Mini Collection : Juneteenth [June 19th]: Home

"The paper sets out to explore various modes, in which cinematic code operates in the novel Juneteenth authored by the renowned (African) American writer Ralph Ellison and published posthumously in 1999. The text edited by John Callahan, his literary executor, is a section of the manuscripts of Ellison’s unfinished second “novel-in-progress”. The action in Juneteenth revolves around its core idea expressed through the plot lines, characters, imagery, as well as narrative strategies, and consisting in the writer’s belief that the fates of Blacks and whites in the USA are inextricably interwoven (it is their inseparability that accounts for America’s cultural uniqueness). The novel’s central argument is reinforced, in particular, by massive recourse to cinematic discourse. The movie code functions in Juneteenth on several textual levels. Thematically, its presence is legitimized by the twist in the story when Bliss, one of the book’s two protagonists, goes through a short-lived career in film-making before moving on to big-time politics, with both careers bringing to light his manipulative proclivities. This narrative plane called for juxtaposing two forms of “low” culture – Black church service and early American movie industry. Discussion of their common and dissimilar features is based on the propositions developed by Walter Benjamin and cinema theoreticians (Sergei Eisenstein, Yuri Tynianov, Viktor Shklovsky, Vadim Skuratovsky). Verbally re-coded cinematic techniques (camera moves, shifting point of view, montage), are, in their turn, made ample use of in the text’s narrative and spatial-temporal structure predicated upon both its semantics, and general modernist orientation of Ellison’s writings. Thus, his poetics is in line with transition to “spatial form” (J.Frank) characteristic of modernist fiction. Last but not least, cinematic semantic field is also used to mediate configurations of whiteness-blackness-power on the symbolic level of their construction."

"This one-act play occurs on Juneteenth 2021, a day when protest directed at the Catholic Church and statues of Saint Junipero Serra swept through the California mission system. Our play centers on the Carmel Mission, the site of Serra's burial, one block from Clint Eastwood Mission Ranch Horel and Restaurant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]"

"This article explores the history of Juneteenth—the commemoration of the emancipation of enslaved people in Texas—in San Francisco, California. In 1945, Wesley Johnson, a Texan migrant, introduced Juneteenth to San Francisco's Black community. The celebration sustained itself over seventy years, making it the longest continuous urban celebration of Juneteenth. Juneteenth remained relevant in San Francisco because it became intertwined with the history of African Americans in the Western Addition neighborhood. Most significantly, the holiday was a key expression of resilience as the city demolished the neighborhood in the 1960s, expelling much of the Black community. Surprisingly, later in the 1980s, the holiday became a key point of contact between the city and the Black community. This unlikely holiday continues in San Francisco to the present day. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]"

"Provides information pertaining to the Juneteenth, a day to commemorate the official ending of American slavery. History; Events leading up to the proclamation; Black reparations in the late 1960s; Reasons for delayed freedom; Reasons why some oppose reparations; Explanation why descendants of the enslaved are entitled to reparations."

"This is an investigation of the intertexts and allusions in Reverend Hickman’s Juneteenth celebration sermon in Ralph Ellison’s second novel (in both published versions). The sermon is of critical importance to Ellison’s post-Invisible Man career. He published an excerpt containing it in 1965 and shared it with a television audience in 1966. The sermon is rich with intertexts, allusions, and literary influences that have yet to be explored. This paper establishes the sermon’s importance and then begins to map its intertextual connections, focusing on a series of 30 adjectives with the suffix “-less” spoken in a total of 80 instances by Hickman and/or Bliss in the course of the sermon. An argument is presented for the influence of Zora Neale Hurston’s novel Their Eyes Were Watching God on this sequence on adjectives, despite Ellison’s youthful dismissal of her work. An argument is presented (offering textual evidence) for Hurston’s influence being connected in Ellison’s thought process with James Joyce’s influence. James Weldon Johnson’s influence is brought into the discussion as well. Another scholar’s argument for C.L. Franklin’s influence is discussed but argued against. The study has implications for Ellison’s conception of the human face as a conduit for communication and for varied forms of possibility, thus connecting this reading of the sermon to some of the major themes of his career. It also has implications for developing a richer understanding of his artistic relation to the work of women writers."

"We are human beings, imbued with the ability to make decisions and think deductively and inductively. However, our ability to do so is related asymmetrically to external factors such as wealth and physical strength; some are imbued with more power than others and use that extra power as a tool to influence how fair and equitable are defined or, in extreme cases, to oppress the weaker. As a consequence, individuals and groups sometimes behave in ways that are destructive both physically and emotionally to others. Thus, it is not surprising that throughout our recorded history there have been actions affecting masses of people that we consider (at least in retrospect) to be based on illogical and uncivilized criteria. After all, we are human beings."