Hearing African American literary studies -- ep. by Howard Rambsy II

A brief take on how African American literary knowledge has long circulated through sound as well as print, showing how Remarkable Receptions extends that oral tradition by calling listeners into an audio archive of Black literary history.

Written by Howard Rambsy II

Read by Kassandra Timm

Transcript

SOS. SOS. SOS. Listeners. Readers. Calling listeners. SOS. Calling readers. SOS. Calling listener-readers and reader-listeners interested in Black writers and African American literary art and literary history. Calling readers and listeners and students and scholars and educators and everyone else attuned to African American literary history—interpretation, analysis, reception. SOS. This is an SOS, us calling you, calling you, and you, and you, and you.

You’re listening to Remarkable Receptions, an audio possibility in the long history of transmitting ideas about African American literary art and more.

Too much of the study of African American literature, too much of Black literary history, too much of the record of Black writers and readers producing meaning, has been regulated to the page. Too much has been confined to print publications, to books, to scholarly journals. Too much has been presented there and not here. Yes, right here, in this audio realm. 

That’s not to say that the knowledge we hold and pass on is only printed on the page. No, not at all. We all know that much of what we understand about Black writers, poems, short stories, and novels came to us by word of mouth. Classroom lectures. Conference presentations. Side conversations. Inside information whispered from mentors, classmates, colleagues. 

Someone told us about those books and articles. We heard about those poets, essayists, and novelists long before we encountered their publications. Hearing and saying “Harlem Renaissance” or “Black Arts Movement” or “Afrofuturism” inspired us to read and learn and listen more.            

Among other things, this podcast, Remarkable Receptions, is an effort to add to the auditory reservoir of ideas animating African American literary studies. An oom oom ba-da-boom audible conversation, a la-dee-dah melody reminding you of the possibilities of awe-inspiring, audible storytelling about Black writers and books and culture and concepts and on and on and on.          

At the close of Ralph Ellison’s famous novel Invisible Man, the unnamed narrator asks, “who knows but that on the lower frequencies I speak for you?”  

Dear listener, you will not be surprised that the title of this podcast is partly inspired by those lower frequencies to which Ellison alluded. Surely the idea of hearing something on those frequencies requires a remarkable reception. It requires a sensitive receiver, capable of hearing and decoding something like an SOS, an SOS calling listeners, calling readers, calling listener-readers and reader-listeners. This is an SOS, calling you, and you, and you. Please reply soon.

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This episode was written by Howard Rambsy, edited by Elizabeth Cali, and read by me, Kassandra Timm.

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