Loading...
Creator
De Veaux, Alexis, 1948-
Call number
Sc MIRS DeVeaux 2012-06
Physical description
20 video_recordings. 188 audio_recordings
Language
Multiple languages; English, Haitian Creole, Japanese, Spanish.
Preferred Citation
Alexis De Veaux audio and moving image collection, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division, The New York Public Library
Sponsor
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.
Repository
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division
Access to materials
Appointment preferred: Request an in-person research appointment.

Masani Alexis De Veaux (1948- ) is a writer, poet, playwright, and activist. The collection contains 188 audio recordings and twenty moving image recordings dating from 1975 to 2006.

Biographical/historical information

Writer, poet, playwright, and activist Masani Alexis De Veaux was born in New York City in 1948. She is the author of two award-winning biographies, Don't Explain: A Song of Billie Holiday (1980), and Warrior Poet: A Biography of Audre Lorde (2004), as well as works of experimental fiction, poetry, memoir, children's literature, and theater. She has led several writing collectives that supported Black women writers including Flamboyant Ladies Theater Company and Gap Tooth Girlfriends. The primary focus of her creative work is the Black lesbian feminist experience.

From 1974 to 2013, De Veaux wrote for Essence magazine. As a contributing editor from 1979 to 1991, she profiled public figures such as Bernice Johnson Reagon, Nina Simone, and Alice Walker. In 1990, De Veaux became the first North American journalist to interview Nelson Mandela for Essence, though the interview is not included in the collection.

De Veaux earned a PhD in American studies at State University of New York (SUNY) at Buffalo in 1992, where she was a professor in American and Women's Studies until her retirement in 2012.

Scope and arrangement

The collection contains 188 audio recordings and twenty moving image recordings dating from 1975 to 2006. The original format of the audio recordings is cassette, with many items containing two or more parts. Recordings are audio unless indicated otherwise. Square brackets indicate partial information or unclear spelling.

The Alexis De Veaux audio and moving image collection is arranged in five series:

  • SERIES I: WORKS

    The series contains audio recordings and videos of De Veaux's poetry readings, lectures, and radio interviews that pertain to her creative writing career. The recordings are organized chronologically.

    Works featured include the biographies Don't Explain: A Song of Billie Holiday (1980), Warrior Poet: A Biography of Audre Lorde (2004), the poetry collections Blue Heat (1985) and Spirit Talk (1997), the children's book An Enchanted Hair Tale (1987), and the plays Elbow Rooms, A Season to Unravel, and The Tapestry.

  • SERIES II: CONFERENCES

    The series includes audio recordings from De Veaux's 1985 visit to Cuba as part of a delegation of Black women writers, her attendance at the 1985 NGO Forum in Nairobi, Kenya, and panels at several conferences. The recordings are organized chronologically, except where events were recorded out of sequence on the same cassette.

  • SERIES III: AUDRE LORDE RESEARCH

    The series contains audio recordings De Veaux collected and interviews she conducted in preparation for writing Warrior Poet: A Biography of Audre Lorde (2004). The interviews, radio shows, and recordings of events are organized alphabetically by title and interviewee's last name, when known.

  • SERIES IV: JOURNALISM

    The series primarily contains audio recordings of interviews De Veaux conducted in preparation for writing and editing articles for Essence magazine. The recordings are arranged alphabetically by title and interviewee's last name, when known. Many of the interviews are described individually, where possible.

    De Veaux interviewed notable figures in Black literature, art, and music such as Jayne Cortez, June Jordan, Nina Simone, and Alice Walker, as well as Haitian refugees, civil rights activists, and government officials. There are also recordings of events, performances, and trips. In 1981, De Veaux traveled to Zimbabwe with Essence magazine to report on the country's first year of recognized independence. In 1984, De Veaux traveled to Nicaragua as part of a delegation representing the women's non-profit organization Madre.

  • SERIES V: COLLECTED

    The series contains audio recordings on which De Veaux does not appear. They are organized alphabetically by title. The recordings primarily contain popular music collected and curated by De Veaux for events such as a fundraiser for her group Flamboyant Ladies Theater Company.

    There is a video of a birthday message, and audio recordings of speeches by Angela Davis and a talk by Toni Cade Bambara.

Administrative information

Source of acquisition

Alexis De Veaux, 2008, 2012, and 2021.

Processing information

Collection inventoried by Stacey Doyle Ference and Caroline Zonis. Collection processed and described by Lyric Evans-Hunter, archivist; and Shola Lynch, curator. Finding aid published in 2024.

Separated material

See the Manuscripts, Archives, and Rare Books Division for the Alexis De Veaux papers, Sc MG 802.

See the Photographs and Prints Division for photographs.

See the Art and Artifacts Division for art works.

Related Material

See the Jean Blackwell Hutson Research and Reference division for published works by Alexis De Veaux.

Using the collection

Location

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division
515 Malcolm X Boulevard, New York, NY 10037-1801
Third Floor

Access to materials

Appointment preferred: Request an in-person research appointment.