"Celebrating a Legacy: The Charles L. Blockson Collection of African Americana and the African Diaspora"
The esteemed poet Ntozake Shange and renowned
visual artist Romare Bearden collaborated on
this visually stunning book, I live in Music
In honor of Black History Month, the University Libraries are highlighting the acquisition of the Charles L. Blockson Collection of African Americana and the African Diaspora in an exhibition, "Celebrating a Legacy: The Charles L. Blockson Collection of African Americana and the African Diaspora." The exhibition is on display in the Diversity Studies Room, 109 Pattee Library, from Friday, January 16 to March 2, 2009. It celebrates Blockson’s Penn State legacy and showcases the holdings of his collection that foster an appreciation for the rich political, cultural, and historical contributions of Africans in America and across the globe.
The curator of the exhibition is Pia Deas, special collections graduate assistant for the Charles L. Blockson Collection of African-Americana and the African Diaspora. She earned an M.A. in creative writing from Temple University and an M.A. in English from Penn State. She is currently a Ph.D. candidate in English at Penn State, specializing in African American Literature.
Kathy Ogren’s The Jazz Revolution:
Twenties America and the Meaning of Jazz
is one of many scholarly books on African
and African American music.
When Blockson, a black bibliophile and a Penn State Distinguished Alumnus, was in the fourth grade, his teacher claimed that African Americans had not made any historical contributions. Blockson heard a challenge in his teacher’s pronouncement and embarked on a lifelong quest to collect books and artifacts on the African American and the African Diaspora experience. Now in his 70s, Blockson has built a legacy to the African American experience and made an important contribution to African American history by building two library collections that are important cornerstones and testaments to his work.
In 1983, he donated the Charles L. Blockson African American Collection to Temple University in Philadelphia. In addition to serving as the curator of the Temple University collection, he has written a dozen historical guides on African American history, including several devoted to black Pennsylvania history: Philadelphia’s Guide. African-American State Historical Markers (1992); Pennsylvania’s Black History (1975); and the Underground Railroad in Pennsylvania (1982).
Miles: The Autobiography is the
moving story of jazz artist Davis’ life .
Penn State's collection, The Charles L. Blockson Collection of African Americana and the African Diaspora, opened in January of 2008. Administered by the Special Collections Department, it is housed in a newly renovated space on the third floor of Pattee Library, west. The collection, which is not yet fully cataloged, includes approximately 10,000 items, the majority of which are books that cover a wide range of subjects. There are also collections of sheet music, postcards, record albums, and manuscript materials (letters, photographs, posters, and programs) that document the lives of influential African Americans, with a special emphasis on Paul Robeson.
Visitors are welcomed to the entrance of the Blockson Room by a three and one-half foot, bronze royal horn blower from West Africa, just one item from a collection of African sculpture, a recent gift from Blockson. Researchers might be particularly interested in unique materials that vividly relate to the African-American slave experience, including letters of sale and a set of shackles from Bristol, Rhode Island, an important 19th-century slave trading center.
The poet, playwright, and memoirist
Langston Hughes also wrote several
children’s books including theFirst Book of Jazz.
Here is a selection from page 28.
What distinguishes the Penn State collection from the Blockson Collection at Temple University is its emphasis on the African Diaspora, the pattern of migration that traces the movement of blacks from their African homelands to areas around the world, most notably in South America (Brazil and Guyana, for example), the Caribbean, and, of course, in the United States. The collection includes books on a wide range of subjects. For example, historical explorations of the roots of African pop music, cultural studies of Santeria, translated books, and travel memoirs among many others. For instance, the collection includes Tété-Michel Kpomassie’s memoir, An African in Greenland, as well as examples of esteemed African American writers' world-wide influence through translations of Richard Wright’s work in French, Jeunesse Noire (Black Boy) and Jazu, a translation of Langston Hughes’ First Book of Jazz into Japanese.
Pia Deas, special collections
graduate assistant for the
Charles L. Blockson Collection
of African-Americana and
the African Diaspora.
The Diversity Studies Room exhibition highlights some of the main emphases of the Blockson Collection in order to encourage researchers to explore the holdings further. The exhibition is organized by major themes (Civil Rights Movement, religion, music, sports, and memoirs, among many others). The exhibition also spotlights Blockson’s interest in children’s books. His collection includes not only popular favorites such as Mildred Taylor’s trilogy of the Logan Family in Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry, Let the Circle Be Unbroken, and The Road to Memphis, but also perhaps lesser known works, such as poet Langston Hughes’s charmingly illustrated My First Book of Jazz.
For more information about the Charles L. Blockson Collection, contact The Special Collections Library,
(814) 865-1793, or visit the Web site.