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VANCOUVER, Wash. – Join online at 3 p.m. Oct. 8 as Thabiti Lewis, professor of English and interim associate vice chancellor of academic affairs at �鶹��ý, discusses his newest book, “Black People Are My Business: Toni Cade Bambara’s Practices of Liberation,” on YouTube. He will discuss the book with Eleanor Traylor, professor emeritus at Howard University, and Linda J. Holmes, a writer, independent scholar and women’s health activist.

The event is sponsored by �鶹��ý Library in collaboration with Wayne State University Press, which published Lewis’s book. A link will be available shortly before the event at . Registration is not required.

Bambara (1939 – 1995) was a prominent, albeit understudied, author, documentary filmmaker, social activist and professor whose writing concerned practices that advance the material value of the African American experience. Lewis’s analysis is the first monograph that focuses on her important literary contribution to 1970s and 1980s African American literature.

Lewis explores Bambara’s unique nationalist, feminist, Marxist and spiritualist ethos, which cleared space for many innovations found in Black women’s fiction. Her aversion to “playing it safe” both personified and challenged the boundaries of Black nationalism and feminism.

Lewis’s work can be found in the �鶹��ý Library and on the website of Wayne State University Press (). 

About �鶹��ý

As one of six campuses of the WSU system, �鶹��ý offers big-school resources in a small-school environment. The university provides affordable, high-quality baccalaureate- and graduate-level education to benefit the people and communities it serves. As the only four-year research university in Southwest Washington, �鶹��ý helps drive economic growth through relationships with local businesses and industries, schools and nonprofit organizations. 

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MEDIA CONTACT(S)

Brenda Alling, �鶹��ý Office of Marketing and Communication, 360-546-9601, brenda_alling@wsu.edu

Kristina Stonehill, promotions manager, Wayne State University Press, 313-577-6127, kristina.stonehill@wayne.edu