We Must Learn to Sit Down Together and Talk About a Little Culture essay collection, approximately 1960s-1990s, 2005, 2008-2017

Please Note:

This collection is currently undergoing processing. The Academia series, Events and Engagement series, and Research Materials series are unavailable until approximately June 2026.

Scope and content:

This subseries includes materials primarily related to the compiling and publication of the essay collection We Must Learn to Sit Down Together and Talk About a Little Culture (WMLTSDT), published by Peepal Tree Press in 2022. This essay collection bears the same title as one of the essays included in it, which was originally published in 1968 and is included in the Chronological Files. The subseries includes handwritten drafts, marked and unmarked typescript drafts, marked and unmarked photocopies of published essays, notes, research materials, and printed correspondence.

Materials related to the original writing of the essays found in the book are in the Chronological subseries, C.L.R. James subseries, and New Seville subseries; materials in this subseries are often copies of those essays as published, along with later notes and edits from Wynter or others who worked on the essay collection, particularly Demetrius Eudell and Anthony Bogues. There is also correspondence regarding finding and editing these materials.

Wynter originally intended to write a lengthy introduction to the collection, called at various points "Prolegomena", "Some Gigantic Thing Called Colonial", "We Know Where We Are From", and "Why Adam Had to Have Sinned", among other names. The collection itself may at one time have been titled "We Know Where We Are From", another essay included in the WMLTSDT collection which was originally published in 1977. Ultimately the original introduction grew and evolved into the materials now found in the Ceremony Found subseries. Instead, Wynter wrote a shorter introduction published with this collection. As it was often difficult to distinguish between the several versions of the introduction, there is likely overlap with the Ceremony Found subseries. She may also have intended longer introductions for each essay, and notes related to some of these are in this subseries.

Early correspondence regarding this project included proposals for multiple possible publications. The correspondence sometimes refers to WMLTSDT as Volume 1, with Wynter's later essays planned for subsequent volumes. This subseries includes some materials related to these proposals, and more may be found in the Chronological subseries and the Correspondence series.

A timeline of Wynter's writings, lectures, workshops, and other engagements compiled during processing is available here.

Processing information:

During processing, it was often difficult to determine exactly which version of a given essay was created at what time, so there is overlap between this series and the Chronological subseries files for these essays.

Wynter often labeled or made notes on the fronts of folders, very often on sticky notes. Sticky notes were removed, attached to archival paper, and included in the folder. If any information other than just the title of the work was written on the original folder, that portion of the folder was retained and included in the new folder.

Original folders were often unmarked, and contents were often not clearly one work or another. It also appeared that the same materials, especially notes, notebooks, and research materials, may have been used for multiple projects. Handwritten materials were often undated, and some dates were inferred from surrounding materials.

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