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 ofIndigo:
In Search of the Color That Seduced the Worldby
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.
Indigois
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.
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.
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.
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/.
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.
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.
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
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
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
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/
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.
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.
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
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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