- unitid
-
{"value"=>"188387", "type"=>"local_mss"}
{"value"=>"b22896000", "type"=>"local_b"}
{"value"=>"Sc MIRS Jones 2021-01", "type"=>"local_call"}
- unitdate
-
{"value"=>"circa 1970s-2004", "type"=>"inclusive", "normal"=>"1970/2004", "certainty"=>"approximate"}
- unittitle
-
{"value"=>"Patricia Spears Jones audio and moving image collection"}
- physdesc
-
{"format"=>"structured", "physdesc_components"=>[{"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"39 audio_recordings", "unit"=>"audio_recordings"}]}
{"format"=>"structured", "physdesc_components"=>[{"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"7 moving_image_recordings", "unit"=>"moving_image_recordings"}]}
- repository
-
{"value"=>"<span class=\"corpname\">Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division</span>"}
- abstract
-
{"value"=>"Patricia Spears Jones (b. 1951) is a poet, playwright, educator, cultural activist, and anthologist. The collection consists of thirty-nine audio recordings and seven videos including readings, interviews with and conducted by Jones, plays, and music."}
- langmaterial
-
{"value"=>"English"}
- origination
-
{"value"=>"Jones, Patricia Spears, 1955-", "type"=>"persname"}
- bioghist
-
{"value"=>"<p>Born in Forrest City, Arkansas, Patricia Spears Jones (b. 1951) is a poet, playwright, educator, cultural activist, and anthologist. Jones earned a BA from Rhodes College in 1973, and an MFA from Vermont College in 1992. She is the author of five poetry collections: <span class=\"title\">The Weather That Kills</span> (1995), <span class=\"title\">Femme Du Monde</span> (2006), <span class=\"title\">Painkiller</span> (2010), <span class=\"title\">A Lucent Fire: New and Selected Poems</span> (2015), and <span class=\"title\">The Beloved Community</span> (2023). She is also the author of five chapbooks, including <span class=\"title\">Living in the Love Economy</span> (2014). She wrote two plays, <span class=\"title\">Mother</span> (1994) and <span class=\"title\">Song for New York: What Women Do While Men Sit Knitting</span> (2007), commissioned and produced by Mabou Mines, an experimental theatre company founded in 1970 and based in New York City.</p> <p>Jones edited the anthologies <span class=\"title\">Ordinary Women: An Anthology of New York City Women</span> (1978) and <span class=\"title\">THINK: Poems for Aretha Franklin's Inauguration Day Hat</span> (2009). Her poems have been widely anthologized in works such as <span class=\"title\">Angles of Ascent: A Norton Anthology of Contemporary African American Poetry</span> (2013); <span class=\"title\">Of Poetry and Protest: From Emmett Till to Trayvon Martin</span> (2016); <span class=\"title\">BAX 2016: Best American Experimental Writing</span> (2017); <span class=\"title\">WORD: An Anthology by A Gathering of Tribes</span> (2017); and <span class=\"title\">African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle and Song</span> (2020).</p> <p>Jones's poems are also published in numerous print and online journals including <span class=\"title\">The Brooklyn Rail</span>, <span class=\"title\">The New Yorker</span>, and <span class=\"title\">Plume</span>. Her essays, memoir, and interviews are published in <span class=\"title\">Furious Flower: Seeding the Future of African American Poetry</span>; <span class=\"title\">The Whiskey of Our Discontent: Gwendolyn Brooks as Conscience and Change Agent</span>; and journals including <span class=\"title\">The Black Scholar</span>, <span class=\"title\">Bomb</span>, <span class=\"title\">Pangyrus</span>, <span class=\"title\">The Poetry Project Newsletter</span>, <span class=\"title\">Rumpus</span>, <span class=\"title\">The Writers Chronicle</span>, and the literary platform Tribes.org.</p> <p>Jones taught creative writing at Adelphi University, Barnard College, Hollins University, and Hunter College as the 2020 Louis H. Rubin Jr. Writer-in-Residence. She also taught at the College of New Rochelle, LaGuardia Community College, Parsons The New School for Design (now Parsons School of Design), and Queens College. She facilitated several poetry workshops across the US. Additionally, she has read at many arts and literary venues, as well as colleges and universities. Since circa 2023, Jones has been an adjunct associate professor at Barnard College. In addition to her writing career, Jones also worked as a development officer, administrator, board member, advisor, educator, and consultant of various non-profit organizations.</p> <p>Jones is the recipient of multiple awards including the 2017 Jackson Poetry Prize. She received grants and awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York Foundation for the Arts, and the Foundation for Contemporary Arts. She was also awarded several residencies such as a Robert Rauschenberg residency; and at the Camargo Foundation in Cassis, France, via the BAU Institute; the Millay Colony; the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts; and Yaddo. She is emeritus fellow for Black Earth Institute and organizer of the American Poets Congress. In September 2023, she was recognized as the New York State Poet, and in May 2025, she received an honorary doctorate of humane letters from Hartwick College.</p>"}
- scopecontent
-
{"value"=>"<p>The collection consists of thirty-nine audio recordings and seven videos including readings, interviews with and conducted by Jones, plays, and music, dating from circa 1970s to 2004. Many of the audio items' original formats are cassettes and contain two parts. Item titles are devised based on the content of the recordings.</p>"}
{"value"=>"<p class='list-head'>The Patricia Spears Jones audio and moving image collection is arranged in three series:</p>\n<ul class='arrangement series-descriptions'>\n<li><div class='series-title'><a href='/scl/188387#c1844979'>SERIES I: WORKS</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1976-2002</div>\n<div class='series-extent'>14 audio_recordings. 5 moving_image_recordings</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>The series contains fourteen audio recordings and five videos primarily of Jones's poetry readings as part of reading series and other public events, dating from 1976 to 2004. They are organized chronologically. The collection also includes the television program <span class=\"title\">New York Writers</span> featuring Jones; a talk she delivered; the play <span class=\"title\">Gorilla, My Love: Tales of Youth and Democracy</span>, featuring Jones's poetry; and live performance recordings of her play <span class=\"title\">Mother</span> (1994), including a rehearsal. Notable collaborators in the series include Oliver Lake, jazz saxophonist, flutist, composer, poet, and visual artist; and Thulani Davis, playwright and journalist. Square brackets indicate unclear names or spellings. Unless otherwise noted, participants are American. In the case where participants share a surname, they are identified by their first names.</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/scl/188387#c1845002'>SERIES II: INTERVIEWS</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>circa 1978-1999</div>\n<div class='series-extent'>10 audio_recordings. 1 moving_image_recording</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>The series contains one video and ten audio recordings consisting of three interviews with Jones, and nine interviews conducted by her. They are dated from circa 1978 to 1999, and arranged alphabetically by interviewee's last name. Interviews with Jones include one with poet Kathy Callaway. Jones interviews Wesley Brown, writer and playwright; Jayne Cortez, poet and activist; Jane Dickson, painter; Wilhelmenia Fernandez, soprano singer; Linda Hartinian, writer and visual artist; Garland Jeffreys, musician, singer, and songwriter; June Jordan, poet, essayist, teacher, and activist; and Madge Sinclair, Jamaican actress.</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/scl/188387#c1845014'>SERIES III: COLLECTED</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>circa 1970s-2004</div>\n<div class='series-extent'>15 audio_recordings. 1 moving_image_recording</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>The series contains fifteen audio recordings and one video collected by Jones on which she does not appear. They are dated circa 1970s to 1996, and arranged alphabetically by title. The recordings consist of an episode of <span class=\"title\">Arena</span> about French novelist, playwright, poet, essayist, and political activist Jean Genet; radio plays produced by Mabou Mines; music; readings by poets Lydia Davis, Philip Levine, and Phillip Mahony; and a conversation about women in comedy. When available, tracklists are included for music recordings.</p></div></li></ul>\n", "type"=>"arrangement"}
- acqinfo
-
{"value"=>"<p>Patricia Spears Jones, 2021.</p>"}
- separatedmaterial
-
{"value"=>"<p>See the Manuscripts, Archives, and Rare Books Division for the Patricia Spears Jones Papers, Sc MG 975.</p>"}
- processinfo
-
{"value"=>"<p>Collection inventoried by <span class=\"name\">Amy Lau</span>. Collection processed and described by <span class=\"name\">Ornella U. Baganizi</span>, archivist. Finding aid published in <span class=\"date\">2026</span>.</p>"}
- relatedmaterial
-
{"value"=>"<p>See the Jean Blackwell Hutson Research and Reference division for published works by Patricia Spears Jones.</p>"}
- sponsor
-
{"value"=>"An anonymous donor funded preliminary processing for this collection. The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation supported a research library-wide grant for the digitization, and funded the Schomburg for the description and production of the finding aid as part of The Next Century of Black Studies Project."}
- revisiondesc
-
{"value"=>"Acquisition information, item titles, and scope and content notes updated to facilitate public access by Ornella U. Baganizi.", "date"=>"2026-05-04"}
- date_start
-
1970
- keydate
-
1970
- date_end
-
2004
- date_inclusive_start
-
1970
- date_inclusive_end
-
2004
- prefercite
-
{"value"=>"Patricia Spears Jones audio and moving image collection, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division, The New York Public Library"}