In honor of Juneteenth, we will be celebrating African Americans and their history by watching five documentaries on Kanopy.
Ralph Ellison: An American Journey
In Ralph Ellison: An American Journey, we follow the life and career of prolific novelist Ralph Ellison as he rises in the ranks of the writing world with his works of Invisible Man and his unfinished project, Juneteenth.
This documentary features poets, critics, and professors alike, all speaking on the importance of Ralph Ellison in his entirety. Ellison was the child of Ida Millsap and Lewis Ellison, who both wished for him to become a poet. Growing up in segregated Oklahoma, he had to overcome prejudice and racism in order to be seen and acknowledged. After college, he managed to travel to New York, where he would stay, learning the ways of the artist world with mentors such as Langston Hughes, Richard Wright, and Alain Locke. He flourished under their experienced wing and wrote The Invisible Man, a novel that follows an unnamed protagonist and his experience living in the 20th century and navigating racism and popular ideologies while carving out his own identity. The Invisible Man is a work that aligned with the black experience in American history, especially at the time of publication.
Vibrant with history, art, quotations, and clips of Ellison talking of his works, this documentary is for everyone who would love to learn more about our history, one invisible man at a time.
Thank you so much for reading this blog. To watch this documentary, click the link here
