I. THE FOREIGNER'S HOME. The dead of September 11

The foreigner's home

Racism and fascism

Home

Wartalk

The war on error

A race in mind: the press in deed

Moral inhabitants

The prince of wealth, the cost of care

The habit of art

The individual artist

Arts advocacy

Sarah Lawrence commencement address

The slavebody and the blackbody

Harlem on my mind: contesting memory: meditation on museums, culture, and integration

Women, race, and memory

Literature and public life

The Nobel lecture in literature

Cinderella's stepsisters

The future of time: literature and diminished expectations

INTERLUDE: BLACK MATTERS. Tribute to Martin Luther King, Jr.

Race matters

Black matter(s)

Unspeakable things unspoken: the Afro-American presence in American literature

Academic whispers

Gertrude Stein and the difference she makes

Hard, true, and lasting

PART II. GOD'S LANGUAGE. James Baldwin eulogy

The site of memory

God's language

Grendel and his mother

The writer before the page

The trouble with paradise

On "Beloved"

Chinua Achebe

Introduction of Peter Sellars

Tribute to Romare Bearden

Faulkner and women

The source of self-regard

Rememory

Memory, creation, and fiction

Memory, creation, and fiction

Goodbye to all that: race, surrogacy, and farewell

Invisible ink: reading the writing and writing the reading.

Part 1: The foreigner's home

Interlude: Black matter[s]

Part 2: God's language.

Peril

The foreigner's home. The dead of September 11 ; The foreigner's home ; Racism and fascism ; Home ; Wartalk ; The war on error ; A race in mind : the press in deed ; Moral inhabitants ; The price of wealth, the cost of care ; The habit of art ; The individual artist ; Arts advocacy ; Sarah Lawrence commencement address ; The slavebody and the blackbody ; Harlem on my mind : contesting memory - meditation on museums, culture, and integration ; Women, race, and memory ; Literature and public life ; The Nobel lecture in literature ; Cinderella's stepsisters ; The future of time : literature and diminished expectations

Interlude : Black matter(s). Tribute to Martin Luther King, Jr. ; Race matters ; Black matter(s) ; Unspeakable things unspoken : the Afro-American presence in American literature ; Academic whispers ; Gertrude Stein and the difference she makes ; Hard, true, and lasting

God's language. James Baldwin eulogy ; The site of memory ; God's language ; Grendel and his mother ; The writer before the page ; The trouble with paradise ; On "Beloved" ; Chinua Achebe ; Introduction of Peter Sellars ; Tribute to Romare Bearden ; Faulkner and women ; The source of self-regard ; Rememory ; Memory, creation, and fiction ; Goodbye to all that : race, surrogacy, and farewell ; Invisible ink : reading the writing and writing the reading.