Undergraduate Research & Scholarships

Ashley Campbell Humanities

The Making of Black Avant-garde Poetics: Mythmaking, Genre-Making, and Placemaking in Jericho Brown’s The Tradition

Scholars Journal

Ashley’s project delves into the rich tapestry of Black avant-garde poetics, focusing particularly on the eminent poet Jericho Brown. Through Brown’s ingenious critical work, Ashley aims to explore the multifaceted manifestations and significant evolutions within Black poetic scholarship. At the heart of this exploration lies Brown’s seminal collection, “The Tradition,” which pushes boundaries by transcending traditional poetic conventions, prompting critical inquiry into which traditions should be preserved, revitalized, or reimagined. By examining Brown’s poetry through the lens of the poetics of “making,” Ashley seeks to examine how Black poets like Brown craft myths, innovate genre, and architect places where new poetics forms and structures can emerge, thus reshaping literary tradition and broadening the scope of Black poetics to embrace the diversity of Black experiences and narratives.