Black Artists and White Mountains: Ethnic Identity and Universal Values Aswad Jones, Sean Stubblefield and Skai Shadow, University of Maryland Eastern Shore       This presentation will consist of papers by two students from that class, Aswad Jones and Sean Stubblefield, as well as further discussion and a reading by poet-musician Skai Shadow, also a student at UMES.       In an American Literature course at UMES in the Spring of 1998, the class studied Langston Hughes' essay "The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain." Hughes writes there of a young writer that wants to be known as a writer rather than as a Negro writer. Hughes asserts that what this really means is that he wants to be a white writer. From this point he develops the notion that the African American artist labors under the burden of standards set by white models. He further seems to argue that the artist must somehow reject that burden and express his or her own, unique black self.       In the class discussion of Hughes' essay, some subtle and divergent points of view emerged. Some students embraced Hughes' perspective more or less without objection. Others pointed out that Hughes himself acknowledged elsewhere the influence of the western, European tradition, and they were wary of the potential for condescension and isolation in ethnic labels. For still others the debate was a starting point for the attempt to formulate some kind of synthesis, some way of envisioning art that was ethnically authentic and at the same time accessible and relevant to a diverse audience. Return to Session II BB Program