Research Catalog

Title

Michele Wallace papers, ca. 1940-2004.

Author

Wallace, Michele

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

• Fritz, Leah, 1931-
• Fusco, Coco
• Gates, Henry Louis, Jr.
• Guy-Sheftall, Beverly
• Hooks, Bell
• Nelson, Jill
• Nesmith, Gene
• Painter, Nell Irvin
• Reed, Ishmael, 1938-
• Riggs, Marlon T.
• Ringgold, Faith
• Smith, Barbara 1946-
• Spillers, Hortense J.
• Sykes, Roberta B.
• Tate, Claudia
• Walker, Alice
• West, Cornel
• Williams, Sherley Anne, 1944-1999.

Description

10.8 lin. ft. (27 archival boxes)

Summary

• The Michele Wallace Papers document her career as a cultural critic, journalist and intellectual since the late 1970s. The Personal Papers series includes biographical information on Wallace in interviews, statements, letters, and educational materials. Information about her mother, artist Faith Ringgold, and other family members is also found here. Significant correspondents include Wallace's former husband Eugene Nesmith, and writers Jill Nelson, Ishmael Reed, Roberta (Bobbi) Sykes, Alice Walker, Cornel West and Sherley Anne Williams.
• The Writing series contains five subseries, Books, Articles and Essays, Interviews, Fiction, and Poetry. The Books subseries includes contracts, annotated galleys, correspondence with publishers, publicity materials, and reviews for "Black Macho and the Myth of the Superwoman," "Invisibility Blues: From Pop to Theory" and "Dark Designs and Visual Culture," and a file for the book, "Black Popular Culture: A Project" by Michele Wallace, edited by Gina Dent. The Articles and Essays subseries contains drafts for articles, essays and critical papers published in the "Village Voice" and other magazines, journals, and anthologies. Her published interviews with Alvin Ailey, Nona Hendryx, Iman, Grace Jones, Wilma Mankiller, and Richard Pryor are included in the Interviews subseries, and Wallace's unpublished novel, "Aint Nobody Business," can be found the Fiction subseries, including correspondence with publishers, and other unpublished fiction. The Poetry subseries contains a file of unpublished poems written by Wallace.
• The Professional series is divided into six subseries, Teaching, Associations, Conferences, Lectures and Speaking Events, Contracts and Correspondence and Research files. The Associations subseries contains files for The Women Students and Artists for Black Art Liberation (WSABAL), and The Sisterhood. Founded in 1970 by Faith Ringgold, Wallace and her sister Barbara Wallace, WSABAL was an ad hoc group of the Art Workers' Coalition, an organization of white artists protesting against the Museum of Modern Art and their callous treatment of artists and their work. The file contains letters about plans to demonstrate at the SVA show, as well as letters Wallace penned to Gloria Steinem, editor of MS Magazine. The Sisterhood was a black women's writers group which featured among its membership Margo Jefferson, Audre Lorde, Ntozake Shange, Alice Walker and Wallace. The files contain minutes for meetings in 1977, in-house proposals and letters to the membership.

Subject

• Wallace, Michele
• Ailey, Alvin
• Bradley, Ed, 1941-2006
• Dunye, Cheryl
• Gates, Henry Louis, Jr
• Golden, Thelma
• Hendryx, Nona
• hooks, bell, 1952-2021
• Iman, 1955-
• Jefferson, Margo
• Jones, Grace
• Lee, Spike
• Mankiller, Wilma, 1945-2010
• Micheaux, Oscar, 1884-1951
• Painter, Nell Irvin
• Pryor, Richard, 1940-2005
• Reed, Ishmael, 1938-
• Riggs, Marlon T
• Ringgold, Faith
• Shange, Ntozake
• Steinem, Gloria
• Women Students and Artists for Black Art Liberation
• Sisterhood (Organization : New York, N.Y.)
• African American authors
• African American families > New York (State) > New York
• African American artists
• African American feminists
• African American men
• African American women
• Feminism > United States
• Feminism and literature
• Feminists in literature
• African American journalists
• Authors, Black
• African Americans > Psychology
• Philosophy, Modern
• Modernism (Literature) > United States
• American literature > Women authors
• Postmodernism
• Identity (Psychology) in literature
• Rap (Music)
• Criticism > United States > History > 20th century
• Popular culture > United States > History > 20th century
• Harlem (New York, N.Y.)

Genre/Form

Love letters.

Source (note)

• Michele Wallace

Biography (note)

• Michele Wallace is best known for her first book, "Black Macho and the Myth of the Superwoman." A feminist scholar, cultural critic and intellectual, Wallace began her writing career while she was student at City College of New York. Throughout the 1970s, her articles, essays, interviews and editorials appeared in newspapers and journals such as "The Village Voice," "Newsweek," and "Ms. Magazine," and later "The New York Times" and "Transitions." "Black Macho" (1979), Wallace's polemic was an instant bestseller. It is considered the first collection of essays published by a black woman, and the first book published by a black feminist. Wallace has taught at various colleges and universities over the course of her career, in addition to freelance writing.
• In Wallace's second book, "Invisibility Blues: From Pop to Theory" (1991) she considers black popular cultural icons such as Michael Jackson, Ntozake Shange, Spike Lee, and her mother, Faith Ringgold, as well as black feminism. The book helped to establish Wallace as a formidable cultural critic. In her third collection, Dark Designs and Visual Culture (2004) Wallace continues to mine her theoretical preoccupations on autobiography, black feminism, postmodernism, and pop culture, and offers provocative critiques on intellectuals Henry Louis Gates, Jr, and bell hooks.

Call Number

Sc MG 739

OCLC

752306365

Author

Wallace, Michele.

Title

Michele Wallace papers, ca. 1940-2004.

Biography

Michele Wallace is best known for her first book, "Black Macho and the Myth of the Superwoman." A feminist scholar, cultural critic and intellectual, Wallace began her writing career while she was student at City College of New York. Throughout the 1970s, her articles, essays, interviews and editorials appeared in newspapers and journals such as "The Village Voice," "Newsweek," and "Ms. Magazine," and later "The New York Times" and "Transitions." "Black Macho" (1979), Wallace's polemic was an instant bestseller. It is considered the first collection of essays published by a black woman, and the first book published by a black feminist. Wallace has taught at various colleges and universities over the course of her career, in addition to freelance writing.

In Wallace's second book, "Invisibility Blues: From Pop to Theory" (1991) she considers black popular cultural icons such as Michael Jackson, Ntozake Shange, Spike Lee, and her mother, Faith Ringgold, as well as black feminism. The book helped to establish Wallace as a formidable cultural critic. In her third collection, Dark Designs and Visual Culture (2004) Wallace continues to mine her theoretical preoccupations on autobiography, black feminism, postmodernism, and pop culture, and offers provocative critiques on intellectuals Henry Louis Gates, Jr, and bell hooks.

Connect to:

Finding Aid

Local Subject

Black author.

Added Author

Wallace, Michele. Black macho and the myth of the superwoman.

Wallace, Michele. Black popular culture.

Wallace, Michele. Dark designs and visual culture.

Wallace, Michele. Invisibility blues, from pop to theory.

Fritz, Leah, 1931-

Fusco, Coco.

Gates, Henry Louis, Jr.

Guy-Sheftall, Beverly.

Hooks, Bell.

Nelson, Jill.

Nesmith, Gene.

Painter, Nell Irvin.

Reed, Ishmael, 1938-

Riggs, Marlon T.

Ringgold, Faith.

Smith, Barbara 1946-

Spillers, Hortense J.

Sykes, Roberta B.

Tate, Claudia.

Walker, Alice.

West, Cornel.

Williams, Sherley Anne, 1944-1999.

Research Call Number

Sc MG 739