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Pear-blossoms and Mule-eyes: A Review of Rachel Eliza Griffiths’ Mule & Pear
Rachel Eliza Griffiths’ Mule & Pear: Review By Mecca Jamilah Sullivan This review first appeared in Cerise Press Vol 4. Issue 10 The black woman is “de mule uh de world.” So says the world-wise and work-weary Granny, Janie’s grandmother in Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God. In making this now famous declaration, Granny not only…
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The Millions: The Great Second-Half 2012 Book Preview
The Great Second-Half 2012 Book Preview 2012 has already been a rich year for books, with new novels from Toni Morrison, Richard Ford, and Hilary Mantel and essay collections from Marilynn Robinson and Jonathan Franzen, to name just a fraction of what we’ve featured, raved about, chewed on, and puzzled over so far.
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Kingston Noir Book Party at Greenlight
June 13, 2012 – Colin Channer held court at Greenlight Bookstore, BKNYC, as friends and family gathered to celebrated his newly edited book Kingston Noir. Part of Akashic Books’ “Noir” series, the latest iteration takes place on Jamaica and features writers Christopher John Farley, Patricia Powell, Thomas Glave, and Colin Channer among others. Click here http://amzn.to/LxR9ux for…
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Chike and the River: Review
Chike and the River By Chinua Achebe Anchor Books Review by Deatra Haime Anderson Originally published in South Africa in 1966, Chinua Achebe’s children’s book Chike and the River finally makes its debut here in the United States. Part escapade, part fable, it is a simple but engaging story of 11-year old Chike who struggles…
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Women Writers on the Horizon
On March 28, 2012, I had the opportunity to witness four seminal figures in the arts engage in conversation centered on “Their Eyes Were Watching God” by Zora Neale Hurston. The talk was facilitated by Zora’s niece Lucy Ann Hurston, and included Alice Walker, Sonia Sanchez, and Ruby Dee
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Caryl Phillips: Interview
by Clarence Reynolds Caryl Phillips appears to be a man of a composed and modest nature. He’s relaxed in his T-shirt and leather jacket; he also presents the aura of a seasoned traveler.
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Down These Mean Streets: A Piri Thomas Celebration
What does it mean to be Black, Puerto Rican, and marginalized, all within your small neighborhood, within your family? In 1967, Piri Thomas’s seminal memoir “Down These Mean Streets” chronicled his life –a young man living a hard life in the streets of El Barrio, Spanish Harlem. The book would go on to become required…
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Rebecca Walker and Michaela angela Davis
February 14, 2012 – Rebecca Walker and Image Activist Michaela angela Davis conducted a conversation about Walker’s new anthology Black Cool: One Thousand Streams of Blackness. The collection—with essays written by prominent voices and figures such as bell Hooks, Henry Louis Gates, dream Hampton, Staceyann Chin as well as Michaela—explores the origins, aesthetics as well…
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Camille T. Dungy: Interview
Camille T. Dungy is the author of What to Eat, What to Drink, What to Leave for Poison; Suck on the Marrow, for which she received a 2011 American Book Award; and Smith Blue. She is a National Endowment for the Arts fellow, and was a finalist for the PEN Center USA 2007 Literary Award.…
