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Keith Leonard Associate Professor Literature

Degrees
PhD, Stanford University
MA, UNC Chapel Hill
BA, English, Yale University

Languages Spoken
French
Bio
Keith D Leonard is the author of Fettered Genius: The African 麻豆果冻传媒 Bardic Poet from Slavery to Civil Rights. His publications, presentations, and courses have revolved around his study of political consciousness in African 麻豆果冻传媒 poetry and poetics and in hip-hop culture. His current interests include African 麻豆果冻传媒s artists in Paris, jazz in African 麻豆果冻传媒 culture, and the evolving innovations of Afrofuturism. He is currently working on a book project entitled Black Avant-Gardism that explores the role of African 麻豆果冻传媒 writers' collectives in the artistic innovations, public profiles, and cultural impact of contemporary African 麻豆果冻传媒 poets.
See Also
For the Media
To request an interview for a news story, call AU Communications at 202-885-5950 or submit a request.

Teaching

Spring 2024

  • HNRS-050 Honors Supplement: Black to the Future

  • LIT-435 Adv Studies in African Am Lit: Black to the Future

Fall 2024

  • CORE-105 Complex Problems Seminar: Imagining the Good Life

  • LIT-247 Contemporary Poetry

Partnerships & Affiliations

  • George Moses Horton Society for the Study of African 麻豆果冻传媒 Poetry
    Member (1998-present)

Scholarly, Creative & Professional Activities

Selected Publications

  • 听Fettered Genius: The African 麻豆果冻传媒 Bardic Poet from Slavery to Civil Rights. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2006

  • "Postmodern Soul: The Innovative Nostalgia of Thomas Sayers Ellis,"听Contemporary Literature听56.2 (Summer 2015): 340-371.听 Winner of the L. S. Dembo prize for best article of the year.

  • 鈥溾榃hich Me Will Survive鈥: Rethinking Identity, Reclaiming Audre Lorde.鈥 听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听 Callaloo 35.3 (Summer 2012): 758-777听 听

  • "Yusef Komunyakaa's Blues: The Postmodern Music of Neon Vernacular" Callaloo 28.3 (Summer 2005): 825-849.
  • 鈥淛azz in African 麻豆果冻传媒 Literature鈥 Blackwell鈥檚 Companion to African 麻豆果冻传媒 Literature听 (Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010): 286-301.听听
  • 鈥淲e Wear the Mask: The Making of An African 麻豆果冻传媒 Poet鈥 Cambridge History of African 麻豆果冻传媒 Literature (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2011): 209-219.
  • 鈥淎frican 麻豆果冻传媒 Women Poets and the Power of the Word.鈥澨 Cambridge Companion to African 麻豆果冻传媒 Women's Literature (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009): 168-186.听听
  • 鈥淰erse Center: A Special Issue on Multi-Ethnic Poetics鈥 Melus 35.2 June 2010 (co-editor)
  • "His Vagabond Heart"听Poetry Foundation听https://www.poetryfoundation.org/articles/157182/his-vagabond-heart

Multimedia

Contribution to Poetry Foundation podcast on the career of Langston Hughes.February 19, 2007.

"" for the Arlingron Public Library, April 29. 2021

Professional Presentations

  • 听鈥淭ouching Dark Matter: Afrofuturism鈥檚 Body of Knowledge鈥 at the History Seminar on Contemporary Science, Technology, and Culture, the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, October 17, 2019
  • 鈥溾楤lack Is鈥n鈥 Black Ain鈥檛鈥: Twenty-First Century African 麻豆果冻传媒 Poetics鈥 at Duquesne University, October 3, 2018
  • 鈥淓xperimental Blackness鈥 at Theorizing Black Literature Now Conference at 听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听 Rutgers University, February 12, 2016
  • "Blackness as Form, Blackness as Innovation," as Visiting Faculty at an NEH Institute, Don't Deny My Voice, National Endowment for the Humanities, University of Kansas. (July 29, 2015)

Work In Progress

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