THE NORTON ANTHOLOGY OF AFRICAN AMERICAN LITERATURE: TWENTY YEARS LATER- Panel Discussion

The Norton Anthology is of the work of 120 writers spanning two centuries, this book covers the earliest known work by an African American, Lucy Terry's poem Bars Fight, to the writing of Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison, and Poet Laureate Rita Dove. It begins with blues, gospel, spirituals, rap, sermons, prayers, testimonies and speeches, and continues with writing of all genres: poetry, short fiction, novels, drama, autobiography, journals and letters, including the full text of 11 major works.

Panelists

• Elizabeth Alexander Director, Mellon Mays Foundation; Wun Tsun Tam Mellon Professor of the Humanities - Columbia University
• Brent Hayes Edwards Director, Scholars-in-Residence Program at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture NYPL; Professor of English and Comparative Literature and Jazz Studies - Columbia University
• Henry Louis Gates Director, Hutchins Center for African & African American Research Alphonse Fletcher University Professor- Harvard University
• (Moderator) Farah Jasmine Griffin Director, Institute for Research in African-American Studies
• William B. Ransford Professor of English & Comparative Literature and African-American Studies – Columbia University
• Robert G. O’Meally Founding Director, Center for Jazz Studies; Zora Neale Hurston Professor of Comparative Literature-Columbia University
• Valerie Smith 15th President - Swarthmore College Professor of English, Literature and African-American Studies