a podcast about Black Studies and the classics
African American writers have been embracing and rejecting the classics since 1773. We honor that history by telling both of those stories.
S1E6 - Latitudes
Chi and Chad discuss the aftermath of the Trojan War and the Vietnam War in Yusef Komunyakaa’s poem “Latitudes.”
S1E5 - Migratory Habits of the Soul
Chi and Chad close read Robert Hayden’s poem, “A Plague of Starlings” alongside Plato’s Phaedo.
S1E4 - “I Sit with Shakespeare”
Chi attempts to fix a problem she’s been having while teaching W. E. B. Du Bois’s The Souls of Black Folk.
S1E3 - A Letter to Phillis Wheatley, Part 2
Chi and Chad discuss the classical allusions in Wheatley’s poem, “To Maecenas.”
Sidebar: “An Evening Thought”
Chad tells Chi about his close reading of Jupiter Hammon’s first published poem, “An Evening Thought: Salvation by Christ Alone.”
S1E2 - “Bibleistic”: The Poetry of Jupiter Hammon
Chad visits the home of Jupiter Hammon, the first published African American poet, to discuss his life and poetry with curators from Long Island Preservation.
S1E1 - A Letter to Phillis Wheatley, Part 1
Chi and Chad discuss how writers and readers have dealt with Phillis Wheatley’s complex legacy through Robert Hayden’s 1976 poem, “A Letter from Phillis Wheatley, London 1773.”
Introducing the Old-School Podcast
Old-School—a podcast about Black Studies and the classics, coming soon to all podcast apps.