"Hello, Troy.  I visited your site - very interesting.  It is a good deal more than a Book Club for bucks - more like a neighborhood bookstore - a labor of love."  - D. Gaughan

A labor of love would be a good starting point.  I married a poet.  My first daughter's name is "Maya".  As far as I'm concerned, we can not over indulge ourselves in enough positive black images, words, people or actions.

We should continuously monitor and counteract the forces, in our society, which would have us believe: African-Americans are less capable than any other person; predisposed to criminal activity; unable to form a cohesive family; prone to drug and alcohol use; have an aversion to education; and can only excel in sports.

What African American literature does, for those of us who immerse ourselves in it, is dispel those rumors by displaying the range of human emotion and expression which is part of the African-American culture. 

My two little daughters will have a shield to ward off the negative messages generated, deliberate or otherwise, by our society.   I will not allow my daughters to hold credence in the idea that they can not achieve anything, they want to achieve, because they are women or black.  Their experiences with African American literature will be one layer of that shield. 
~Troy Johnson, Founder & Webmaster, African American Literature Book Club

Related Links

Troy's Biography

http://aalbc.com/bio.htm

Articles

Maximizing the potential of the World Wide Web (October 2002)
http://writers.aalbc.com/maximizingwww.htm

All About e-Books (April 2000)
http://aalbc.com/writers/ebooks/Allaboutebooks.htm

The Iron Pot Cooker by Camille Yarbrough
black misery by Lanston Hughes
Nappy Hair by Carolivia Herron


 

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