BiauncaWilliams

I just finished reading The Underground Railroad Records that were published by William Still. Wow. There are some really powerful letters in the collection. It gave me some real insight into the workings of the underground railroad. There was a lot more going on than I ever thought. Money changing hands. Violence against the "conductors". "Christian wolves" to avoid.

I really enjoyed reading the slice of history. Truly brave people.

I was thinking of moving on to read the slave narratives. Has anybody read these? Thoughts?

Thanks for posting this Troy!

The post that started this was just stupid. And I don't mean ignorant racist stupid. It's just dumb. You cares what your race is? As a writer, you should know: write real characters and a real story and put it out there. Period. The only time a person gets in trouble by writing about a race other than their own is when they write bad characters. So be a good writer and you shouldn't have a problem. Basically, you'll find out how African-Americans feel about your writing when they read your work. If you suck, you'll hear about it. And being in advertising, I can tell you that starting a controversial conversation with your product at the center is not smart. Relate to people. Converse with people. Don't shock them into starting a conversation full of land mines. That makes me wonder how good you are as a writer when you can't relate well to actual people.

I guess the only thing I found offensive was wondering if we're stupid enough to get in an uproar about you being white.

With a new year comes a desire to start fresh and change things about yourself. Does anybody have a book (fiction or non-fiction) that changed the way they thought about things or themselves? I'd love to kick off 2012 with a great book that is a little more than an entertaining story. Thanks!

Troy, I'm new to the site but can already tell you I love consuming the information here. I just need to step up on the contributing end of the discussions! I agree that the arts (in general) are under attack (or at least under-appreciated more and more every day). It's great to find a place to get together and discuss/promote the arts. Keep up the great work!

There is no more loyalty in America anymore. Everybody complains about huge corporations but we were the ones that built them. We buy from Amazon and Walmart. We could easily keep our African American (online) bookstores in business if we had loyalty to our people and to our small business owners. But we're all trying to save a buck. We need to fix things about ourselves instead of blaming big business that we give our money to. We can't have everything we want for nothing. It costs just a little extra.

I'm sure the black and white answer is: porn is not a good thing. Most of the porn out there is not a reflection of what a healthy sex life is and should be. Watching too much of it can give people a warped sense of sex. Yes, when it comes to sex in a marriage, there isn't a perfect definition of what works and what doesn't. One person's disgusting act is another person's fantasy. And if both people are will to try new things AWESOME. But most porn involves victimizing girls that didn't have a healthy childhood. And to buy it, subscribe to it, and watch it means your supporting an industry that doesn't care about these females. So, I would prefer to try new and daring things on our own before giving money to an industry like that.

I... love... love... love... this! I will be sending my Facebook friends here to read this! Some of them need to show it to their husbands!!

Just finished reading Red Badge of Courage (Crane). I'm moving to For Whom the Bell Tolls (Hemingway). I love reading the classics!