FLYING AFRICANS PROJECT A LANGE-TAYLOR PRIZE FINALIST

Awarded annually, the Dorothea Lange-Paul Taylor Prize was created by the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University to encourage collaboration between documentary writers and photographers in the tradition of the acclaimed photographer Dorothea Lange and writer and social scientist Paul Taylor.

The Flying Africans chapter of Beneath A Paper Moon (formerly, The American Imagination project) was selected as a finalist entry. Chronicling a search for the elusive traces of a story that was only shared orally for generations, this chapter considers a myth about would-be slaves growing wings and flying away from a life of bondage upon arriving on American shores. The chapter addresses the lingering, painful legacy of slavery and the denial of the Black experience in American storytelling.