Troy

I'll check out The Last Defense -- Thanks

Another reason who people should not be allowed to run around, with weapons like this, in public.

I thought it was unnecessarily torturous to wait until just a few hours before granting the stay. Imagine saying good bye to your family as you mentally prepare to be killed only to be told, at the last minute, that you will be locked up forever... I have not been following the case closely and know about it because, being in OK, it comes up from time to time. My understanding is that the guy did not do the murder and did not know it had been committed until after the fact. You don't have to pull the trigger to be convicted of murder. Often the one who actually committed the murder will be released from prison, while someone else who was present during, or involved with, the crime will be locked up much longer. Often this has more to do with the quality of representation rather than guilt. Yeah, and too many of these innocent victims are poor and Black.

Nov. 15, 2021 For immediate release Contact: Lois Smyth, Baton Rouge Area Foundation, lsmyth@braf.org, (225) 387-6126 Mukul Verma, Baton Rouge Area Foundation mverma@braf.org, (225) 362-9260 15th Annual Ernest Gaines Award winner is Nathan Harris for his debut novel, The Sweetness of Water Seattle writer Nathan Harris’ debut novel, The Sweetness of Water, has won the 2021 Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence, presented annually by the Baton Rouge Area Foundation to an emerging African American fiction writer. The winner receives $15,000 to support continuing his craft. The 15th annual Gaines Award will be presented to Harris at 6:30 p.m. Thursday January 25, 2022 at the Manship Theatre at the Shaw Center for the Arts. The award is given to honor the late Ernest Gaines, whose stories gave voice to African Americans in rural areas. "I'm deeply honored to have been awarded the Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence,” said Harris. “Mr. Gaines' fiction continues to move readers around the world, but equally important is the impact he had, on a personal level, with communities all across Louisiana and the world. His mission was to promote literacy and a love of literature, and I do not take it lightly that I now have an opportunity to further that mission. I follow in Mr. Gaines' footsteps and the footsteps of previous winners of this award, and that is the greatest distinction of all." Harris’ novel tells a story set in the waning days of the Civil War. The tale is about an unlikely bond between two freedmen who are brothers and the Georgia farmer whose alliance will alter their lives, and his, forever. In reviewing the book, the Washington Post called it a “miracle,” particularly because it was written by a young author. Harris is 29. Harris graduated in 2020 with a master’s in fine arts from the Michener Center at the University of Texas. Before winning the Gaines Award, he was a recipient of the University of Oregon’s Kidd Prize and was a finalist for the Tennessee Williams Fiction Prize. Oprah Winfrey selected the winning book for her global reading club, helping it break into the New York Times bestsellers list for two weeks in July 2021. The Gaines Award is determined by a national panel of judges who selected the winner from 36 entries, a record number of eligible submissions. Because of the strength of the nominated books, the judges short-listed six entries: The Creatures of Passage by Morowa Yejidé, The Days of Afrekete by Asali Solomon, How to Wrestle a Girl by Venita Blackburn, Libertie by Kaitlyn Greenidge, The Ones Who Don’t Say They Love You by Maurice Carlos Ruffin; and The Prophets by Robert Jones Jr. Previous winners of the Ernest J. Gaines Award include Everywhere You Don’t’ Belong by Gabriel Bump, Lot by Bryan Washington; A Lucky Man by Jamel Brinkley; Birds of Opulence by Crystal Wilkinson; Welcome to Braggsville by T. Geronimo Johnson; The Cutting Season by Attica Locke; We Are Only Taking What We Need by Stephanie Powell Watts; How to Read the Air by Dinaw Mengestu. About Ernest Gaines: Literary legend Ernest Gaines was a native of Oscar in Louisiana’s Pointe Coupee Parish which served as the setting for many of his novels. During his lifetime, Gaines received a National Medal of Arts Award (2013), a MacArthur Foundation’s Genius Grant, and the National Humanities Medal among numerous others. He was a member of the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. His critically acclaimed novel “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman” was adapted into a made-for-TV movie that won nine Emmy awards. His 1993 novel “A Lesson Before Dying” won the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction. About the Baton Rouge Area Foundation: The Baton Rouge Area Foundation improves the quality of life in Greater Baton Rouge and across south Louisiana in three ways. The Foundation and its fund donors 1) grant more than $30 million each year to nonprofits; 2) provide fundraising and management advice to nonprofits; 3) take on projects for civic good, such as reclaiming disadvantaged neighborhoods. The Baton Rouge Area Foundation is among more than 700 community foundations across the country.

Ok that is good. I certainly would be stressed living in a place where the crime is out of control -- if I had the resources I would definitely move away from such a place.

....so Obama's lesbians (whoever they may be) gave us gay marriage and the trans things who make you feel threatened in public bathrooms? Do I understand you correctly?

Sounds like a stressful live style. What is the appeal of living in such a dangerous place?

You brought (see below) this up and I'm looking for anything to justify the statement... You brought it up as a consequence of the lesbians Obama put on the supreme court. Who are these lesbians anyway that "gave us gay marriage?" I thought the court decisions were based upon a majority...

Agreed because it is not relevant to my point. There are many laws, in this country that have been extremely detrimental us -- especially Black folk. That is reason enough alone to outlaw guns. In that past century, Black people have gunned down more Black people than all rogue cops, Klansmen, and run-of-the-mill white people combined. All of the issues responsible for gun violence should be addressed, getting guns off the street should be at the top of any serious person's list.

Yes. this is what I mean. Obviously I can not influence how you feel, but I can't tell you that your concern of being over powered by a transexual person in the ladies room is unfounded. Have you been reading about a rash of such assaults to warrant such concern? A woman is more likely to be assaulted by a man in the ladies room than, "some sort of trans thing." @Delano yeah Dyson is a fast energetic talker, though his is not nearly as animated for white audiences 🙂 No one is gonna do this, as it is unnecessary. This whole bathroom argument is silly to me. Many places use a single bathroom that anyone can use. Larger rest rooms have stalls. @ProfD are you so concerned when using a urinal next to a gay dude? What is wrong with y'all 😃

Yeah I'm glad those days are largely behind us. You up on Azie Faison. He was shot 9 times twice in the head before he got out the game -- an amazing story... Game Over: The Rise and Transformation of a Harlem Hustler by Agyei Tyehimba ADD TO CART 1 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book! Publication Date: Aug 07, 2007 List Price: $18.99 Format: Paperback, 288 pages Classification: Nonfiction ISBN13: 9780743282314 Imprint: Atria Books Publisher: Simon & Schuster, Inc. Parent Company: CBS Corporation

This is why we need more Black media and Black platforms. Otherwise we are just being misinformed. White corporate media is not trying to serve Black viewers.

Actually I would not be so quick to dismissed this serious problem: "In 2018, accidental gun deaths accounted for 1% (458) of total gun-related deaths (39,740) in the United States. Thus far in 2020, there have been unintentional shootings by over 220 children. This has resulted in 92 deaths and 135 injuries..." That said, so you propose that we fix poverty, criminal, mental health, racism, etc. as a way to curb gun violence?! Wouldn't it be easier to simply outlaw guns? In all of recorded history we have never "fixed" poverty, crime, mental health, but we can certainly outlaw guns? You gonna wave a wand and fix racism? Sure, as you suggest, the wealth of a nation lowers gun violence. However we also know the availability of guns also increase gun violence. Wealthy countries like Japan and very strict gun laws and a fraction of our gun violence. One would think this would be common sense. Americans, on some level, are crazy.

Sure to white police officers, in a tense situation, every Black face is a potential threat. I was in Crown Heights, Brooklyn on my way to get fitted for a tux for a wedding I was in. I was driving a green Chrysler mini-van, with another Brother who was also in the wedding. Speaking of "n8gglets got the bright the idea to assault and kill and commit crimes," one of the youngin's from my neighborhood was murdered recently in Harlem. The Brother's name was "Alpo." I watched a documentary about him I had no idea he was responsible for so many murders.... They were not all in the life either, one was the little brother of one of his associates 😞 I guess the 'hood never forgets.

@Mzuri I did not realize the link to the archives was not working. I have created the page below which links to all of the archives that I could find:

@Mzuri I'm beginning to see that you have a flare for gross exaggeration. Who are all the lesbians that Obama put on the Supreme Court? Have you ever encountered a "trans thing" in the ladies room. Is this truly a concern of yours? Interesting, please describe anything Dyson said in the video I posted that could be construed as talk above someone head? Have you ever attended a talk given by either West or Dyson? I have, and in a variety of situations. Their skill is that they have the ability to adjust how they speak to the people the audience they are addressing. And this is the primary problem with our country's political system. @Delano here is the full video the one I posted above was just excerpts from a longer talk:

Absolutely and it also resulted in the unnecessary detainment and even arrest of a disproportionate number of Black people -- usually men. Have you even been stopped by the police for no apparent reason and had you car searched -- I have. It is always, "we were looking for someone fitting your description." Once, while having my car searched, I complained about the number of times I'd been pulled over to a sympathetic looking police office (a Black Hispanic woman) and she gave me the same line. Then over the police radio someone said they pulled over the suspect driving a car like mine. She said "see," I said "OK" the three police cars that had me hemmed up took off. But I know plenty of young men who were stopped for no other reason other than walking down the street! One of my neighbors a good kid was actually arrested -- for not having a form of identification -- a teenager!

I don't know where you live @Mzuri, but your statement is hyperbolic. Overall we live in a relatively safe control. Now if you are talking about a place like New York City ghettos 40 years ago, were there were thousands of murders a year and mugging and larceny was objectively out of control I'd say you'd have a point. Are you actually afraid to go to church or a restaurant with our a gun? It is mind boggling but the situation is not intractable. Texas politicians are a strange group. Didn't they just make abortions illegals there? What is the difference? Really? With all the Black people killed by white people, like Arbery, what condition needed to be removed to prevent his murder?

Yeah it was pretty cool to be recognized in the industry trade publication so soon after launching. PW has consistently covered the Black Book Ecosystem over the years. Still it would be better if we could tell more our our story -- Unless you are telling your our story it ain't being told correctly. That reading list page should be redirected here: The Coffee Will Make You Black Book Club’s Complete Reading List (aalbc.com) Over the years numerous people have volunteered to moderate our book club, but no one, other than Thumper, stuck around very long. @Mzuri the post from old discussion forum are still on line, and indexed in search engines, the problem is that the software used to organized them no longer works so you can not follow a conversation. I did a search and found this, Thumper's Corner - Archive 2004 I'll see if I can dig up the rest of these and restore the archives in a way that a human can peruse them. I wish I could bring them onto the AALBC domain, but if I do that I risk Google killing my website. Seriously, Google banned the entire domain from serving advertisements years ago -- an algorithmically driven decision that was final, without review or recourse, and permanent. Google's software could have easily dealt with any issues -- they just did not give a f*ck.

Here is the oldest article I could find mentioning AALBC on PW’s site, “A Diverse Market for African-American Books Keeps Growing” by Carol Taylor, PW Dec 13, 1999. Again, they have chronicled the Black Book Ecosystem longer than any other entity -- Though PW is not Black-owned, and are a trade publication, they have been an asset to our community.

This is a brief article from Publishers Weekly (PW), which is the largest publishing trade publication in the country, perhaps the world. The article mentions several Black-owned website -- all of which predate AALBC by at least a -- and AALBC is 25 years old! I have been interviewed by PW several times over the years. One has to recognize that PW is the best chronicler of the Black Book World that is still in print. There have been others, who did the job better, like the Quarterly Black Review (QBR) and Black Issues Book Review (BIBR), but these publications did not last very long, have both been out of print for years. We have lost many publications that covered Black Books. The impact on the culture is significant, because the void remains largely unfilled. I try to do my part with AALBC, but it is not nearly enough to make up for what we have lost. PW carries on; I was surprised to learn, recently that PW has been in publication for 150 years. I decided to try to find old article covering Black folks, "Web Black History" was the oldest article I could find. The online archive does not appear to go back more than 25 years. Of the websites cited in the article only one remains active, Black History. I became friendly with the site's owner, Dante Lee, years ago. At the time, he was just a kid really (in his 20s), but he managed several of the largest Black websites and owned many desirable domain names. Unfortunately, Google's search algorithm killed the discoverability of many websites back in 2011 (the graphic below depicts the impact on both blackhistory.com and aalbc.com). AALBC's traffic did not fully recover for another 5 years. The lost growth of AALBC and countless other website is incalculable. Black-owned newspapers were devastated. The article's author, Calvin Reid, has a senior level position with PW today and I will reach out to him to see what I can find older articles on Black in publishing that are older.

@Mzuri (anyone) what do you think about Dyson’s critique of Obama?

I hear this argument a lot, and I image it comes from folks who have never been robbed by someone else carrying a gun. I have and know others who have. When you are ambushed by a gunman he usually takes you by surprise. Unless you are Quick Draw McGraw, or are walking around with you gun out with your finger on the trigger, you simply won't have have time to pull your piece in self-defense. Now after you are robbed you can shoot the guy as he leaves, but are you really gonna risk killing someone else because you been robbed? The argument that diamond couriers, and others like them, are not exceptions I would tolerate -- if guns were completely illegal. There already too many guns out there and they are far to easy to acquire, arming more people is absolutely the wrong thing to do. I know culturally people feel very differently about this and it is not likely to happen. In the meantime will continue to have more innocent children's being killed in schools. The notion that the solution is to arm teachers is alarming to me. We already have schools with armed police officers, where we require students to walk through metal detectors. Where does it end -- why not arm the students while we are at it?

Book Review: Read Until You Understand: The Profound Wisdom of Black Life and Literature by Farah Jasmine Griffin ADD TO CART Buy the Audiobook 1 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book! Publication Date: Sep 14, 2021 List Price: $26.95 Format: Hardcover, 272 pages Classification: Nonfiction ISBN13: 9780393651904 Imprint: W. W. Norton & Company Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. Parent Company: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. Borrow from Library Read a Description of Read Until You Understand: The Profound Wisdom of Black Life and Literature

Yeah keep us posted about your NFT sales. I recently abandoned an NFT based business idea. Art seems to have the most tracking, but it seems like a fad at this point.