Writing at the Crossroads: Black World Essays

Writing at The Crossroads: Black World Essays is an interdisciplinary collection of essays shaped by the forces that gave rise to the Modern Black Studies Movement. The essays trace both the development of the Black Studies Movement, and the evolution of one of the discipline’s important scholar-practitioners—Dr. Norman Harris. The essays are introduced by a prologue that establishes a framework consistent with the way African people have traditionally made sense of the world. From there, Harris uses Karenga’s Nguzo Saba to organize the essays into three sections. The first section of essays is titled, “Kujichagulia and Literary Analysis;” the second section is titled “Nia: From theory to Practice;” and the third section is titled “Imani: Situating 21st Century Learning.” Together, these three sections chart a path from more or less traditional academic scholarship to forms of scholarship, advocacy and institution building that are the cornerstone of the Black Studies Movement. This is an important book for any one wishing to understand the development of Black Studies, and Black Intellectual History.