African American Studies Commons^™

Avila, Jose Francisco Interview Part 1, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

Jose Francisco Avila was born in the Garifuna village of Cristalis, near the city of Trujillo in Honduras. He moved with his family as at 15 years old to the United States because his parents wanted better opportunities, specifically educational opportunities, for him and his siblings. They moved to the Dorchester neighborhood in Boston, Massachusetts, where Avila had to quickly learn English at the Boston School for Immigrants, before attending Solomon Lewenberg Junior High School and Boston English High until 1981. Living in a predominantly Black neighborhood in a city with a relatively small Garifuna community, there was constant questioning …

Who Can Afford To Improvise? James Baldwin And Black Music, The Lyric And The Listeners [Table Of Contents], Ed Pavlic

Literature

More than a quarter-century after his death, James Baldwin remains an unparalleled figure in American literature and African American cultural politics. In Who Can Afford to Improvise? Ed Pavlić offers an unconventional, lyrical, and accessible meditation on the life, writings, and legacy of James Baldwin and their relationship to the lyric tradition in black music, from gospel and blues to jazz and R&B. Based on unprecedented access to private correspondence, unpublished manuscripts and attuned to a musically inclined poet’s skill in close listening, Who Can Afford to Improvise? frames a new narrative of James Baldwin’s work and life.

The route …