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Claudia Rankine papers

 Collection
Call Number: JWJ MSS 354

Content Description

This collection contains materials including writings, drafts, syllabi, correspondence, printed material, photographs, research materials, personal papers, realia, electronic files, and other papers related to the life and work of Claudia Rankine. It includes materials related to many of her works including Citizen: An American Lyric, Just Us, along with extensive documentation of her work as an teacher at multiple institutions.

Dates

  • 1964 - 2021

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

This collection is open for research.

Boxes 66-67 (born digital): Restricted fragile. Reference copies of electronic files may be requested. Consult Access Services for further information.

Conditions Governing Use

The Claudia Rankine Papers is the physical property of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. Literary rights, including copyright belong to the authors or their legal heris and assigns. For further information, consult the appropriate curator.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Purchased from Claudia Rankine/CBR Arts on the Edwin J. Beinecke Book Fund, 2021.

Arrangement

Organized into five series: I: Writings, 1978 - 2021. II: Teaching materials and research files, 1973 - 2021. III: Personal and professional papers, 1964 - 2021. IV: Notebooks, 1980 - 2021. V: Computer media, 2002 - 2016.

Extent

29.67 Linear Feet (67 boxes)

Language of Materials

English

Catalog Record

A record for this collection is available in Orbis, the Yale University Library catalog

Persistent URL

https://hdl.handle.net/10079/fa/beinecke.rankine

Abstract

This collection contains materials including writings, drafts, syllabi, correspondence, printed material, photographs, research materials, personal papers, realia, electronic files, and other papers related to the life and work of Claudia Rankine. It includes materials related to many of her works including Citizen: An American Lyric, Just Us, along with extensive documentation of her work as an teacher at multiple institutions.

Claudia Rankine

Claudia Beverley Rankine (1963-) is an American poet, educator, playwright, essayist, and editor. Born in Kingston, Jamaica, Rankine received her BA from Williams College and her MFA from Columbia University. Her work Citizen: An American Lyric was published in 2014 to great acclaim, winning the National Book Critics Circle Award in Poetry, the PEN Center USA Poetry Award, the Forward poetry prize, and being named as a finalist for the National Book Award.

Other works by Rankine include The End of the Alphabet, Just Us, Nothing in Nature is Private, HELP, The White Card, Provenance of Beauty: A South Bronx Travelogue and Plot. Rankine has also coedited volumes including American Poets in the 21st Century: The New Poetics and The Racial Imaginary: Writers on Race in the Life of the Mind. With longtime collaborator John Lucas, she has created the "Situation" series and other film and video projects. Also, she founded and continues to curate the Racial Imaginary Institute, an interdisciplinary collaborative project focused on race.

Rankine has been awarded fellowships from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Guggenheim Foundation, the Lannan Foundation, the Academy of American Poets, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Also, as of 2020, she is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Rankine has taught at many institutions including Yale University, Pomona College, Barnard College, University of Houston, University of Southern California, Case Western Reserve University, and New York University.

Processing Information

Collections are processed to a variety of levels, depending on the work necessary to make them usable, their perceived research value, the availability of staff, competing priorities, and whether or not further accruals are expected. The library attempts to provide a basic level of preservation and access for all collections as they are acquired, and does more extensive processing of higher priority collections as time and resources permit.

This collection received a basic level of processing, including rehousing and minimal organization.

Information included in the Description of Papers note and Collection Contents section is drawn from information supplied with the collection and from an initial survey of the contents. Folder titles appearing in the contents list below are often based on those provided by the creator or previous custodian. Titles have not been verified against the contents of the folders in all cases. Otherwise, folder titles are supplied by staff during initial processing.

This finding aid may be updated periodically to account for new acquisitions to the collection and/or revisions in arrangement and description.

Title
Guide to the Claudia Rankine Papers
Status
Completed
Author
by Rosemary K. J. Davis
Date
December 2021
Description rules
Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules
Language of description note
Finding aid written in English.

Part of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library Repository

Contact:
P. O. Box 208330
New Haven CT 06520-8330 US
(203) 432-2977

Location

121 Wall Street
New Haven, CT 06511

Opening Hours

Access Information

The Beinecke Library is open to all Yale University students and faculty, and visiting researchers whose work requires use of its special collections. You will need to bring appropriate photo ID the first time you register. Beinecke is a non-circulating, closed stack library. Paging is done by library staff during business hours. You can request collection material online at least two business days in advance of your visit, using the request links in Archives at Yale. For more information, please see Planning Your Research Visit and consult the Reading Room Policies prior to visiting the library.