BMRC Announces 2009 Fellowship Recipients
April, 2009
CHICAGO, IL - The Black Metropolis Research Consortium (BMRC) is pleased to announce the seven recipients of the BMRC's Short-Term Fellowships in African American Studies. This is the first year of the BMRC's Fellows Program, which provides support for outstanding researchers of all disciplines from across the country. Fellows receive $3,000 per month for one to two months during the summer.
The BMRC's Fellowships for 2009 were awarded to scholars, and artists who have exhibited excellence in their discipline(s), have a significant body of work characterized by originality, and have demonstrated a need to conduct research in the archives and collections of BMRC members. The 2009 Fellows represent a diverse spectrum of research disciplines, including: African American Studies, Art, English, Music/Composition, Music Theory, and Social Science.
The 2009 BMRC Fellows are:
Helen Brown - Associate Professor in the Department of Performing and Visual Arts at Purdue University. Project Title: Margaret Allison Bonds and Langston Hughes: Musical-Textual Relationships in the Arts Songs. Ms. Brown will research the "art songs" of pioneering composer and Chicagoan Margaret Allison Bonds, which were written during the 1950's to poetry by Langston Hughes, as part of a larger book project on Ms. Bonds. Professor Brown will use collections at both the Center for Black Music Research (CBMR) at Columbia College, as well as the Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection at the Woodson Branch of the Chicago Public Library for her research.
Richard Courage - Professor in the English Department of Westchester Community College, in the State University of New York system. Project Title: The Muse in Bronzeville: African American Creative Expression in Chicago, 1928-1950. Mr. Brown will research revisions of several chapters, as well as one new chapter, in a book titled The Muse in Bronzeville: African-American Creative Expression in Chicago, 1928-1950 (co-authored with the late Robert Bone). He will also gather materials for a companion anthology titled Voices of Bronzeville. Professor Courage will use a variety of collections during his term, including the Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection at the Woodson Branch of the Chicago Public Library, the Harold Washington Branch of the Chicago Public Library, libraries of Loyola University, The University of Chicago, and University of Illinois at Chicago, and the Chicago History Museum.
Ayesha K. Hardison - Assistant Professor of English at Ohio University. Project Title: Writing Through Jane Crow: Race, Gender, and Genre, 1940-1954. Ms. Hardison will conduct research related to her forthcoming first book, Writing Through Jane Crow: Race, Gender and Genre, 1940-1954. Among the Chicago-related figures she plans to research are Alice Browning, editor of the journal Negro Story, newspaper cartoonist Jackie Ormes, and Richard Wright, whose unpublished manuscript, “Black Hope,” is a special focus of this research. Professor Hardison will use holdings at the Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection at the Woodson Branch of the Chicago Public Library, the DuSable Museum of African American History, and the Chicago Defender.
Bonnie Claudia Harrison - Assistant Professor, Social Sciences, Kennedy-King College, City Colleges of Chicago. Project Title: Resisting Change: African Americans, Accommodation, and Conflict in Chicago's Englewood, 1900-1920. Ms. Harrison will research the history of Black residents in the Englewood neighborhood of Chicago during the first half of the twentieth century, related both to a developing book project on the neighborhood, as well as efforts to initiate an Englewood Historical Collection at Kennedy-King College. Ms. Harrison will use collections at the Harold Washington Branch of the Chicago Public Library, and also the Chicago History Museum.
Cynthia Hawkins - Director of Galleries at the State University of New York, Geneseo. Project Title: Survey of African American Printmakers 1880 to the Present. Ms. Hawkins will research African American printmakers and their contributions to printmaking in the United States, with an emphasis on black printmakers based in Chicago. Ultimately she plans to generate a book or anthology on the topic. Among the collections Ms. Hawkins intends to use during her fellowship term are the Art Institute of Chicago, and the DuSable Museum of African American History.
Sarah Potter - Assistant Professor, Department of History, University of Memphis. Project Title: Family Matters: Domesticity and Everyday Life of Race, Class, and National Belonging in Postwar Chicago Ms. Potter will conduct research related to her current manuscript, Family Matters: Domesticity and Everyday Life of Race, Class, and National Belonging in Postwar Chicago. Among the collections she plans to use during her fellowship term are the Earnest Watson Burgess and Allison Davis Collections at the University of Chicago and the Urban League’s papers at the University of Illinois at Chicago’s Richard J. Daley Library.
Marcus Shelby - Marcus Shelby is a jazz bassist and composer based in Oakland, California. Recently Mr. Shelby released an acclaimed ensemble composition based on the life of Harriet Tubman. Project Title: MLK (Oratorio for Jazz Orchestra). Mr. Shelby will research the Chicago experiences of Dr. Martin Luther King. Jr., as part of a jazz oratorio interpreting the life of the civil rights leader. Mr. Shelby will use collections at the Center for Black Music Research, the Harold Washington Branch of the Chicago Public Library, and the Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection at the Woodson Branch of the Chicago Public Library during his fellowship term.
The BMRC thanks the review panel for its rigorous evaluation and thoughtful selection of this year's Fellows:
The 2009 Review Panel: Madhu Dubey, Professor, Department of English, University of Illinois at Chicago. Adam Green, Associate Professor, Department of History, University of Chicago. Christopher R. Reed, Professor Emeritus of History, Department of History, Art History and Philosophy, Roosevelt University. Yvonne Welbon, Interim Chair/Assistant Professor, Journalism and Media Studies, Bennett College for Women.
The BMRC's Short-Term Fellowships in African American Studies is made possible by the generous support of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
