Preparations for London

By Kaysyn Jones

At this stage of my project, my work primarily takes the form of preliminary research and preparation for the site-based research I will be conducting in London starting in late June.

Part of that means a lot of reading. I am researching a literary movement that I’m not overly familiar with — the British Black Arts Movement — and so I’m becoming familiar with some of the active short story writers and poets of the era through anthologies such as these:

I’m also learning about a different definition to a word I’m familiar with: Blackness. Black British identity is distinctly different from Black American identity, and has a different history attached to it. This has been perhaps the most difficult part of my research thus far, as I have to hold two disparate conceptions of a cultural term in order to engage in a meaningful and open manner with the ontological writings of Black British authors, poets, and essayists. I have also found it to be profoundly rewarding, both intellectually and, in a real way, culturally. So, I’m taking the time to familiarize myself through reading texts like…

The skill that I’m practicing in the process of all this reading is skimming. In the past, I’ve gotten lost or distracted in dense texts, so I’m working on my ability to identify relevant information and main ideas in the literature before returning to do more in-depth reads of the most important chapters, essays, or creative works.

In addition to my readings, I’m preparing to conduct in-person archival research in London! A wonderful resource that I am excited to use are the numerous archives in the city. I will be visiting the Black Cultural Archives, the London Archives, and the George Padmore Institute.

My first experience at Florida State University with archival research came in the form of the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program, where I worked as a research assistant for Professor Madeleine Stout on her project “Cold War Kitsch”. The focus of the project was on the 1932 voyage by Black American writers and activists to create a Soviet-funded film on race relations in the United States, titled Black and White. My research concerned the impact that the trip might have had on two of the writers involved: Dorothy West and Langston Hughes. I utilized digitized correspondence from the writers’ respective collections at the Yale Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library as part of my project.

This time around, however, I will be conducting research on-site and utilizing ephemera and local periodicals as my subjects. One resource that has been a massive help to me as I prepare is FSU Special Collections and Archives, a division within the university library where I work. My position as a research desk assistant has been invaluable in gaining more experience in how to handle archival materials, especially when it comes to older manuscripts. The Special Collections database is hosted on ArchiveSpace, which has turned out to be the same site that the Black Cultural Archives uses to host their materials. My training on navigating ArchiveSpace made identifying materials to have pulled much easier. I am excited to continue to develop my skills in archival research over the course of this project!

I will also be conducting interviews over the course of my project with individuals who were active during the British Black Arts Movement in its literary branch. This is work that I have limited experience in, and so will be a new skill set for me to explore. I hope that this will be a great place of growth for me over the course of my time in London.