RICHARD WRIGHT/ GREAT AMERICAN NOVELIST

Richard Wright,  the author of the novel Native Son (1940) and the autobiography Black Boy (1945), pioneered an influential school of protest literature. He became the first Black writer to pen a bestseller that overtly criticized racism and white supremacy. Born into dire poverty and oppression in segregated Mississippi, his journey to international success was so unlikely that upon meeting him the most famous sociologist of the 1940's asked, "How in the hell did YOU happen?"

Following his success, Wright grew disillusioned with the United States, and, in 1947, relocated to France. Before his death in 1960, at age 52, he coined the phrase "Black Power" in support of African anti-colonial revolutions.

The time and place of this presentation is the summer of 1960. Richard Wright has chosen to honor an American audience in Paris with a frank account of why he has chosen to live as an expatriate in France for the past decade.

About Darryl Lorenzo Wellington

Darryl Lorenzo Wellington was the 2021-23 Poet Laureate of Santa Fe, New Mexico. When living in the South he was a ROOTS member. An uprooted Southerner who is now a New Mexican, he has been a professional journalist.. Darryl has been a writing fellow at Community Change, a Washington DC-based nonprofit dedicated to improving the lives of people of color. His articles, fiction and poetry are anthologized in MFA vs. NYC and Santa Fe Noir. His most recent book is: Legible Walls: Poems for Santa Fe Murals. Darryl is also an actor/performance artist whose work includes a dramatic reenactment of the life and times of the great Black novelist Richard Wright. 

You are encouraged to take notes. Darryl Wellington will answer questions at the end of his presentation.