Not more than any other place with a significant Black population. There a large enough Caribbean population to support a large festival here, but I've never attended it.

Explaining something well,in a minimal number, of words is a skill requiring command of the language and understanding of the subject -- even if it is just an opinion. I welcome the experiment. 

James Baldwin (age ~47) and Nikki Giovanni (age ~28) in conversation  This conversation was taped in London in 1971 on a TV program called Soul! 

I remember when programming like this were more common and popular here it the US.  Today there is much less focus on intelligent people.  

It is interesting to consider that i'm almost 10 years older than Baldwin is in the video below.  It is even more interesting to consider that Nikki is now 76 years old.  The photo on the right is one that I took with Giovanni in 2017. 

I really liked the way the interview  filmed; the closeups, the tight shots of a hand or knee — it was really well done.

They are both smoking during the interview — which seems so crazy by today's standard.

Baldwin said during the interview:

“No white critic can judge my work. I’d be a fool if I depended upon that judgement.”
—James Baldwin

Today we are all fools, because unless Black work is validated by white people, we do not value it ourselves.  Part of the reason is that with white validation comes money -- indeed it may be a prerequisite to earning money. The sole pursuit of money, the basis of American culture, has never served us a people.

The video below is the "Unboxing" of the the Power of Presence and a short intro with author Joy Thomas Moore.  @DORIEL LARRIER will be hosting a live conversation with the author on January 24th, Thursday at 8 p.m. 

@Peggy Allen Towns post a link to you website.

I saw a meteor shower once. I got the entire family up and we drove about 30 minutes outside of the city. It was the most amazing site.

@Chevdove if you can post you photo.

I heard this moon was called a "Blood, wolf, super moon."

Ok ill add it back later this morning.

I think the issue is getting a critical mass of us on the same page.  Because you and I can't do anything alone.  Figure out how to get enough people thinking about the issue and the solutions will some easily.

Interesting, just yesterday I dropped the #readingblack hashtag from the social media sharing buttons for books on this site.  Maybe I should add them back.  

White folks don't play in Mississippi. Sure they've learned you can't go around stringing up nigras anytime they want, and they have some wonderful monuments for Black folks. But don't get it twisted, they still maintain firm control over wealth and resources. 

17 minutes ago, Mel Hopkins said:

There are so many tools for self-published / indy authors  to use today, that amazon should be the last resort for publishing. 

True, but people (authors and consumers) are, for lack of a better word, "lazy." People are not sufficiently motivated to seek out or exercise options -- even if they are superior.  There are many products that Amazon actually charges more for than going directly to the vendor's site, but people can't be bothers to open up another browser tab and create a new account on a different website.

It is why people are more than happy to treat social media as if it is the entire internet as long as they can get some facsimile news, entertainment, and contact with friends -- why bother going anywhere else?

It is why fast food thrives.  Everyone knows it is shit, but who can be bothered to cook? 

We live in a fast food culture...  We have a fast food political system with a fast food president.... but I digress.  

I missed this reply earlier @Pioneer1.  I like living "Down South." 

But honestly, in the back of my mind, I keep thinking something is gonna set poor white folks off and they are gonna just start blasting away.  There are WAY too many guns down here and too many people under stress. 

Sure ATL and HOU have more sisters, but Tampa has plenty and I only need one or two

below is a photo I took of the moon last night again it was just so bright it filled my house with moonbeams

@Mel Hopkins the book is listed for sale at $62, actually it is listed at almost $500: https://amzn.to/2MpHAqe but that does not mean it is "selling" at that price.  I believe 3rd party sellers are programmatically listing books at outrageous priced artificially inflating the "value" of books unavailable directly from Amazon.  If they get a few people to buy the books these "booksellers" can made a ton of money.

The Amazon is rife with so many gimmicks to separate people from money it is absurd. 

Some 3rd party sellers pirate physical books -- Amazon knows this too.

The problem with alternative ebooks formats is that the kindle reader/software is the defacto standard and Amazon is the only one who can sell these ebooks.  An increasing (alarming really) number of authors have opted for Amazon KDP Select program which gives Amazon the sole right to sell these e/books. I have chosen not to add these titles to my database moving forward. 

I like Pressbooks, but your typical author will go with Amazon because kindle ebook creation is free.  They will then option for the KDP select because they earn slightly higher "royalties" -- even though Pressbook is more flexible and is actually more profitable after a few sales.

Also I think you'd want to lower your ebook price to discourage pirating.  Few will risk pirating an ebook selling at the Amazon minimum of 99 cents, but they would a more expensive title.

Hi @Rob Stinson  your message reads like spam. The word choice in the message and the configuration of the destination website are dead give a ways.

https://www.professionalghostwriter.com/fiction/romance/
https://fictionghostwriting.com/western

https://fictionghostwriting.com/crime

etc, etc.

Does web design actually work?  If it does, it seems like a short term solution as the pin heads at Google will eventually catch up with this tactic of web design and link building.. 

Yeah i saw a movie Glass (it sucked) when i left the theater at about 11:45  the moon was red. 

The moon here is beautiful tonight it has a rainbow halo. I will be outside for the eclipse tonight 

After reading this speech I could not help but think:  Why the hell was this speech even necessary -- were people really that evil?!  It seems incredible -- even by today's standard that someone had to explain why lynching other people for kicks is a terrible idea.

She must have been speaking about the behavior of  some really retarded and or immature demons.  To call the people who participated in these atrocities "devils" is an insult to Satan.  These words would have no impact on anyone evil enough to lynch a child.

Lynch Law in America by Ida B. Wells

This is the an article written by one of AALBC's interns.  The primary purpose is to provide educational opportunities to students and relate information to readers interested in Back culture.  A secondary purpose is to improve AALBC's ranking in search for the term "African American Literature,"  so that more people are able to find this information.

AALBC has been lagging in search engine ranking for the term all of last year.  It is not a particularly popular search but during Black history month there is increased interest.  In any event, given the site's focus and relative competition, it is a term AALBC should, in my opinion, rank such that it appears on the first page of search results (in the top 10). Right now AALBC is averaging a rank of 13 and heading with a downward trend. 

A rank of 13 means the site is almost undiscovered by people searching on the term "African American Literature."

In my first round of edits I edited the article with SEO in mind. I considered things like keyword inclusion, in terms of density (not too many occurrences), use in meta tags, alt tags for images and all kinds of stuff readers and writers don't care about, but that webmasters anguish over.

Most importantly it is also why we don't have many websites dedicated to Black literature created by people with a love and understanding of the form.

Thanks again Del

Of course these are generalizations. Most African Americans are are mixture of people from all over the world. Hence some are lactose intolerant and others are not.

Some African Americans will burn in the sun too as our level of melanin range greatly from high yellow to blue black.

Yes, but it depends upon the environment.  People of recent African descent are not optimized, genetically, for living in places live New York, Chicago, or Detroit.   Indeed, many Black folks suffer from vitamin D deficiency which can diversely effect one's bones. 

White folks down here, in the south, must protect their skin with sunblock or they will suffer from sun burn and even skin cancer. I don't think I've ever been sun burned.

Genetic adaptation takes a looooong time.  Of course people can adapt by using suitable clothing and shelter.  So if you can take someone else's shelter, clothing, and other resources that makes you the "fittest," nullifying any benefits of genetic adaptation. 

7 minutes ago, Cynique said:

If mutations survive and thrive and dominate who they mutated from, then they are an upgrade.   

Some mutations survive and dominate because of environment.  Dark skinned people would suffer from Vitamin D deficiency in northern climates, while light skinned people would be able to better able to make due with limited sunlight because of a lack of melanin.  This is an adaptation which could be considered an "upgrade" in northern environments.  However that same fair skinned person would burn up if they moved closer to the equator, because they are less well suited to deal with the sun.

Larger brains and opposable thumbs are definite upgrades, though not equally enjoyed by all homo sapiens....

I would entertain this theory @Pioneer1 is if did not effect white people too. In some respects white people are affected even more harshly.

Now I know Fullers says these white folks are collateral damage, sacrificed to exact greater damage on Black people. 

Now if you look at reproduction rates of white folks and compare it to Black folks globally the plan does not seem to be going very well. Here in the US white people will be out numbered in our life time.

@Chevdove the animation, though simmilar, is not the Boondocks. I highly recommend the Boondock; it was brilliant satire.

Whew! 

...that and a 3 bucks will get me into the subway.  My traffic is at records highs an Google is cutting my ad revenue.  I just applied to another ad network.  If I'm accepted I'm promised to make integer multiple of what Google pays and I won;t have to sell advertising myself and I;ll be free to focus on content.