March 30-31, 2019: March 2019 Recap

[A Recap of the month that was in AmericanStudying.]March 4: Remembering the Alamo: The Two Films: For the battle’s anniversary, an Alamo series kicks off with what separates the 1960 and 2004 films and a telling shared detail. March 5: Remembering the Alamo: A Mexican Memoir: The series continues with a couple takeaways from a controversial but apparently authentic soldier’s memoir. March 6: Remembering the Alamo: Lone Star: Two exchanges in my favorite film that captures the complexities of collective memory, as the series fights on.March 7: Remembering the Alamo: Phil Collins?!: A couple ways to AmericanStudy a strange and telling 21st century story. March 8: Remembering the Alamo: The Historic Site: The series concludes with two significant problems with the mission statement of an important preservationist effort.March 9-10: Tejano Traditions: Following up the Alamo series with a special weekend post on three products of South Texas Tejano culture (including my childhood favorite restaurant, La Hacienda!).March 11: Irish Americans: Mathew Brady: A St. Patrick’s Day series kicks off with lesser-known historical contexts for the Civil War’s most famous photographer.March 12: Irish Americans: Augustus Saint-Gaudens: The series continues with the artist whose Irish American and international legacy is written in stone.March 13: Irish Americans: Georgia O’Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz: On the similar yet opposing pulls of artistic and romantic passions, as the series rolls on.March 14: Irish Americans: Gene Kelly’s Films: Stand-out moments from of the legendary actor and dancer’s biggest hit movies.March 15: Irish Americans: Macklemore’s “Irish Celebration”: The series concludes with a song that both relies upon yet also transcends ethnic stereotypes.March 16-17: Irish American Literature: A special weekend post, on five books that can tell us a lot about the Irish American experience.March 18: YA Series: Rick Riordan: A series on some of my sons’ favorite YA series kicks off with some of the reasons why they prefer Riordan’s books to other YA fantasies.March 19: YA Series: Wildwood and Ratbridge: The series continues with the limits and appeals of quirky fantasy series.March 20: YA Series: Artemis Fowl: The fraught perils of rooting for an anti-hero and how Eoin Colfer’s series transcends them through world-building, as the series reads on.March 21: YA Series: Timmy Failure: The difficult task of appealing to kid and adult audiences alike, and how Stephan Pastis’s books pull it off in (Sam) spades.March 22: YA Series: The Chronicles of Prydain, Revisited: The series concludes with the nostalgic and new delights of watching my son read one of my childhood favorite series.March 23-24: Crowd-sourced YA Lit: One of my richest crowd-sourced posts yet, featuring the responses and recommendations of many fellow YALitStudies—add yours here or in comments there, please!March 25: NeMLA Recaps: Imbolo Mbue: A series recapping the 2019 NeMLA convention in DC kicks off with two takeaways from Mbue’s wonderful opening night creative event.March 26: NeMLA Recaps: My Toni Morrison Panel: The series continues with the four great talks on the first half of my “African American Literature and the Ironies of Freedom” panel.March 27: NeMLA Recaps: Homi Bhabha: Tracing Homi Bhabha’s bracing and inspiring keynote through three key phrases, as the series rolls on.March 28: NeMLA Recaps: My Contemporary Af Am Panel: Highlighting the three great papers on the second half of my African American panel.March 29: NeMLA Recaps: Other Standout Sessions: The series concludes with three more excellent and thought-provoking panels from across the conference.                                   April Fool’s series starts Monday,BenPS. Topics you’d like to see covered in this space? Guest Posts you’d like to contribute? Lemme know!