Black Storytelling as a Speculative Tradition
and Rhetoric of Survivance (October 1-8, 2025)

I. Opening

• Thank you to our wonderful first HYE panelists!
• Remember: No RR on the day you present (it will be counted as extra credit if you do)​

II. Preparations for Project #1-- The Book Exhibit

Sign-Up Sheet for Hype Panel Presentations

Sample of Undergrad Slide Presentation

Sign-Up Sheet for Black YAL Book

List of YA Books for the Course

PDF of Public-Facing Learning Guide

Link to Course Policies & Processes

Image Source: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=3575447032551674&set=a.917525578343846

Image Source: https://www.civilrightsteaching.org/resource/exploring-freedom-schools

III. Black Diasporic Storytelling Traditions & Your Literature Circles

How and why are any of these motifs remixed into your novels? 
​OR--- what do you see as the impact of these speculative stories on Black fugitivity, literacy, and/or education?

1. In groups (we'll count off to 4), give your writing/hardcopies to your colleagues.  Learn about the books of your literature circle by reading your colleagues' overview.  Write them back.
2. As a group, discuss your stories and connections to the questions in the box above. 
3. As a group, talk through your ideas and plans for next week.
4. Be prepared to share back with the class your connections between speculative oral traditions and education (no spoilers this week).

IV. Black Storytelling as a Speculative Tradition and Rhetoric of Survivance

1) Time-Travel/Time-Bending and Astral Projection: "The People Could Fly" (Hamilton); "The Legend of Pin Oak"; High John de Conquer III (by Zora Neale Hurston); "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" (and here);  "Mothership Connection" by Parliament [contemporary: "Time Travel" by Dead Prez; "Q.U.E.E.N." by Janelle Monae]

2) Shape-Shifters: "Wiley, His Mama, and the Hairy Man" (Hamilton); “The Spider Witch” (see also boo-hags)

3) Deals with the Devil: "Jack and the Devil" (Hamilton); "John and the Devil's Daughter" (Hamilton); "Malindy and Little Devil" (Herstories)

4) Conjure Tales: "Black Tom" (Haskins)"; "The Conjure Brother" (McKissack); "Tappin, the Land Turtle" (Hamilton); "Wiley, His Mama, and the Hairy Man" (Hamilton); "Uncle Monday"; "Lonna and Cat Woman (albino)" (Herstories); "Little Eight John" (Hamilton)

5) Anansi: "Anansi and the Box of Stories"; "All Stories Are Anansi's"; "Anansi's Children" (+large 1924 Collection from Jamaica)

6) Brer Rabbit, Tricksters & S/heroes: "Annie Christmas" (Herstories); "He Lion, Bruh Bear, and Bruh Rabbit" (Hamilton); "A Wolf and Little Daughter" (Hamilton); Brer Rabbit's Dance; "Brer Rabbit and Tar Baby"; "What Y'all Know About Annie Christmas // Keelboat Annie?"

7) Spirit-Walking and Rootwork: "Possessed of Two Spirits"; "Uncle Monday" 

8) ​The Crossroads, Underworld, and Elegba/Signifying Monkey: ​The Legend of Robert Johnson​; Rudy Ray Moore Live

9) Witches and Boo-Hags (are also shape-shifters): “Skin, Don’t You Know Me”; “The Spider Witch”; "The Gingi" (McKissack); "Macie and Boo Hag" (HerStories); "Lettice Boyer: From Way Back" (Herstories)​

10) ​Haints: "The Ghost of Gabe" (Haskins); "The Ghost Owl" (Haskins); "The Moaning Bones" (Haskins); "The Woman in the Snow" (McKissack); "Lettice Boyer: From Way Back" (Herstories)

*Everything in brown above is weblinked. 
​Other titles are in Hamilton's, Haskkins's, or McKissack's books provided in class.

The Rhythm of Time (1)
Akata Witch (1, 2, 9)
My Dear Henry (3)
Blood Moon (2)
Legendborn (1, 4, 7) 
The Gifted Society (1, 5)
​Needy Little Things (6)
The Marvellers (4, 8)
Kwame Crashes the Underworld (5, 8)
A Mastery of Monsters (2, 6)
Ghost Roast (10)

---

• Ghosts act as witnesses to the legacies of slavery vs. American claims of innocence
• Students at Hampton University, an HBCU, archived Black Folklore in a magazine published by the university called The Southern Workman created in 1893.
• For an overview of the racist history of how Black folklore has been mis/understood, see Skip Gates's "The Politics of 'Negro Folklore'"

YOUR TASK: Navigate to this webpage. Look at the ten genres above and select one genre that might match your book (suggestions are listed on the right for your book).

You are looking for one text in your genre where you can locate a speculative point of origins in Black Folklore (rather than in Europe) for your book. Feel free to work with a partner (if that's possible). Be ready to report your findings to the class: what is the oral tradition you've selected and why has it survived?  How does the oral tradition connect to your book?  

FOR LATER: "Material Things & Soul Things"

1) Journal on any block of questions presented on pages 2-4 of the "Material Things and Soul Things" section of this curriculum (part II, unit 6).
2) Reflect on these questions: what do you think of this curriculum?  Why/how are "Soul Things" so centered?  Why is "soul power" connected to but different from persuasion?

The prolific Black Studies theorist, Fred Moten, argues that fugitivity involves Black people’s refusal to accept unjust standards and oppression. He calls fugitivity a kind of desire and spirit that is always dreaming of escape and transgression even when not achievable. Fugitivity embraces living on the outer edges, plays with what is considered improper, and does not compromise with racist regimes by rendering them as inevitable. Fugitive success is not always about annihilation of anti-black regimes though; it is also about cleverly and joyfully thwarting them from moment to moment (click here for more).