The black experience in America has been lived and told millions of times over many generations, each telling expressing some similarity with another’s journey but also the unique characteristics of an individual life and a singular moment in time. The 1952 National Book Award-winning novel by Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man, remains an astonishing account of a man’s attempts to navigate through the complex social and cultural waters of early 20th Century America, struggling all along to establish his personal identity while attempting to negotiate racial and intellectual identification.

On WorldCanvass: Iowa and Invisible Man, host Joan Kjaer and her guests reflect on the life and work of Ralph Ellison and his place among other African-American writers of his era; the staging of Invisible Man, happening first at the UI; the benefits of integrating performance into the classroom as a teaching tool; and the history of African-Americans at the UI and in Iowa.

Participants include producer and director Christopher McElroen; UI English professors Lena Hill, Michael Hill and Horace Porter; UI rhetoric professor Bridget Tsemo; Grinnell College English professor Shanna Benjamin; Hancher director Chuck Swanson; Center for Teaching director Jean Florman; movement director Julia Watt; actors Greg Geffrard and Sean Lewis; former UI track coach Ted Wheeler; and the UI’s chief diversity officer, Georgina Dodge.