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Imani Owens

Riley Scholar-in-Residence

I’m a native of Brooklyn, New York. The diversity of my hometown awakened my interest in the connections between African American and Caribbean culture and history. Currently I’m engaged in a project that traces the intersection between U.S. and Caribbean writers in the 1920’s and 30’s, a time of great cultural ferment and upheaval in the western hemisphere.  Alongside my literary adventures, I also nurture a lifelong relationship with music and visual culture: first as an early student of piano, painting, and photography and later as an intern in the gallery space at Jazz at Lincoln Center. I believe there is a mutually enriching dynamic between literature and the arts, and I love bringing that energy into the classroom. I’m excited to offer two courses at CC this academic year in Blocks 4 and 7:  Blues Poetics and African American Literature and the Postmodern City.

This is the Department of English