Formation of the Black Panther Bibliography Project

As an outgrowth of our Wednesday reading group discussions of Ta-Nehisi Coates's Black Panther comic book, Professor Jeremiah Carter and I, along with undergraduate discussion group members, began discussing public-facing programs featuring various comic books with T'Challa and characters from the larger Black Panther series. 

On November 19 and 20, we hosted our first event, hosting 150 first-year collegiate Black men students to look over various books in the collection and complete our survey about what kinds of exhibits they would like to see. 

Related:

• SIUE Reads

SIUE Reads Wednesday Reading Group

This semester, with Professor Jeremiah Carter and I running point, a small group of students met with us each Wednesday to discuss Ta-Nehisi Coates's run on Black Panther.  The reading group was part of our projects with SIUE Reads and the Hansen Humanities Network. 

Eventually, our conversations led us to developing a project we're calling the Black Panther Bibliography Project, which charts various publications on the comic book hero, related characters, and Wakanda.

Related: 

• SIUE Reads

SIUE Reads Tuesday Reading Group

This semester, under the guidance of Professor Cindy Reed, students met each Tuesday to discuss The Catch Me If You Can: One Woman's Journey to Every Country in the World (2022) by Jessica Nabongo.

The reading group was part of our projects with SIUE Reads and the Hansen Humanities Network. 

Related:

• SIUE Reads

SIUE Reads and Star Wars Concept Art

This semester as part of our SIUE Reads activities, we hosted a series of book browsing sessions featuring various art books. Students had a strong positive reaction to the Star Wars concept art book that we shared.

We own Star Wars Art: Ralph McQuarrie, and it's a favorite for students. They really enjoy looking through the drawings and considering the artwork and concepts that way to the familiar characters that they've seen on the screen. 

Related:

• SIUE Reads

SIUE Reads Book Browsing Sessions

I already had several Black art books and Star Wars concept art books, and the Hansen Humanities Network made it possible for us expand our collection for book browsing sessions, which we hosted this semester.  

We now have the following books in our browsing collection: 

Black Art books

• Kehinde Wiley: An Archaeology of Silence

• Kehinde Wiley: A New Republic
• Kerry James Marshall: Mastry
• Bisa Butler: Portraits
• Lynette Yiadom-Boakye: Fly In League With The Night
• Deborah Roberts: Twenty Years of Art/Work
• Mickalene Thomas: I Can’t See You Without Me
• Toyin Ojih Odutola: The UmuEze Amara Clan and the House of Obafemi
• Jacob Lawrence: The Migration Series
• Kerry James Marshall: History of Painting
• Amy Sherald: The World We Make
• Maternity: Mothers and Children in the Arts of Africa
• Black Orpheus: Jacob Lawrence and the Mbari Club
• Sahel: Art and Empires on the Shores of the Sahara
• Kongo: Power and Majesty
• The Language of Beauty in African Art
• Speaking of Objects: African Art and the Art Institute of Chicago
• Beauty Born of Struggle: The Art of Black Washington
• The Arts of Africa: Studying and Conserving the Collection; Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
• Black Artists in America: From the Great Depression to Civil Rights
• Black American Portraits
• Kerry James Marshall: The Complete Prints: 1976–2022
• Kehinde Wiley: Saint Louis

Star Wars books:

• Star Wars Art: Ralph McQuarrie 

• The Art of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story 

• The Art of Star Wars: The Mandalorian (Season One) 

•  The Art of Star Wars: The Mandalorian (Season Two)

Related:

• SIUE Reads

Fall programming for the Hansen Humanities Network

The Hansen Humanities Network, supported by the Hansen Endowment at SIUE, provides a campuswide framework for strengthening the humanities through public-facing programs that advance reading and dialogue.

With support from the Hansen Humanities Network, African American literary studies at SIUE coordinated a series of fall projects involving more than 200 students. These projects included: 

1.) Free Book Giveaways 

2.) Tuesday reading group 

3.) Wednesday reading group 

4.) Formation of the Black Panther Bibliography Project 

5.) Book Browsing Sessions 

6.) Black Books Fashion Shows (Sept. 25 and Dec. 3)

Related:

• SIUE Reads

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