The University of Wisconsin Nellie Y. McKay Lecture in the Humanities hosted writer, curator and art critic Nicole Fleetwood Wednesday to discuss her new book “Between the River and the Railroad Tracks” soon to be published.
In addition to being and author, Fleetwood is also a professor of Media, Culture and Communication at New York University.
Wednesday’s event was the first-ever public appearance of her autobiographical work, which aims to depict the history of Black people in the Midwest through personal experiences.
“I think [Black Midwest culture] does not get enough national coverage,” Fleetwood said. “Often the Midwest is homogenized as majorly white or represented in a very flattened way. I wanted to think about the cultural significance of a place that is called an average town.”
Fleetwood grew up in Hamilton, Ohio, a small city 30 miles from Cincinnati which she considers is broadly thought of as an average American town.
In her new book, Fleetwood anecdotes stories of violence, racism, post-war PTSD, mental illness and childhood experiences in Hamilton as an effort to show the lives of black people in the Midwest.
She mainly incorporates the lives of her grandmother, Barbara Fleetwood, and her mother, Eleanor Fleetwood Wilson, along with her uncles and other relations.
The lecture included readings of excerpts from her book, speaking about individual childhood memories and her relations with relatives.
In her book, she describes a loving mother who protected her from fear after she broke an aquarium, a scary event for a four-year-old. She also speaks about the humming and religious prattles of her grandmother, who actively engaged Fleetwood and her cousins in church and music.
Fleetwood also spoke about her two uncles and the role of music in her family’s lives.
“I don’t make music but it is a huge part of my daily life,” Fleetwood said. “I listen to music constantly and learned the piano for many years but my family is very good at music.”
The book is expected to be published soon in the hope of bringing Black culture in the Midwest into the limelight.
