Kevin Powell And Joan Morgan example essay topic

Our African American history has been shaped my many factors. We " ve been through trials and tribulations, slavery and lynching, and restriction from reading and writing. Through the times, many African Americans have excelled in all areas of society, literature in particular. James Baldwin and Octavia Butler are legends, but are still taught in the classroom today, Kevin Powell and Joan Morgan are relatively new to the scene, but good work is expected from them both. James Baldwin (1924-1987) James Baldwin was born August 2, 1924 in Harlem, New York and was the oldest of nine children. His father was a preacher and Baldwin was ordained a preacher at the age of 14.

At 18, he graduated from Dewitt Clinton High School. In 1944 he met Richard Wright who helped him to get a fellowship that allowed him, through financial freedom, to devote himself to literature. In 1948, Baldwin left the US for Europe where he completed his first novels Go Tell It on the Mountain in 1953, Notes of a Native Son in 1955, and Giovanni's Room in 1956. After nine years he returned to the states and became known as a spokesperson for the civil rights of African Americans. His outrage for the conditions of African Americans led him to write such novels as Nobody Knows My Name in 1961 and The Fire Next Time in 1963. He remained abroad for the majority of his last fifteen years.

Although he never gave up his American citizenship he was embraced by the French and in 1968 they named him the Commander of the Legion of Honor. On November 30, 1987 of stomach cancer in Saint-Paul-de-Vance, France, and was buried in Harlem. His last work to be published was an anthology of essays The Price of the Ticket: Collected Nonfiction 1948-1985. Octavia Butler (1947- Octavia Butler was born in Pasadena, California, on June 22, 1947. She was the only child of a maid and a shoeshine man. She became interested in science fiction after being turned off by the standard reading of elementary schools.

At the age of 13, she was producing stories that she later said had been heavily influenced by the white-male-oriented science fiction stories she had read. She graduated from Pasadena City College and attended California State University in Los Angeles. In 1971 as a result of her participation in the Clarion Science Fiction Writers Workshop, one of her short stories, "Crossover", appeared in the Clarion anthology. Five years later Doubleday published her first novel.

She is one of the first African American women to gain popularity as a major science fiction writer. She is the author of nine novels and many short stories. She has won two of science fiction's most prestigious awards, the Nebula and the Hugo. Her novels include Pattern master (1976), Survivor (1978), Mind of My Mind (1977), Kindred (1979), Wild Seed (1980), Clay's Ark (1984), Dawn (1987), Adulthood Rites (1988), and Imago (1989). Joan Morgan-Murray (1965- Joan Morgan was born in 1965 and grew up in the South Bronx.

After graduating from Wesleyan in 1987, she had plans of attending Law school. When that fell through, she pursued an acting career while teaching English, but for her acting seemed powerless. She was consumed by writing after this point. She released her first book in May of 1999, the same year she gave birth to her son Sul'e. Her groundbreaking book When Chickenhead Come Home to Roost: My life as a hip-hop feminist, is a cumulation of five or six years of articles. Critics and readers agree, though the content is certainly pertinent and timely, it's "Joan's voice and delivery, tight like a battle-tested MC, that put the bling bling in Chickenhead's shiny star.

Morgan describes her writing like this, "I've read a lot about it... part academic, part hip hop, part bell hooks, part Terry McMillan. I write the way I speak. I come from different places. I did the prep school thing, but I grew up in the streets. That's where I really come from and I put that in what I do. I write in the most conversational way possible.

When people read it, they feel like they know me". Aside from her novel, Morgan is currently working as executive editor for Essence magazine, where she has conducted interviews with various entertainers such as Vanessa Williams in 2000. In the works for her next project is a collection once again dealing with her own experiences, being a married, a mother and looking for babysitters. Kevin Powell Kevin Powell was raised in Jersey City, New Jersey. He is a former senior writer / editor for Vibe magazine and an original cast member of MTV's The Real World. He is also known as a cultural critic.

His articles have appeared in The New York Times, Rolling Stone, and Essence. Powell's essays, articles, and reviews have also appeared in The Washington Post, George, Code, Ms. and elsewhere. A poet, essayist and political activist, Powell is the author of four books, including Step Into A World: A Global Anthology of The New Black Literature a definitive collection of the best writers of the hip-hop generation, Recognize, his first volume of poetry, creditor (with Ras Baraka) of In the Tradition: An Anthology of Young Black Writers, and Keepin' It Real: Post MTV Reflections on Race, Sex and Politics. Powell has lectured on racism, sexism, American popular culture, Black and American history, Martin Luther King, Jr., contemporary literature, multiculturalism, and the history of hip-hop at dozens of colleges and universities across America, including Yale, Princeton, Stanford, Howard, Wake Forest and Spellman College. He is also a frequent political and cultural commentator on television, radio, and the Internet, here in the United States and overseas.

As a hip-hop historian, Powell has participated in various summits, conferences, and forums and is presently the Guest Curator for the Brooklyn Museum of Art's "Hip-Hop Nation: Roots, Rhymes, and Rage", which originated at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio, and of which Powell was the exhibition consultant. As a result of his work with this traveling exhibition, Powell is currently at work on a childhood memoir, homeboy alone. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Bibliography

1. Search. biography. com 2. Coca lounge. com / morgan 3. web 4. web 5. web 6. web 7. web 8. African-American studies. com 9. web.