Novelist, philosopher Charles Johnson speaks at Skidmore
Noted African American novelist and philosopher Charles Johnson read from some of his works and joined Skidmore College President Marc Conner and Visiting Distinguished Writer-in-Residence Calvin Baker in a Q&A discussion.
Following a virtual reading and discussion, the floor opened for additional questions from the audience.
The Thursday, April 29, event was sponsored by Skidmore鈥檚 Racial Justice Initiative, in partnership with the College鈥檚 English, Black Studies, Asian Studies, Philosophy and Art departments and Tang Teaching Museum.
Arguably one of the most important African American novelists of the 20th and 21st
centuries, Johnson is the author of 鈥淔aith and the Good Thing鈥� (1974); 鈥淥xherding
Tale鈥� (1983), a retelling of the organic American form of the slave narrative for
the late 20th century; 鈥淢iddle Passage鈥� (1990), which chronicles the horrors of the
Atlantic slave trade and earned Johnson the National Book Award; and 鈥淒reamer鈥� (1998),
a bold fictional account of the final years of the life of Martin Luther King Jr.
鈥淛ohnson鈥檚 fiction shows a range of thought and form perhaps without parallel in American literary history: ranging from magical realism to brutal naturalistic description, from the conjuring tale to the fable, from rollicking comedy to poignant tragedy,鈥� said Conner, a widely published literary scholar and an editor of the 2007 volume 鈥淐harles Johnson: The Novelist as Philosopher.鈥�
Baker is an acclaimed chronicler of the African American experience. His most recent book is 鈥淎 More Perfect Reunion: Race, Integration and the Future of America.鈥�
In addition to his novels, Johnson has published four volumes of short fiction: 鈥淭he Sorcerer鈥檚 Apprentice鈥� (1986), 鈥淪oulcatcher鈥� (1998), 鈥淒r. King鈥檚 Refrigerator: And Other Bedtime Stories鈥� (2007), and 鈥淣ight Hawks: Stories鈥� (2018).
As much a philosopher as a fiction writer, Johnson is a practicing Buddhist who was raised in the A.M.E. Church; a Sanskrit scholar who holds a doctorate in western philosophy; and a martial artist. He is also an accomplished visual artist who began publishing his own cartoons in the late 1960s and has produced two volumes of visual art.
A dedicated teacher of writing and literature for more than three decades, his published works also include numerous essays and two major photo-biographies of the Civil Rights era.
