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The Breakfast Club

BLK LIT - Phillis Wheatley - The Letters

The Breakfast Club

The Black Effect Podcast Network and iHeartPodcasts

Comedy

4.414.4K Ratings

🗓️ 12 May 2025

⏱️ 36 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The Black Effect Presents... BLK LIT!

The discussion centers on the friendship between Phyllis Wheatley and Obour Tanner, highlighting their intellectual exchange and the significance of their letters during the Revolutionary War. The episode delves into themes of legacy, faith, and the power of Black joy, illustrating how these women navigated their identities and built a lasting impact through their words.

CREDITS

Brigitte Fielder - Associate Professor at the University of Wisconsin Madison in the College of Letters and Science

David Waldstreicher - Professor of History, Black, Race, and Ethnic Studies, Biography and Memoir, American Studies at CUNY

Cassander Smith - Professor of English at the University of Alabama / Associate Dean for Academic Affairs for the Honors College also at Alabama

Tara Bynum -  Associate Professor of English and African American Studies at the University of Iowa.

Halimah Shabazz - Special Guest 

Don Holmes - Assistant Professor of English at the University of Pittsburgh

READ 

The Odyssey of Phillis Wheatley: A Poet’s Journeys Through American Slavery and Independence By David Waldstreicher

Reading Pleasures - Everyday Black Living in Early America, By Tara A. Bynum

Race and Respectability in an Early Black Atlantic, By Cassander L. Smith

CHAPTERS

00:00 The Broader Landscape of Black Literature
02:53 Friendship and Resilience in Letters
05:50 Phyllis Wheatley: A Voice of Power
09:14 Legacy and the Importance of Correspondence
11:55 Faith and Reclamation of Power
14:50 The Impact of Black Joy and Friendship

TEAM BLK LIT

Jason Torres: @JNTNY

Jabari Davis @JabariADavis

Jacquees Thomas @_ThatsPeace 

Join the Writers Collective BLKWritersRoom.com

Sign up for News and Great Gifts for Book Lovers AbakeBooks.com

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@BreakfastClubPower1051FM

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

You're listening to an I-Heart podcast.

0:05.0

I'm Soledad O'Brien, and on my new true crime podcast, Murder on the Toe Path, I'm taking you back to 1964 to the cold case of artist Mary Pinch O'Meyer.

0:16.7

She had been shot twice in the head and in the back.

0:20.1

It turns out, Mary was connected to a very powerful man.

0:25.3

I pledge you that we shall neither commit nor provoke aggression.

0:29.7

John F. Kennedy.

0:31.6

Listen to Murder on the Toothatch with Soledad O'Brien on the Iheartio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

0:44.0

Explore the winding halls of historical true crime with Holly Fry and Maria Tremarky, hosts of

0:49.7

criminalia, as they uncover curious cases from the past. The legend of the highwayman suggests men dominated the field,

0:56.8

but tell that to Lady Catherine Ferrer's, known as the Wicked Lady,

1:00.6

who terrorized England in the mid-1600s.

1:03.4

Her legend persists nearly 400 years after her death.

1:07.0

Highwaymen are in the hot seat this season.

1:09.3

Find more crime and cocktails on Criminalia.

1:12.5

Listen to Criminalia on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

1:22.3

After a crime, you read the headlines, but do you know the story?

1:28.6

At the time that I called a place he knew I had called him and left the house with a firearm

1:32.2

and was texting me that he was going to use it.

1:35.5

I'm Hannah Smith, and I'm Pasha Eaton.

1:38.1

We host The Knife, a podcast from the Exactly Right network that cuts to the heart of the story.

1:45.3

Through in-depth interviews and candid conversations, we'll bring you firsthand accounts of people living through the ripple effects

1:51.0

of crime. Most of us don't know the legal process, and because they always tell you this word

...

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