Black Literary Suite: Researching while Black

Abstract

Unlike past Black Literary Suites, the 2019 BLS “Researching While Black: The Project on the History of Black Writing at 35 Years” focuses on the history and achievements of HBW itself. In this timeline and accompanying exhibit panels, you can discover how HBW has grown from a small research unit at the University of Mississippi to a multi-project, research-driven, grant-funded organization. This BLS gives an in-depth overview of the creation and development of HBW’s primary research initiatives, including the Black Book Interactive Project (BBIP), the Black Literary Suite (BLS), the GEMS Initiative, and others. Beginning with its inception as the Afro-American Novel Project (AANP) in 1983, the 2019 BLS serves as the most comprehensive history of HBW’s accomplishments and serves as a guide for others to explore HBW’s work and thus the work of understudied Black writers as a whole.