Troy

Here, acclaimed children’s book author, Kwame Alexander reads from his Top 150 African-American Children’s Book The Undefeated — an AALBC.com Best seller that was longlisted for a National Book Award. This was recorded during Black Authors and Readers Rock event, which is held in Oxen Hill, MD each October. I sat on a Black discussion about the state of Black books and will participate next year. I'll be giving a workshop on self publishing.

AALBC's website server has been upgraded! The discussion forums, blogs, and clubs are now ready for full, unrestricted, use! I truly apologize apologize for the inconvenience due to the two week outage caused by the tremendous increase in traffic. Peace, Troy

@Maurice the site's traffic is simply back to normal. The site is still not on the faster server. More later...

You don't have to believe in some to know a lot about it. No I don't believe a lot of stuff in the bible. @Pioneer1 do You believe stuff like parting the Red Sea, rising from the dead, and Noah's ark?

“Knowledge alone is not an antidote to lies, but it is a necessary tool to combat bigotry and, by definition, ignorance.” If knowledge alone is not enought @Damani (a notion I agree with), then what else is needed?

Someone (I dont know who was singing) was off key in the early part of the video posted.

@Kalexander2 the article you cited, is a biased (strongly left leaning) blog full of unvetted content, not exactly a journlistic source worthy of you referencing.

@Pioneer1 this sounds wrong, historically inaccurate, on its face. Perhaps a Biblical historical scholar like @Chevdove can lend a hand. I'm not familiar with the Freud's "Moses and Monotheism," but help me understand why we should care about what Freud has to say about the origins of Christianity?

OK I see we are not going to on racism. Even a cursory view of history tells us that people did not see race the way you do -- even just a few hundred years ago. There were Black popes and white people went to Africa to learn. White supremacy is a relatively new concept, born of the transatlantic slave trade. It is also a concept that will likely die with our generation people like you who will never let go of it. But if know Bezos is motivated by money not race, surely you can understand the similarly wealthy slave owners of the Antebellum South were motivated by money as well. Racism was a tool. Sure there will also be racists, just like there are people who still believe the earth is flat, but they will be perceived as crack pots by the vast majority of people.

Maybe I think too much of humanity @Pioneer1 but I don't think any politician gets into politics to hurt people or the country. Some really do want to make a difference others, perhaps most, are in it for self-aggrandizement, wealth, power, fame. Any benefit, or harm, to people is incidental and only of interest which people start to bitch. The motivation of the politicians is important because they are the only entity that can stop Amazon. Sure people can stop Amazon but to do so outside the political process would require a complete boycott or violence. I'd put my money on government action.

@Delano I see you got the news before I did. Still, unless it is revealed that 45 raped and murdered a baby, no one thinks the senate will boot him from office. Do I need to create another count down clock?

I was unfamiliar with marvin's song and Baby Huey. Baby Huey sings off key in one of those songs :-) Cosmic Slop is classic.

Where does all the activity in the Bible actually take place? Are you familiar with Osiris, Isis, and Horus the principles in the Egyptian create story? Christianity borrows quite liberally from this.., What technology would that be? It would take Europeans several millennia to build anything on the scale of the Pyraminds Yes, but all of these people are "white," using your language. We can continue refuting each other statements @Pioneer1, but let me ask you this question. Do you think Jeff Bezos is motivated more by money (and the power it brings) or race? He was what you'd call Black.

In reaction to my article about I no longer send readers to Amazon's website, someone sent me this interview. Here Stacy Mitchell explains, in layman's terms how, Amazon became so dominant and how they are adversely impacting our society. I believe as long as people perceive they are getting inexpensive goods easily and quickly, Amazon's dominance will only grow. The ultimate damage will be incalculable. Our politicians have utterly failed us on this one. Unfortunately give the ease at which consumers are manipulated, the government is the only entity that can stop Amazon.

Hanif is a talented writer his book, Go Ahead in the Rain: Notes to a Tribe Called Quest was just nominated for a National Book Award. A Fortune for Your Disaster is one I need to check out -- thanks!

Hey @Milton Congrats!

Nice poem from an old school sister. I was born when these roles were seemingly universal. In some quarters today women are viewed as equal to men. This is a mistake as we are clearly different. The bible says women are the weaker vessel. I didnt know that, but i wonder what that means? It does not sound good for women... Obviously the average woman is physically weaker than the average man, but one could argue they are mentally stronger... The rules for males/female relationships have and are changing. This poem reminds me of thus change. I'm not sure if the changes are all for the better or just different to what I was accustomed to.

That is what I have to figure out before I can sell eBooks -- even if it means few authors will take advantage of the option and fewer readers will purchase these types of ebooks. There many authors, usually the selfhelp type, who seem to do well selling their own ebooks. I'll look into what technology the are using nowadays.

@Mel Hopkins you decoded my text correctly 🙂 (I can't help but think of Cynique when my typos are exposed she was a stickler on that). Your comment on free is actually really important -- nothing is "free." Indeed we provide so much value to social media, Amazon, and Google they should really pay us for using their platforms -- I'm completely serious. Amazon was still paying me to send readers to their site. I just did not think it was enough, so I stopped. All the "free" services Amazon provides can become fee based or removed at anytime. Which is what they tend to do once they have as they Again, easily creating a eBook that you can only sell on a single vendor's platform is only considered a benefit if that platform holds a monopoly position. Easily creating an ebook for a platform noone uses is no benefit. So I'm afraid giving authors an easy way to create ebook that can't be sold on Amazon is not an alternative....

I finished Queenie a couple of weeks ago and posted this short description.

I never said it was "non-event." I never even said it wasn't treason. All I'm asserting is that he will serve out his term. Even the Democratic speaker of the house does not want to impeach. Surely Nancy, who knows more about the subject than both of us, has good reasons.

Weld is calling for 45 to be put to death for treason. Saying that is the "only penalty." Wow! Can you imagine. At the risk of sounding like another one of 45's excuse making shoulder monkeys (😉 @ @Kalexander2). It will never happen, nor do I think it should. Trial and lengthy sentence would be better.

Dude many of these children where so white they could pass. It was about money. Why would these regions make Africans hate themselves? Both religions stared in Africa. Besides whats does this have do with race? So the germans were putting each other in gas chambers to rule over darker people? The Japanese were slaughtering it3her Asians to rule over africans and Americans dropped two nukes on Japan to rule over bkack people? So you are saying king Hammurabi was a white? Still black Africanscwere to first people to establish any form to civilization far longer than any white civilization. Do you think America the world's most piwerful nation will reign supreme for another 1,000 years if not who will take over ... france?

Right, but nothing you shared explains how do you make the leap from Musaeus to Musa (who is Musa anyway) then to Moses.

NRA actually backed that huh? Deep.