AALBC.com eNewsletter - October 31st, 2004

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Article - 'Furious Flower� Conference Celebrates African American Poetry by Jamie D. Walker
http://reviews.aalbc.com/furious_flower.htm

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.
 

Making the Best of the World Wide Web by Troy Johnson, Founder AALBC.com
http://writers.aalbc.com/maximizingwww2004.htm

The World Wide Web (WWW) continues to be an invaluable source of tools and information; which enables individuals to become more productive in both their personal and business lives.  Troy has compiled a list of 10 web sites he has found to be very useful and is anxious to share this information with AALBC.com visitors.
 

Distant Lover by Gloria Mallette - Reviewed by Thumper
http://reviews.aalbc.com/distant_lover.htm

The characters, plot, and fabulous ending are all air tight. The story was told in great detail, just enough to not bog down the story. Actually, the rhythm of the story did not flow; it swayed, in the same manner as a woman with an hour glass figure would move her hips, enticingly, to the music of a slow song.

The brilliance of Madhubuti is not in flowery prose, nor empowered rants that call for revolt. It is in an intense conviction of a personal truth that lives in his every stanza. A truth that is reflective of his compassion for people and his disdain for bullshit. His poems celebrate as well as chastise. The language of his poetry is deliberate in its ability cause pause. Madhubuti�s forte is not only to paint his readers a picture but also to hand them a brush so that may find their vision.

When Low Road: The Life and Legacy of Donald Goines written by Eddie B. Allen, Jr. crossed my desk, I was excited. Finally an opportunity to know more about an author whose life is equally as fascinating as the stories he wrote. With the rise of the hip hop culture, as well as the black reading audience in general, Goines is more popular now than at the time of his death. During the past 25 years, the 16 novels Goines wrote--at such an amazing speed while in the throes of a heroin addiction--has never been out of print, an amazing feat for any author. His novel Never Die Alone had recently been turned into a major motion picture, with others to follow. The time is ripe for a definitive biography of Donald Goines. Unfortunately, such a biography is MIA because Low Road ain't it.

The Blackbird Papers has all of the components necessary for a mystery/suspense novel to be successful: an interesting and appealing detective/lead character; an intriguing mystery; and a captivating voice in which to tell the story. The novel meets the criteria and does it well. If Smith intends to have a mystery/suspense series featuring Sterling Bledsoe, The Blackbird Papers is a nice start, which could have been an incredible one if it was not for undeveloped characters and a few holes in the story.

I have just finished reading All I Need to Get By, the debut novel by Sophfronia Scott. I am taking a moment to pause and collect my thoughts in order to wrangle up the words I hope will do this book justice. All I Need to Get By is nothing short of extraordinary. I have not been this excited over a new author since Olympia Vernon, after I read her debut novel Eden. All I Need to Get By, a story about a family falling apart is billowy, intense, and elegant. What an incredible way for Sophfronia Scott to deliver her introductory calling card, as one of the most promising new author of the year.B

Lynnette Khalfani

A veteran financial news journalist and former Wall Street Journal reporter, Lynnette writes a weekly newspaper column called �Financially Fit.� She has also worked as a television reporter at CNBC, where she filed weekly segments on personal finances and investing, and conducted online chat sessions on CNBC.com.

Khalfani is the author of Investing Success: How To Conquer 30 Costly Mistakes & Multiply Your Wealth! and her latest book, Zero Debt: The Ultimate Guide to Financial Freedom.  Check out Khalifani's recent appearance on NBC's The Jane Pauley Show http://janepauley.com/aboutshow/20041029.html
 

Dr. Dorothea Grimes-Frederick

Dorothea Grimes-Frederick is an engineer, education specialist, and Inspirational Speaker. During her 20-year career in Fortune 500 companies, she has led major initiatives from R&D to Operations. She is recognized as a highly successful and respected problem solver and multifaceted leader with broad business experience.

Grimes-Frederick is author of Chicken on a Leash: Lessons in Strength of Mind Thirty short stories told from diary/journal entries cover topics such as voodoo, roomies, tough girls, the �other� addicts, racism, and myths about women � humorous, touching, enlightening, and inspiring!
 

Brandon McCalla

McCalla is the author of Diamond Drought book one in his Diamond Series trilogy. The Diamond Series is pure street fiction but in some ways an ode to the hip hop community. He specifically wrote the gangsta soap opera for people who love the culture and want an entertaining and fast paced read.
 

Relentless Aaron

Relentless has a series of 30 novels completed and waiting to go to print. A few of his forthcoming titles include The Last Kingpin, Rappers �R In Danger, Platinum Dolls and Sugar Daddy. With his initial release, Push, Relentless redefines the art of storytelling. Weaving a riveting tale of big money, incredible sex and gut wrenching violence, while seamlessly capturing the truth and hard core reality of Harlem�s desperation and struggle, Relentless isn�t just writing books, he�s landscaping terrain that will be experienced by generations to come.

�My work is not just a hot song or a hit movie that is here today and gone tomorrow. It�s a richly textured template of who we are today, yesterday and tomorrow,� offers Relentless. In the tradition of great urban authors Claude Brown, Iceberg Slim, and Donald Goines, Relentless Aaron is here.
 

The Reverend Dr. Leonidas A. Johnson

The Reverend Dr. Leonidas A. Johnson is a licensed optometrist and third generation preacher. He has authored several books and made several missionary trips to Africa. Dr. Johnson is the founder of Crystal Fountain Ministries, Inc., a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit religious corporation and The Crystal Fountain Culture and Vision Center of Reconciliation, a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit public benefit organization designed to facilitate the establishment and implementation of the African American Culture Center Ethiopia project.

Reverend Johnson's soon to be released book Midnight Love Devotional: Love, Sex, Holiness - Song of Solomon's Secret is a romantic and inspirational message about a missionary God in love with humanity. It holds special meaning to Ethiopians and all people of African descent.

de Griot Space (dGS), is an online workshop for writers of Afrikan descent.  All People Black/Afrikan are qualified to join de Griot Space. Your breath; your joys; your sunshine; your busy kitchen; your aches and pains- bring all of these with you and join us! If you are looking for some space to share your poetry, fiction, non-fiction, and book reviews, de Griot Space may be the list for you.

Since 1995, de Griot Space's primary purpose as a workshop has been to support fellow writers and to encourage participants to develop their writing and editing skills. They focus on participation, exercise, technique, and critique.  12,097

Her two albums, Songs in A Minor and The Diary of Alicia Keys, have earned countless awards, sold nearly 14 million copies to date, and brought Alicia Keys recognition as one of the most talented and unique artists in today's music. She is that special musician - a singer, a songwriter, and extraordinary pianist, and a producer - who has a genius for mixing styles from jazz to hip-hop to classic seventies soul, to create a contemporary sound and mood that is completely her own. But it's the wisdom and emotional power of her poems and lyrics that reveal the warmth and dignity of her compositions. In her music and writing, she reaches for new and fresh ways to express what she believes is real in a world that often isn't so real - the assurance that loyalty, honesty, and love are the things that last.
 

Damned If I Do: Stories by Percival Everett

An exceptional new collection of short stories by Percival Everett, author of the highly praised and wickedly funny novel Erasure.

People are just naturally hopeful, a term my grandfather used to tell me was more than occasionally interchangeable with stupid.

A cop, a cowboy, several fly fishermen, and a reluctant romance novelist inhabit these revealing and often hilarious stories. An old man ends up in a high-speed car chase with the cops after stealing the car that blocks the garbage bin at his apartment building. A stranger gets a job at a sandwich shop and fixes everything in sight: a manual mustard dispenser, a mouthful of crooked teeth, thirty-two parking tickets, and a sexual-identity problem.

Percival Everett is a master storyteller who ingeniously addresses issues of race and prejudice by simultaneously satirizing and celebrating the human condition.

Toby Thompkins � (Date: January 23rd 2005)

Toby Thompkins is the author of The Real Lives of Strong Black Women: Transcending Myths, Reclaiming Joy a warm, sensitive and straightforward self-help guide for African American women, Toby Thompkins explores the triumphs, struggles and lessons necessary to transcend the stereotypes and overcome the consequences of being a "strong black woman.

Sheree Renee Thomas (featuring contributors to Dark Matter

Thomas is a writer, editor, small publisher, educator, visual artist, and mother whose work has appeared in numerous publications and literary journals.  Her second book, Dark Matter: Reading the Bones.  In the tradition of The Norton Anthology of Black Literature, Dark Matter: Reading the Bones, like its ground-breaking predecessor, will introduce black SF, fantasy, and speculative fiction writers to those who have not yet realized the depth and breadth of their work-or even, in some cases, that it exists. Including original short fiction and nonfiction as well as previously published works and essays.  Dark Matter contains approximately 30 stories from the early part of the century through the most cutting-edge work of today and includes the work of Samuel R. Delany, W. E. B. Du Bois, Tananarive Due, Jewelle Gomez, Nalo Hopkinson, Charles Johnson, Walter Mosley, and many more authors.

Walt Goodridge � The Passion Prophet�  (Date: March 12th 2005)

Walt Goodridge is known as the Passion Prophet�. For over 12 years, as founder of the Passion Profit Company, he�s been helping people discover, develop and profit from doing what they love! Everything he creates or offers is designed to impart information, inspiration, ideas and even income to help people turn their passion into profit. Using his patented Cycle of Success process, you can; (1) find your purpose, (2) discover your passion,  (3) create and market a product, (4) market it for profit.

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