Geoffrey Hicks '09 (Newton, Mass.) believes in the power of stories. As a creative writing major, he says he was inspired by the playwright August Wilson, whose works about the African-American experience in the 20th century twice won the Pulitzer Prize for drama. Hicks has spent the summer researching the importance that stories can have, studying folklore to explore the pride and culture of American slaves, a project that he hopes will provide the foundation for his own future creative work.
Hicks' research this summer was conducted at the University of Iowa, supported by the Summer Research Opportunity Program, a collaborative effort by 12 universities in the Midwest. His research plan initially focused on broader topics of slavery and Christianity, but the flooding in Iowa forced the program to close for much of the summer, and when it reopened, Hicks had to drastically refine his project. He still wanted to look at the same issues as a base for his own creative writing (originally he intended to spend the summer writing a novel), so he chose a subject that would give him a larger sense of the slave's existence. "I wanted a picture of the culture, to understand what life was like, so that I could paint a picture with my words," he says. As a storyteller himself, it is probably not surprising that he chose folk tales as the best focus for his research.
The project, "Reversing the Curse of Ham," begins with the biblical story that many white Americans used to justify slavery. Ham, one of the sons of Noah, was cursed for observing his father's nakedness while Noah lay drunk, and was told that his descendants would forever be servants. This was taken to explain that Africans, supposedly the descendents of Ham, were "destined" for slavery, as punishment for Ham's immoral act.
While reading a book of slave folklore edited by Langston Hughes, however, Hicks came across a tale that used Biblical stories to redefine race. This story goes back to Adam and Eve and says that Africans were the original people created – whiteness was the "mark of Cain," the punishment when he killed his brother Abel, and therefore whites are descendents of the first murderer. The tale thus resists ideas of racial hierarchy and seeks to explain the violence and oppression that American slaves faced at the hands of whites. "Slaves might not have said everything, but they were definitely thinking about the fairness of their position," says Hicks. "Folktales expose the hypocrisy."
Hicks says he wanted to use this project to show the culture and the power in the lives of slaves, such as his own ancestors. "I want to bring light on people like my grandfather's grandfather, to show that he had a faith of his own," he explains. After spending last summer doing philosophy and psychology research on the topic of race and shame, he is returning to look at the other side of the question this year, by focusing on his own sense of pride and researching slaves' achievements, rather than their victimization. Hicks plans to use the coming academic year to apply what he has learned this summer to his own writing, and turn his historical information into creative work.
-- by Laura Bramley
Hicks' research this summer was conducted at the University of Iowa, supported by the Summer Research Opportunity Program, a collaborative effort by 12 universities in the Midwest. His research plan initially focused on broader topics of slavery and Christianity, but the flooding in Iowa forced the program to close for much of the summer, and when it reopened, Hicks had to drastically refine his project. He still wanted to look at the same issues as a base for his own creative writing (originally he intended to spend the summer writing a novel), so he chose a subject that would give him a larger sense of the slave's existence. "I wanted a picture of the culture, to understand what life was like, so that I could paint a picture with my words," he says. As a storyteller himself, it is probably not surprising that he chose folk tales as the best focus for his research.
The project, "Reversing the Curse of Ham," begins with the biblical story that many white Americans used to justify slavery. Ham, one of the sons of Noah, was cursed for observing his father's nakedness while Noah lay drunk, and was told that his descendants would forever be servants. This was taken to explain that Africans, supposedly the descendents of Ham, were "destined" for slavery, as punishment for Ham's immoral act.
While reading a book of slave folklore edited by Langston Hughes, however, Hicks came across a tale that used Biblical stories to redefine race. This story goes back to Adam and Eve and says that Africans were the original people created – whiteness was the "mark of Cain," the punishment when he killed his brother Abel, and therefore whites are descendents of the first murderer. The tale thus resists ideas of racial hierarchy and seeks to explain the violence and oppression that American slaves faced at the hands of whites. "Slaves might not have said everything, but they were definitely thinking about the fairness of their position," says Hicks. "Folktales expose the hypocrisy."
Hicks says he wanted to use this project to show the culture and the power in the lives of slaves, such as his own ancestors. "I want to bring light on people like my grandfather's grandfather, to show that he had a faith of his own," he explains. After spending last summer doing philosophy and psychology research on the topic of race and shame, he is returning to look at the other side of the question this year, by focusing on his own sense of pride and researching slaves' achievements, rather than their victimization. Hicks plans to use the coming academic year to apply what he has learned this summer to his own writing, and turn his historical information into creative work.
-- by Laura Bramley
