Discourse in Black: Voices of the Self, Let's Flip the Script, and Liberation Memories - Paperback

by Keith Gilyard (Author), Melba Joyce Boyd (Editor)

Back Jacket

Explore the influential prose of Keith Gilyard in this impressive collection that challenges and expands our understanding of language, education, and cultural identity. In Voices of the Self--winner of the American Book Award--Gilyard explores the impact of African American Vernacular English (AAVE) on education, advocating for linguistic pluralism. Let's Flip the Script continues this dialogue with a series of provocative essays on language, education, and politics. In Liberation Memories, he shifts to the intersection of rhetoric and poetics in African American literature, highlighting the works of John Oliver Killens and their relevance to contemporary discussions on cultural expression and social justice. Throughout his career, Gilyard has nourished literary and rhetorical discourse by eloquently reframing topics spanning language, culture, and educational praxis. These three significant texts are an essential resource for classroom conversations about Black language as a transformational tool.

Author Biography

Keith Gilyard is the Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of English and African American Studies at the Pennsylvania State University and a former president of the National Council of Teachers of English. He has published widely on topics of language and rhetoric in both fiction and nonfiction genres and is the recipient of two American Book Awards and the Penn State Faculty Scholar Medal for Outstanding Achievement in the Arts and Humanities.