Charles Henry Rowell
Biographic Data
| ID | 3671955 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Charles Henry Rowell |
| GIVEN NAMES | Charles Henry |
| FAMILY NAME | Rowell |
| SIGNATURE | ROWELL C H |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 111 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 4 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 111 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2000 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
An Interview with Derek Walcott
In Voluntary Solitude: An Interview with Charles Henry Rowell
The Logic of Ekphrasis: An Interview with Gregory Pardlo
An Interview with Octavia E. Butler
An Interview with Ben Okri
"With Bloodstains To Testify": An Interview with Keorapetse Kgositsile
It Is Through Poetry That One Copes With Solitude: An Interview with Aimé Césaire
An Interview with Chinua Achebe
Inscriptive Restorations: An Interview with Natasha Trethewey
Above the Wind: A Conversation with Audre Lorde
Celebrating 40 Years of Callaloo: October 28-29, 2016
Celebrating 40 Years of CallalooOctober 28–29, 2016 Charles Henry Rowell Click for larger view View full resolution The Washington Square Arch in Washington Square Park, an unofficial icon that has become emblematic of the Greenwich Village campus of New York University. NYU Photo Bureau: Pierce [End Page 8] The Creative Writing Program Department of English New York University [End Page 9] Click for larger view View full resolution [End Page 10]…
Letter to the Readers
Performances, Acknowledgments, and Dinner: Closing of the 40th Anniversary Celebration
An Interview with Sylvia Snowden
An Interview with Sylvia Snowden Charles Henry Rowell and Sylvia Snowden Although brief, my conversation with Sylvia Snowden gives us as readers and observers of her art a glimpse into her vibrant personality and how that affects her unique approach to art and painting. ROWELL: How did you came to art? You were born in the Deep South—in North Carolina. SNOWDEN: I grew up on the campus of Dillard University in New Orleans and on the campus of Sout…
Remembering Alexander "Skunder" Boghossian: An Interview with William Karg
Remembering Alexander “Skunder” BoghossianAn Interview with William Karg Charles Henry Rowell and William Karg (bio) ROWELL: How did you come to know Skunder? He seemed to move about to many places—e.g., in Africa, Europe, and North America. KARG: I did not start working with Skunder until he was well established at Howard University where he taught a masters class. I do know that he came to America in the early 1970s. Speaking of dates, there ar…
The Testament of Howard
The Testament of Howard Charles Henry Rowell In “The Personal Without Mask,” my introductory notes to the inaugural issue of Callaloo • Art (2014), I attempted to discuss with our readers what they could expect from our new additional publication. The following paragraph opens the ten-page editorial notes whose purpose is to underscore the need for, scope, and purpose of the annual art issue. I will repeat that opening paragraph here in full: Cal…
Alexander "Skunder" Boghossian
Alexander “Skunder” Boghossian Charles Henry Rowell Click for larger view View full resolution [End Page 7] In his interview with Lodie Robinson, Skunder offers us an important description of his work: In all my work, color is never a mere simulacrum of nature, but is used to illuminate, to create super imposed dimensions of form and shape, which in turn enables the viewer to first see the painting as a unit, then as a simultaneous breaking up of…
An Interview with David C. Driskell
An Interview with David C. Driskell Charles Henry Rowell and David C. Driskell This interview was conducted on December 27, 2014, at the artist’s home in Silver Springs, Maryland. ROWELL: As I read biographical notes on you, I noticed that––after studying at Howard University, Catholic University of America, and other American institutions––you travelled to the Netherlands to study art. That seemed rather different to me, because most American ar…
Neo-Slave Narrative Texts
Neo-Slave Narrative Texts Charles Henry Rowell From the very beginning, when Joan Anim-Addo first asked to guest edit a special issue of Callaloo on the neo-slave narrative, I was not only impressed, I was very pleased—overjoyed is a more appropriate description—that I was not alone in realizing that there had too long been a lacuna in African Diaspora literary criticism dealing with the phenomenon of slave narratives, over one-hundred of which w…
James A. Porter & Alain Locke on Race, Culture, and the Making of Art: A Roundtable
James A. Porter & Alain Locke on Race, Culture, and the Making of ArtA Roundtable Rizvana Bradley (bio), Margo Natalie Crawford (bio), John McCluskey (bio), and Charles Henry Rowell As I was preparing this special issue of Callaloo • Art, I by chance discovered James A. Porter's essay "The Negro Artist and Racial Bias" in Art Front (1937), a limited-run magazine published by the Artist Union of New York from 1925–1937. As I read Porter's article,…
Dedication to the Memory of Joseph T. Skerrett, Jr
Dedication to the Memory of Joseph T. Skerrett, Jr. Charles Henry Rowell, Editor Click for larger view View full resolution JOSEPH T. SKERRETT, JR. Professor of English (June 23, 1943–July 25, 2015) Photograph courtesy of Archie J. Brown Collection [End Page iii] “And gladly wolde he lerne, and gladly teche.” —Geoffrey Chaucer A devoted friend and supportive colleague, Joseph T. Skerrett, Jr., Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Ma…
With Shameless Generosity: An Interview with Jennifer Packer
With Shameless GenerosityAn Interview with Jennifer Packer Charles Henry Rowell Click for larger view View full resolution Jennifer Packer Photograph by Vievee Francis © 2015 [End Page 538] This interview was conducted by email between June 5 and June 16, 2016. My aim was to extend—in Jennifer Packer’s words, of course—her online artist statement which she wrote in 2012. I also wanted to know how she, as artist of figurative painting, views her w…
Bearing Witness to Now
Bearing Witness to Now Charles Henry Rowell, Editor The poetry emphasis of this issue of Callaloo is offered as a supplement to Angles of Ascent: A Norton Anthology of Contemporary African American Poetry (2013), which owes much of its existence to Callaloo, a forum that has long been an unofficial and an unacknowledged chronicle of African American literary poetry since the late-twentieth century. The focus of the anthology Angles of Ascent is p…
Interview Portfolio: An interview with Fletcher Williams III
Interview PortfolioAn interview with Fletcher Williams III Fletcher Williams III (bio) and Charles Henry Rowell Click for larger view View full resolution Fletcher Williams III [End Page 787] At this time, I can think of no better words to present here than part of the biographical note on Fletcher Williams’s website that introduces him to his readers as a new working visual artist: Fletcher Williams III [b. 1987] is a sculptor and painter whose …
Talking Howard University, DC-MD, and Visual Art: A Conversation with Floyd Coleman
Talking Howard University, DC-MD, and Visual ArtA Conversation with Floyd Coleman Charles Henry Rowell (bio) The text that follows is an edited and revised interview that was conducted by email for this special issue of Callaloo • Art. Thanks to Floyd Coleman for taking time out from his many projects to answer the questions I sent to him for this interview. Thanks also to Jeremy M. Clark, a new member of the Callaloo staff, for the sterling edit…
Dedication to the Memory of Joseph T. Skerrett, Jr
Dedication to the Memory of Joseph T. Skerrett, Jr. Charles Henry Rowell, Editor Click for larger view View full resolution JOSEPH T. SKERRETT, JR. Professor of English (June 23, 1943–July 25, 2015) Photograph courtesy of Archie J. Brown Collection [End Page iii] “And gladly wolde he lerne, and gladly teche.” —Geoffrey Chaucer A devoted friend and supportive colleague, Joseph T. Skerrett, Jr., Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Ma…
The Logic of Ekphrasis: An Interview with Gregory Pardlo Part 1
The Logic of EkphrasisAn Interview with Gregory Pardlo Part 1 Charles Henry Rowell and Gregory Pardlo (bio) winner of THE 2015 PULITZER PRIZE FOR POETRY [End Page 345] Click for larger view View full resolution Gregory Pardlo Photograph by Rachel Eliza Griffiths [End Page 346] This interview was conducted by telephone between Brooklyn, NY, and College Station, TX, on October 25, 2015, and later edited via email between February 3 and May 10, 2016…
An Interview with Jackie Kay
An Interview with Jackie Kay Charles Henry Rowell This interview took place on March 27, 2008, at the home of Jackie Kay in Manchester, England. Rowell: I am always struck by comments about you, and they are always dealing with identity politics. Obviously in the United States we live identity politics, but what does "identity politics" mean here in this setting in Northern England and in Scotland where you were born? Kay: Well, for me I've got a…
Una entrevista con Rocío Muñoz Flores
Calling (Out) Our Names: An Editor's Note
An Interview with Edward Dees
An Interview with Edward Dees Charles Henry Rowell This interview was conducted on November 7, 2007, at the physician's home in New Orleans, Louisiana. ROWELL: You practice medicine/psychiatry here in New Orleans. Were you here during Hurricane Katrina? I don't know whether you stayed here when the hurricane and flooding came or whether you returned shortly after it came. I don't know, in other words, what you witnessed. What most of all attracte…
"El Primer Libertador de las Americas" / The First Liberator of the Americas: A Selective Bibliography: Una blibliografía seleccionada
"El Primer Libertador de las Americas" / The First Liberator of the Americas:A Selective BibliographyUna blibliografía seleccionada Charles Henry Rowell "El Primer Libertador de las Americas" /The First Liberator of the AmericasA Selective Bibliography Charles Henry Rowell This bibliography contains a number of the sources that readers of this issue of Callaloo may use in their continued study of Yanga, other moments of resistance to enslavement …
"El Primer Libertador de las Americas"/The First Liberator of the Americas: The Editor's Notes
Interview with Judge Calvin Johnson
The First Liberator of the Americas: The Editor's Notes / "El Primer Libertador de las Americas": Notas del editor
The First Liberator of the Americas: The Editor's Notes / "El Primer Libertador de las Americas": Notas del editor Charles Henry Rowell "El Primer Libertador de las Americas"/The First Liberator of the AmericasThe Editor's Notes Charles Henry Rowell . . . during the peak years of Mexicans slavery, from 1521 to 1639, the colony ranked high among the leading New World importers, receiving roughly half of all slaves entering the Indies. Total slave …
Interview with Rita Dove: Part 1
Interview with Rita DovePart 1 Charles Henry Rowell This interview was conducted Sunday, June 29, 2008, via phone between College Station, TX, and Pennsylvania (as Rita and Fred Viebahn, her husband, were driving from Virginia up to Rochester, NY, to visit their daughter). ROWELL: How did you come to the subject of Sonata Mulattica? What led you to this story, the life of George Augustus Polgreen Bridgetower? DOVE: It was one of those things that…
El Primer Libertador de las Americas /the First Liberator of the Americas: Una blibliografía seleccionada
"El Primer Libertador de las Americas" /The First Liberator of the Americas: A Selective Bibliography
This bibliography contains a number of the sources that readers of this issue of Callaloo may use in their continued study of Yanga, other moments of resistance to enslavement in colonial “Latin America, ” and the consequences of that resistance in recent times. I used some of the items below in the writing of “‘Primer Libertador de America’/First Liberator in the Americas, ” my Editor’s Notes for this number of Callaloo. This bibliography is ske…
An Interview with John Guess
An Interview with John Guess Charles Henry Rowell Click for larger view View full resolution Photo of John F. Guess [End Page 414] This interview was recorded on November 20, 2007, in Houston, Texas. ROWELL: John, I want to start with your career, since you graduated from Johns Hopkins University. Your career is complex; it is packed. When you graduated from Hopkins, you didn't elect to do one simple thing; you did many things. You have managed a…
"El Primer Libertador de las Americas"/The First Liberator of the Americas: Notas del editor
An Interview with Adam Nossiter
An Interview with Adam Nossiter Charles Henry Rowell This interview was conducted in New Orleans, Louisiana, on November 8, 2007, at a sidewalk café on the corner of Magazine and Washington Streets. ROWELL: You were here in New Orleans writing and reporting the news during Hurricane Katrina. Will you describe the circumstances under which you worked during the violent winds and rain and the flooding. NOSSITER: I was a part of the Associated Press…
The Editor's Notes
The Editor’s Notes Charles Henry Rowell The number of positive responses I received from my initial call for literary manuscripts for a special Texas issue of Callaloo was not only surprising but also very much affirming. That is, most of the Texas writers I invited to contribute to the special number of the journal did so without question or hesitation. In fact, I received an inordinate number of very fine manuscripts—too many to accommodate in …
An Interview with Felipe Smith
SMITH: Well, the consequences in some ways depended on where the institutions were located and from which populations they draw their student bodies. The reason this is important is that the locations of the institutions within the city reflect something of the social structure. You have in the Uptown area on the St. Charles corridor, near the river, Tulane and Loyola University, side-by-side, but further away from the river and closer to the lak…
An Interview with Mary Foster
An Interview with Mary Foster Charles Henry Rowell This interview was conducted on November 22, 2007, at the home of Mary Foster in New Orleans. ROWELL: You live in New Orleans, and you have experienced many hurricanes. Did you leave before Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans? FOSTER: I didn't leave because I was at work. I went to the Superdome at 11:00 AM on Sunday morning and I walked out of the Superdome at 6:00 PM the following Saturday night.…
An Interview with Marshall Lee
LEE: I am a psychotherapist with a PhD in Psychology from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. I work at Tulane University. I work in the University's clinic for students and staff. And I also work at a new place that started up after Hurricane Katrina. It's called the New Orleans Center for Wellness and Problems of Living. Dr. Arnold James and I are co-founders of the center. We provide mental health services for middle to working class peop…
Interview with Rita Dove: Part 2
An Interview with Andre Perry
An Interview with Andre Perry Charles Henry Rowell This interview was conducted on December 2, 2007, in Suite Jazz on Frenchmen and Decatur, New Orleans, Louisiana. ROWELL: What have you detected as the effects of Hurricane Katrina and the flooding on your campus, the University of New Orleans? I'm talking about the physical, fiscal, and operational impacts. PERRY: The most noticeable and heartfelt impact would have to be the loss of human resour…
An Interview with Judge Michael G. Bagneris
An Interview with Judge Michael G. Bagneris Charles Henry Rowell This interview was conducted on December 5, 2007, in the judge's chambers at the Orleans Parish Civil District Court on Loyola Avenue in New Orleans, Louisiana. ROWELL: Will you briefly describe your work here as a judge? BAGNERIS: This is the Civil District Court of Orleans Parish. Civil jurisdiction gives the judge jurisdiction over all matters that are non-criminal. There's a cri…
Literature, Culture & Critique: Notes on the First Callaloo Retreat, March 5–8, 2008
Literature, Culture & CritiqueNotes on the First Callaloo Retreat, March 5–8, 2008 Charles Henry Rowell I founded Callaloo in 1976 as a publishing outlet for Black South creative writers and literary critics whose voices were marginalized to the extent that they had been all but silenced. Once I was able to establish the journal as a visible and viable African Diaspora quarterly by the mid-1980s, I then began deliberately working toward transform…
Eyes Upon Texas: The Editor's Notes
Eyes Upon Texas: The Editor’s Notes Charles Henry Rowell Creative writing is thriving in Texas and has been doing so for a number of years. Thanks to the local and state arts councils and, especially, institutions of higher education, creative writing has also received a considerable public reception in various communities. Not a small number of public and private colleges and universities in Texas have made creative writing courses, workshops, a…
Interview with Franklin Sirmans
Interview with Franklin Sirmans Charles Henry Rowell This interview was conducted on April 18, 2007, in the office of Franklin Sirmans at the Menil Collection in Houston, Texas. ROWELL: How did you, who grew up as a middle-class Harlem resident—of Lenox Terrace, let me add—find you your way here to Houston, Texas? I probably should first ask this: How did you find your way to visual art, an expressive art form that is not commonly known in Americ…
Interview with Valerie Cassel Oliver
Interview with Valerie Cassel Oliver Charles Henry Rowell This interview was conducted on August 11, 2005, in the administrative offices of the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston. ROWELL: You are native to Houston, which is not London, Paris, or New York as a site of numerous world-renown museums and art galleries. But Houston has a vibrant museum culture—as far as I can tell, the most exciting and inclusive one in the U. S. American South. How did…
An Interview with Alvia Wardlaw
An Interview with Alvia Wardlaw Charles Henry Rowell This interview was conducted on August 10, 2005, in Alvia Wardlaw’s office at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, in Houston, Texas. ROWELL: A few days ago, you returned from traveling to Tanzania in East Africa. What was the purpose of your trip? WARDLAW: This was my fourth trip to Tanzania and it was part of the African Studies Abroad program for Texas Southern University, sponsored by the Depa…
Reading Each Other, Writing Ourselves: Notes on Callaloo Conferences /Retreats
Reading Each Other, Writing Ourselves:Notes on CALLALOO CONFERENCES/RETREATS Charles Henry Rowell I have always thought the growing divide between the creative and critical worlds to be superficial and nonproductive at best and collectively paranoid at worst. A few months following the Thirtieth Anniversary Celebration of Callaloo in Baltimore, Maryland (October 24-27, 2007), I invited to New Orleans about thirty anniversary participants to form …
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