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Another Presidential Election is upon us and the white media is doing its job by propagandizing selected views of the voters. The so-called national news outlets intentionally leave out the concerns of the cultural collective community of Black people every four years. The term “Black” is a legal term for the people assigned to the bottom of the ‘casted’ system in America. The Ancestors were designated to the term (Negroes) by the British Elites lawmakers, therefore the term was transferred to us. The truth about the origin of the term Black need to be taught to millennials and Youngers if we are to survive as a group. Understanding this truth will help us navigate the politically and economically structure in the divided states. Embracing this truth can better empower ourselves in the election process. Elections are exchanges, the question we have to ask ourselves is What’s In It For Us? The answer should be a no brainer. If the politicians are not offering benefits designed ‘specifically’ to us as a cultural collective group, then why should we continue to participate in this circus every four years without getting tangibles? As a collective group, we have been suffering with Stockholm Syndrome since Martin Luther King was killed in 1968. A month before King’s Assassination, the Kerner Commission released a report concluding that America’s Institutional racism drove inner-city violence. The report declared “White racism—not black anger—turned the key that unlocked urban American turmoil. Bad policing practices, a flawed justice system, unscrupulous consumer credit practices, poor or inadequate housing, high unemployment, voter suppression, and other culturally embedded forms of racial discrimination all converged to propel violent upheaval on the streets of African-American neighborhoods in American cities, north and south, east and west. And as black unrest arose, inadequately trained police officers and National Guard troops entered affected neighborhoods, often worsening the violence.” Smithsonianmag.com. Since 1968, the white supremacy regime has continued to erode away at the principle of the Civil Rights of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Today’s young people who have taken to the streets across the country are not listening the elders from the sixties because those voices never put forth an agenda that was focused on Black people. They became bought and paid for Negroes who bad-mouthed the cultural collectives, just as the talking heads on the national white media commonly continues to do today. Every four years the ‘rationale’ of the Evils are negotiated. When the truth is, right wing or left wing, the two candidates running for president are opposite sides of the same bird. There is no lessor of the two evils. Evil is Evil. Donald Trump is a common criminal according to the Intercept in the Article “All the President’s Crimes.” Another outlet HuffPost penned an article on Trump’s criminal history and why it should be front and center of the national media. vox.com penned an article entitled ‘Trump’s criminal justice policy’ where Trump was quoted in saying in 2015 that “we have to get a lot tougher” on crime. In 2017, he advocated for police being rougher during arrests, claiming he’s told cops, “Please don’t be too nice.” In his second term, he promised more police officers, stricter penalties for assaults on cops, prosecuting drive-by shooting as domestic terrorism, going after “Violent Extremist Group like ANTIFA,” and reversing reforms to end cash bail. This is the same man who called the neo-Nazi and KKK members in Charlottesville, VA ‘very fine people.’ Recently, Dictator Wannabe Trump went to Kenosha, WI in support of the 17 year old murderer who killed two protesters. In July, Trump’s niece filed a lawsuit against him and his siblings for fraud, calling it the family ‘way of life.’ Nytimes.com. Trump’s niece (a clinical psychologist) also described him as a ‘narcissist’ and the son of a sociopath, cnbc.com and mercurynews.com. Olivia Troye, an ex-white house aide to Mike Pence, was quoted in saying ‘President Trump displayed “flat-out disregard for human life.” She further stated that the president literally does not care about American deaths except insofar as it affects his own political standing. “The truth is, he doesn’t actually care about anyone else other than himself,” she said. Nymag.com. Donald Trump has proven over and over that there is nothing redeeming about him. In the past he used a metaphor about the ‘snake’ where he seemed to suggest that he is the snake in the analogy. Although his use of the parody from the 1960 song, it was a clear indication of Trump’s ignorance of the song and the writer’s backstory. As the articles, his family member and others from his inner-circle have stated, Trump does not care about humanity at all. This is soulless being who currently occupies the white house. As for Joe Biden, his bio and track record is only impressive if you are glutton for punishment or have a death wish for Black people. After losing in the early stages of the 2020 Presidential primaries, Biden was able to get the boost he needed to secure the nomination for President after he received help from Former President Barack Obama who (according to reports) convinced some of the other candidates to drop out the race right before the South Carolina primary. msn.com. The Daily mail reported that after the coronavirus-19 hit, Obama later convinced Sanders to drop out in April to avoid the same thing that happened in 2016. Dailymail.co.uk. It appeared that Mr. Obama was working behind the scenes the whole time to get Jim Crow Joe Biden as the Democratic Nominee for President. Back in 2016, Obama openly admitted that the election of Hillary Clinton would secure his legacy. In other words, the entire community of Black people were never his concern. According to him, (translation) it was his legacy, not the killing of unarmed black people in the streets and homes were on his list of priorities. He masqueraded around for eight years in black face, created more ‘white millionaires’ and dismissed the idea of reparation for the descendants from the American Slavery Experience. Mr. Obama is not part of our lineage or our Ancestor’s legacies and he showed us who he really was, but not before he secured the Presidency twice. Melanin does not equate to the American experience of Institution of Slavery. Political rule number one: If there is no track record supporting a black agenda or the promise to begin one, then the option should be simple, no tangibles no vote. Jim Crow Joe Biden left Reparation out of his racial equity plan despite the left’s call for reform. Newsweek.com. Instead Jim Crow Joe insulted the demand for reparations for Black by including Native Americans. Biden said as President, he will supports additional funding for the police by $300 million. Businessinsider.com and thehill.com. Joe Biden and the white media have downplayed the 1994 crime law that he helped to write along with his famous quote. The New York Times wrote, “The truth is, Mr. Biden had boasted a year earlier in a speech on the Senate floor, ‘every major crime bill since 1976 that’s come out of the congress, every minor crime bill, has had the name of the Democratic senator from the State of Delaware: Joe Biden.” Nytimes.com. This is Joe Biden’s legacy in spite of the fact that Kerner Report of 1968 gave him enough data to have crafted a much different bill. Biden did not care about the cultural collective of Black people back then, nor does he care now. His record is the evidence. While Biden was making laws to incentivize state prisons to lock up black men, his own children were committing crimes. According to the nypost.com, his son Hunter Biden has a history of drugs, drunk driving, but no jail time. Biden had a double standard when it came to his own children. His daughter Ashley was arrested for marijuana possession at 17, but prosecutor decline to pursue the charges. Years later Ashley was caught on video snorting cocaine. Washington examiner. Joe Biden was part of the Obama Administration when seven year old Aiyana Jones was killed by a police bullet that struck her in the head on May 16, 2010 in Detroit, MI. When Eric Garner (43) was choked to death on a street of Staten Island, NY by Daniel Pantaleo on July 17, 2014. When Michael Brown (18) was killed by Darren Wilson in Ferguson, MO, who laid in the street for four hours on August 9, 2014. When LaQuan McDonald (17) was murdered by Chicago police Jason Van Dyke on October 20, 2014. LaQuan was shot sixteen times. When 12 year old Tamir Rice was gunned down by police in a Cleveland, OH park in less than two seconds as his sister looked on November 22, 2014. When Walter Scott (50) (a former military serviceman) was shot in the back by police officer Michael Slager in North Charleston, SC, on April 4, 2015. When Sandra Bland (28) was found dead in the custody of the police in Waller County, TX on July 13, 2015. When Alton Sterling (37) was executed by police in Baton Rouge, LA on July 5, 2016. When Philando Castile (32) was killed by Officer Jeronimo Yanez in Falcon Heights, MN on July 6, 2019 while his four year old daughter watched from the back seat of the car. Under Trump, Charleeena Lyles (30) pregnant mother was killed by two Seattle, WA police after she called them to report a burglary on June 18, 2017. Her children were in the house during the shooting. Joe Biden does not possess a moral or ethical high ground over Trump when it comes to the lives and the legal sanctioned killings of unarmed black people in this country. While he was Vice-President, he nor Obama, Eric Holder or Loretta Lynch addressed police brutality in this country. Trump is continuing the cycle. Obama slapped the Black community in the face, particularly the grieving families by signing ‘Blue Alert’ law to protect police in 2015. Obama showed as much contempt as Donald Trump, Joe Biden or (Copmala) Kamala Harris toward black lives. He and his wife have shown little or no support toward the injustices in 2020. They have taken white capital from Netflix and continued the rhetoric of pandering for the Democratic Party. Scare tactics are no longer working to garner the black vote in the presidential elections. The youth of today have discovered the spirit of the Ancestors and learned to take their concerns to the streets. Our Elders were not afraid of the enforcement arm of white supremacy and fought the system politically and economically. They preached education to be empowered. This was their ethos for more than three centuries in the divided states before the 1960’s. They lives revealed that they had the courage to ‘figure it out’ in the experience. This ethos is the legacy that they left for us and generations to come. “Having the courage to “figure it out” in the process, is the action that we have to put forth. Voting has never been the ‘be all to end all solution’ as it’s propagated. The voting rights act for Black people happened in 1965, not the passage of the 19th amendment in 1919. The 19th amendment was for ‘white’ women, not Black people. The moment the voting rights act was passed in the divided states, the white legislatures began their mission to undermine the process to disenfranchise Black people, specifically black men. As long as the Electoral College exists, gerrymandering, voter suppression including denying ex-felons the right to vote, the presidential election is just an exercise in deciding which ‘wing’ of white supremacy will run the yard. Neither party is trying to end White Supremacy. In the 1960’s, the white Southern Democrats decided to leave the party because of the Civil Rights movement. One of the trailblazer of the sixties who started a movement within the Democratic Party was Fannie Lou Hamer (1917-1977). Ms. Hamer was one of the last authentic political champion for Civil Rights in the Democratic Party. She started her political journey in 1962 and by 1968 had become frustrated with the political process of the Democratic Party. Her frustration did not diminish her work as a Political Civil Rights Activist. Ms. Hamer helped to found the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) in 1964. It was established in opposition to her state’s all-white delegation. By 1968 she had begun a ‘pig bank’ to provide free pigs for black farmers. A year later she launched the Freedom Farm Cooperative (FFC), bought up land that blacks could own and farm collectively. With donations and assistance from people like Harry Belafonte, she was able to purchase 640 acres and launched a coop store, boutique and sewing enterprise. Also, she secured a 200 housing units for low-income family. Womenhistory.org. She was the most recent model on being self-focused and self-sufficient in the South. The racist segregationists Democrats joined the Republican Party and continued the same coded hateful behavior leaving the so-called ‘liberal’ white moderates to pretend to support Black people. Less than ten years after Ms. Hamer’s political advocacy changed her community, Joe Biden had become a politician with the focus of passing Anti-Black laws and subsequently continued that trajectory until he became the Vice President in the Obama Administration. Joe Biden has more than 40 years of laws on the books that were Anti-Black. He and Harris together have more than 70 years of Anti-Black laws to their credit. The biggest problem we face as a collective is the desire and ability to work together as a collective unit for collective empowerment. ‘Black First’ must become our mantra as the Black collective. We are in a race war and the young warriors are in the streets. To assist the warriors in the streets, the goal should be to provide them with factual evidence on how to recognize enemies that look like us. The two party system are way ahead of us in cultivating tokens to sell out the Cultural Collective. Two of the latest millennials to sell the soap are Symone Sanders and Daniel Cameron. Symone Sanders (30) is a senior advisor to Joe Biden. We have to ask questions such as: Who are they, where did they come from, how did they get the position that they are currently occupying and what are their track record on Black issues? These questions are necessary in the vetting process. Ms. Sanders is a native of Omaha, NE. She was noticed by Bill Clinton when she was 16 yrs old when she lobbied to introduce him at a fundraiser in Omaha in 2006. She was the press secretary for Bernie Sander campaign at age 25 and served as a strategist for Communication and Political Outreach at Priorities USA, a super PAC for the Democratic Party. There is nothing in her background to suggest that she supports a black agenda, then why would we assume that she have the cultural collective best interest? According to ketv.com Douglas County Board of Health declared Racism a Public Health Crisis on June 18, 2020. And on September 8, 2020. 1011now.com reported that Racism was a Public Health Crisis in Lincoln-Lancaster County. Omaha is in Douglas County. Symone nor Joe Biden have raised these health concerns that happening in her home state and her city. As author Adam F.C. Fletcher wrote in 2012, “Racism isn’t just a physical phenomenon in Omaha; it’s a systemic, cultural and attitudinal reality present throughout the city.” See the website A History of Racism in Omaha. Symone is a token millennial for the Democratic Party just as Daniel Cameron is a token millennial for the Republican Party. Mr. Cameron is a (34), newly elected Attorney General for the State of KY. The fact that this man is heading the State is proof that Mitch McConnell does care about justice, only power. McConnell has spent the last twelve years packing to courts around the country with inexperience white people whom he vetted with the white supremacist ‘Federalist Party.’ In the case of Daniel Cameron, he is a figure head for the lawyers in the state of KY with only two years of experience as a clerk in the Eastern district of Kentucky and two years as the legal counsel for McConnell before he was elected by the ill-informed voters in Kentucky. America has become a banana republic and no amount of voting in a presidential election is going to change that trajectory. America has entered into the self-destruction phase. Our Ancestors built this country, but it’s not our job to keep this ‘burning house’ from going up in flame. It is our job to survive and teach future generations how to survive. Taking our concerns to the streets at the local and the state level gained traction for the current advocates in this country and around the world. We are the trendsetters for the world regardless if we want to be or not. Breonna Taylor’s death is an example how the two party political system work together when it comes to killing us. Thomas Wine, Jefferson County Attorney is a democrat who had a history of racist language in the court room of Circuit Court Judge Olu Stevens. By in 2015, Wine faced allegations of trying to get an ‘all-white jury.’ Wdrb.com. He recused himself in Breonna Taylor’s while attempting to prosecute Kenneth Walker, the boyfriend and defender against the police who entered their home with a no-knock warrant, shooting Ms. Taylor and allowing her to die without offering first act to her on March 13, 2020. Mr. Wine used the same playbook of passing to buck that the Missouri prosecutor used in the Michael Brown Case where the (secrecy) of the grand jury was allowed to let a killer cop avoid charges. The enforcement arm of white supremacy, i.e., the police, the prosecutors, the attorney generals and the white supremacy court systems are all on the same page when it comes to harming Black people. The 2020 election is definitely not a year for Black people to vote for either candidates unless they can explain WIIFU. Chaplain B.BCC, iad2bfree@outlook.com, 9/28/2020.

It's 1688 AD, in the midst of the British "Glorious Revolution" and a Dutch invasion to take the throne, as wealthy widow Rebecca DuMaurier, an African British royal court favorite of King Charles II, runs from a forced marriage with a famous general, a white-haired English earl, and into a infamous pirate troubling and walking the shores of her Cornwall home. Cornwall's rocky, treacherous coast is but a stepping stone for lively Becca, her tenacious soldier fiancé, and her intriguing, brown-skinned, Irish Catholic pirate of many faces. Historical Romantic Adventure Fiction Becca is in prepublication edits; but grab a teaser taste of her story. "Becca DuMaurier" novel draft excerpts (not for sale / download no charge): http://becca.neale-sourna.com/becca-work-in-progress-excerpts-1.epub http://becca.neale-sourna.com/becca-work-in-progress-excerpts-1-kindle-links.mobi ------- READ sensual fiction Excerpts: www.Neale-Sourna.com and www.PIE-Percept.com ------- ORDER ebooks ONLINE at https://payhip.com/NealeSourna or check availability for ebooks and print books online or brick and mortar order at http://www.neale-sourna.com/catalog.html

That is probably not possible Nnamdi. You want your book in every store where it is likely to sold to readers who will buy it. Every bookseller and store has their own tastes and focus. Indentify the stores where your book will most likely resonate and work with them. I'm in the process of trying to figure out how Black dustributors and booksellers can work together reclaim revenue going to Amazon and bookshop.org and to drive demand for important books. We are FAR to dependent upon the majority culture when it comes deciding which authors have a voice. This is a hard problem to solve but it is not intractable.

I tend to spend my time creating, you know my crafts @Troy , outside of drawing/writing/crafting, i do watch some sport. I read paper books as well. Just finished a book from Alicia Dunbar nelson, I enjoyed it alot. I must say, I Am not alone in the house. Many people live alone and the environment can be stifling. Nothing is like a tactile touch,a voice in a nearby room. The isolation makes one numb to the outside world, like prisoners.

I'll work on that.

September 29, 2020 – Following a summer filled with calls for racial justice, a high school senior is amplifying voices of Black girls in predominantly white schools, leaving her mark and sparking important conversations. At just 16 years old, Olivia Clarke created and edited the am*zon Bestseller anthology - Black Girl, White School: Thriving, Surviving and No, You Can’t Touch My Hair. “I want to raise up Black voices, especially Black female voices that aren’t necessarily heard, because we’re young. I wanted Black girls and women to know they are not alone and that others have similar experiences. I also wanted them to be inspired and empowered by both the book and the accompanying journal,” creator, editor and diversity and inclusion activist Olivia V.G. Clarke said. “This book is also an opportunity for parents, school administrators and educators to understand experiences of Black girls in white schools and use that knowledge to make anti-racism a focus, not just in words but action.” Clarke has just released a support journal for Black girls to accompany the book and has plans to publish an ally journal in October. Navigating predominantly white institutions (PWIs) as a young Black girl provides amazing opportunities as well as challenging experiences. The poems, anecdotes, and stories found in Black Girl, White School: Thriving, Surviving and No You Can’t Touch My Hair, seek to provide support and guidance for Black girls in PWI's and are written by Black girls and women who are current or past attendees of PWI's. Hair, friendship, dating, motivation, information, racism, self-esteem - nothing is off limits. Fans of Black Lives Matter books The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas, Dear Martin by Nic Stone, and The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo will love this non-fiction look at life as Black girls in white schools as told by girls who have lived it. This non-fiction book is edited by Diversity, Equity and Inclusion activist and teen author Olivia V.G. Clarke. The accompanying journal Black Girl, White School: The Journal is also available. Reviews for Black Girl, White School: Thriving, Surviving and No You Can’t Touch My Hair “...strong, powerful and honest. It’s thought provoking and insightful.” - am*zon Customer Review “a look into a scholastic world where diversity is often defined as putting the few students of color on the academic promotion material but offering little in systemic support for these students. - am*zon Customer Review “...I love the THRIVE tips throughout. I also love that there is a recommended playlist while reading..”- am*zon Customer Review About Olivia V.G. Clarke Hi, I’m Olivia V. G. Clarke - a high school senior, leader, and activist in diversity work. I serve as a leader on my school's Diversity Executive Board, plan diversity conferences and lead student-run faculty development activities. I'm a proud member of the 2019 & 2020 Black Girls Lead class created by Black Girls Rock founder Beverly Bond. Additionally, I am a multi-year, full scholarship attendee of the Humanities and Cognitive Sciences Summer Institute at The Ohio State University. In 2018 I was selected to be a part of the Student Diversity Leadership Conference, a multicultural conference for high school student leaders in diversity. This summer I studied Korean as a 2020 Finalist of the NSLI-Y Summer Intensive Program through the U.S. State Department and am making college decisions as a QuestBridge Scholar. But hey, I'm still a regular 16 year-old who has to study for the ACT/SAT and clean my room. I like to hang out with my friends, dance, binge watch K-Dramas, eat potatoes and listen to all kinds of music. And ducks. I love ducks. For Media Inquiries Contact at hello@oliviavgclarke.com | 614.467.0361 | OliviaVGClarke.com Twitter: @OliviaVGClarke | Instagram: @OliviaVGClarke | Facebook.com/BlackGirlWhiteSchool ###

And I would add “Editing.” I can write and a lot. It’s the editing that gets me all twisted. It took me practically no time to write my first novel but nearly 10 years to edit it and THEN hand it over to my editor. 😳

Publishing a book is relatively easy part. Writing a good one and selling it is the difficult part.

I am reading Black Imagination by Natasha Marin. She asked people 3 questions 1. What is your origin story? 2. How do you heal yourself? 3. Describe/Imagine a world where you are loved, safe, and valued. These were questions given to Black people, inclusive of everyone, everywhere. It's amazing how some could imagine and others could not. Says loud of this country.

thought I listen to the book

I'm currently reading. S.A. Cosby's Blacktop Wasteland. It is in the category of what I would put in a category of a "Man's Man" book LOL. In fact let me create a category for that and add a few titles ....stepping way for a few minutes ... Here are some books in the new A Man's Man Literature Category. The author S.A. Cosby will be in an online chat tomorrow (August 30, 2020) at 6:00 p.m. Eastern I'm one of the designated booksellers. In fact I have 9 autographed copies left. Click here to Register to Chat with S.A. Cosby

Having never read any of Glaude's previous books, what better way to start than on a book of our man Jimmy.

This arrived a few days back. A good read with essays and poetry.

There are at least a couple of biographies on Curtis. The most recent one I've listed on this thread. Highly recommended. I love Curtis and rate his debut album very highly. Keep on keeping on.

ST. LOUIS — July 20, 2020 — Something in Madness, the gripping conclusion to Ed Protzel’s Southern historical DarkHorse Trilogy, illuminates Reconstruction, one of the darkest and least understood periods in American history and the roots of America’s racial divide. The book will be released Oct. 23, 2020, by TouchPoint Press. Protzel utilizes real events and attitudes from the era, as well as varied points of view — black, white, mixed-race, Native American, male and female — to ground both the characters and the story in reality, leaving readers questioning their own place in society. “Sadly, the struggle for social justice depicted in this fictional story is still with us today,” notes Protzel. “But hope for a better future is strong in the human spirit, and that’s what I wanted to convey in writing the trilogy.” Story Summary: Appomattox ended the war with a penstroke…but the struggle for freedom had only begun. 1865. Abolitionist Durksen Hurst and three black friends return home to a devastated Mississippi, the sole survivors of a Union colored cavalry regiment. But instead of peace, they find unregenerate Confederates who reject emancipation still in charge. Undeterred, Durk opens a law practice to help disenfranchised freedmen — only to be threatened by powerful planters and nightriders. A black school is burned; a petition march to Jackson is terrorized. And when one of his friends goes missing, Durk is horrified to discover Black Codes being used to force freedmen into brutal servitude. Clever Durk schemes to liberate them, but must contend with armed ruffians — and a rigged court system. Will fire and bullets prevail? About the Author: Screenwriter turned novelist Ed Protzel is the author of the Southern historical DarkHorse Trilogy (The Lies That Bind, Honor Among Outcasts, Something in Madness), and sci-fi thriller The Antiquities Dealer. A graduate of the University of Missouri-St. Louis with an M.A. in English, Ed lives in St. Louis. ### Reviews wanted. ARC, sell sheet available. Contact: Ed Protzel, (314) 721-0035 / ed.protzel@att.net. Ashley Carlson ,TouchPoint Press, (662) 595-4192, touchpointpressmedia@gmail.com, https://touchpointpress.com/; Jeanie Loiocano, Loiocano Literary Agency, (912) 230-2207, jeanie.loiacono@gmail.com, https://loiaconoliteraryagency.com/

For Immediate Release United States, 11th July 2020 [United States, 11th July 2020] - Author, Clarence Coggins, delights young children in this new story, Auntie I Don't Want You To Get Married: Danielle The Girl From New York, featuring passion, desire, and an attraction filled with love and humor that will charm all ages. This is the first installment of the new multicultural Illustrated Children's Book written by Clarence Coggins. Danielle is a young girl who travels from New York City to Georgetown Guyana to visit family for the first time. When she gets there, she has all types of adventures. This is the tale of when her Auntie Julia is trying to find out why Danielle doesn't want her to get married. "Auntie I Don't Want You To Get Married" is an absorbing and exciting story full of intriguing plot twists. Clarence Coggins takes the readers on Danielle's emotional journey and how she doesn't really want her aunt to get married. This beautiful graphic tale about the adventures of Danielle is a fun and creative writing that was lovingly produced with page after page of beautifully crafted illustrations, vibrant colors, lifelike images, and graceful figures that will fascinate the readers. Clarence Coggins is an author with a degree in Economics from Kean University in Union, NJ. Clarence hopes to represent the thrill-seeking tendencies of childhood combined with lessons of young adulthood. Clarence N.M. Coggins is a big fan of Japanese Anime. Raised on Golden Legacy Comics, Mr. Coggins learned at an early age that Blacks had contributed to the development of the Western World. He worked in the Public and Private sectors as a consultant and IT professional. Mr. Coggins is a Radio Personality who has hosted the show "A New Day is Here." He currently lives in the city of his birth, Jersey City. People interested in "Auntie, I Don't Want You To Get Married" and seeking a book that has got it all: intrigue, suspense, and adventure can order on Amazon. For media inquiries, get in touch with Clarence on 973-943-4073 or email at daniellegfny@gmail.com. You can also reach him on social media via Twitter (@danielle_from) and Instagram (@daniellegfny)

Willow Books will release the latest collection by devorah major, San Francisco's Third Poet Laureate. The book, califia's daughter, chronicles the African story of Queen Califia and the founding of the State of California. "The state of California was named after Queen Califia. It is said that Africans came across sea currents to arrive in South America and then moved east and west through Mexico and around the gulf settling in the south, mixing blood and dance, color and culture with the people of the corn. Cortez’s crew of six hundred held two hundred Africans who worked its sails, cleaned its decks and sometimes served as interpreters. Because of this, Cortez thought that Africans populated this part of the world too. He named this land California, the isle of Queen Califia. But where did he get the name? It is believed by some that the legend of Califia was initially formed by seafaring Kalifuna Mandinka who arrived in the new world before Columbus. African Moors who traded and sailed with their Mandinka brethren brought the tale of Calfia to Spain where, around 1510, (pulp) novelist Garcia Rodríguez de Montalvo in Las Sergas de Esplandian (The Adventures of Esplandian) refashioned the tale of a compassionate, fearless, and beautiful African Amazon queen living on a steep, rocky-cliff, gold-rich island. With Queen Califia were fierce and able female subjects, hundreds of griffins, wild beasts harnessed in gold, and occasional visiting (or captured) men. Some also assert that California once held a vast inland lake, and appeared to be an island for hundreds of years, and that during this time it was explored by a few of these early Kalifuna Mandika voyagers, and that it is, in fact, the actual land of the Califia myth." —devorah major “This is a book of wisdom and whimsy, of mythology sprinkled with stardust. Every poem is a journey into a new desire fleshed out of history’s nightmares and our ancestors’ dreams. This is a devorah major Archana. Those who read tarot will know the power the Archana holds and how they govern. These poems rule a space between history and sea, relativity and dark matters, wombs and weaponry. I will pass these poems around at parties like hors d’oeuvres and tightly rolled joints. Some because they are delicious, others because they alter the state of consciousness. major is a free woman who wrote her own freedom papers in her own blood. Not beholden to some dead and despised rule book of ‘shoulda’ and ‘should nots,’ these poems speak a truth through art without the artifice of linguistic filigree in service to a valueless pedigree. Let these poems wash over you like sea foam and angels’ whispers. They are light and prickly and sweet and sacred. Savor and inhale them all.” Toni Asante Lightfoot, Host, Gwendolyn Brooks Open Mic Awards califia's daughter by devorah major (July 2020) Willow Books, a Division of Aquarius Press 978-1-7330898-9-0 76 pages www.WillowLit.net

There is a new site called the woke box at http://thewokebox.com where people are able to support black businesses each month through a subscription box type model. even though the site isn't fully up as yet, I expect big things from this platform as you are able to support up to six black businesses each month by subscribing. The site was started by a black family of six out of North Carolina and is aimed at helping to bring awareness to black products, businesses and services. Based on what I know so far, we don't only receive products but also coupons, nuggets for navigating the financial landscapes and a follow along, month by month vision board of what's the next move we should be making as black folks. They have a quiz so far on their maintenance page that figures out what you like in products which will help to determine the kinds of surprises we receive in our boxes. This is definitely a game changer in my eyes because they seem to be about bring quality products for a price we can afford. I spoke with the CEO Shanika and she seems to be focused on quality first, prices second and customer service third. This has definitely been a problem in me supporting black businesses and it helps that someone is identifying these problems and making the attempt at solving them. She also mentioned a WOKE University which will be training the vendors on business etiquette and about how to better serve their communities. here is a link directly to the quiz which will take you to the subscription plans which I believe is very generous compared to the fact that I have paid a similar price on their months plan for one T-shirt (black owned). I hope you guys see this and check it out. We need more platforms like this especially in these times.