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Creator
Hull, Akasha Gloria
Call number
Sc MG 977
Physical description
8.8 linear feet (25 boxes, 1 oversize folder)
Language
English
Preferred Citation
[Item], Akasha Hull papers, Sc MG 977, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, The New York Public Library
Repository
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division
Access to materials
Request an in-person research appointment.Restrictions apply

Akasha Gloria Hull (born 1944) is a writer, poet, and Black feminist scholar. The Akasha Hull papers, mostly dating from the 1970s to the 2000s, document Hull's writing projects, including poetry and scholarly works, her involvement in the Combahee River Collective, and her academic career as a professor of literature and women's studies, primarily at the University of Delaware and University of California, Santa Cruz.

Biographical/historical information

Akasha Hull was born Gloria Theresa Thompson on December 6, 1944, in Shreveport, Louisiana. She attended Southern University in Baton Rouge (BA, 1966) then Purdue University in Indiana, where she earned an MA (1968) and PhD (1972) in English literature.

Hull was a professor of literature and women's studies at the University of Delaware from 1971 to 1988 and University of California, Santa Cruz from 1988 to her retirement in 2000. She also served as a Fulbright lecturer at the University of the West Indies in Mona, Jamaica, from 1984 to 1986, and a visiting professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2003.

In 1982, Hull coedited, with Patricia Bell Scott and Barbara Smith, All the Women Are White, All the Blacks Are Men, But Some of Us Are Brave, an anthology of Black feminist writing and influential text in the field of Black women's studies. She also edited and authored multiple books about Harlem Renaissance poet Alice Dunbar Nelson, including Give Us Each Day: The Diary of Alice Dunbar Nelson (1984), The Works of Alice Dunbar Nelson (1988), and Color, Sex, and Poetry: Three Women Writers of the Harlem Renaissance (1987), a study of Dunbar Nelson, Angelina Weld Grimké, and Georgia Douglas Johnson.

In addition to her scholarly work, Hull has published a poetry collection, Healing Heart: Poems 1973-1988 (1989), a novel, Niecy (2012), and a book exploring spirituality among Black women, Soul Talk (2001). Besides her books, Hull's poetry and creative writing have appeared in various journals and anthologies, including Callaloo, Ikon, Pathways, and Sisterfire.

In 1977, Hull attended the first retreat held by the Combahee River Collective, a group of Boston-based Black feminists. She participated in nearly all subsequent retreats and co-organized the seventh and final gathering held in 1980 in Washington, DC.

Hull has been married twice, to Prentice Hull (1966-1983) and Anthony Delroy Wellington (1984-1991), and was in a California domestic partnership with Debra Lynn Busman (2002-2006). She has one child, Adrian Prentice Hull, from her first marriage. Hull legally changed her name to Akasha, a Sanskrit word, in 1992. In 2006, Hull moved to Little Rock, Arkansas, where she lives as of 2023.

Scope and arrangement

The Akasha Hull papers, mostly dating from the 1970s to the 2000s, document Hull's career as a writer, poet, activist, and Black feminist scholar.

Personal materials include a small number of items from Hull's youth, such as her high school yearbook, in addition to resumes and biographies, awards, and family correspondence. There are also personal letters, postcards, and emails from friends and colleagues, as well as professional correspondence between Hull and publishers, former students, and persons inquiring about permission rights or inviting Hull to appear at various events. The professional correspondence also includes letters between Hull and her coeditors Barbara Smith and Patricia Bell-Scott regarding But Some of Us Are Brave.

Writing files contain drafts, notes, and research files. There is material relating to Hull's books Healing Heart: Poems 1973-1988, Give Us Each Day: The Diary of Alice Dunbar-Nelson (including original diary pages of Dunbar-Nelson's), and Soul Talk: The New Spirituality of African American Women (including transcripts of interviews conducted for the book). Other published books by Hull such as Neicy are not represented in the collection. There are drafts of scholarly articles, book chapters, reviews, and poetry, both published and unpublished; and the texts of speeches and lectures, all spanning the 1970s to 2010s.

Professional files document Hull's involvement in the Combahee River Collective, academic career, and participation in various conferences, symposia, workshops, and readings. The Combahee River Collective material, dating from 1977 to 1993, contains invitations and planning materials for the Collective's annual retreats for Black feminists, as well as Hull's notes on the readings and discussions that took place at these retreats.

Hull's academic career is well represented in the collection, with files from her time at the University of Delaware; the University of the West Indies; the University of California, Santa Cruz; and the University of California, Santa Barbara. These files include administrative documents charting Hull's career, tenure, and activities as chair of the women's studies departments at both Delaware and Santa Barbara, as well as course materials, lecture notes, and syllabi.

Additionally, the collection contains printed matter, largely consisting of interviews with Hull and reviews of her writing, and subject files containing clippings relating to people and topics of interest to Hull.

The Akasha Hull papers are arranged in six series:

Administrative information

Source of acquisition

Purchase, Akasha Hull, May 2021.

Processing information

Processed by Barrye Brown and Lauren Stark, 2022.

Separated material

To be transferred to the Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division: audio and moving image materials. For more information, please contact the division at schomburgaudiovisual@nypl.org or 212-491-2270.

Photograph collection will be available in the Photographs and Prints Division when processed.

Using the collection

Location

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division
515 Malcolm X Boulevard, New York, NY 10037-1801
Second Floor

Conditions Governing Use

Copyright retained by Akasha Hull until her death, after which copyright is transferred to New York Public Library, except for rights for the following works: All the Women Are White, All the Blacks Are Men, But Some of Us Are Brave: Black Women's Studies; Give Us Each Day: The Diary of Alice Dunbar-Nelson; Color, Sex, and Poetry: Three Women Writers of the Harlem Renaissance; Healing Heart: Poems 1973-1988; Soul Talk: The New Spirituality of African American Women; and Neicy.

Access restrictions

Student files and recommendations are closed until 50 years after most recent date. Materials with personal identifying information have been removed and replaced with redacted photocopies.