I first read Native Son when I was 16, as part of a summer program. I remember reading Richard Wright’s words deep in the Pine Barrens, much of it read while sitting on large tree stumps. Seeing this cover is both jarring and evocative of that original reading; how different and the same this young man is to the young man I imagined while reading that first time. I can’t wait to watch the film now, and then re-read Wright’s novel.
I love the multi-modality of all of this – and thinking about the process. Some of the young people I worked with love to draw, cartoons, and anime so it struck a chord on how something like this could be a part of their lives – engage them further.
I’m thinking of these and making connections between Afropessimism and Afrofuturism, the masculinity and femininity of each (e.g., who takes which up), past and future, realities and imaginaries, how these interplay with one another (e.g., is each a pole on a spectrum? if so, what is in between?). I don’t have any conclusions, per se, but I’m holding these questions in my mind!
Picturing Identity 
Swaggg
I really want to see Native Son.
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I first read Native Son when I was 16, as part of a summer program. I remember reading Richard Wright’s words deep in the Pine Barrens, much of it read while sitting on large tree stumps. Seeing this cover is both jarring and evocative of that original reading; how different and the same this young man is to the young man I imagined while reading that first time. I can’t wait to watch the film now, and then re-read Wright’s novel.
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I love the multi-modality of all of this – and thinking about the process. Some of the young people I worked with love to draw, cartoons, and anime so it struck a chord on how something like this could be a part of their lives – engage them further.
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I’m thinking of these and making connections between Afropessimism and Afrofuturism, the masculinity and femininity of each (e.g., who takes which up), past and future, realities and imaginaries, how these interplay with one another (e.g., is each a pole on a spectrum? if so, what is in between?). I don’t have any conclusions, per se, but I’m holding these questions in my mind!
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Is there a way to add why each book forms part of the selection? The choices are multimodal, and allow for so much.
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