Callaloo, Making Art: Writing, Authorship, and Critique, the 2014 Callaloo Conference, October 15-18, 2014, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia

Callaloo 38.3 (2015) 603–644 CALLALOO MAKING ART Writing, Authorship, and Critique THE 2014 CALLALOO CONFERENCE October 15-18, 2014 Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia Noah, by Jean Lacy © 1977 Photographed by the Tyler Museum of Art 604 C A L L A L O O CALLALOO A Journal of African Diaspora Arts and Letters Founded in 1976, Baton Rouge, Louisiana Published by The Johns Hopkins University Press Sponsored by Texas A&M University Editor CHARLES HENRY ROWELL Managing Editor JACKSON BROWN Production Editor KATHRYN B. KARASEK Program Coordinator EUNICE MCCAIN-DAVIS Editorial Assistant HANNAH COLE Associate Editors KIMBERLY BLACK VIEVEE FRANCIS RAVI HOWARD MAAZA MENGISTE GREGORY PARDLO CARL PHILLIPS MARLON B. ROSS JOSEPH T. SKERRETT, JR. TRACY K. SMITH SALAMISHAH TILLET STEVEN F. WHITE DAGMAWI WOUBSHET Assistants to the Editor Simone Brown Amber Foster Jarvis C. McInnis Damani Taylor GerShun Avilez, Faedra C. Carpenter, Herman Carrillo, Maryse Condé, Huey Copeland, Edwidge Danticat, Carole Boyce Davies, Toi Derricotte, Rita Dove, Brent Hayes Edwards, Thomas Sayers Ellis, Percival Everett, Susan Fraiman, Ernest J. Gaines, Thomas Glave, Kendra Hamilton, Major Jackson, Shona N. Jackson, Jamaica Kincaid, Yusef Komunyakaa, Helen Elaine Lee, Keith Mitchell , Koritha Mitchell, Valerie Cassel Oliver, Caroline Rody, Natasha Trethewey, Olympia Vernon, Derek Walcott, Alvia J. Wardlaw, Melvin White, JD, John Edgar Wideman, Ivy Wilson, David Wright, & Kevin Young Contributing and Advisory Editors 605 C A L L A L O O CALLALOO Texas A&M University College Station, Texas & The Emory University Creative Writing Program Emory University Atlanta, Georgia present MAKING ART Writing, Authorship, and Critique THE 2014 CALLALOO CONFERENCE October 15-18, 2014 606 C A L L A L O O 2 607 C A L L A L O O 3 Dear Colleagues and Friends, Welcome to the 2014 CALLALOO CONFERENCE, our seventh annual gathering , which focuses on “Making Art: Writing, Authorship, and Critique,” a subject that seldom, if ever, receives significant headliner attention at academic conferences today. For the 2014 CALLALOO CONFERENCE, we have invited distinguished intellectuals and artists to help us return to subjects that we, at our inaugural meeting in New Orleans in March 2008, partially addressed. I say “partially ” because at our first meeting we attempted to answer the following questions : What do we do? How do we do it? Why do we do it? That is, “we” as academics and artists. Our aim then was—and it remains so—to bring together our colleagues, creative and critical voices, in open conversation with each other about the work, in written form, in which each of us is engaged. Ultimately, the aim is to foster understanding, appreciation, and respect for the kind of work that is required and expected of us in the academy. While “Making Art” is in some few ways similar to our New Orleans “summit ,” we, during this conference here at Emory University, want to take additional and meaningful steps forward. We want to acknowledge that what we write, invent, create—as literary and cultural criticism, as fiction or poetry or drama, as painting or performance art, as music composition or dance—should be equally valued, supported, appreciated, and respected by our colleagues and by the administrators whose watch maintains the values and boundaries imposed by the current organizational structures of contemporary universities. What we say and do here at Emory University this week should ultimately be read as a message to our colleagues across the United States, as an unmitigated statement intended especially for our colleagues in literary and cultural studies and for those in the multiple disciplines in Africana and related studies. Our message is a simple three-part statement that argues for positive changes in the academic departments or programs that house these disciplines: • An end to the actions that divide creative and critical/academic voices; an effort to develop and establish means that perpetuate mutual respect; and mutual support for teaching and for the work, its production and publication • An end to behavior, actions, or words that devalue, denigrate, or privilege one discipline at the disadvantage or expense of another A Letter from the Editor of Callaloo 608 C A L L A L O O 4 • An aggressive support of excellence in the production of writing and performance that is creative...