Ethnicity and Race in a Changing World

Ethnicity and Race in a Changing World: A Review Journalrelationship between knowledge and power as manifested through imperialism, colonialism andpost-colonialism. In this vein, chapter one is a re-examination of the Enlightenment period, exploringnotions of race and racialisation and, in particular, the formation of ‘them/‘us’, Western ‘norm’/racialised ‘other’ within ethnographic thinking. The chapter moves on to highlight recent anti-racistresponses to the historical and theoretical framings of museums. Chapter two is the result of theauthor’s collaborative research with the ‘Caribbean Women Writer’s Alliance’ (CWWA) and looks atthe role of Black women’s writing to engage wider and excluded communities.Section two – ‘Including New Voices and Forms of Practice’ – examines the detachment oftraditional exhibitions and the resultant exoticisation and framing of the racialised ‘other’. Chapterthree presents case studies of recent exhibitions that have challenged the notion of the ‘museum’,including re-enactments by indigenous groups within the spaces of the museum. Chapter fourexamines the historical shifts of power in South Africa and its affect on the power structures ofmuseum organising.The chapters comprising the final section – ‘Critical Collaborative Museum Pedagogy’ –examine the role of the museum in addressing issues of low self-esteem in Black children; the roots ofBlack underachievement as explored through holistic approaches; and cross-cultural and embodiedforms of knowledge.Also relates to:Culture, Identity, Gender and RelationshipsEducationHistoryPolitics and GovernmentTHE HERITAGE SERIES OF BLACK POETRY, 1962 1975: A RESEARCH COMPENDIUMEd. Lauri RameyPublisher: AshgateYear: 2008Pagination: 327ppISBN: 978-0754657828Price: £60This anthology celebrates the Heritage Series of Black Poetry, which was founded and edited by PaulBreman and which published a total of 27 volumes of poetry between 1962 and 1975. Taken together,these publications comprise an impressive and important body of work. According to this collection’seditor, Lauri Ramey, this body of work represents ‘the twentieth-century’s most important andinfluential poets’. This research compendium has two aims – firstly, to document the prolific output ofa particularly progressive publishing house and, secondly, to celebrate Black poetry in the twentiethcentury.In the introduction, Ramey discusses the circumstances which led to the situation in which ayoung Dutchman by the name of Paul Breman began collecting and disseminating African Americanpoetry during the 1960s and 70s, at first independently and, later, through The Heritage Series. Therefollows a discussion of the socio-political climate of the post-World War Two era – the connectionsformed between Holocaust survivors and African American intellectuals, and the key figures whoemerged out of a backdrop of Civil Rights and Black Power – including W.E.B. Du Bois, Audre Lordeand James W. Thompson.The text itself is divided into four sections: ‘Essays’; ‘Memoirs and Reflections’; ‘Statements onPoetry and Poetics’; and ‘Poems’. In the ‘Essays’ section, a raneg of theorists consider a range of topicsincluding: publisher and literary connections; Harlem Renaissance poetry; memory, consciousness,faith and spirituality in the work of Audre Lorde, Dolores Kendrick and Owen Vincent Dodson. Thenext section contains excerpts of memoirs pertaining to The Heritage Series, as written by activeparticipants. Section three contains some critical reflections by some of the key poets involved withthe movement. The final section covers the main contributions of African American poets who werepublished by The Heritage Series.Also relates to:52