Word: africanism
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Autobiographies tend to fall into three broad categories: lives of the rich and famous, twisted tales of the dysfunctional and portraits of artists as young scamps. Boyhood: Scenes from Provincial Life, the new memoir by J.M. Coetzee, a South African novelist and Booker Prize-winner, ostensibly falls into the final category. In this short and elegantly written book, Coetzee chronicles his childhood in Worcester, a dusty settlement outside of Cape Town. Between the ages of eight and thirteen, the young Coetzee struggles with his Afrikaans identity, quarrels with his parents and pursues a secret double-life...
...Their presence continues a long-standing tradition of promoting scholarship and intellectual exchange among the very best scholars in African and African American Studies," he added...
Alumni of the fellows program include Professor of Afro-American Studies Cornel R. West '74 and Professor of African American Religious History Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, and scholars Arnold Rampersad, George Frederickson and Kathleen N. Cleaver...
Still, well-intentioned, well-made African-American films--like many well-intentioned, well-made white films--have often failed to become moneymakers. Spike Lee's 1996 film Get on the Bus, a fictional drama about the Million Man March, drew some favorable reviews but few theatergoers. Says a source close to Lee: "That broke Spike's heart." Even the 1996 comedy-fantasy The Preacher's Wife, starring Whitney Houston and Denzel Washington and directed by Penny Marshall, was a commercial disappointment...
Babyface hopes black filmmakers keep branching out: "I say, 'Don't categorize us.'" But Reginald Hudlin, Warrington's brother and the director of Boomerang, says it will ultimately require black films with widespread appeal and mega-box office grosses to clear the way for a wider range of African-American moviemaking. "You really have to gross $100 million to change perceptions," says Hudlin. "Then you get into a situation where Hollywood has to leave you alone and let you do your thing." In other words, if enough moviegoers start talking back to the screen, maybe Hollywood will begin to listen...