Between Two Sticks": The Black Aesthetic and Puerto Rican Identity Formation in Down These Mean Streets

In this talk, Trent Masiki examines the relationship between afro-latinidad and the Black Aesthetic in Down These Mean Streets (1967), the groundbreaking memoir by Puerto Rican writer Piri Thomas. Masiki pays special attention to Thomas’s literary apprenticeship under John Oliver Killens, one of the founders of the Harlem Writers Guild (HWG). The HWG had aesthetic roots in the Popular Front of the 1930s and its members played decisive roles in the development of the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s. Masiki’s analysis of African American immersion narratives, signifying jokes, and cultural tropes reveals Down These Mean Streets to be as much a foundational text of the Black Arts Movement as it is of the Nuyorican Movement.

Speaker(s): Dr. Trent Masiki
When
Tuesday, Nov 19, 2019 at 5:00pm
Where
African American Studies Building (138 Mountfort Street, Brookline)
Who
Open to General Public
Admission is free
More Info http://www.bu.edu/afam/community/events/
Contact
African American Studies
Deirdre James
6173532795
 
Boston University

NIS

Return