Black bodies have been stereotyped, criminalized, and rendered invisible by what George Yancy calls the white gaze. In a recent book Yancy explores, among other things, the lived experiences of African Americans in relation to whites, the nature of whiteness, and the contours of effective white antiracist work. (Encore presentation.)

August Wilson wrote a 10-play, decade-by-decade exploration of the African American experience in the 20th century -- so did that make the eminent playwright an historian as well? Sandra Shannon describes how Wilson drew inspiration from the Black Arts movement, the blues, and everyday Black experience. And Kent Gash directs a new production of Seven Guitars, which Wilson set in Pittsburgh in 1948.

Freethinkers have worked tirelessly to keep government out of religion and religion out of government. While many conservatives have denied or played down this nation's secularist tradition, in which people like Thomas Paine and Robert Ingersoll have played prominent roles, Susan Jacoby is working hard to revive it. And Aparajita Nanda has edited a new anthology about the experience of Blacks in, and in relation to, California.

Does black feminist literary study have any business examining the canonical works of dead white male authors? Ann duCille thinks it does. A short story by Ernest Hemingway, although set in Africa, is dominated by the actions and thoughts of three white characters. DuCille offers a critique of that story, "The Short, Happy Life of Francis Macomber," bringing to the fore considerations of race, gender, and class.

What are the real reasons for this nation's unprecedented (in world history) boom in incarceration? Is the prison a tool to fight crime, or does it serve an entirely different function? And what about the notion of a Prison Industrial Complex: does it have any relation to reality? Loïc Wacquant shares his thoughts about the relationship between penal policy and welfare/workfare policy, and much more.

Arturo Alfonso Schomburg was a Black Puerto Rican born in 1874. After he moved to New York City in 1891, Schomburg was active in Cuban and Puerto Rican independence struggles; he later launched an effort to unite people of African descent across national boundaries. Jesse Hoffnung-Garskof has written about this celebrated activist, historian, and collector.