U Street Tour & Discussion of Angelina Grimke's Rachel

May 8, 2009

10 a.m. -- Meet at the 13th street exit to the U Street/Cardozo Metro Station (near 13th & U, just across U street from the Lincoln Theater and Ben's Chili Bowl; if you accidentally come up at the other exit, at 10th & U -- the one with the African-American Civil War Memorial -- face U street with the escalator and memorial at your back, turn left on U, and walk 2 3/4 blocks, and/or follow the signs to the U Street/Cardozo station).

10:00-11:30/11:45: Take self-guided walking tour of U Street Neighborhood, with emphasis on/brief detours to Grimke-related sites (you may want to download, or at least read, the brochure available at http://www.culturaltourismdc.org/information2546/information_show.htm?doc_id=156636 ).

11:30/11:45: Meet at Busboys & Poets, 14th & V Streets (http://www.busboysandpoets.com/about_14th.php) for lunch and discussion of Angelina Weld Grimke's _Rachel_ (see below)

At lunch, we'd also like to briefly discuss plans for '09/'10. Since there's a national SSAWW meeting in Philadelphia in Fall '09, unless someone is itching to host a meeting that semester, we're thinking of meeting for breakfast or coffee in Philly rather than holding a separate meeting. We have tentative plans to join the East Coast Study Group for a discussion of Chinese-American Women Writers in Spring '10. Beyond that, we're open to suggestions (especially ones made by one or more people willing to organize and/or host a meeting).

Core readings:

Angelina Weld Grimke, _Rachel_: http://books.google.com/books?id=UpA0AAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover#PPP1,M1

Carolivia Herron's introduction to the Oxford/Schomburg edition of Grimke's selected works: http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/g_l/grimke/herron.htm

Note for the benefit of anyone who may land on this page looking for resources for teaching and/or research: since we held this meeting, Koritha Mitchell's Living with Lynching: African American Lynching Plays, Performance, and Citizenship, 1890-1930 (U Illinois, 2011), which includes extensive discussion of Rachel, has been published, and has received an award from the national SSAWW.  If you're planning to teach and/or do some work on Rachel, or simply are looking for background/contextual information, it's an excellent place to start.  

Additional background/potential teaching resources:

"Birth of a Nation and Black Protest" from George Mason's Center for History and New Media: http://chnm.gmu.edu/features/episodes/birthofanation.html (while Grimke began writing _Rachel_ before the release of Griffith's film, it was first produced as part of the NAACP's protest against _Birth of a Nation_)

"Lynching Crusade" from the Library of Congress' "American Memory" collection: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/aaohtml/exhibit/aopart6b.html (Note that Grimke's uncle, Francis, is listed among the signatories to the 1909 call that led to the founding of the NAACP. It's also interesting to note that the 1909 meeting was timed to coincide with the 100th anniversary of Lincoln's birth; we're currently in the middle of 200th-anniversary commemorations).