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Events Around Town

Freelance photographer Marcia E. Wilson of WideVision Photography gallivants around NYC looking for literary events to spotlight on the "Events Around Town" page. She may be at a reading near you.

   


 

Catherine McKinley

May 19, 2011 - Friends and family gathered to celebrate the launch of Indigo: In Search of the Color That Seduced the World by Catherine E. McKinley. The event, held at the Young Robertson Gallery, was an exquisite pairing. Indigo focuses on the historic place the dye holds in lore and cultures stemming from Africa. YRG features a variety of artifacts and artwork from various African countries and tribes.

Indigo is the story of this precious dye and its ancient heritage: its relationship to slavery as the “hidden half” of the transatlantic slave trade, its profound influence on fashion, and its spiritual significance, which is little recognized but no less alive today. It is an untold story, brimming with rich, electrifying tales of those who shaped the course of colonial history and a world economy. 

 

Click here for complete details and to read an excerpt
 


 

Tavis Smiley

April 27, 2011 - Talk show host Tavis Smiley celebrated 20 years in broadcasting in a conversation with Brian Lehrer of WNYC radio. Tavis, who recently published a new book, Fail Up: 20 Lessons on Building Success from Failure (purchase here: http://amzn.to/juAB4D) talked of his tough childhood in Indiana, twelve siblings, a nearly fatal beating by his father, check forgery conviction, and his rocky relationship with Barack Obama.


 

It was a rare opportunity for Mr. Smiley, who Time magazine listed as one of the "100 Most Influential People of 2009" to be on the answering end of a conversation. He was at ease and spoke openly of personal and intimate details of his personal and professional life.

The event was presented by WNYC and took place at The Cooper Union in NYC. In attendance was comedian Paul Money, who couldn't resist an opportunity to do a quick stand up; Marva Allen, HueMan Bookstore in Harlem; Troy Johnson, AALBC.com; and many fans and friends.

 

Click here for complete photo album

 

 


 

 

PEN World Festival of International Literature
April 25, 2011 - Mosaic was on hand for opening night of the Seventh Annual PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature. Held at The Lighthouse at Chelsea Piers. Guests included Festival Chair Salman Rushdie, Malcolm Gladwell, Wallace Shawn, Deborah Eisenberg, Mircea Cartarescu, Andrea Levy, Rigoberto Gonzalez, Hanif Kureish, and others.

 

 

Every year, PEN brings together more than 100 writers from 40 nations to celebrate the power of the writer’s voice as a bold and vital element of public discourse. The week-long program features panel discussions, one-on-one conversations, readings, and performances.

 

Click here for complete photo album

 


 

 

Edward P. Jones
Thursday, April 14, 2011 - Kweli Journal in partnership with The New York Times and African Heritage Network presented and evening with Pulitzer-prize winning writer EDWARD P. JONES.



In front of a full house, Mr. Jones read passages from his books The Known World, Lost in the City, and All Aunt Hagar's Children (purchase books http://amzn.to/g8jO3O). After, he was joined in conversation by Wyatt Mason, Harpers and New York Times critic. Mr. Jones quipped about not understanding why people still wanted to hear him read from his "old" books. The audience chuckled, and continued to hang on his every word.

The reading was proceeded by readings from contributors to Kweli: Nicole Vasquez, Milton Washington, Princess Perry, and Radhiyah Ayobami. For more information on Kweli visit
http://www.kwelijournal.com/.

Click here for complete photo album

 


 

 

Wil Haygood
On Friday, April 8, 2011 - Harlem politicos were out in force to honor biographer and journalist Wil Haygood. His work documenting the lives of Adam Clayton Powell Jr., Sammy Davis Jr., and Sugar Ray Robinson is an important historical record.

 

 

 

The event took place at The Schomburg Center for Research into Black Culture, and was sponsored by Bill Lynch Associates, LLC. Mr. Lynch, a long-time Harlemite and NYC powerbroker, was on hand for the reading.

Wil Haygood has spent much of his writing life during the past two decades compiling a trilogy of biographical works of three figures forever linked to Harlem USA: Adam Clayton Powell Jr., Sammy Davis Jr., and Sugar Ray Robinson. Haygood has interviewed more than 400 individuals over the years, a quest which has taken him from European capitals to the Caribbean to points across America and of course Harlem. A good many of those he interviewed worked with and intimately knew these three seminal African-American figures. Haygood's trilogy has been widely acclaimed.


Click here for complete photo album

 


 

Nikky Finney

Read an interview conducted by Tara Betts with Ms. Finney for Mosaic Literary Magazine. Also, view images from a recent conversation poet Aracelis Girmay hosted with the Kentucky poet on March 31.

 

 

Click here for video, pictures, and the interview

 


 

Kevin Young

Friday, March 4; poet Kevin Young read from his new book "Ardency: A Chronicle of the Amistad Rebels."

 

 


 

"Acclaimed poet Kevin Young gathers here a chorus of voices that tells the story of the Africans who mutinied onboard the slave ship Amistad. Written over twenty years, this poetic epic—part libretto, part captivity epistle—makes the past present, and even its sorrows sing." --RandomHouse

The reading took place at Greenlight Bookstore in Brooklyn, NY

Buy the book: http://amzn.to/hshZUJ

 

For more photos and complete details visit us on Facebook

 


 

Mat Johnson

Thursday, March 3, 2011 - Mat Johnson, author of six books, read from "Pym" at McNally Jackson Bookstore. 

A comic journey into the ultimate land of whiteness by an unlikely band of African American adventurers

Recently canned professor of American literature Chris Jaynes is obsessed with The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, Edgar Allan Poe’s strange and only novel. When he discovers the manuscript of a crude slave narrative that seems to confirm the reality of Poe’s fiction, he resolves to seek out Tsalal, the remote island of pure and utter blackness that Poe describes with horror. Jaynes imagines it to be the last untouched bastion of the African Diaspora and the key to his personal salvation.

 

 

 

He convenes an all-black crew of six to follow Pym’s trail to the South Pole in search of adventure, natural resources to exploit, and, for Jaynes at least, the mythical world of the novel. With little but the firsthand account from which Poe derived his seafaring tale, a bag of bones, and a stash of Little Debbie snack cakes, Jaynes embarks on an epic journey under the permafrost of Antarctica, beneath the surface of American history, and behind one of literature’s great mysteries. He finds that here, there be monsters. --book jacket

Click here 
http://amzn.to/eTMLhG to purchase "Pym."

 

For more photos and complete details visit us on Facebook

 


 

Teju Cole
February 24, 2011 @Greenlight Bookstore Bklyn NYC -Teju Cole, author of the critically received "Open City" read before an audience of numerous friends and many new fans. 

 

 

"In other words, it is an ongoing reverie in the tradition of W.G. Sebald or Nicholson Baker, but with the welcome interruptions of the friends and strangers Julius meets as he wanders Penn Station, the Upper West Side, and Brussels during a short holiday, and amid discussions of Alexander Hamilton, black identity, and the far left--a truly American novel emerges." --Publishers Weekly

For more photos and a video of the reading visit us on Facebook

 

 


 

Rubin "Hurricane" Carter

February 10, 2011 - Greenlight Bookstore in Brooklyn hosted Dr. Rubin "Hurricane" Carter as he read from his new book "Eye of the Hurricane: My Path from Darkness to Freedom." Co-written with Ken Klonsky and forward by Nelson Mandela.

 

 

 

Now 73, Dr. Carter remains actively involved with prisoner rights. In 2004, he founded the Innocence International. II coordinates many innocence projects throughout the world. http://www.rubinthehurricanecarter.com/

 

For more photos and complete details visit us on Facebook

 

 


 

 

Manning Marable

February 8, 2011 - Scholar Manning Marable and civil-rights attorney Kristen Clarke (a former student of Mr. Marable) have teamed to co-edit Barack Obama and African American Empowerment: The Rise of Black America's New Leadership (Critical Black Studies).

 

The reading took place at HueMan Bookstore in Harlem and was capped by a lively discussion with the audience. Click here for more pictures on Facebook

 

 

 


 

Zadie Smith

February 2, 2011 - Zadie Smith, author of White Teeth, On Beauty, and The Autograph Man , celebrated her new post as editor of Harper's Magazine's New Book column. The conversation was facilitated by Gemma Sieff, editor of Reviews and Criticism for the magazine. The event was held at NYU Kimmel Center for University Life, Eisner and Lubin Auditorium.

 

   

“I think a good book review is a place to meet a book on its own
terms,” said Smith, “not as an ideological vehicle or an academic
plaything. Often people think of writing as primary and reading as the
lesser art; in my life it's the other way around. When I write about
books I’m trying to honor reading as a creative act: as far as I’m
concerned the job is not simply to describe an end product but to
delineate a process, an intimate experience with a book which the
general reader understands just as well as the professional critic.”

--Zadie Smith


The audience was welcomed by Deborah Landau, Director, NYU Creative Writing Program and John R. MacArthur, Publisher for Harper Magazine. Click here more additional images on Facebook.

 

 

 


 

Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts

February 1, 2011 - Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts author of Harlem Is Nowhere was joined by Ron Kavanaugh, publisher of Mosaic Literary Magazine to discuss her new book. Click here for video, photos and complete details.

 

 


 

 

Ntozake Shange
October 14, 2010 - With the movie release of "For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf" Ntozake Shange is once again returning to the center of Black thought and conversation. The original theatrical release (1975) mined the emotions of women across the country; and won an Obie Award.

Ms. Shange read for Mosaic as a precursor to an interview that will appear in a future issue. She's also celebrating the release of her new book, "Some Sing, Some Cry" which she authored with her sister Ifa Bayeza.

After recovering from illness and a stroke, Ms. Shange, a native Trentonian, has settled in Brooklyn NY to be closer to friend and family. Click here to view additional pictures on Facebook
.

 

 

 

 


 

Chinua Achebe
On October 27, 2010, dignitaries, artists, and fans gathered at the Hudson Theater in New York to pay tribute to the Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe, recipient of the 2010 Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize. The prize, which was endowed after the death of actress Lillian Gish in 1993, is awarded annually to an artist "who has made an outstanding contribution to the beauty of the world and to mankind’s enjoyment and understanding of life." previous winners include Bill T. Jones, Frank Gehry, and Pete Seeger among others. Click here to view additional pictures on Facebook.

 


 

Black Renaissance Noire new issue launch

Friday, October 22, 2010 --At a packed house in their NYU office Black Renaissance Noire launched a new issue. Under the leadership of Quincy Troupe BRN has grown and diversified. Many of the poets featured in the current issue, which included Meena Alexander, Wanda Coleman, Victor Hernandez Cruz, Kamau Daaood, Martin Espada, and Kimiko Hahn, were on hand to read from and celebrate the new release. Click here to view additional pictures on Facebook
 


Quincy Troupe and Kamau Daaood

 


 

WNYC Black & Latino Literary Salon

Wednesday, September 29 - Inspired by the informal Sunday literary and jazz salons that took place during the Harlem Renaissance, WNYC and The Takeaway held a conversation-in-the-round, hosted by Patrik Henry Bass, Takeaway contributor and book editor of Essence magazine. Hi facilitated a conversation among novelists Dahlma Llanos-Figueroa, Bernice McFadden, and an audience of publishing and arts professionals. Click here to view additional pictures on Facebook

 


Bernice McFadden, Patrik Henry Bass, & Dahlma Llanos-Figueroa

 


 

Lori Tharps
September 16 - The destructive forces of a rare NYC tornado could not disrupt the celebration for Lori Tharps's new novel Substitute Me at the Ristorante Setti Pani in Harlem, NY.

 

  
Lori Tharps and editor Malaika Adero

 

  
book party guests

© WideVision Photography/Marcia E. Wilson

Photos may not be used without permission

 


 

Brooklyn Book Festival
On a misty Sunday (9/12/10), writers, poets, and and amateur literati gathered at the Brooklyn Book Festival to celebrate and support a love of books and ideas. The annual event welcomed a wide variety of literary artists, publishers, and organizations from around the world. BKBF presented panels, readings, and conversations throughout the day. Complete array of photos on Facebook.com

 


Brooklyn Book Festival crowds

 

     
poets Tracy K. Smith, John Murillo, and novelist Cristina Garcia

 


Colson Whitehead

© WideVision Photography/Marcia E. Wilson

Photos may not be used without permission

 


 

Click here to see event and reading photos from Terry McMillan, Fort Greene Literary Festival, Zwelethu Mthethwa, Ernessa T. Carter, Chimamanda Adichie, Amiri Baraka, June Jordan Tribute, Bernice McFadden, Ben Okri, Calabash Anthology Reading, and Up Jump the Boogie.

 

 

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