AALBC.com assessed the relative strengths of almost 300 American cities, to determine which ones are best able to provide environments that are supportive of, and conducive to, the enjoyment of African American Literature.
“As the only African-American soloist dancing with the prestigious American Ballet Theatre, Misty Copeland has made history. But when she first placed her hands on the barre at an after-school community center, no one expected the undersized, anxious thirteen year-old to become a groundbreaking ballerina.
When she discovered ballet, Misty was living in a shabby motel room, struggling with her five siblings for a place to sleep on the floor. A true prodigy, she was dancing en pointe within three months of taking her first dance class, and performing professionally in just over a year: a feat unheard of for any classical dancer.
From behind the scenes at her first auditions to her triumphant roles in some of the most iconic ballets… Misty opens a window into the life of a professional ballerina… Life in Motion is a story of passion and grace for anyone who has dared to dream of a different life."
-- Excerpted from the inside book jacket
These books are not ranked in any particular order. Most of these books are available on www.amazon.ca or .com and www.barnesandnoble.com
These books are not ranked in any particular order. Most of these books are available on www.amazon.ca or .com and www.barnesandnoble.com
First came slavery. When it ended there was a brief period in the sun called Reconstruction, followed by the long dark night of the Jim Crow Laws and legalized segregation in which we were forced into second class status, and now comes The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, which is also the title of Michelle Alexander’s excellent book reedited this year with a foreword written by Dr. Cornel West, Ph.D. Yes, we have a Black president. Yes, we have Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry leading the pack in Hollywood. Yes, we had Herman Cain in the race for the Republican nomination.
Yes, we have a host of first Black this and first Black that. Nonetheless, we have yet to move beyond race. In fact, under the cover of a set of supposedly race neutral laws and procedures, the police are rounding up Black men in droves, going over them with a fine tooth comb, and for the slightest infraction pulling them into the criminal justice system. Many of them, fearing long prison terms, quickly make a plea deal without benefit of counsel and are thereby branded felons (whether they are given jail time or not), and their ability to get a decent job forever disappears.
There are more African Americans under the supervision of the criminal justice system today than were slaves in 1860. Even during slavery there were free Blacks, many of whom accomplished great things, but they all ran the constant risk of being kidnapped and sold into slavery. Likewise, after the Civil War and Reconstruction free Black men and women could be arrested for vagrancy, that is not having a job, and those working as sharecroppers could be sent to prison for “not paying their debts” to the White men whose land they tilled.
First came slavery. When it ended there was a brief period in the sun called Reconstruction, followed by the long dark night of the Jim Crow Laws and legalized segregation in which we were forced into second class status, and now comes The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, which is also the title of Michelle Alexander’s excellent book reedited this year with a foreword written by Dr. Cornel West, Ph.D. Yes, we have a Black president. Yes, we have Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry leading the pack in Hollywood. Yes, we had Herman Cain in the race for the Republican nomination.
These books are not ranked in any particular order. Most of these books are available on www.amazon.ca or .com and www.barnesandnoble.com
These books are not ranked in any particular order. Most of these books are available on www.amazon.ca or .com and www.barnesandnoble.com
On November 5, 2002, Austin Clarke won the Giller Fiction Prize for his latest novel The Polished Hoe. Clarke’s first novel, Survivors of the Crossing, was published in 1964. From the very beginning his work was highly praised, but recognition in Canada eluded him. Not until 1997 and his twentieth book, The Origin of Waves, which won the Rogers Communications Writers’ Trust Award, changed things significantly for him. In 1999, he won the W. O. Mitchell Prize, which is given annually to a Canadian who has produced an outstanding body of work and served as a mentor for other writers. The Question, his novel published in 2000, was shortlisted for the Governor-General Award.
Clarke is the author of some twenty-plus books, including ten novels, several collections of short stories, an autobiography, a culinary memoir, a collection of poems, and several essays on social issues. Half of his novels and about a third of his stories are set in Barbados, sometimes called Bimshire, the name by which Barbadians affectionately call their island.
According to Clarke’s biographer, Stella Algoo-Baksh, Clarke led a penurious existence during the early years of writing. Clarke takes every opportunity he can to let the public know that without the support of his wife Betty during those lean years, his writing career might have foundered. Although at various times, he held positions as lecturer or writer-in-residence at many prestigious universities, and freelanced for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, not to mention his being cultural attaché at the Barbadian embassy in Washington and later director of culture in Barbados, Clarke’s inability to play the institutional game of winking at injustice—racial in Canada and the US, political and social in Barbados—made him an unwelcome presence. Moreover, these positions restricted what he wanted to do most: to write. At one point he became involved with the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party, thinking, naively, he now says, that he could change the system from within. For a few years in the early 1990s he was a refugee court judge.
Anyone familiar with Clarke’s corpus knows from Growing up Stupid under the Union Jack, Clarke’s autobiography which covers his life up to Harrison College, that Clarke’s books set in Barbados are profoundly informed by his personal experiences and the issues affecting Barbadians while he came of age there. The Meeting Point, Storm of Fortune, and The Bigger Light, referred to as The Toronto Trilogy, were until the books by Dionne Brand, Nourbese Philip, Makeda Silvera, Cecil Foster, Althea Prince and myself, the only fictional exploration of West Indian immigrant life in Canada.
“One of the greatest propaganda campaigns of all time was the masterful marketing of the myth of Black inferiority to justify slavery within a democracy.” The last several centuries still haunt us, and hinder our advancement and achievement.”
- Excerpted from Brainwashed
Ever since the dawn of the nation when the Founding Fathers deliberately rationalized slavery by spreading the big lie that Black people were inferior, African-Americans have suffered from serious self-esteem issues. But why has this phenomenon continued to persist so long past emancipation and the elimination of the Jim Crow system of segregation?
Black Faces In White Places is far more than a "how-to succeed in the corporate world" manual for African Americans. It not only explains in great and meaningful detail how to play the game, but how to get downright creative with the game, for your own tremendous benefit. Also, Drs. Randall Pinkett and Jeffrey Robinson provide a brilliant analysis of networking. You may think you know what networks are, and how they work, but after reading Black Faces In White Places, you will see that you do not. If for no other reason, read this book to maximize your professional and personal linkages for mutual benefit to you and your associates.
“During my four years in the White House, I kept a personal diary by dictating my thoughts and observations several times each day… When dictating entries to my diary… I intertwined my personal opinions and activities with a brief description of the official duties I performed.
Readers should remember that I seldom exercised any restraint on what I dictated, because I did not contemplate the more personal entries ever being made public… Despite a temptation to conceal my errors, misjudgments of people, or lack of foresight, I decided when preparing this book not to revise the original transcript…
These books are not ranked in any particular order. Most of these books are available on www.amazon.ca or .com and www.barnesandnoble.com
"My daughter Suhaila was born a full decade after my mother died… Becoming a parent made me think of my own mother with both intense grief and profound gratitude. More than anything, I wished that my mother and my daughter could have known and loved each other…
''My life is often described as ''improbable" because I grew up in a broken home and in poverty... Of course, I acknowledge the unlikelyhood of my good fortune.
I also recognize the hard work and discipline that have made it possible.''
“I didn’t write this book just to revisit The Blind Side… I want to help separate fact from fiction. After the movie came out, there were a lot of people asking me if my life was exactly how it was shown on screen.
Obviously, the moviemakers have to make artistic choices to tell the story…but some of the details… just aren’t true. I hope that I can help to make a little more sense of it all.
