The Black Cultural Front: Black Writers and Artists of the Depression Generation
Saturday, September 22 at 2 p.m. at The Urbana Free Library
Author Brian Dolinar will read from his recently released new book The Black Cultural Front. The book describes how the social and political movements that grew out of the Depression led several African American artists and writers to turn to leftist politics. Dolinar examines the works of poet Langston Hughes, novelist Chester Himes, and cartoonist Ollie Harrington. Collectively, the experience of these three figures contributes to the story of a “long” movement for African American freedom that flourished during the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s.
Brian Dolinar is a scholar of African American literature and culture from the Depression era. He is a originally a Midwesterner, hailing from Wichita, Kansas. He moved to Urbana-Champaign in 2004. In 2005, he received a Ph.D. in Cultural Studies at Claremont Graduate University. He is the author of The Black Cultural Front: Black Writers and Artists of the Depression Generation (2012), published by the University Press of Mississippi, and editor of forthcoming book The Negro in Illinois (2013), published by the University of Illinois Press. He has taught in the English Department and Department of African American Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, as well as in the California State system.