Troy

Nope, I had to look. It was over two years ago and I'd actually forgotten.

@I love black forums we posted at the same time. I deleted my post after reading yours, but not before you replied. Welcome to the forum. What is a "3x3?"

@Delano, I trust you are your's are safe. However I was wondering it the inferno raging across the country you live in has changed your opinion on climate change. The reason it occurred to me is the U.S.'s coverage, of the Australian coverage, of the unprescenced fires raging across your continent. Apparently, Rupert Murdoch's media conglomerate is doing everything in its power to push the agenda that climate change is not a factor in the fires. This led me to believe Murdoch's influence may be -- even unconsciously -- influencing your stance on man.s influence on the climate. Media also made me think about our bets in 45 presidency. You and @Kalexander2 after losing a bet to me over 45 presidency doubled down and bet me again thinking he would be booted from office before the end of his term. It is virtually certainty that he will complete his term, in fact he may win a second. I thought about why a situation they seemed so obvious to me could be seen so differently by you and K2. Then it occurred to be -- neither of you live in the U.S. Your perceptions of what is going on here is quite distorted leading you to believe things that folks here would not possibly believe. In much the same way we, in the U.S., are given distorted views of other countries by our own media you are given a distorted view of the U.S. What do you think?

You mean "unhealthy" right? But that is a very interesting idea and I think you are right. When I was in grade school they had a special class for the bad kids. The crazy thing was the the class was full of boys and they were are darked skinned. It make me think that darked skinned boys were bad -- an easy conclusion for a young boy to draw given the way they were all put in a special class. Many of the boys were in a gang. Ebony Magazine wrote an article about their gang back in the mid 70's they came across much more menacing than they were in real life... furthuring engaining the stereotype into the mainstream. At any rate, they didn't even make film that easily captured dark skinned people in photographs properly -- especially those polaroid cameras. Being darked was never anyone's standard of beauty. Models like Alex wek were the exception not the rule.

"Key is not relying on Youtube, Twitter, Facebook, etc. since they ban true pro-black people. Independent spaces and mutual promotion helps us all in the long-run." This is an important point from the article. I recently stopped listening to the Breakfast Club because YouTube is constantly shoving their videos down my throat. I could be listening to a video on string theory and YouTube will autoplay some Breakfast Club video. Why? One of my most popular facebook posts this month was a link to sub-one-minute video clip from the breakfast club. Why? The most popular YouTube videos I've posted deal with crime, homosexuality or both. While my other videos enjoy no organic reach. Why? All coporate social media YouTube, Facebook, etc, show you what they want you to see in order to maximize revenue. This is undebatable, axiomatic. I argue anything white folks have ever invented, in recorded history, that is designed to maximize their revenue has NEVER served Black people. So, I'm very conscious how I use corporate social media.

To be clear, my point was that Anderson's quote got a high level of engagement. Further, no one agreed with Claud's quote many disagreeing with it with it quite strongly --even getting on me for sharing the opinion. You may like this video I took of Michael Eric Dyson being harshly critical of Obama.

Hey @Kareem I'm listening to Everything is Everything right now 🙂 the song was new to me when I posted about it earlier in the month. Sorry you don't like the cut. Hathaway was one of the most talented musicians if his era. The whole album, of the same name, is sounding pretty good so far... I enjoy funk, but it is a pretty simple form of music. Most of my favorite funk jams from the 70s and 80s sound pretty boring listening to them today, in isolation -- without a few drinks and friends around -- most really don't hold up overtime. Every generation, even this one, has great musicians. But like literary fiction most people avoid this for simpler pleasures...

Check out all 40 books nominated for a 2020 NAACP Image Award in the following eight literature categories; Biography/Autobiography, Children, Debut Author, Fiction, Instructional, Nonfiction, Poetry, and Youth/Teens. There was a time when the titles on this list were quite controversial as they tended to skew heavily toward celebrity book. The choices are much better, nowadays but skew to folks willing to pony up the entry fee. There are many great books from 2019 not on this list for that reason. There were also some odd choices like like the book, More Than Pretty: Doing the Soul Work That Uncovers Your True Beauty, by Erica Campbell being nominated in two categories (debut author and instructional). Nominees should be restricted to one category unless they are phenomenal books. I'll go out on a limb and say I doubt More Than Pretty is a phenomenal books. I also think the nominees should be Black unless they have written something that speaks substantively to Black people. Two bios on Prince is one too many and not another book on Dr. King... At any rate, I'm glad to see Black literature being celebrated. This is perhaps the highest profile event for Black books in the country. The Image Awards were also sponsors of AALBC this year, so I really can't complain all. In fact, that is the only reason I put in the effort to cover all 40 books -- I would have just covered the winners otherwise. Several of these authors would never have been added to the site were it not for their Image Award nomination.

@FerociousKitty, NYC is really no longer a place for artists. It is simply too expensive. I'll be in Ft Lauderdale this weekend, but I prefer Tampa which is a much larger city. I've been to the other cities you mentioned many times and enjoy visiting them. I could live in any of them. Outside of NY, LA, Chicago and maybe DC, the rest of the cities are pretty similar all the same they tend to be somewhat provincial, but are getting better as they attract more people from larger cities. If you can live in Pittsburgh you can adapt to life in any of the cities you mentioned and enjoy better weather. @Mel Hopkins can give you some feedback on ATL. It is indeed a chocolate city but is very spread out and traffic going downtown is a nightmare, so many people hang out in the in their local suburban communities which are all starting to look the same to me with the same chain restaurants, stores, etc. The real estate is inexpensive if you want a big house. As far as the dating scene, I have no idea which city is ideal for that. Admittedly, men generally have an advantage in this regard. Have you considered "swirling?" 😍 Austin Texas seems to be popping, but getting expensive pushing people out to the suburbs which is happening in many cities. Even downtown Raleigh is expensive I just started a profile for you this morning: https://aalbc.com/authors/author.php?author_name=Deesha+Philyaw You can send me a bio, headshoot, and link to audio or video (youtube) you might have.

Yes I'm in Tampa FL @FerociousKitty. I purchased a place here in 2011 and have been living here full-time since 2017. I actually live in the suburbs (not downtown). It is actually the "country" by my NYC standards. I can see raptor birds, alligator, fox, deer, cranes, turtles, snakes all in the same day from my back yard. As far as pros and cons it really depends on what you want and where you are coming from. I was born and raised in NYC, but I always preferred the south it is quieter, less expensive, cleaner, better weather. Unless you have some serious paper living in NYC is very stressful. The downside for me is the Black middle class is small and somewhat insular. Still I'm building a network of book people and friends. I've known two Black women who moved here and hated it. They found it difficult to meet people -- especially men. This is a common refrain for single middle aged women, but I imagine this is true in many places. As far as seeking professional help after our breakup I did not do that, because I'm a man. Seriously, I have great friends who were super supportive. By the time the ex made it cyrstal clear that she did not love me or want to have anything to do with my website I was happy to be free of her. The kids were grown and out the house, I already had the place in Tampa, so the transition was relatively easy. That's the condensed version, of course the full story is more complicated than what I've just related. I'm assuming there is an Author Profile for you on the site FK, if not send me your info troy@aalbc.com

I just finished Genesis Starts Again. It is a novel written for preteens but I would absolutely recommend it to older readers and even adults. I currently rereading The Mis-Education of the Negro because if it actively speaks to our current predicament, I'm going to actively sell it in the real world. I'm also read The Famished Road as it generally regarded to be a great work of literature and I need to read some great literature now. I was pleased to discover my copy was signed to me by Ben Okri years ago (I'd forgotten 🙂)

I read the Nation's article and was outraged, but not surprised. Some damning quotes; Jared Kushner’s real-estate business obtained arrest warrants for 105 former tenants since 2013, resulting in 22 debtors’ going to jail. Hundreds of these arrest warrants can be rubber-stamped by judges in a single day. You already know the complexion of those thrown in jail... And of course these are traditionally the most vulnerable members of society, disproportionately black and brown, bearing the brunt of this perversion of the law. The impact doesn’t just include a couple weeks in jail but lost wages, potential lost employment, scrambles for childcare, the burden of a criminal record, and the psychological stress and humiliation of being locked up for being poor. Corporations are literally trying to bring back slavery and our government is perfectly complicit... like the last time.

Yeah Zane is far-and-away the all-time bestselling author on AALBC. I doubt anyone will ever catch her -- certainty not in my lifetime.

Hey @David doc Robertson thanks for sharing this story. Would you be willing to share a chapter with our readers? Ifvso hit me uo troy@aalbc.com?

Sorry about the two-time divorce thing @FerociousKitty, but both arappropriate as she took from me the only think she could hurt me with and that was the loss of an intact nuclear family. But it us great in that im free of her negative energy 🙂 I don't mind answering as it is probably a subject we should discuss more frequently. There is no alternative to "big social," and that is really the point. In my opinion the WWW was better before big social and we cant know how much better it would have become. The decline of what was "Thumper's Corner" is a microcosm of what has happened across the WWW during the rise of big social.

Hey Guest FAS please create an account. Thanks.

Here are all the authors of, African descent, who have been selected for both Oprah’s Book Clubs since 1996

@FerociousKitty!!!! Man it is so nice to see your name again. It is also heart warming to read that you developed good friendship as a result of meeting here. @Cynique actually posted regularly here up until last year. Part of the reason she bowed, I believe, out was the disappearance of voices like yours. The days of indie forums have dimmed as the hugh corporate voices increasing control our voices and audience. It is actually for that reason I have dropped all of my personal social accounts on social media and only post links to this site from social. At the end of the day, even sites like AALBC can't survive without the active engagement and patronage of people. I got divorced, but other than that my family is doing is doing well. AALBC had a record year on several levels in 2019. The only weakness has been the discussion forums, but I continue to hold out hope as people become increasingly disillusioned with social media and understand that we have to support our platforms.

I stumbled across Mary Walker's Story in an article on Black Enterprise's website. walker was born enslaved free during the Civil War (around the age of 15) and ultimately learned to read at the age of 116 -- starting when she was 114. There is a children's book about Walkers Life: The Oldest Student: How Mary Walker Learned to Read by Rita Lorraine Hubbard, Illustrated by Oge Mora

You are giving a clinic now @Mel Hopkins. DT PollarUsed to posr here quiet regularly. He really was cranking the ebook several a year (or so it seemed).

AALBC Bestselling Books December 2019: Children’s books, which on our list includes everything from board books to YA novels, continues to dominate sales.

@Chevdove Again, I don't read anything else on Lipstick Alley besides their book forum. So all that you an the guest wrote may be true about the other areas -- I just would not know. Keep in mind my first post was met by ridicule by some but a as a vetern forum poster I knew not to take it personally. Since then all of my posts have been taken seriously. But I stand by the statement that it is a powerful platform. Show me another Black-owned (or focused) discussion forum that gets as much engagement. I would love to find others. They have fallen a notch in my Black-owned website rankings.

"Guest I was banned from LSA rece" I exchanged email with Condi two years ago and she says the site is Black owned and I will take her at the word until there is stronger evidence to counter this. I do see that the trademark of the name "Lipstick Alley" is owned by Verve hosting INC. This may be a Black owned company. You may be perfectly correct about the site from your perspective, the celebrity gossip, "IG thots," "black men dating interracially," and the stuff you mentioned don't interest me, so I don't read that stuff on the site. I participate in Lipstick Alley's Book Alley Forum. I posted there yesterday about the free eBook give-away for Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God. The post was viewed more times and got more engagement than the exact same post I made here -- They have a powerful discussion forum and I'm not aware of anything else like it on the web. If there are other Black-owned discussion forums that you are aware of please share them here and I will spread the word. Please consider creating an account here so that I don't have to approve your every post.

Listen to an Interview of AALBC.com’s Founder and Webmaster, Troy D. Johnson with by E. Ethelbert Miller host of the “On The Margin” radio program which airs on WPFW’s 89.3 FM, Washington D.C. Your browser does not support the audio element. E. Ethelbert Miller is actually an accomplished and critically acclaimed poet who I have admired over the years. I ran into him at a party last year and he told me how important the work I was doing is. I was floored because I wasn't even sure if he knew much about me. I was honored that he invited on his radio show. I'm not sure how I come across on these interviews. Honestly, I don't even have the guts to listen to it. I've asked some people to provide feedback, but it is a big ask since the interview is an hour long -- thought it felt like 5 minutes to me. If any one has any critical comments I'm open to them, so please share them here.

Zora Neale Hurston was born on this day in 1891. To commemorate the anniversary of her birth Amistad Books has made available and ebook version of Hurston’s master work, Their Eyes Were Watching God. This offer is only valid today January 7, 2020.