My name is Raymond Jennings and I am from Powder Springs, Georgia, a small quaint southern town located in the suburbs of Atlanta. I have spent more than half of my life here where middle and high school were just a stone's throw away and college only next door where I graduated with a BA in geography from Kennesaw State University. The first half of my life was spent in southwest Atlanta where I grew up in the neighborhood of the West End, not too far from Spelman, Morehouse, and Clark Atlanta (i.e., The Atlanta University Center – AUC for short). Three and a half years of my life have also been spent studying and living in France.
Actively studying the French language since middle school and traveling to France and other Western European countries, I have taken note of the undeniable parallels between travel and cultural awareness. The ability to see the world through the language and travel lens has mademe more cognizant of social, economic, and political issues outside of the United States. My experiences abroad in France as a student and then as a teaching assistant have exposed me to various perspectives from not only European countries, but also other regions around the world. For example, soccer has proven to be a better way for me to understand geography and come to terms more and more with the meaning of social diversity both in and outside of the classroom. I have had the opportunity to play in the U.S. and in France with individuals from a variety of backgrounds. Beyond France and the U.S., I have traveled to England, Scotland, Italy, Germany, and most recently, Spain. Of the numerous European countries and cities that I have been privileged to travel to thus far, I have a soft spot for places like Florence, Italy for its connection to the Renaissance and Marseille, France for its history and culture as a major port in the Mediterranean and links to Black writers I am fond of such as Claude McKay.
The greatest influences on my intellectual development are James Baldwin and Richard Wright. They are, for me, the most important influences due to their extended time living abroad in Europe as Black American expatriates, amongst several others. Despite education always being a priority in my household growing up, reading—outside of schoolwork and class—never quite was. So it was, for most of my life up until recently, a sort of academic obligation. Working as a gallery assistant at the National Center for Civil and Human Rights for four years provided me with a wealth of information and resources for which to make up the time spent on other things I did as a kid.
Prior to this experience, I had not been aware of either Baldwin or Wright. Ironically, I would first read each of their novels, “Black Boy” (1945) and “The Fire Next Time” (1963), in French. The front cover of Richard Wright’s Black Boy is the un-captioned image included in the introduction to this blog's home page, as it was the first novel I read as a master’s student in Paris. French podcasts, however, were the bridge to discovering both writers who would have a major impact on my overall outlook and points of views, specifically as it relates to Black culture, the Black condition, and Black literature. Each would impact my intellectual development in different ways but would take root in Paris, the very same place they had lived many decades prior. Although Baldwin was from the North in Harlem, and Wright from the South in Mississippi, I related more to the work of Baldwin despite being a southerner by birth. His prose and more optimistic take on race relations and moving beyond this construct we call race in the country he called home, resonated with my upbringing more. Richard Wright’s novels displayed a more cynical and pessimist stance of race relations, which has nonetheless also influenced my perspective. Despite each presenting their own visions of Black reality and Black lived experiences, one seemed to fit the value system in which I was raised.
Although James Baldwin and Richard Wright are two of my most important influences in an intellectual sense, the entire collage of Black Paris and the Black literary movement have greatly impacted my current outlook and perspective ever since. Although I still have much more ground to make up, other influences on my views in the Black literary tradition include Maya Angelou, Ralph Ellison, Aimé Césaire, Frantz Fanon, and more recently, Claude Mckay.
Reading and exposing myself to new information and to new perspectives across a variety of ethnic and racial backgrounds benefits me greatly. In reading about others for example, I have discovered more about myself.
Actively studying the French language since middle school and traveling to France and other Western European countries, I have taken note of the undeniable parallels between travel and cultural awareness. The ability to see the world through the language and travel lens has mademe more cognizant of social, economic, and political issues outside of the United States. My experiences abroad in France as a student and then as a teaching assistant have exposed me to various perspectives from not only European countries, but also other regions around the world. For example, soccer has proven to be a better way for me to understand geography and come to terms more and more with the meaning of social diversity both in and outside of the classroom. I have had the opportunity to play in the U.S. and in France with individuals from a variety of backgrounds. Beyond France and the U.S., I have traveled to England, Scotland, Italy, Germany, and most recently, Spain. Of the numerous European countries and cities that I have been privileged to travel to thus far, I have a soft spot for places like Florence, Italy for its connection to the Renaissance and Marseille, France for its history and culture as a major port in the Mediterranean and links to Black writers I am fond of such as Claude McKay.
The greatest influences on my intellectual development are James Baldwin and Richard Wright. They are, for me, the most important influences due to their extended time living abroad in Europe as Black American expatriates, amongst several others. Despite education always being a priority in my household growing up, reading—outside of schoolwork and class—never quite was. So it was, for most of my life up until recently, a sort of academic obligation. Working as a gallery assistant at the National Center for Civil and Human Rights for four years provided me with a wealth of information and resources for which to make up the time spent on other things I did as a kid.
Prior to this experience, I had not been aware of either Baldwin or Wright. Ironically, I would first read each of their novels, “Black Boy” (1945) and “The Fire Next Time” (1963), in French. The front cover of Richard Wright’s Black Boy is the un-captioned image included in the introduction to this blog's home page, as it was the first novel I read as a master’s student in Paris. French podcasts, however, were the bridge to discovering both writers who would have a major impact on my overall outlook and points of views, specifically as it relates to Black culture, the Black condition, and Black literature. Each would impact my intellectual development in different ways but would take root in Paris, the very same place they had lived many decades prior. Although Baldwin was from the North in Harlem, and Wright from the South in Mississippi, I related more to the work of Baldwin despite being a southerner by birth. His prose and more optimistic take on race relations and moving beyond this construct we call race in the country he called home, resonated with my upbringing more. Richard Wright’s novels displayed a more cynical and pessimist stance of race relations, which has nonetheless also influenced my perspective. Despite each presenting their own visions of Black reality and Black lived experiences, one seemed to fit the value system in which I was raised.
Although James Baldwin and Richard Wright are two of my most important influences in an intellectual sense, the entire collage of Black Paris and the Black literary movement have greatly impacted my current outlook and perspective ever since. Although I still have much more ground to make up, other influences on my views in the Black literary tradition include Maya Angelou, Ralph Ellison, Aimé Césaire, Frantz Fanon, and more recently, Claude Mckay.
Reading and exposing myself to new information and to new perspectives across a variety of ethnic and racial backgrounds benefits me greatly. In reading about others for example, I have discovered more about myself.