LAUNCH: Unsung: Unheralded Narratives of American Slavery & Abolition

Tuesday, February 16, 2021 - 7:00pm to 8:30pm
Virtual

Join us for the launch of Unsung: Unheralded Narratives of American Slavery & Abolition, a comprehensive collection "that should be required reading in history and literature courses," writes Kirkus. Edited by Dr. Michelle Commander, curator and associate director of the Lapidus Center, with a foreword by then Schomburg Center Director Kevin Young, the anthology weaves together well- and lesser-known documents by abolitionists and highlights materials from Arturo Schomburg's seed collection. Unsung is the first in a series of upcoming anthologies from the Schomburg Center published in partnership with Penguin Classics.

The event will feature readings from the collection which includes essays, speeches, plays, and more. Dr. Michelle Commander will also be in conversation with Dr. Kellie Carter Jackson, Knafel Assistant Professor of the Humanities in the Department of Africana Studies at Wellesley College; Joy Bivins, Associate Director of Collections and Research Services, Schomburg Center, and Jonathan McCrory, Artistic Director at Dr. Barbara Ann Teer's National Black Theatre.

This program will be streamed on Livestream.com. You must register with your email address in order to receive the link to participate. Please check your email shortly before the discussion to receive the link. Captions for this event will be provided. Schomburg Center Black History Month Series sponsored by M&T Bank/ Wilmington Trust

FREE Event - Register HERE: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/launch-unsung-unheralded-narratives-of-amer...

GET THE BOOK | Readers everywhere who wish to pre-order the book can do so online at The Schomburg Shop. All proceeds benefit The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.

ABOUT THE EDITOR

Michelle D. Commander is Associate Director and Curator of the Lapidus Center for the Historical Analysis of Transatlantic Slavery at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Before joining the Schomburg Center, she was an Associate Professor of English and Africana Studies at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. A Ford Foundation and Fulbright Fellowship recipient, Commander is the author of Afro-Atlantic Flight: Speculative Returns and the Black Fantastic.

UNSUNG: UNHERALDED NARRATIVES OF AMERICAN SLAVERY & ABOLITION is the first Penguin Classics anthology published in partnership with the Schomburg Center, a world-renowned cultural institution documenting black life in America and worldwide. A historic branch of NYPL located in Harlem, the Schomburg holds one of the world's premiere collections of slavery material within the Lapidus Center for Historical Analysis of Transatlantic Slavery. Unsung will place well-known documents by abolitionists alongside lesser-known life stories and overlooked or previously uncelebrated accounts of the everyday lives and activism that were central in the slavery era, but that are mostly excised from today's master accounts.