Twentieth-Century Black Periodicals and Space Symposium
Thursday 8 May 2025
British Library, St Pancras, London

This symposium is about space and geography in the context of twentieth-century periodicals from across the Black Atlantic. Over the course of the twentieth century, Black periodicals negotiate space at several scales: in their pages, in their interests, in their circulation, and in the ways we conceptualise and archive them.  How do Black periodicals occupy and traverse space, and how do the spatial forms of Black periodicals shape their meanings? How have theorists understood periodicals and blackness through spatial metaphors? How do spatial contingencies affect the ways that Black periodicals are collected, archived and accessed? 

In December 2024, Elizabeth McHenry gave the 39th Annual Panizzi lectures at the British Library.¹ Focusing on Black Bibliography, McHenry identified an overarching question which her three lectures asked of themselves and of the field more broadly: What does it mean to inhabit the space of black print?  The symposium takes McHenry’s ending question as its beginning.  It invites scholars, librarians and researchers from a variety disciplines whose primary objects of study are Black periodicals (magazines, newspapers, etc) published 1900-2000 in the Americas, Europe, and Africa to submit papers that ask about what it means to traverse the space of 20th Century Black Atlantic periodicals and what spaces these periodicals themselves traverse.  

Participants are welcome to submit papers on topics including 

• The circulations of specific periodicals 

• Black bibliography, in particular its diasporic aspects 

• Page layout and print space in Black periodicals 

• Internationalism, diaspora and Pan-Africanism in Black periodical cultures 

• Reflections on the spatial conceptualisations of Black periodicals  

• The space of the Black periodical archive 

International scholars, librarians and researchers from beyond the UK are also invited to get in touch.  Although the symposium is in-person, there is the possibility of a follow up event held online if there is enough interest.  

Please submit proposals for 10-minute work-in-progress papers, 20-minute papers, or 10-minute round table contributions. Proposals should be 300-500 words and sent along with a brief CV or bio to [email protected] by Thursday 17 April 2025. Email enquiries are also welcome. 

Three covers of Black World (1961-1976), an important magazine during the Black Arts Movement. The magazine, previously known as Negro Digest, was re-named ‘Black World’ in May 1970 to better reflect the magazine’s diasporic interests and readership.

This symposium is a product of the AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Partnership (CDP) PhD Studentship African American short fiction and magazines in the mid-twentieth century with the University of Cambridge and the Eccles Institute for the Americas & Oceania at the British Library. The Eccles Institute builds, cares for and shares the Americas and Oceania collection at the British Library, and champions knowledge and understanding of these regions through a rich programme of fellowships and awards, cultural events, research training, guides to the collections and programmes for schools.

References

1. Lecture One, 5 Dec 2024: Panizzi Lectures 2024: In Search of Black Readers   

Lecture Two, 10 Dec 2024: Panizzi Lectures 2024: Thinking Bibliographically  

Lecture Three, 12 Dec 2024: Panizzi Lectures 2024: Spaces of Black Study  

We are delighted to offer two PhD placements for 2025 within the Eccles Institute for the Americas and Oceania. The scheme offers doctoral researchers from all disciplines the chance to develop and apply transferable skills and expertise outside the university sector.

PhD placement projects offered by the British Library cover activities ranging from cataloguing, conservation and interpretation to policy research, resource development and research or community engagement. The duration for each placement is 3 months (or part-time equivalent). Most placements are also suitable for part-time students, and there may be opportunities to undertake placements remotely which will be indicated on the individual project profiles. 

For the full list of British Library placements on offer for 2025 visit our Research Collaboration webpages. See below for the placements related to the North and Latin American collections respectively.  

Examination of the British Library’s collection of American underground comix and related ephemera 

Are you interested in illustration, underground comix, or the history of comix publishing? Do you enjoy problem solving and project management? Would you like to come and work behind the scenes on collections in the cultural heritage sector? This PhD placement will give you an invaluable insight into the holdings of US underground comix and related ephemera at the British Library.  

You will be given the opportunity to understand collection management and library cataloguing systems, and you’ll be able to make a real difference in improving access to a number of important and unique items for the research, inspiration and enjoyment of future generations using the Library.  

Continuing legacy work in this area you will have the opportunity to use and develop previous work, including meticulous record-keeping and cross-referencing of donations of comix and related ephemera. Among the holdings which speak to this subject are rare items with unique illustrations and inscriptions which offer a fascinating picture of the underground comix landscape from the 1960s onwards.  

The collections are a cornucopia of material for interdisciplinary research examining comics/x, book dealing, publishing, and/or illustration. Underground and alternative comix are important to the study of 20th century American countercultures, offering socially relevant reflections on subjects that would often be excluded from mainstream publishing, for example sexuality, violence and drug use. 

For more information see the full placement description. For enquiries related to this placement email [email protected] FAO Rachael Culley, with 'American underground comix and related ephemera' in the subject line. 

A selection of works by Aline Kominsky-Crumb from the British Library’s collection donated by J. B. Rund: Drawn Together by Aline Kominsky-Crumb & Robert (Basel: Cartoonmuseum Basel, [2016]), RB.31.b.431; Need More Love by Aline Kominsky Crumb (London: MQ, [2007]), YD.2019.a.366; Love that Bunch by Aline Kominsky Crumb (Seattle: Fantagraphics, 1990), YA.1993.b.10691; The Complete Dirty Laundry Comics by Aline Kominsky-Crumb, R. Crumb and Sophie Crumb (San Francisco: Last Gasp Eco Funnies, [1992]), RF.2000.b.44. And example of inscription from Robert Crumbs and Aline Kominsky-Crumb to their ‘good friend’ Jeff (J. B. Rund) inside The Complete Dirty Laundry Comics, RF.2000.b.44.

Afro-Brazilian History and Culture in Print: Surveying the British Library Collections 

Afro-Brazilian history and culture is central to our understanding of Brazil and the wider world. Building on the work of Afro-Brazilian activists, Brazilian society has seen a reckoning with the country’s racism and colourism in recent years bringing Afro-Brazilian voices to the fore.  

The British Library holds extensive collections relating to, and created by Afro-Brazilians, from Brazil, Portugal, as well as material connected to colonial Brazil and the Transatlantic slave trade. Despite this, our understanding of the Library’s holdings of published material in this area requires significant improvement.  

In the context of these current debates challenging racism and, specifically, a forthcoming UK/Brazil Season of Culture 2025-26, this is a timely project to increase access to important, interconnected, but also underrepresented areas of the Library’s collection. It is envisaged that the placement student would survey the Library’s holdings of published material relating to and created by Afro-Brazilians in order to produce a bibliography / research guide, as well as helping us to recognise gaps in our collection and working with the Latin American curators to identify material which could be acquired to remedy these. 

For more information see the full placement description. For enquiries related to this placement email [email protected] FAO Laurence Byrne/Iris Bachmann, with ' Afro-Brazilian History and Culture in Print PhD placement' in the subject line. 

Illustrations by Carybé for the exquisite ‘Iconografia dos Deuses Africanos no Candomble da Bahia’ (Iconography of the African Gods in the Candomblé of Bahia' with texts by Jorge Amado, Pierre Verger and Waldeloir Rego. (BL shelfmark 37/Cup.408.rr.7)

 

 

 

Velma Pollard, the Jamaican cultural activist, educator, linguist and writer, passed on to the realm of the Ancestors on Saturday 1st February 2025. The Caribbean literary community is in mourning for this daughter of the region who was passionate in her love of the Jamaican nation language/patwa, and Caribbean culture in general.

Both Pollard and her sister Erna Brodber (social activist and writer) were brought up immersed in an understanding
of the heritage and value of indigenous and traditional knowledge.

Winning the Casa de las Americas Prize in 1992, for the novella Karl, Velma Pollard continued to build on an impressive body of creative writing, with five collections of poetry and three short story collections. Her book Dread Talk: The Language of Rastafari became a instant classic and many others are staples of the Caribbean literary canon.
Her impactful research focus on Caribbean women writers, Creole languages emanating from the Anglophone Caribbean, as well as the language of Caribbean literature, would find Pollard bringing forth texts like 'Anansesem - A Collection of Folk Tales, Legends and Poems for Juniors', 'Considering Woman' and 'From Jamaican Creole to Standard English: A Handbook for Teachers'.

The British Library holds titles about and by Velma Pollard. The following are some examples of what can be accessed:

Erna Brodber and Velma Pollard: Folklore and Culture in Jamaica by Violet Harrington Bryan YC.2023.a.841
Karl: Monologue - in the mind of - a man! by Velma Pollard YK.2009.a.31871
The Best Philosophers I Know Can't Read or Write by Velma Pollard YK.2008.a.5992
Anansesem: A collection of folk tales, legends and poems by Velma Pollard YD.2005.a.4795
From Jamaican Creole to Standard English: A Handbook for Teachers by Velma Pollard YA.2001.b.1763
Dread Talk: The Language of Rastafari by Velma Pollard YA.1994.a.18156

 

Go well Ms. Pollard and Thank You! May You be in the joyous company of the Ancestors.

Nicole-Rachelle Moore
Curator, Contemporary Caribbean Collections