Many writers and artists through history have developed their craft, and even published, while they were imprisoned. Among them is Chester Himes, an African American author who wrote about racism, prison life, and who is best known for his Harlem Detective series. Records related to Himes are found in the… read more
African American History Month
A lost work by Langston Hughes
In 1933, the Harlem Renaissance star wrote a powerful essay about race, unpublished in English until 2019. It’s not every day that you come across an extraordinary unknown work by one of the nation’s greatest writers. But buried in an unrelated archive, I discovered a searing essay condemning racism in… read more
Powerful currents: John Wilson’s Down by the Riverside prints
The dark male figure, head bent to the driving rain indicated by the dense lines that cover the page, lifts a slight woman into a simple rowboat. The boat’s bow is pointed through the floodwaters toward higher ground, its port side steadied by a second stooped male.