Ralph Ellison Center Featured by Associated Press
Photo by Nicholas Lewis
The Ralph Ellison Center and its leadership were featured in an article by the Associated Press (AP). Writer Nancy Jiang explains the history of the Ellison Center, created through a $3.6 million donation from the Ralph and Fanny Ellison Charitable Trust after a meeting between the executor of the Ralph Ellison estate and Lewis. The article included interviews with the Center’s director—and Bard’s associate dean—Nicholas Lewis, Student Fellow Bee Hitz ’27, and a legal representative of the Ellison Trust, which has transferred the rights to Ralph Ellison’s archive to the Center.
Jiang also introduces the Center’s programs, such as the biannual Ralph Ellison lectures and a 10-week student internship program to conduct archival work and research into the Ellison archives at the Library of Congress. She also touches on plans for a yearlong commemoration of Ellison’s famous novel, Invisible Man, to celebrate its 75th year in print. The article notes Center leadership as intending to create a kind of salon, a gathering place for writers and intellectuals to share and develop ideas.
“We want to make sure the communities that surround us have these opportunities,” Lewis said, “There is no better place for this.”
Post Date: 11-04-2026
Jiang also introduces the Center’s programs, such as the biannual Ralph Ellison lectures and a 10-week student internship program to conduct archival work and research into the Ellison archives at the Library of Congress. She also touches on plans for a yearlong commemoration of Ellison’s famous novel, Invisible Man, to celebrate its 75th year in print. The article notes Center leadership as intending to create a kind of salon, a gathering place for writers and intellectuals to share and develop ideas.
“We want to make sure the communities that surround us have these opportunities,” Lewis said, “There is no better place for this.”
Post Date: 11-04-2026