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Black Authors Stand Out on the National Book Awards’ Shortlist of Finalists
Black talent got a prestigious shout-out when the 2020 finalists for the National Book Awards were announced on Tuesday. The 25 honorees and their titles, considered the best literature in America by the National Book Foundation, join previous winners like Toni Morrison, Ta-Nehisi Coates and Jesmyn Ward in a diverse pool of talent and topics…
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Did You Know Reading Black Books Is Also a Form of Resistance?
Pages worth of protest may be sitting right on your bookshelves. This October kicked off during Banned Books Week, traditionally observed annually in the last week of September; but the history behind the censorship of books is worth revisiting any day of the year. In 1982, just a year into the escalating conservatism of the…
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Misty Copeland’s Bunheads Is for Children, but There’s a Message for Everyone at the Barre
Last Tuesday, there were several ways you could have spent your 7 pm hour in the Eastern Standard Time Zone—including, but not limited to, witnessing an embattled president categorically lower a standard he’d set in public tantrum-throwing. But in a kinder, gentler section of the internet that evening, positivity and light abounded as Misty Copeland…
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Black Authors Will Be the Standouts at This Year’s (Virtual) National Book Festival
In 2001, when the Library of Congress’ inaugural National Book Festival kicked off in Washington, D.C., some 50 award-winning authors, illustrators and storytellers peopled the pop-up tents on the East Lawn of the U.S. Capitol to read excerpts of their work, sign their books and interact with fans. That was September 9. Two days later,…
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Cole Brown's Greyboy Illuminates the Intersection of Being Young, Wealthy and Black
Cole Brown has lived his entire 24 years of life at the intersection of privilege and Blackness. The son of a Fortune 100 exec and the grandson of the first female senator in Ethiopia, he was born into the Jack and Jill, exclusive private school, summering in Martha’s Vineyard African American elite. That might be…
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Turning a New Page, the Schomburg Literary Festival Is Going Virtual—and Global—for 2020
OK, so let’s articulate the obvious: There will be no tents or stages at the Schomburg Literary Festival this year. There will be no road-tripping or traveling to New York City’s beloved Harlem or electric anticipation in the line for in-person author signings. There will be no flipping through the fresh, crisp pages of a…
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For Colored Girls in Their 30s and 40s Who Feel Like Life May Have Passed Them By
In the predawn quiet before the world reanimated itself, my phone lit up, announcing an incoming call from a friend I absolutely love. She’s an early riser like me, so we have high-energy conversations at obnoxious hours of the morning when everyone else is still asleep. But I was on deadline this particular day, so…
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Young Black Men Are Missing in DC, Too, and They’re Not Coming Home as Quickly
Weeks ago, as social media alerts from Washington, D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department ignited an outcry about the number of missing black girls in the District, we witnessed the synergism of our community at work. We retweeted, reposted and reshared their photos and information. Folks discussed and debated the prevalence of contributing social factors. Celebrities, politicians…
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Black Feminism Should Serve the Women Who Aren’t at the Table, Too
There’s a young woman who lives on the first floor of my apartment building. She’s cute, probably in her mid-20s, although life has prematurely etched the signature of age across her face and carriage. She’s a mama to four sons, none of them more than 5 or 6 years old, all absolutely adorable, stair-jumping, ripping-and-tearing,…
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Affordable Care Act Remains a Defining Moment in Obama’s Presidency
So many presidents tried it. From Harry S. Truman to Richard Nixon to Bill Clinton. Some say as many as seven presidents attempted to pass some form of national health care with few results, often stymied by the notion that social welfare should be left up to the states. But Barack Obama, in his first…
