Celebrating 100 Years of
Wright scholars from all over the world gathered to celebrate and commemorate Richard Wright at the American University of Paris, on 19-21 June 2008.
Download eight episodes of coverage from the weekend below.
Listen to conversations from this historic conference, and don't miss my interview with an icon, Julia Wright.
Photography and footage from the conference at http://americaetc.blogspot.com
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Kaleem Ashraf talks to...Robert Butler
Download Episode 001
Day one concluded with a reception at the AUP building on Avenue Bosquet. There I had a lively conversation with Robert Butler, Professor of American Literature at Canisius College.
Kaleem Ashraf talks to...Sudhi Rajiv & Sigmund Shen
Download Episode 002
following plenaries by Julia Wright and John Edgar Wideman, i caught up with Sudhi Rajiv, head of english at Jai Narain Vyas University and Sigmund Shen, professor of english at LaGuardia College, CUNY.
Kaleem Ashraf talks to...John Potash
Download Episode 003
Day two featured panels throughout the day. Participants split up in the evening, some attended a commemorative gathering led by Julia Wright at Cimetiere du Pere Lachaise, whilst others attended plenaries by Joyce Ann Joyce & Houston A Baker at the US Embassy. There was an optional dinner at the restaurant Tomieux in the evening. I chatted with John Potash on the way to the cemetery.
Kaleem Ashraf talks to...Ahati Toure
Download Episode 004
Following the moving tribute to Wright at the cemetary, I spoke with Ahati Toure, professor of africana studies at Deleware State University.
See footage from the second day: http://americaetc.blogspot.com
Kaleem Ashraf talks to...Zetta Elliott & Michelle Simms-Burton
Download Episode 005
On the afternoon of day three, I spoke to Michelle Simms Burton, Professor of Afro American Studies at howard university, and Zetta Elliott, Professor in African & African American Studies at Mount Holyoke College.
Kaleem Ashraf talks to...Alice Craven & William Dow
Download Episode 006
Day three featured a plenary by Paula Rabinowitz, paper panels throughout the day, a performance of Wright's works, a memorial roundtable for the feted Wright biographer Michel Fabre, and concluding remarks by Joyce Ann Joyce & Houston A. Baker.
In the midst of it all, I caught up with the co-organisers of the conference, Alice Craven and William Dow (Professors of Camparative Literature at the AUP). We spoke in the Grenelle building behind the Lutheran Church at the AUP.
Kaleem Ashraf talks to...Julia Wright
Download Episode 007
Julia Wright is not merely the daughter of a literary legend, she is a writer and human rights activist in her own right. On the final day of the conference, we finally got to sit down together in the grenelle building at the aup.
Kaleem Ashraf talks to...Amrit Singh
Download Episode 008
As the conference wound to a close, I spoke with Amritjit Singh, Langston Hughes Professor of English & African American Studies at Ohio University.
Correspondence with...James E. Walton
due to time limits, i wasn't able to record audio with nearly as many people i'd have like to at the aup.
Amongst these was James E. Walton, chair of the department of english at California state University, Fresno. James surely has one of the most compelling personal interests in richard wright. here's a portion of our personal correspondence james has contributed to the site:
"As I was able to tell Julia, I identify with Richard Wright more than I do with any other writer. I was also born in the South (Alabama), my biological father was absent from the home, my highly influential grandmother was a Seventh-day Adventist, I was treated brutally by an aunt who was an Adventist, books were a means of escape for me from my present surroundings--as they were for young Richard Wright. Both southerners who escaped to the North and beyond, he turned to books--as I had to--to free himself from the tyranny of his home and his environment.
My master's thesis was on Chester Himes--only because my advisor would not let me write on Richard Wright ("Everybody does Richard Wright; you do Himes!") I never liked Himes, but in The Quality of Hurt, Himes describes the contentious meeting in Paris between Richard Wright and James Baldwin. Wright was enraged that Baldwin had attacked him so much in the American press--after all of the help Richard Wright had given Baldwin back in the States. Himes records that, in defense, Baldwin told Wright, in part, that you left me nothing else to write. You told my story! Every time I read Black Boy, I concur with Baldwin: Richard Wright wrote my story, too.
That's the reason I jumped to go to Paris with only a two-week notice. I am so pleased that Doris [my wife] will be going with me. When I learned the conference was focused on Richard Wright, I had to go. Even the day before departure, Doris and I had no passport; it had expired after our trip to Egypt. Just in time our passports arrived hours before we departed Fresno for Paris.
(On a related note, I grew up without knowledge of any Waltons, save my brother and sister. In 1978--after finishing graduate school--I organized The Walton Family Reunion as a means of catching up with my biological father's side of the family. The Walton Family Reunion has gone every year since. This year we will celebrate our 30 Annual Walton Family Reunion--in Birmingham, Alabama (Double Tree Hotel), July 17-20. I bet over 300 Waltons will be in attendance)." James Walton
Coming up...
A conversation with Clive Bush, Emeritus Professor of American Literature, King's College London. Poet, scholar, friend and part of my inspiration into the field of African American literature.
If you attended the Wright Centennial at AUP and would like to contribute a few paragraphs about your interests in Wright to this page, email (in header).