Rhondda Robinson Thomas | The Power in Calling a Name

The Power in Calling a Name

We experience three deaths: your last breath, your body buried, and your name spoken the final time. Only by calling the names and sharing the stories of people who are forgotten, but whose labor was essential for our existence, can we create a compete and complex community history. Stories about specific people can help us talk about topics many of us want to avoid. Calling their names and sharing their stories will lead some people to respond and help fill out this history, helping ensure these names are never unknown.

ABOUT RHONDDA

Rhondda Robinson Thomas was born in Spartanburg, but grew up mainly in Georgia and North Carolina. Throughout her childhood, she honed her love of creating stories about kith and kin while listening to relatives recall life experiences, mostly around the dinner table. She unexpectedly ended up back in South Carolina in 2007 when she accepted a job at Clemson University where she is currently the Calhoun Lemon Professor of Literature, teaching, researching, publishing, and developing media about early African American literature, history, and culture.

Rhondda Robinson Thomas was born in Spartanburg, but grew up mainly in Georgia and North Carolina. Throughout her childhood, she honed her love of creating stories about kith and kin while listening to relatives recall life experiences, mostly around the dinner table. She unexpectedly ended up back in South Carolina in 2007 when she accepted a job at Clemson University where she is currently the Calhoun Lemon Professor of Literature, teaching, researching, publishing, and developing media about early African American literature, history, and culture. Rhondda enjoys traveling, sewing, cooking vegan food, and hanging out with her husband William.

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