Watch: Gayl Jones Symposium, “Then You Don’t Want Me”
Now online: a keynote dialogue from the first-ever symposium dedicated to the work of Gayl Jones, “Then You Don’t Want Me”: Canonizing Gayl Jones! This video features Drs. Crystal Wilkinson and Alexis Pauline Gumbs discussing the creative influence and impact of Gayl Jones. Wilkinson and Gumbs highlight Jones’ storytelling techniques, the use of first-person perspective, and reclaiming space and breath for Black characters. What are the larger implications of Gayl Jones’ work being excluded from classrooms and dominant literary canons? Watch to find out.
The symposium was co-hosted by Boston University, California State University – Fullerton, and University of California – San Diego. This keynote was sponsored by “Writing Black Lives,” an initiative of BU’s African American Studies and Black Diaspora Studies Program and the BU Center for the Humanities.