"THE AUTODIDACT PROJECT"
by Ralph Dumain

Black Studies, Music, America vs Europe
STUDY GUIDE

ON THIS SITE

Jazz & Other Musicians: Philosophy & Testimony

• Duke Ellington: "We, Too, Sing 'America'"
• Duke Ellington Communicates Beyond Category
• Duke Ellington Komunikas ‘Preter Kategorio’, Esperanto translation by R. Dumain
• John Coltrane on Black Music and Affirmative Philosophy
• "Skies of America" by Ornette Coleman
• What Improvising Musicians Do by William Hooker
• 'Anthony Braxton: The Third Millennial Interview with Mike Heffley':
  Extracts, with Commentary by Ralph Dumain
• "Compared to What" by Eugene McDaniels, as performed by Les McCann
• Nina Simone: A Personal Tribute
• The Philosophy of Rahsaan Roland Kirk
• Big Bill Broonzy vs Folk Ideology
• Eric Dolphy Speaks of Music (with sound clip link)
• Discipline 27 by Sun Ra

On Jazz and Black Music

• Anthony Braxton: Selected Bibliography
• Black Music & the American Surrealists: A Bibliography
• The Theory & Practice of John Coltrane by Ralph Dumain
• The Dialectics and Aesthetics of Freedom: Hegel, Slavery and 19th Century African American Music, PhD dissertation by Greg Harrison, selections, with an introduction by R. Dumain
• 'Anthony Braxton: The Third Millennial Interview with Mike Heffley':
  Extracts, with Commentary by Ralph Dumain
• The Jazz Avant-Garde, Mysticism & Society: Meaning, Method & the Young Hegelians by R. Dumain
• Dialectic is Cool
• "La Socia Enhavo de l'Ĵazmuziko" [The Social Content of Jazz Music; in Esperanto], de Roland Levreaud
• Niels Bohr & Louis Armstrong (photograph & comment)

Black Americanism

• Duke Ellington: "We, Too, Sing 'America'"
• "Skies of America" by Ornette Coleman

America vs. Europe: The New World & the Old

• Romare Bearden on Black American Culture vs. the European Avante-Garde
• Andre Breton Out of His Element, by Edwin Denby
• C.L.R. James on West Indian Writers vs. T.S. Eliot & Jean-Paul Sartre: the New World & the Old
• Niels Bohr & Louis Armstrong (photograph & comment)

Theoretical & Historical Perspectives

• Ralph Ellison on the Hidden Political Meaning of Cultural Symbolism
• Richard Wright Defines The Outsider
• Simplex, Complex, & Multiplexity according to Samuel R. Delaney
• Letter to Ludwig Feuerbach from Ottilie Assing about Frederick Douglass
• Martin Luther King, Jr. & G.W.F. Hegel
• “Martin Luther King’s Debt to Hegel” by John Ansbro
• Adolph L. Reed, Jr. on Organicism, Authoritarianism, Clericalism, & Black Politics
• For Rene Menil, Caribbean Surrealist-Philosopher (Review) by Ralph Dumain
• "Bonny Delany" [on science fiction writer Samuel R. Delany) by Ralph Dumain
• Lest We Forget—The Hidden History of the African-American Autodidact:
  A Belated Tribute to Black History Month (2000) by Ralph Dumain
• Black History Month 2001: On Intellectual Infrastructures & Independent Learning by Ralph Dumain
• 100 Years of C.L.R. James (4 January 2001—James's 100th birthday) by Ralph Dumain
• Individual Identity, Historical Meaning, and the Unknown Autodidact by Ralph Dumain
• Cultural Impasse & the Changing Forms of Ideality by Ralph Dumain
• The Traditional Canon vs. Multiculturalism in the Literary Profession: A Sterile Debate by Ralph Dumain
• Cornel West's Evasion of Philosophy, Or, Richard Wright's Revenge by Ralph Dumain
• Cornel West and Marxism: An Incomplete Review by R. Dumain
• "Religion and the New African American Intellectuals" by Norm R. Allen, Jr.
• C.L.R. James: A Revolutionary Vision for the 20th Century by Anna Grimshaw, Parts One, Two, Three
• Albert Einstein and Black Americans
• W. E. B. Du Bois on Religion
• Lorraine Hansberry's Humanism
• "The Organized Educational Activities of Negro Literary Societies, 1828-1846" by Dorothy B. Porter, parts one and two
• Remembering the Past and Forgetting Yourself, Or, Why Oprah Is Not an Abolitionist by Ralph Dumain
• William Pickens: Who’s Who in Colored America
• "The Russian Jew and The American Negro" by John D. Swain (1906)
• The Jazz Avant-Garde, Mysticism & Society: Meaning, Method & the Young Hegelians by R. Dumain
• Ishmael Reed, William Blake, and the '60s According to Shamoon Zamir by R. Dumain
• "Schomburg: Cultural Education & Empowerment" by John Anthony Lugo
• "The Little Blue Books in the War on Bigotry and Bunk" by Mark Scott

Black Studies

• A Memorial Tribute to Bill French (includes links)
• "Schomburg: Cultural Education & Empowerment" by John Anthony Lugo
• Black Folk and the Struggle in ‘Philosophy’ by Lucius T. Outlaw

Black American Literature

• "Strong Men" by Sterling A. Brown
• "The Negro Mother" by Langston Hughes, with a personal note
• "Goodbye Christ" by Langston Hughes
• Richard Wright Defines The Outsider
• “Negreto” (Esperanto translation of excerpt from Black Boy) de Richard Wright
• "Jitterbugs" by LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka
• "Hegel" by LeRoi Jones (Amiri Baraka)
• "Gold Is The Shade Esperanto" by Margaret Danner
• "Ars Poetica #17: First Afro-American Esperantist" by Elizabeth Alexander
• Simplex, Complex, & Multiplexity according to Samuel R. Delaney

On Black American Literature

• James Baldwin Revisited (1): Prolegomena by Ralph Dumain
• James Baldwin Revisited (2): Go Tell It on the Mountain by Ralph Dumain
• Ishmael Reed: Literary Ambulance Chaser? by Ralph Dumain
• Ishmael Reed, William Blake, and the '60s According to Shamoon Zamir by R. Dumain
• Review of Ishmael Reed’s Mumbo Jumbo by R. Dumain
• An Enigmatic Historical Moment in Fiction: Colson Whitehead's The Intuitionist (Book Review) by Ralph Dumain

Film Reviews

• Bulworth: Revolution Hollywood Style reviewed by Ralph Dumain
• Hyenas by Djibril Diop Mambety reviewed by Ralph Dumain
• Touki Bouki by Djibril Diop Mambety reviewed by Ralph Dumain

African Studies

• African Philosophy, Politics, and the Division of Labor by Ralph Dumain
• Against Irrationalism and Particularism, Or, The Fake Issue of "Western Mathematics" by Ralph Dumain
• Inside 'The Black Insider', Or, War and Literature: The Writing of Dambudzo Marechera by Ralph Dumain
• Book Review: Between Tides by V.Y. Mudimbe by Ralph Dumain
• Hyenas by Djibril Diop Mambety reviewed by Ralph Dumain
• Touki Bouki by Djibril Diop Mambety reviewed by Ralph Dumain
• "Bill French & Onitsha Market Literature" by Kurt Thometz
• "High Life & Mad English": Kurt Thometz reviewed by John Strausbaugh
• Moore Crossey on Walter Goldwater, Bill French, & Onitsha Market Literature
• The Story of This Book (Preface to The Savage Hits Back) by Julius Lips
• Albert Schweitzer—An African Image by Ndabaningi Sithole
• ‘On the "Not Necessarily Atheist" Nature of Kwame Nkrumah's Philosophical Consciencism’ by Alexander Wooten

Bibliographies & Study Guides (Links)

• Richard Wright
• Richard Wright's "The Man Who Lived Underground": Annotated Bibliography
• African American / Black Autodidacticism, Education, Intellectual Life
• Black / African-American / African Atheism (part of atheism web guide)
• Black Freethinkers & Other Intellectuals (external links)
• The Afro-German Connection: Web Guide & Bibliography
• A Memorial Tribute to Bill French
• Anthony Braxton: Selected Bibliography
• Black Music & the American Surrealists: A Bibliography
• 100 Years of C.L.R. James
• American Philosophy
• Literature, Race, & Money

Poems by Ralph Dumain

• Homebody without a Home (for Rita Dove)
• Sparking My Pain (poem against ghettocentrism)
• Albert Ayler
• Haiku for Richard Wright
• Upon the First Snow-Storm of the Season: Blake & Coltrane in Esperanto

Writings about/in Esperanto

• Volapuk (Chicago Defender, 1911)
• William Pickens: Who’s Who in Colored America
• William Pickens on Esperanto in The Voice of the Negro (1906)
• "Gold Is The Shade Esperanto" by Margaret Danner
• "Ars Poetica #17: First Afro-American Esperantist" by Elizabeth Alexander
• "La Socia Enhavo de l'Ĵazmuziko" [The Social Content of Jazz Music] by Roland Levreaud
• "Misisipi" de Lejb Malaĥ (1894-1936) (Antaŭparolo & Biografio)
• "Miguel A. Caycedo: Poeto de Negreco" (Miguel Ángel Caicedo Mena)
• C.L.R. James & Usona Kulturo by R. Dumain
• Afrikanaj Usonanoj por Humanismo by R. Dumain
• “Dialogo kun Afrika Esperantisto” Dialogas R. Dumain & D-ro Akwasi Osei
• "Al Josephine Baker" [To Josephine Baker] by Poul Thorsen
• Kvar Poemoj de Langston Hughes, translated by Carlos A. Castrillón
• "Adiaŭ Kristo" [Goodbye Christ] de Langston Hughes, translated by R. Dumain
• “Negreto” [Esperanto translation of excerpt from Black Boy] by Richard Wright
• "Ligoj de Frateco" [Bonds of Brotherhood] by Paul Robeson, translated by R. Dumain
• Duke Ellington Komunikas ‘Preter Kategorio’ [Duke Ellington Communicates Beyond Category] Esperanto translation from Ellington by R. Dumain
• "Buboj" [Jitterbugs] by LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka, translated by R. Dumain (1/20/10)
• "Laŭ Afrika Melodio" by R. Dumain
• Malfermu la Sonon (por Miles Davis, 1959) / Open Up the Sound (for Miles Davis, 1959) by R. Dumain
• "Je Unua Neĝoŝtormo Ĉisezona" [Upon the First Snow-Storm of the Season: Blake & Coltrane in Esperanto] poem by R. Dumain
• "Por Hilton Ruiz, Portorikana Pianisto" by Ralph Dumain

ON OTHER SITES

• On C.L.R. James's 'On the Spiritual' by Ralph Dumain
• Postscript on C.L.R. James's "On the Spiritual" by Ralph Dumain
• The Crisis and the Triumph by C.L.R. James
• The C.L.R. James Institute: Texts
• Anthony Braxton: The Third Millennial Interview with Mike Heffley
• Samuel R. Delaney Information
• Samuel R. Delaney as a semi-precious stone
• Black Freethought discussion group (created 2009.02.06) on "Atheist Nexus" networking site