Students take part in African American Read-In

On a cold February afternoon, students at SUNYIT read and discussed the writings that described the African American experience, from slavery through the civil rights era and beyond. Participants in the 25th annual African American Read-In, held in the Cayan Library’s Mele Room, read and listened to readings of works by notable African American writers.

“We hope to expose the students and engage them in literature by African American writers, who just don’t get the same type of exposure that other writers do,” said Mary Krenitsky Perrone, associate professor, who hosted the event and compiled the readings. “I tried to choose a smattering of writers, in chronological order, starting with Frederick Douglass and some slave narratives to civil rights pioneers to more contemporary writers, writers of African American History as their lives and times reflected it.”

The goal of the Read-In is to make the celebration of African American literacy a traditional part of Black History Month. Each year, a single 24-hour period is designated during the month of February to affirm global interest in the writings of African Americans. Since 1990, more than a million people from 50 states, the West Indies and Africa have participated.

Student participants read pieces provided by Perrone and material they brought on their own as well. The session began with a reading of Frances Watkins Harper’s “The Slave Mother,” which describes the emotions felt by a mother whose children could be quickly taken from her grasp and sold like livestock. Other readings followed, including Paul Laurence Dunbar’s “A Negro Love Song.” Known as a “dialect poem,” the work has lines such as:

An’ my hea’t was beatin’ so/When I reached my lady’s do’/Dat I couldn’t ba’ to go – Jump back, honey, jump back.

Perrone explained to students that Dunbar had written numerous poems in standard English, but was told by publishers in the late 19^th century that those works would only be published if he included some work in stereotypical dialect poems.

“It was a time in this country when there were minstrel shows, and these dialect poems were supposed to be entertainment,” Perrone said. “He had to play the game to get his poems published.”

After reading Dunbar’s “The Mask,” which begins We wear the mask that grins and lies/It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes, a student observed that the piece had to do with the idea of putting on a fake face.

“You put on an appearance that everything is okay because you need to get by, but underneath, you’re hurt and you feel marginalized,” Perrone concurred.

The afternoon also included works by W.E.B. Du Bois, Langston Hughes, Ralph Ellison and Zora Neale Hurston, among others, each painting a picture of the lives and emotions of African Americans through the years, giving insight not only to their existence, but to our culture as a whole.

“I think they offer us a very valuable reflection of the society of the day. They are a part of society that often gets marginalized,” Perrone said. “It is very important to who we are and very important to share in these traditions.”