YSU, Area Schools And Community To Honor Dunbar
By Leon Stennis
Coordinator of Diversity Initiatives
Dayton-born Paul Laurence Dunbar, America’s first professional African
American poet, will come alive on campus and in the community during the
100th anniversary of his death in February, through the work of the Paul
Laurence Dunbar Centennial Committee.
The committee, which is chaired by Dr. Victor Wan-Tatah, director of the
YSU Africana Studies Program, is composed of both campus and community members.
It is planning a weeklong agenda of activities to celebrate Paul Laurence
Dunbar Week during Feb. 9 through 24 of 2006.
The events will commemorate the life and work of the writer, who wrote
more than 400 poems in six books of verse, short stories, novels, dramas,
and music. Dunbar, whose dialect poetry was better accepted by his largely
white reading audience, wrote both standard verse and dialect poems. He
established a major literary record before his untimely death at the age
of 33 on Feb. 9, 1906.
The tentative program includes the following:
• Sunday, Feb. 19 - A panel discussion of Dunbar’s religious poems and music
will be held at 6 p.m. at Mt. Calvary Pentecostal Church, 1812 oak Hill
Ave., Youngstown. The program will focus on Dunbar’s many poems with a religious
tone and his song. The event will be coordinated by Leon Stennis and the
Rev. Alfred D. Coward, an associate minister of the church.
• Monday, Feb. 20 – Barnes and Nobles Bookseller, 381 Boardman-Poland Road,
Boardman, will sponsor a Paul Laurence Dunbar Poetry reading titled “Dunbar
and the Presidents” at 7 p.m. at the bookstore. The poetry readings will
focus on poems that reflect Dunbar’s affinity for, or friendship with, several
presidents. Carleen Brilmyer of Barnes and Noble will coordinate the event.
• Tuesday, Feb. 21 – A “mixed bag” of Dunbar’s poetry will be read by selected
students and faculty at the junior and senior high school and college levels,
and members of the general public, at the SMARTS Center, located next door
to Powers Auditorium in downtown Youngstown. Carleen Brilmyer will coordinate
the event, which will be co-sponsored by the YSU Office of Equal Opportunity
and Diversity, YSU Poetry Center, and YSU Africana Studies Program.
• Wednesday, Feb. 22 – The 100-year-old plus Paul Laurence Dunbar Circle
of New Castle, Pa., will sponsor a special tribute to Dunbar at 6 p.m. at
Second Baptist Church, 537 Bell Ave., New Castle. The event will be coordinated
by Emma Taylor, president of the Circle, and Dorothy Taylor, a circle member.
• Thursday, Feb. 23 – LaVerne Sci, site manager for the Dunbar Museum in
Dayton, will give the keynote address, “Paul Laurence Dunbar – 100 Years
later” at 3 p.m. in the McKay Auditorium of YSU’s Beeghly College of Education
on West Rayen Avenue in Youngstown. Earlier in the day on Thursday and Friday,
Ms. Sci will visit Chaney, Wilson, and Rayen High schools and Legacy Academy
in Youngstown, Warren Harding High School in Warren, and possibly area parochial
high schools to speak at assemblies and/or workshops on the life and works
of Dunbar. The Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County will sponsor
a discussion of Dunbar’s best-known novel, “Sport of the Gods,” at 6:30
p.m. at its Main Branch, located at Wick at Rayen avenues in Youngstown.
The discussion will be led by Dr. Dolores Sisco, assistant professor of
English (African American literature) at YSU. Deborah Liptak, development
director for the library, will coordinate the event. Ms. Sci will also be
a participant in the book discussion.
For additional information about plans for the observance of Paul Laurence
Dunbar Week, contact the YSU Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity at
330-941-2718.