The Past, Present, and Future of Phillis Wheatley Peters: 250 Years Later
A Virtual Conversation

April 5th, 2023
6:30pm ET
Virtual Event | Free

Moderated by Dr. Tara Bynum, this conversation with poets Dr. drea brown and Dr. Alexis Pauline Gumbs will explore the life and legacy of Phillis Wheatley in the wake of the 250th anniversary of the celebration of her seminal work, Poems on Various Subjects. As Bynum writes in a letter to Gumbs, “Wheatley writes and publishes a collection of poems and (depending on who you ask), she helps author an entire literary tradition. But as we peer into her world, what we see isn’t radical so much as it is what we must do and what we actually do often without thinking or even intent – make friends and fellowship/worship together.” Join these three contemporary Black writers as they make fellowship in celebration of Wheatley’s living and ongoing influence.

Dr. drea brown is the author of dear girl: a reckoning (Gold Line Press, 2015), and co-editor of Teaching Black: The Craft of Teaching on Black Life and Literature (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2021). Their writing has appeared in publications such as Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy, Stand Our Ground: Poems for Trayvon Martin and Marissa Alexander, About Place Journal, Smithsonian Magazine, and Zócalo Public Square. drea is currently an assistant professor in the English Department at Texas State University.

Dr. Tara Bynum is an Assistant Professor of English & African American Studies and a scholar of early African American literary histories before 1800. She received her PhD in English from Johns Hopkins University and a BA in Political Science from Barnard College. Her book Reading Pleasures: Everyday Black Living in America (University of Illinois Press, 2023), examines the ways in which 18th-century enslaved and/or free men and women feel good or experience pleasure in spite of the privations of slavery, “unfreedom,” or white supremacy.

Dr. Alexis Pauline Gumbs is a Queer Black Feminist Love Evangelist and an aspirational cousin to all life. She is/they are the author of several books, most recently Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals (AK Press, 2020), and the co-founder of the Mobile Homecoming Trust, an intergenerational experiential living library of Black LBGTQ brilliance.

REGISTER

Phillis Wheatley and Friends: Celebrating 250 Years of Wheatley’s Poems
with Dr. Tara Bynum 

First Session: Wednesday April 12th, 6pm to 7:30pm ET

 $200 Non-members | $175 Members
(Cost includes all three sessions)

Phillis Wheatley is often fixed in time as a lone, singular voice. This course will introduce students to another story for the young poet and, by implication, a new story for early African American writing. What if Wheatley is not by herself, but is instead an active interlocutor, friend, writer, and lover in various communities throughout New England, England, and elsewhere? These communities buy Wheatley’s book, live through a war, and later have to mourn the loss of their friend. They are communities, too, that write, read, and leave behind a legacy in manuscript and in print. The aim of the class is to ask new questions and to situate this writing amidst old, new, and different ways of reading and to center the living of Black women and men in the latter half of the eighteenth century.

Schedule for Phillis Wheatley and Friends

Wednesday, April 12th | 6:00-7:30pm ET

Wednesday, April 19th | 6:00-7:30pm ET

Wednesday, April 26th | 6:00-7:30pm ET

REGISTER

Phillis Wheatley and Friends: Celebrating 250 Years of Wheatley’s Poems
with Dr. Tara Bynum 

Second Session: Wednesday April 19th, 6 PM to 7:30pm ET

 $200 Non-members | $175 Members
(Cost includes all three sessions)

Phillis Wheatley is often fixed in time as a lone, singular voice. This course will introduce students to another story for the young poet and, by implication, a new story for early African American writing. What if Wheatley is not by herself, but is instead an active interlocutor, friend, writer, and lover in various communities throughout New England, England, and elsewhere? These communities buy Wheatley’s book, live through a war, and later have to mourn the loss of their friend. They are communities, too, that write, read, and leave behind a legacy in manuscript and in print. The aim of the class is to ask new questions and to situate this writing amidst old, new, and different ways of reading and to center the living of Black women and men in the latter half of the eighteenth century.

Schedule for Phillis Wheatley and Friends

Wednesday, April 12th | 6:00-7:30pm ET

Wednesday, April 19th | 6:00-7:30pm ET

Wednesday, April 26th | 6:00-7:30pm ET

REGISTER

Phillis Wheatley and Friends: Celebrating 250 Years of Wheatley’s Poems
with Dr. Tara Bynum 

Third Session: Wednesday April 26th, 6pm to 7:30pm ET

 $200 Non-members | $175 Members
(Cost includes all three sessions)

Phillis Wheatley is often fixed in time as a lone, singular voice. This course will introduce students to another story for the young poet and, by implication, a new story for early African American writing. What if Wheatley is not by herself, but is instead an active interlocutor, friend, writer, and lover in various communities throughout New England, England, and elsewhere? These communities buy Wheatley’s book, live through a war, and later have to mourn the loss of their friend. They are communities, too, that write, read, and leave behind a legacy in manuscript and in print. The aim of the class is to ask new questions and to situate this writing amidst old, new, and different ways of reading and to center the living of Black women and men in the latter half of the eighteenth century.

Schedule for Phillis Wheatley and Friends

Wednesday, April 12th | 6:00-7:30pm ET

Wednesday, April 19th | 6:00-7:30pm ET

Wednesday, April 26th | 6:00-7:30pm ET

REGISTER