The Writing Reunion: Surviving the Academy Through the Black Familial Tradition

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

The Family Reunion Writing Collective (FRWC) was born out of an African-centered research collaborative/apprenticeship, HeKA (Heritage Knowledge in Action). The FRWC consists of five African American emerging scholars who continue the Black/African intellectual tradition. While both groups share a common purpose - individual and community well-being and development as a shared responsibility - the FRWC emerged as an effective tool for building a cross-institutional community that reaffirms and nourishes our Africanist theories of knowledge and cultural traditions. This session will include five paper presentations that explore the creation of FWRC and the elements that allowed it’s members to sustain productivity, connectedness, and humanity during the COVID-19 global pandemic and the 2020 movement for Black Lives.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Research Focus on Black Education

Chair

• David Louis Humphrey, University of Michigan

Papers

• Writing the Line: Structure, Freedom, and Connectedness in a Black Writing Collaborative - Camea Davis, Georgia State University

• "Welcome to the Family Reunion": A Framework for Engaging and Writing Within the Black/Africana Intellectual Tradition - Adrian Neely, Morehouse College

• A Secret Cup of Gladness: Cultivating Black Joy and Resistance Through Collective Black Spaces - Natasha McClendon, Georgia State University

• Coming to the Coffee Shop - Danie Marshall

• We Came Here to Breathe: Protecting the Intentionality and Sacredness of the Black Space - Nickolaus Alexander Ortiz, Georgia State University

Discussant

• Joyce E. King, Georgia State University