Edward J. Cabbell at Concord College, Athens, WVA Collection Number: A&M 217. Identifier: 038004. Image courtesy of West Virginia and Regional History Center, WVU Libraries African American, History, Cultural Activism, Literature Edward J. Cabbell (1946-2018) Ed Cabbell was a historian and folklorist of the traditions of Black Appalachia (Affrilachia) and brought the stories and history …
Julius Lester speaks after receiving his Samuel Minot Jones Award for Local Literary Achievement. Photo courtesy of Jones Library, Amherst, MA African American, Literature, Children’s Folklore, Media, Documentary photography Julius Lester (1939-2018) Julius Lester was a dynamic writer whose career spanned multiple genres over several decades. He is especially acclaimed for his works about African …
©️2002 Stella Kalaw Filipina American, Foodways, Theater, Literature Doreen Gamboa Fernandez (1934-2002) Dr. Doreen Gamboa Fernandez was a prolific scholar who wrote extensively on food, culture, literature, education, theater, and performance. She is best known for writing on the Philippines’ foodways, from the dizzying array of street foods to distinctive regional specialties, and about the …
Gaines in conversation at Fall for the Book, 28 September 2015. Photo courtesy of S L O W K I N G (Wikipedia user Slowking4) African American, Literature Ernest James Gaines (1933-2019) Ernest James Gaines was a celebrated author and educator, who infused African American folklore into his writings. Ernest James Gaines was born on …
Portrait by Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, courtesy of the photographer African American, Cultural Theory, Literature Toni Morrison (1931-2019) Born Chloe Anthony Wofford in 1931 in Lorain, Ohio to Ramah and George Wofford whose parents had fled Georgia to escape sharecropping, debt, and violence. Raised in a household that nurtured traditional storytelling, she learned to value ancestors, community …
Photographer unknown. Photo credit from thehindubusinessline.com, “Scanned in Chennai R.K.Sridharan” South Asian American, Literature, Linguistics, Folklore A.K. Ramanujan (1929-1993) Dr. Attipat Krishnaswami Ramanujan, widely known as A.K. Ramanujan, was a renowned scholar whose research spanned multiple disciplines including linguistics, poetry, mythology, translation, and folklore. Born in Mysore, India, in 1929, he pursued his education in …
Photo courtesy of SHI. Photo by Brian Wallace. Native American (Tlingit), Linguistics, Literature Nora Marks Dauenhauer (Keixwnéi) (1927-2017) Nora Marks Dauenhauer (Ḵeixwnéi) was a Tlingit Clan Mother of the Raven moiety, Lukaax̱.ádi clan, and of the Shaka Hít or Canoe Prow House, from Alsek River, an author, and a culture-bearer whose scholarship documents and shares …
Photograph by Allan Warren taken in Hyde Park, London, 1969 African American, Literature, Cultural History James Baldwin (1924-1987) A prolific writer, activist, cultural theorist, James Arthur Baldwin was born on August 2, 1924, in Harlem, New York, to Emma Berdis Jones, a single mother. His mother married David Baldwin, a laborer and preacher, and they …
Photo from 2007 NEA National Heritage Fellow announcement, photograph by Michael G. Stewart Japanese American, Literature, Activism, Ethnography Violet Kazue de Cristoforo (1917-2007) Violet Kazue de Cristoforo was a 2007 National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellow, recognized as a writer, translator, and editor of poetry, specifically the Japanese forms of haiku and tanka. …
Photo from Georgia Center for the Book African American, Federal Writers’ Project, Literature Frank Yerby (1916-1991) Dr. Frank Yerby wrote 33 popular historical romance novels that challenged white conceptions of Southern history and culture. He was the first African American to have one of his novels adapted into a commercial movie. Earlier in his career, …