Research Catalog

Michele Wallace papers

Title
Michele Wallace papers, ca. 1940-2004.
Author
Wallace, Michele.

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StatusContainerFormatAccessCall NumberItem Location
Box2Mixed materialUse in library Sc MG 739 Box2Schomburg Center - Manuscripts & Archives
Box3Mixed materialUse in library Sc MG 739 Box3Schomburg Center - Manuscripts & Archives
Box4Mixed materialUse in library Sc MG 739 Box4Schomburg Center - Manuscripts & Archives
Box5Mixed materialUse in library Sc MG 739 Box5Schomburg Center - Manuscripts & Archives
Box6Mixed materialUse in library Sc MG 739 Box6Schomburg Center - Manuscripts & Archives
Box7Mixed materialUse in library Sc MG 739 Box7Schomburg Center - Manuscripts & Archives
Box8Mixed materialUse in library Sc MG 739 Box8Schomburg Center - Manuscripts & Archives
Box9Mixed materialUse in library Sc MG 739 Box9Schomburg Center - Manuscripts & Archives
Box10Mixed materialUse in library Sc MG 739 Box10Schomburg Center - Manuscripts & Archives
Box11Mixed materialUse in library Sc MG 739 Box11Schomburg Center - Manuscripts & Archives
Box12Mixed materialUse in library Sc MG 739 Box12Schomburg Center - Manuscripts & Archives
Box13Mixed materialUse in library Sc MG 739 Box13Schomburg Center - Manuscripts & Archives
Box14Mixed materialUse in library Sc MG 739 Box14Schomburg Center - Manuscripts & Archives
Box15Mixed materialUse in library Sc MG 739 Box15Schomburg Center - Manuscripts & Archives
Box16Mixed materialUse in library Sc MG 739 Box16Schomburg Center - Manuscripts & Archives
Box17Mixed materialUse in library Sc MG 739 Box17Schomburg Center - Manuscripts & Archives
Box18Mixed materialUse in library Sc MG 739 Box18Schomburg Center - Manuscripts & Archives
Box19Mixed materialUse in library Sc MG 739 Box19Schomburg Center - Manuscripts & Archives
Box20Mixed materialUse in library Sc MG 739 Box20Schomburg Center - Manuscripts & Archives
Box21Mixed materialUse in library Sc MG 739 Box21Schomburg Center - Manuscripts & Archives

Details

Additional Authors
  • Wallace, Michele.
  • 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.
Subjects
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
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