Table Scenes in Black Panther

from Black Panther #4

In my book on Ta-Nehisi Coates's run on Black Panther (forthcoming in May 2026), I briefly discuss the significance of recurring table scenes in the series. Although it's not always a table, we frequently see groups of Black people seated and gathered together to discuss important issues.  

[Related: Table Scenes in Black Art]

Such gatherings among white people are common in comic books (like here, here, and here), in movies (like here, here, and here), and in real-world political realms (like here and here). 

But Coates was doing something somewhat unusual by repeatedly showing Black people who could gather at seats of power and conduct conversations and business. I'm pasting a few of the images below.  

from Black Panther #4

from Black Panther #4

from Black Panther #9

from Black Panther #9

from Black Panther #11 and #12

Related:

• Table Scenes in Black Art

Table Scenes in Black Art

Horace Pippin's Giving Thanks (1942)

In my upcoming book on Ta-Nehisi Coates's run on Black Panther, I briefly discuss the recurrence of table scenes in his book -- where groups of Black people gather around tables and consider weighty issues. Recently, art collector Cleo Thomas, Jr. sent a group of us an image of Horace Pippin's Giving Thanks (1942), which reminded me of those scenes from Coates's Black Panther. 

[Related: Table Scenes in Black Panther]

Here's a roundup with links of some table scenes in the work of Black artists and some white artists featuring Black subjects. Thanks to Thomas for providing a heads up on some of these. 

Black Artists

• Henry Ossawa Tanner — The Thankful Poor (1894) 

• Hale Woodruff — The Card Players -- black and white -- (1930)

• Hale Woodruff — The Card Players -- color -- (1930)

• Lois Mailou Jones — from The Picture-Poetry Book (1935)

• Archibald Motley — The Liar (1936) 

• Archibald Motley — The Picnic (1936) 

• Charles White — Card Players (1939)

• Jacob Lawrence — Migration Series #10 (1940-1941) 

• Jacob Lawrence — Migration Series #30 (1940-1941) 

• Jacob Lawrence — Migration Series #49 (1940-1941) 

• Horace Pippin — Giving Thanks (1942) 

• Jacob Lawrence — The Card Game (1953) 

• Hale Woodruff — Card Players (1958)

• Alvin Demar Loving  — The Card Players (1959) 

• Romare Bearden — The Family (Around the Dining Table) (1975) 

• Varnette Honeywood — Old Fashioned Dinner Party (1986) 

• Margo Humphrey — The Last Bar-B-Que (1987)  

• Faith Ringgold —  Dinner at Gertrude Stein's (1991) 

• Annie Lee — Six No UpTown (1993)

• Annie Lee — Al Ain't Here 

• Kerry James Marshall — Untitled (Club Couple) (2014)

White artists and photographers  

• Richard Norris Brooke — A Pastoral Visit (1881)

• Frances Benjamin Johnston — A Hampton graduate at home (1899-1900)

• Frank Hartley Anderson — Church Supper (1936)

Related: 

• Table Scenes in Black Panther

Our Most Prolific Scholarly Reader

A brief take on the quiet but vital editorial labor of Aileen Keenan, whose two decades of behind-the-scenes work at African American Review have shaped the study, circulation, and preservation of African American literary scholarship. 

Script by Howard Rambsy II 

Read by Kassandra Timm

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Related:

• Episodes of Remarkable Receptions

Carolyn Denard and the Toni Morrison Society

A brief take on the creation and evolution of the Toni Morrison Society, highlighting Carolyn Denard’s visionary leadership and the organization’s three-decade impact on sustaining, honoring, and expanding Morrison’s global legacy. 

Script by Howard Rambsy II 

Read by Kassandra Timm

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Related:

• Episodes of Remarkable Receptions

Blogging about poetry in October 2025

[Related content: Blogging about Poetry]

• October 28: Poetry Tracker and Black Lit Network

• October 1: Blogging about Poetry in September 2025

Poetry Tracker and Black Lit Network

These days, the Poetry Tracker, my site focusing on publishing routes of African American poetry, seems dormant, but in fact, that site was crucial to all the work we're doing with Black Lit Network. I collaborated with Meg Smith, the director of our DH Center, to build the site. Various components served as testing grounds for what we've been doing.

For one, the whiteboard animations. We initially put up several animations focusing on poetry. We later transferred that approach to various aspects of literature. Next, the Literary Data Gallery. We developed a gallery on the Poetry Tracker, which guided the way.  

The major point here is that a project in one place influences a project in another place.

Soon, we'll transfer some compositions from the Poetry Tracker over to portals on the Black Lit Network. It'll all blend in, but they initially started as separate. 

Related:

• Developing the Black Lit Network

How Readers Search When They Search

For more than two decades now, I've been guided by Jerry W. Ward, Jr.'s  question: "why do Black readers read what they read when they read?" Inspired by that challenge, I began routinely surveying students in my African American literature courses about their reading interests and habits.

These days, in collaboration with Meg Smith, director of our university’s Digital Humanities Center, and Dan Schreiber, the center’s web developer, I’ve been inclined to ask a related but different question: How do readers interested in Black authors and literary works search when they search?

Questions about search behaviors and reading discovery now drive our ongoing conversations about improving the Literary Navigator Device, an online portal designed to help users explore a wide range of publications—novels, short stories, poems, graphic novels, essays, and autobiographies.

As we continue building the project, we’re constantly asking how people seek out materials and what features can make their searches more meaningful. We also want to create opportunities for readers to encounter something valuable they weren’t necessarily looking for.

The goal is to make the act of searching itself a form of discovery, deepening how readers engage with Black literature.

Related:

• Developing the Black Lit Network

A Reluctant DH Scholar

I have a long-running joke with Meg Smith, the director of our DH Center, that I’m not into DH. I initially thought of it as a conversation, but the way Meg laughs when I say it, it’s somehow become a joke.

I say I’m reluctant mostly because data work and digital design pull me into the field, while my grounding in African American literature sometimes places me at a distance. And some what I witness from some DH communities seems exclusionary with respect to Black people and ideas. Meg counters that I perhaps focus too much on the wrong communities of DH to make my assessments of the overall field. Fair enough.

The other reason my DH ambivalence gets only so far with Meg is because we both know the many projects we’ve worked on together: The Black Panther Digital Project, The Poetry Tracker, The Novel Generator Machine (now The Literary Navigator Device), The Literary Data Gallery, and the overall Black Lit Network. So saying I’m a reluctant DH scholar sounds humorous in light of those projects.

One benefit of my reluctance, though, is that it prompts Meg to answer all kinds of questions and offer multiple alternative examples. It’s a reminder that a certain reluctance or skepticism can be good for intellectual exchange and collaboration, pushing both sides to clarify ideas and sharpen their sense of purpose.

Related:

• Developing the Black Lit Network