ENG353-01: Multiethnic and Diasporic Literature (Wozencraft)

In a style similar to "Wonders of the African World," Skip Gates will travel to places in Latin America where Africa has touched the continent with lasting cultural results to explore what happens when African and Hispanic worlds meet. In the Dominican Republic, explore how race has been socially constructed in a society whose people reflect centuries of inter-marriage and how the country’s troubled history with Haiti informs notions about racial classification. In Haiti, hear the story of the birth of the first-ever black republic and investigate the slaves’ hard fight for liberation over Napoleon Bonaparte’s French Empire.

Haitian author Edwidge Danticat received a MacArthur Genius award in 2009, and in 2007 won the National Book Critics Circle Award for "Brother, I'm Dying." In 1994, her first novel, "Breath, Eyes, Memory" had just been published, and was soon to be made famous as an early Oprah book club selection. Danticat appeared on State of the Arts to talk about her book and the series of documentaries about Haiti that she was making with Jonathan Demme. She was 25 at the time, and just finding her public role as an artist and a representative of the country and culture of Haiti. Here she is in that interview with Amber Edwards, then host of State of the Arts.

In this 2004 interview, Edwidge Danticat talks about her new novel "The Dew Breaker", the story of Haitian-Americans who bear emotional and physical scars from Haiti’s violent past under the Duvalier dictatorship of the 1960s and ’70s. Original broadcast date: May 05, 2004

In conversation with Glory Edim, author and founder of Well-Read Black Girl. In “fiercely beautiful” novels, memoirs, and essay collections brimming with “enchantments and surprises” (Los Angeles Times), Edwidge Danticat bears witness to the complexities of Haitian life in stories of courage, brutality, family, and rebellion. These books include Create Dangerously: The Immigrant Artist at Work; the National Book Award finalist Krik? Krak!; and Brother, I’m Dying, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award. The MacArthur Fellowship recipient and Pushcart Prize winner’s latest story collection explores the tidal forces of community that ebb and flow within us all.

Edwidge Danticat was born in Haiti and moved to the United States when she was twelve. She is the author of several award winning books. Join Marlene Racine-Toussaint, the founder of the Multicultural Women's Press, as they discuss Dandicat’s early years in Haiti and the major influences on her writing. Series: "Voices" [10/2005] [Humanities] [Show ID: 11044]

NPR interview