This course offers a deep exploration of the vibrancy of Black American life and thought through the lens of African American literature. Students will actively and critically read selected African American texts considering the historical contexts in which they were produced as well as analyzing their formal elements. While the course will focus on Black American experience in the United States, it will do so in dialogue with the larger diasporic Black experience. The topics will rotate regularly, alternating between close examination of different authors, genres, themes, or movements while preparing students for the HUA capstone experience. Examples of authors are Langston Hughes, Richard Wright, James Baldwin, Zora Neale Hurston, Alice Walker, Toni Morrison, Lorraine Hansberry and August Wilson. Examples of genres are slave narratives, sermons, autobiographies, dramas, spirituals, blues, and drama. Examples of themes are race and the law, freedom struggles, and intersections between race and class, gender, and sexuality. Examples of movements are the Black Arts Movement, the Civil Rights Movement, and the Black Lives Matter Movement. This course may be repeated for different topics.