Mr. Robertson is working on a new project: Where Did Our Love Go? - Love and Relationships in the African American Community, and has issued the follwing call for submissions (deadline September 16, 2011). 

Gil L. Robertson IV is one of America's foremost authorities on African American pop culture. As a journalist, author, lecturer and media consultant, he is responsible for literary works and intellectual properties that create dialogues for social change and personal growth. Robertson is the editor of the NAACP Image Award nominated book, Not in My Family: AIDS in the African American Community. The bestselling book features essays from a wide cross section of African Americans on the HIV/AIDS crisis. He is also the author of Writing as a Tool of Empowerment, a resource book for media professionals. Additionally, he is a frequent contributor to The African American Almanac (Gale Press) and also contributed to the anthology Souls of My Brothers (Plume).

Robertson is a co-founder of the African American Film Critics Association (AAFCA), the largest body of the nation's leading African American film critics. He is the founder of the Robertson Treatment's Media Workshop, an annual journalism initiative presented at the Auburn Avenue Research Library in Atlanta, GA and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in New York, NY.

Robertson earned a B.A. degree in Political Science from Cal State Los Angeles. He is the founder and editor of the nationally syndicated Arts & Lifestyle column, the Robertson Treatment. Now in its 14th year, the column appears in 30 newspapers across the country boasting a readership in excess of 2 million. He is a professional member of the National Press Club, The National Association of Black Journalists, The National Academy of Recording Arts & Science, The National Academy of Television Arts and Science and The Motion Picture Academy.

Family Affair: What It Means to Be African-American Today
Click to order via Amazon

Paperback: 432 pages
Publisher: Agate Bolden (March 20, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1932841350
ISBN-13: 978-1932841350
Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.9 inches

Read an AALBC.com Book Review

"Family Affair is about who we are and how our past has shaped us. It reflects the prism of the individual
and collective black experience in contemporary America, which is just as varied and colorful as the different shades of our skin. Being black in America is not a one size fits all idea."
-Terrie Williams, author of Black Pain

Original essays from Carolyn Kilpatrick, Isaac Hayes, Beverly Johnson, Max Siegel, Cathy Hughes, Bishop Paul S. Morton, Reverend Otis Moss, Ruby Dee, Thurbert Baker and others underscore a new era in American life

Veteran lifestyle journalist/editor Gil Robertson is back with a new anthology that explores 'identity' within the African American community in the new millennium. His new book, Family Affair: What It Means to Be African American Today - the follow up to his bestselling 2006 anthology Not in My Family: AIDS in the African American Community cleaves thought the physical, social, political and historical characteristics that have come to define the African-American community and offers up a multitude of perspectives on how to embrace a more positive future. Through personal stories and essays by contributors representing various elements of the black community, the book delves into an identity that's been thrown off course due to a number of external and internal factors. Family Affair is divided into five sections representing the key features that influence the African American identity: Family, Culture, Relationships, Community and Self. Each section features religious leaders, institutional leaders, elected officials, and celebrities from the worlds of music, film and broadcasting ' as well as plenty of ordinary people with extraordinary stories. Family Affair offers revelations and insights on topics that the majority of African American only talk about in secret. The goal: to stimulate dialogue that supports reflection, healing and understanding.

Family Affair is the most up-to-the-moment book yet on the

Essay highlights from Family Affair: What It Means to Be African American Today

Soul music legend Isaac Hayes:
I eventually dropped out of school out of plain embarrassment. It was very difficult to do, because I really liked school and I loved to learn. I always liked reading and unlike the kids of today, it was anything but an interruption of what I wanted to do. It was what I wanted to do. But the shoes that I wore bore cardboard in their bottoms to cover up gaping holes. It wasn't long before the girls noticed and my self-consciousness outgrew my desire to attend classes. I didn't have any clothes and in an odd sort of way, I literally couldn't afford to go to school. What saved me, ironically, was music. My music teachers took a special interest in me, as I'd taken a special interest in music. It was always my salvation. Even when I was picking cotton in Covington, music was an escape from the scorching sun and the laborious tasks I was up against. I'd sing a song or hum a tune and imagine myself in another place "maybe a juke joint" and all the pain would go away. It was a temporary fix, but it worked every time. But this time, the pain was too deep. It hurt too much.

TV One CEO Cathy Hughes: In order to protect our history and legacy, we have to take ownership of it. It's our images, our news, our chronological story, and our inheritance. We cannot expect other groups, be it intentionally or unintentionally, to accurately describe, portray and empower us. We need to document, preserve and build our own stories, from our own perspectives. A lot of the omission from history books that we classify as racism is actually just ignorance on the part of the writers who do not understand our culture ' so it's just easier for them not to tell the story at all. Completely eliminating us from certain accounts and concentrating on their own is often just plain lack of knowledge. Self-preservation is the first law of nature, so every culture looks out for their 'own' first. That's what we should be about, but whenever Black people practice it, there seems to always be a cry of alarm. Perhaps guilt is the reason for that concern.

Not in my Family, Aids in the African-American Community
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Hardcover
Publisher: Agate (2006)
ISBN-10: 0739497219
ISBN-13: 978-073949721

long last, the time has come: the time for African American people to face the scourge that has affected it disproportionately for years, and to break through the cultural inhibitions that have prevented them from dealing with it head on. This landmark collection of personal essays, stories, brief memoirs, and polemics from a broad swath of black Americans-whether prominent figures from the worlds of politics, entertainment, or sports, or just ordinary folks with extraordinary -stories whose lives have been touched by HIV/AIDS-will galvanize public attention around this issue.

Author and journalist Gil Robertson first conceived this "gripping and heartfelt patchwork," as he calls it, when his older brother was diagnosed with HIV. As he writes in his introduction, "As I've watched my family move through the various stages of his illness and hear similar stories from others, I began to realize that my family was not alone. There are countless other families waging the same fight with this disease, and I wanted to connect with them so we would feel even more so empowered to wage battle."

Robertson has enlisted a remarkable group of contributors to give voice to their impassioned thoughts and feelings. A partial list includes: from politics, Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., former US Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders and Al Sharpton; from music, Patti LaBelle; from film and TV, Mo'Nique, Jasmine Guy, Hill Harper, and Sheryl Lee Ralph; and from letters, Randall Robinson and Omar Tyree-among many, many others.

Call for Submissions

Where Did Our Love Go? - Love and Relationships in the African American Community

May 19, 2011

Dear Perspective Contributor,

In searching for the next hot topic for my African American anthology series, I feel compelled to delve into the growing marriage gag that exists in Black America. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, 43.3 percent of black men and 41.9 percent of black women in America have never been married. While it's true that the overall marriage rate among every population segment in the U.S. has declined, for blacks, it is double the national average. Marriage plays such an essential role in maintaining the vitality and character of a community, so it's deeply unsettling to find that the value of this institution has lost its allure for so many.

Where Did Our Love Go? - Love and Relationships in the African American Community, will explore the substantive issues related to marital relations in the African American community. From the possible repercussions feminist movement, to the 'my baby's mama' syndrome, the goal for this project is to explore the state of love relationships and examine what makes them work. This anthology will provide an in-depth discourse and SOLUTIONS on the trends and issues that surround this issue. To present a wide cross section of perspectives on the subject, the book will consist of a total of 40 essays divided equally into 3 lifestyle categories (single, married, and divorced). Select subjects will also be asked to participate in a cable network documentary that will be released alongside the book

I would like for you to share your thoughts and feeling on this provocative subject as a contributor to this project. Your essay should be anywhere between 1200 ' 2500 words in length and would need to be delivered no later than Friday, September 16, 2011.
I look forward to work with you to create an organized and constructive dialogue on this issue. Please take a minute to consider this opportunity and get back to me with your thoughts.

Best Regards,
Gil Robertson, IV
e-mail: gilrobertson@earthlink.net