Highlighting...
Podcasting PWP
|
The American Writers Museum features Phillis Wheatley Peters in Episode 32 of their podcast series, available here. Thanks to Digital Content Associate Nate King for spotlighting PWP and for his timeline interviewing of “The Genius of Phillis Wheatley Peters” project codirectors Barbara McCaskill, Mona Narain, and Sarah Ruffing Robbins.
|
|
Phillis Wheatley Poetry Festival: 2023 and 1973 Connections
- Thomas Hallock, University of South Florida
- Thomas Hallock, University of South Florida
Phillis Wheatley Festival participants, 1973. Photo by Roy Lewis.
In early November 1973, the author-scholar Margaret Walker Alexander organized a landmark conference at Jackson State University to celebrate the bicentennial of Phillis Wheatley Peters' Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral (1773). Coinciding with the emergence of Black women's writing nationally, the Phillis Wheatley Poetry Festival brought a "who's who" of guests and authors to Mississippi. The following year, the Jackson State Review devoted an entire issue (107 pages total) to this extraordinary gathering.
Alice Walker. Photo by Roy Lewis.
The issue includes the Festival program, and by any standard, no greater collection of talent could be assembled. The proceedings opened with a welcome by Walker, performances by the Jackson State choir, the unveiling of a bust of Wheatley by sculptor Elizabeth Catlett, and a recitation of Wheatley's poems, accompanied by harpsichord. Readings over the next two days featured Sonia Sanchez, Lucille Clifton, Alice Walker, June Jordan, Nikki Giovanni--the list goes on. Every stage of the program blended music, poetry, and jubilation. Selected papers from the Jackson State Review include an early version of Alice Walker's In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens and a critical appraisal by Paula Giddings. Just as moving, however, is the deep community evident in the acknowledgements – ten pages listing individual, corporate, and community partners. This was no ordinary scholarly conference.
Nikki Giovanni. Photo by Roy Lewis.
Rarely does one have the opportunity to climb into a time capsule and experience a gathering from the not-so-distant past. But the Jackson State Review issue does just that, capturing the collective appreciation for Phillis Wheatley's legacy at a crucial juncture. As readers young and old return for a fifty-year reunion of the festival this November 2023, the special issue serves as an important signpost. The 1973 program, now online, allows those fortunate enough to have been there to remember. Newcomers will see what was missed, and with this rich reminder of an ongoing legacy, see how we move forward.
Philis Wheatley Festival, 1973. Photo by Roy Lewis.
Image credits:
Courtesy of the Margaret Walker Center, Jackson State University, Roy Lewis, Photographer.
Works Cited:
Special Issue. Jackson State Review Vol. 6, no. 1 (Summer 1974).
Walker, Alice. "In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens: Honoring the Creativity of the Black Woman." Jackson State Review Vol. 6, no. 1 (Summer 1974): 44-53.
Wheatley, Phillis. Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral. London: A. Bell, 1773.
Addran Partners with University of Georgia to Celebrate the Legacy of Groundbreaking African American Poet Phillis Wheatley Peters
|
"AddRan College of Liberal Arts and the University of Georgia (UGA) are midway through a year-long collaborative project celebrating the 250th anniversary of the publication of Phillis Wheatley Peters’ book of poems in 1773, a milestone in the history of African American and transatlantic literature."
Read more |
|
New Wheatley Poem Discovered
Read More (Roberts Interview)Claire Litchfield interviews Dr. Wendy Roberts on the new poem found in the Jones Family Papers at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. She cites the omniscient authority and theological nature of “Love Rotch” as important parallels to known Wheatley poems.
Check out Dr. Roberts' article about the discovery:
Roberts, Wendy Raphael. ""On the Death of Love Rotch," a New Poem Attributed to Phillis Wheatley (Peters): And a Speculative Attribution." Early American Literature, vol. 58 no. 1, 2023, p. 155-184.
Read More
Check out Dr. Roberts' article about the discovery:
Roberts, Wendy Raphael. ""On the Death of Love Rotch," a New Poem Attributed to Phillis Wheatley (Peters): And a Speculative Attribution." Early American Literature, vol. 58 no. 1, 2023, p. 155-184.
Read More
A Podcast Series
Phillis Wheatley Peters on Stage
|
About PWP on Stage
Celebrating 250 Years of Genius Welcome to the PWP Podcast, a spoken series exploring the many depictions of Phillis Wheatley Peters on theatrical stages throughout time. Phillis is more widely known in the theatre world than one may suspect; she is the muse for productions from Mary Church Terrell's pageant play in 1932 to modern performances such as Phillis in London, crafted by Ade Solanke. Her life and works have inspired many dramatizations, and this podcast aims to explore Phillis' impact on theatre and playwrights. Click below to access each episode as they release! |
Phillis Wheatley Peters LibGuide
|
Learn more about Wheatley Peters at our resource guide prepared through collaboration with TCU’s Mary Couts Burnett Library:
https://libguides.tcu.edu/phillis_wheatley_peters Huge thanks to Social Sciences Librarian Robyn Reid for her work on the LibGuide! A copy of the LibGuide tailored to audiences affiliated with the University of Georgia is available at https://guides.libs.uga.edu/phillis_wheatley_peters |
|
Wheatley at 250
Professor Joseph Rezek of Boston University shares a video resource on “Phillis Wheatley and Her Books”
|
|
When Phillis Wheatley traveled to London in 1773 to oversee the publication of Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral, she acquired several valuable books, including Milton’s Paradise Lost, Pope’s Complete Works, and Don Quixote. When she returned to Boston as a published author, she was manumitted from slavery and began selling her own book in New England. This talk considers Wheatley’s intimate relationship to books a poet and reader and ties book ownership and authorship to her sense of what it meant to be free.
Professor Rezek’s talk is based on a chapter from a volume published by Oxford University Press: “Transatlantic Traffic: Phillis Wheatley and Her Books” in The Unfinished Book, edited by Alexandra Gillespie and Deidre Lynch, available for download via Academia.edu. |
Phillis Wheatley's Arrival
The year 2021 recalled an earlier, far less celebratory milestone in the life of Wheatley Peters: the anniversary of her 1761 arrival in America and her ironic re-naming for the Middle Passage ship that brought her from West Africa. “The Genius of Phillis Wheatley Peters” project codirector Sarah Ruffing Robbins published a blogpost marking that event and providing overview information for learning about PWP. Read that story here.
