Sheila Johnson "The Other City" Interview

Here, she talks about her new film, The Other City, an expose’ about the HIV/AIDS crisis in Washington, DC which recently premiered at the 2010 TriBeCa Film Festival.

The Joys of Fatherhood - Preparing for Father's Day by Kevin Wayne Johnson

"A wise son maketh a glad father: but a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother."
(Proverbs 10:1)
 
What a joy to hear the words "'Daddy!'" each day when I arrive home from work.  What a blessed privilege to know that my Heavenly Father entrusts me to raise three healthy sons in the midst of this dying world!  What an honor to be a "'role model'" to young sons that will soon transition into young men.  It is my behavior, lifestyle, mannerisms, and habits that they will emulate.  It is my responsibility to train them in this present time in order that they clearly understand their God-ordained roles as husbands and fathers in the very near future.  What a joy, what a responsibility, what an honor!!

Open Letters to Oprah Winfrey -

On April 4, 2007, radio talk show host Don Imus went on the air and called the Rutgers University women's basketball players "nappy-headed hos." After Imus’now what? Where do we go from here? Is there a double standard in this country? A conversation we all need to have right now.

The award for Outstanding Literary Work - Debut Author at the NAACP Image Awards eluded me; however, the week end experience was nothing short of wonderful for my wife and me. Actor Hill Harper won for his delightful book, Letters To A Young Brother. The book has received strong reviews and would be a great gift to any person, not just the youthful males in your life.

38th NAACP Image Awards by Kam Williams

Image Awards Upstaged by Resignation of NAACP President

Judging by the 38th Annual NAACP Image Awards which aired on Fox last Friday, it appeared that the organization was really getting its act together. First of all, the show was broadcast live for the first time, as opposed to pre-recorded, which had always been the case in the past.

Marie Brown TriHarLenium Presentation - Harlem Literary Scene 1986 to 1996

Read Marie Brown's presentation given at the TriHarLenium Panel Discussion on Monday December 11, 2006

TriHarLeninum 1976 -2006 chronicles the evolution of the Harlem community during these decades.  The project includes four symposium/performances capturing the stories of a diverse panel of artists, scholars, historians, community activists, clergy, and others, as well as five performances of Craig S. Harris' composition in cultural institutions and public parks throughout Harlem.

Sonia Sanchez and Ten Grandmothers Acquitted of ’Defiant Trespassing’ by Jamie Walker

Philadelphia, PA’Sonia Sanchez, 71, and ten other grandmothers, who are part of an organization called The Granny Peace Brigade (GBP), were recently acquitted in a Philadelphia Community Courtroom on charges of 'defiant trespassing' in front of an Army Recruitment Center earlier this year.

If there was ever any doubt that gangsta’ rap is a man's game, Black Entertainment Television confirmed the fact that sisters need not apply at its First Annual Hip-Hop Awards. The event was staged in Atlanta, where it was hosted by pimp comedian Katt Williams, a prot’g’ of Snoop Dogg known for his misogynistic brand of humor. Katt set the tone in monologue with remarks like the line where he referred to Venus and Serena Williams as natural disasters. And Ludacris added an exclamation point by being bleeped within seconds of kicking off the festivities with an expletive-laced rendition of one of his hits.

Journaling: A First Step to Publication
An Article by Desiree Day
http://www.aalbc.com/reviews/journaling.htm

Once people find out I am a writer, invariably their first question is, "How did you become a writer?"
 

Everybody admires the bravery firemen exhibit by rushing into a burning building when the human survival instinct calls for exactly the opposite behavior. It is for similar reasons that you are likely to find Daryle Lamont Jenkins so fascinating, since this 37 year-old black man born in Newark devotes most of his free-time to monitoring the movements of the Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazis and other white supremacists.

Remembering Glenn Thompson
http://www.aalbc.com/reviews/remembering_glenn_thompson.htm

Glenn Thompson was an exemplary Black publisher.  He viewed books as weapons of liberation and saw his task as that of a soldier, arming the people to free themselves.  He chose to publish great books about people of African descent that helped to define the reality of the Black experience.  He also chose to publish outstanding books that redefined the White experience from the perspectives of those who were oppressed and dispossessed by it--and he did so in subtle, subversive, but often comical ways.

May 11th is the 25th anniversary of the passing of the king of reggae. Officially, he succumbed to cancer in Miami in 1981 at the age of 36. Today, however, his music is more widespread, more popular, and more respected than it ever was.

It is part of Rastafari teaching that there is no dying, only living, and Marley held that to be true.  For Marley, at least, death was just the beginning...

Broadway's ’The Color Purple’ Empowers Many by

New York’Ever since its debut on Broadway, Alice Walker's compelling narrative-turned-musical, ’The Color Purple,’ has brought out a host of  well-wishers, supporters, critics, and fans.

Walker's acclaimed, best-selling novel received the Pulitzer Prize and an American Book Award for fiction in 1983. In 1985, Stephen Spielberg (along with Warner Bros. Pictures) turned the book into ’an internationally popular film.’

Marketing Your Book - Eight Unique Ways to Promote Your Book
by Desiree Day Author of Crazy Love
http://www.aalbc.com/reviews/promote_your_book.htm

Whether you have just completed your first, third or fifth book you want to see it succeed.  Book promotion is a daunting task that can leave even a seasoned publicist floundering for ideas.  There are thousands of books jockeying for the readers' attention and you want your book to be their first choice.  Promoting a book is like being a cross between Houdini and a detective.  You have got to sleuth for creative promoting avenues then magically tie them to your book to maximize revenue-generating publicity. 

The ’Queen of Real’ Signs 2^nd Book Deal An Interview With Electa Rome Parks: Part II
By Lynnette Khalfani
http://reviews.aalbc.com/the_queen_of_real.htm

Parks, a formerly self-published writer, has just inked a second book deal with New American Library, a division of Penguin, to publish her fourth novel, called Ladies Night Out. Due to hit bookshelves in hardcover in 2006, Ladies Night Out is ’99% complete,’ according to Parks. The story focuses on four high-profile, single, African-American women who are best friends. ’They have a monthly ladies night out where they leave their stress behind. So it's a really fun, sexy novel,’ Parks reveals. In other words, something that's quite different than what readers may have come to expect of Parks based on her debut novel, The Ties That Bind or its sequel, Loose Ends.

What do best-selling authors. Iyanla Vanzant, E. Lynn Harris, Parry Brown, Evelyn Palfrey, Zane and Vickie Stringer have in common? They are among the growing number of authors who self-published their first books and sold hundreds of copies -- before major publishers embraced their work.
 

Marvin X Unplugged

While drugs and their impact have been talked about, no one has really dealt with the addiction to drugs and how it impacts a community and one's soul. No one has, until Marvin X, a poet, long time writer and activist, decided to touch this subject in his play, "A Day in the Life".  The play details Marvin's life ordeal with drugs, as well as the impact drugs had on former Black Panthers Eldridge Cleaver and Huey Newton and the Black community.

On February 12th 2005, many television viewers had the opportunity to witness another amazing celebration of the Black women, and a celebration of the extended Black family, during the television debut of Lackawanna Blues presented by HBO Films.

Harlem, New York’Thousands of mourners packed The Riverside Church in Harlem on Saturday, February 12, 2005 to pay final respects to Ossie Davis’acclaimed actor, writer, producer, director, cultural griot, tireless civil rights activist, righteous warrior, and divine human being’who died of natural causes on Feb. 4 while working on a film called ’Retirement’ in Miami. Davis was 87 years old when he made his transition.

Sonia Sanchez Performs ’Full Moon’ Concert in NYC
by Jamie Walker

http://reviews.aalbc.com/fullmoon.htm

New York’Poet Sonia Sanchez celebrated the release of her new CD called The Full Moon of Sonia at The Tribeca Performing Arts Center in Lower Manhattan, New York on Friday December 17, 2004. Countless Sanchez supporters and followers from around the country came out to hear Sanchez perform with a live jazz band, a host of beautiful dancers, renowned guest artists, and phenomenal back-up singers, who strummed their sweet music around Sanchez's words of peace, love, and freedom.

Handling Your Finances ’ Lessons from an Author in Transition by Lynnette Khalfani

Little did Electa Rome Parks know that her unforeseen downsizing in 2003 would actually serve as a catalyst for her biggest career blessing to date. As it turns out, getting the axe from Bank of America cut Parks off from corporate America, but it jumpstarted her literary career: Six months after receiving a pink slip, Parks went from part-time writer to full-time author, landed a high-profile literary agent, and got a six-figure book deal with a major publishing house.  

Learn some of the important lesson from Khalfani's article including how to avoid the pitfalls of print on demand, being a self-published author and being a mainstream author.

Harrisonburg, Virginia’Over sixty distinguished poets and scholars gathered to help ’set the agenda for African American poetry for decades to come’ at the historic ’Furious Flower: Regenerating the Black Poetic Tradition Conference.’

Held at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia during the last weekend in September, the legendary, intergenerational conference (featuring such poets as Nikki Giovanni, Haki Madhubuti, E. Ethelbert Miller, Rita Dove, Lucille Clifton, Sonia Sanchez, Amiri Baraka, and countless others) marks the tenth anniversary of the first Furious Flower Conference, which was held in 1994.

According to Dr. Joanne Gabbin (Conference Organizer, Professor of English, and Director of the Honors Program at JMU), the first Furious Flower Conference ’celebrated a century that gave rise to the new Negro Renaissance and the Black Arts Movement and witnessed the genius of such poets as Langston Hughes, Sterling Brown, Margaret Walker, Robert Hayden, and Gwendolyn Brooks.’

The second conference, however, ’builds on the tradition’ established by the first by ’usher[ing] in the promise of Black poetic expression in the twenty-first century.’

Author Brenda Thomas Attracts Vast Media Attention
by Audra Shivers
http://www.aalbc.com/reviews/brendaarticle.htm

Thomas says that the day news broke regarding Kobe Bryant's alleged sexual assault charges, she received a call the following morning from a Dateline producer to come to New York to be interviewed for their show.  Dateline learned of Thomas and her book through the Internet.   
 

The Blair Bamboozle A Fiction Writer's Encounter With Jayson Blair
by Brian Egeston
http://reviews.aalbc.com/theblairbamboozle.htm

"His nails were grimy. He was unshaven. A thin layer of hair atop his head brushed some days ago for the first time in a while. A navy blue off-the-rack suit, too long for his limbs, draped from his body wrinkled as though he’d just awakened from a nap. A misfit of buttons lined the sleeve of his jacket.  Two buttons in a row, then a broken one, then the crumb of a button holding on to a single piece of thread. A rayon or polyester or mixed blend shirt tried its best to camouflage the bulge leaning over a belt pulled too far through loops. A cardinal sin of fashion had been committed’black belt brown shoes. Worn over shoes. Shoes curling at the toe more suited for a ride on magic carpets. Grayish-greenish socks with the heel turned to the front fit like an accordion around his ankle.  He shifted. Before doing so, I knew it would be there. Dry skin. Ash. The kind that embarrassed mothers."
 

Never Die Alone: Goines Adaptation Marks Cultural History
by Tracy Grant

"Capitalizing on the popularity of hip-hop culture, rap music, and the rise of urban novels, Fox Searchlight Pictures this month [March 2004] brings ’Never Die Alone’ ’ a gritty, realistic look at the world of guns, money, power and drugs ’ to the big screen. ’Never Die Alone’ stars rapper/actor DMX in an action film set in the shady underworld of street life, where cunning and violence are the keys to success."
 

Many Americans hold preconceived notions about romance fiction without having read one of these books. Their knowledge of the genre involves perceptions about Harlequin romances, terms such as "bodice rippers" or "purple prose," and book covers with Fabio embracing a blonde, blue-eyed ing’nue deep in the throes of passion. It is widely believed that romance fiction only appeals to the type of women a Washington Post reporter once called "the bored and the brain-dead."
Read the Entire Article
 

Washington, D.C. ’ Hundreds of book lovers (in addition to a host of best-selling authors, literary activists, and media personnel) joined Monique Greenwood, author and former editor-in-chief of Essence magazine, along with her husband, Glenn Pogue, Saturday October 11, 2003, for the grand opening of Akwaaba D.C. Inn.

Akwaaba, which means "welcome" in a language spoken in Ghana, West Africa, is located at 1708 16th St., N.W., in Washington, D.C., and situated in the landmark Dupont Circle area of the nation's capitol. Just minutes from Metro, fine restaurants, shops, a quick tour of the White House or national mall, Akwaaba D.C. is a stroll away from the historic "U Street," where legendary African American authors and jazz musicians from the Harlem Renaissance frequently performed, networked, and convened.
Read The Entire Article
 

The Challenge of Slam
by Regie Gibson
http://reviews.aalbc.com/the_challenge_of_slam.htm

Through years of being involved in Slam I have observed some things, which are disconcerting. However, what has been the most disturbing is how easily so many of us fall into categories, and how these categories tend to run along cultural lines. So much so they've become as predictable and clich’ as a triple X porn flick. Here are some examples:

Black Male Categories:

The Preacher: ("I have been sent by God to give you this message, and this is what you must do!")

The Pimp: ("Watch how I pass a sex poem off as a love poem and confuse the pornographic for the erotic!")

The Politician: (An attempt at being Malcolm X, winds up sounding like  Malcolm ’why’ ex: ’Why do white folks keep messing with my people?’ ’Why do cops keep beating on me?’ Why don't you white folks give me more points?’)

The No Contract-Having M.C.: (No need to elaborate)

Read The Entire Article
 

There are codes within creeds and creeds within cliques. Perhaps this is the most subliminal, if not unintentional, message in Kenji Jasper's latest offering, Dakota Grand (Broadway Books: ISBN- 0767910141). The pen name of yet another young man searching for himself in the world, Dakota Grand embarks upon his on personal northern migration extracting himself from Atlanta and transplanting in New York City. It is here where Grand plans to make his mark as a writer’a hip hop writer no less.

Read The Entire Article