Now that midterm has passed and my time left at Duquesne is dwindling, I felt it was a good time to do some reflecting on my life and my interests as my undergraduate studies came to a close. I thought about how I’ve come to love modernist poetry, costume-centric film analysis, and studying visual culture. With the help of Ted, some of these special interests are being turned into new library guides.
A few weeks ago, we completed a guide on Toni Morrison, an author I greatly admire, which gave me the opportunity to see more of her works and gain a better understanding of how to compose library guides on my own. Staring last week, I began to compile resources for the first guide I’ll be creating on my own focused on Black modernist poets. It was an interesting challenge to find names as many of the major figures came out of the Harlem Renaissance and the others are not as well known. During my research, I found several archives that have issues of little magazines published during the Harlem Renaissance and modernist era that will be fantastic additions to the guide. Little magazines can often be overlooked in the gathering of research materials so having access to digital copies of magazines like The Crisis, Opportunity, and Fire!! that highlight the poets featured on the guide has been very useful.
In the coming weeks I am looking forward to finishing the Black Modernist Poets guide and beginning work on my next guide, African American Film. It has been very exciting and rewarding to take the time to examine the figures and resources behind some of my favorite study topics. It has been a generative exercise, creating new avenues for academic essays and personal research on more nuanced topics within these subjects. I can’t believe my time with Gumberg Library is already half over.
Building Bridges 