Research Catalog

Title

Melvin Dixon audio collection : 5 items.

Author

Dixon, Melvin, 1950-1992

Publication

[1993]

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division.

Description

5 audiocassettes

Summary

The collection consists of 5 audio recordings of radio interviews in which Davis reads his poetry, some of which are in French.

Subjects

• African American gays
• Sound recordings
• American poetry > African American authors
• American fiction > African American authors
• AIDS (Disease) in literature
• African American gays > Intellectual life
• Homosexuality and literature > United States
• Gay men in literature
• Gay men
• Gays' writings, American
• African Americans in literature
• African Americans > Social life and customs
• African Americans > Relations with Africans
• African American poets
• African American novelists
• Authors, American
• American literature > African American authors
• Dixon, Melvin, 1950-1992

Genre/Form

Sound recordings.

Note

• Melvin Dixon, widely praised as a novelist, translator and literary critic, published poetry that portrayed both his interior explorations and world travels. Born in Stamford, Connecticut in 1950, Dixon was graduated from Wesleyan University in 1971 in American Studies, and earned an MA in 1973 and a Ph.D. in 1975 from Boston University. He was professor of English at several universities. As an openly gay man, his long-term partner was Richard Horovitz. Both in his published and unpublished writings, Dixon wrote openly about his homosexuality. James Baldwin's influence is seen in Dixon's two novels, "Trouble the Water" (1989, winner of the Nilon Award for Excellence in Minority Fiction) and "Vanishing Rooms," (1991). In the latter, Dixon wrote about homophobia and racism in New York City's Greenwich Village. His first book of poems, "Change of Territory," (1983) spoke of the historic northward migration of African Americans from the southern United States and the enforced journeys of African slavery. His final volume of poems, "Love's Instruments" (1995) published after his death from an AIDS-related illness in 1992, serves as a tribute to other gay men with this disease. As an active spokesman for gay communities and issues, Dixon integrated the complexities of gay identity and lifestyle into his work while communicating what it meant to be a black man. As a writer, Dixon embraced both scholarship and creativity. He wrote poems, short stories, novels, essays, critical studies, and translations from French. Seeking his literary heritage, he traveled to the Caribbean, Africa and Europe, researching the Haitian poet and novelist Jacques Roumain, Leopold Senghor, the former president of Senegal, and Richard Wright in Paris. His translations include Roumain's poems, Genevieve Fabre's "Drumbeats, Mass, and Metaphor: Contemporary Afro-American Theatre" (1983), and "The Collected Poetry by Leopold Sedar Senghor" (1991). His critical study of African-American literature is entitled "Ride Out the Wilderness" (1987).

Linking Entry (note)

• Forms part of the Melvin Dixon archive. Papers can be found in the Manuscripts, Archvies and Rare Books Division: Melvin Dixon papers, 1962-1992. (Sc MG 468). Published material can be found in the Jean Blackwell Hutson Research and Reference Division.

Call Number

Sc MIRS Dixon 1993-11

OCLC

1198433106

Author

Dixon, Melvin, 1950-1992, creator.

Title

Melvin Dixon audio collection : 5 items.

Publisher

[1993]

Linking Entry

Forms part of the Melvin Dixon archive. Papers can be found in the Manuscripts, Archvies and Rare Books Division: Melvin Dixon papers, 1962-1992. (Sc MG 468). Published material can be found in the Jean Blackwell Hutson Research and Reference Division.

Connect to:

Request Access to Schomburg Moving Images and Recorded Sound

Added Author

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division.

Research Call Number

Sc MIRS Dixon 1993-11