This seminar examines critical and creative writings about Black aesthetics. We will explore theories about the relationship between race, writing, and representation. How have Black writers defined the uniqueness of Black aesthetic practices? What is the relationship between Black aesthetics and Black liberation struggles? How do Black aesthetics imagine new conceptions of humanity? Authors include (but are not limited to) Zora Neale Hurston, Ralph Ellison, Sylvia Wynter, Fred Moten, Gwendolyn Brooks, Henry Louis Gates Jr., Toni Morrison, and James Baldwin.