Troy

Richard given that everybody and their mother has published a book, even with more than 1,000 authors profiled on this site, I have only a small fraction fraction of them. But this site was never intended to include everyone who ever published a book. Some curation takes place here. But as the desire (or need) to generate revenue increases the curation, or selectivity goes down. this is the model for that makes social media so successful. I really try not go down the path of putting just anything on this website. I think readers need this. Someone has to separate quality from the mediocre. Right now those with the most money, or fame wins. Quality is secondary I hope to distinquish AALBC.com as a place where readers can find quality. Also, keep in mind, I'll include authors in the "anglosphere" if they write something of interested or importance to Black folks. One of the first non-black authors on this website was Jack Erza Keats. Richard I think you are absolutely right "famed membership" is a powerful draw. Indeed it does not even have to be that intense; as Facebook provides a platform for anyone, not to necessarily become famous, but just to be heard. People want, some desperately, to be seen and heard, to know that they matter to someone else besides themselves. This is very powerful and difficult to compete with... especially when what you are offering in exchange is the opportunity to discover a good book to read. Also the dynamic that drives a Facebook is completely different on these discussion forums; for example, sharing minutiae from your daily life would just be boring here. I do not want to even try to replicate that aspect of Facebook. But I need more people have to contribute. The crazy thing is that people will email be stuff that they believe my readers would be interested in but they will not take the extra step to post it here. Now I know sending an email is easier than posting here, but the very same people will take the extra to share something on Facebook! Here is something that I recently shared from a notice I saw on Facebook, Call for Submissions: Fall/Winter 2015 Killens Review of Arts & Letters. Now I went to the linked website, copied and pasted the information to share it here. The information is presented much more nicely here than on Facebook and MORE people will read it here. I simply don't have the time to do this each time I think readers here would benefit. Despite working with this entry that publishes this magazine, for years, I can not get them to share this type of information here. The impression that Facebook is more powerful is simply wrong in this case. Indeed the belief that is is what is constraining all of our growth. Again changing this mindset such that we more actively utilize our own resources, within the Black book world will be the best thing I can accomplish.

Call for Submissions: Fall/Winter 2015 Killens Review of Arts & Letters. Deadline: August 1st!Notice! Currently Accepting Submissions!Join our mailing list for updates! Call for Submissions Killens Review of Arts & Letters Fall/Winter 2015 Works are to be submitted by August 1, 2015. The Fall/Winter 2015 issue of the Killens Review of Arts & Letters seeks submissions, fiction, essays, poetry, and artwork that reflect cultural and social memory and myth in literature and art. THEME: “Memory and Myth” Memories have a magical power: they can stir our imaginations and deepest emotions. Memories are creative sparks that can be the genesis for heart-warming memoirs, provocative essays, conscious-raising poems, or creative nonfiction and fiction narratives. Author and poet Tracy K. Smith notes that wanting to write about her mother’s death was the impetus for her newly released memoir, “Ordinary Light.” The late Nobel Prize-winning author Gabriel Garcia Marquez said that “the heart’s memory eliminates the bad and magnifies the good.” Every age has created myths to help us understand the mysteries of the universe and the human condition. Mythologists and writer Joseph Campbell inform us that myths are public dreams and that dreams are private myths. In the Fall 2015 issue of the Killens Review of Arts & Letters, we want to explore the theme of cultural and social memory and myth in literature and art. We seek submissions of fiction, essays, poetry, memoir, and artwork. The Killens Review of Arts & Letters is a peer-reviewed journal that welcomes Black poets, novelists, short story writers, playwrights, journalists, essayists, scholars, emerging writers, and artists whose literature and art speak to the general public and to an intergenerational range of readers represented throughout the African diaspora. Submission of Material The Killens Review of Arts & Letters is published once or twice a year by the Center for Black Literature at Medgar Evers College, CUNY. The Killens Review seeks book reviews, essays, short stories, creative nonfiction, art, poetry, and interviews related to the various cultural, sociopolitical, and historical experiences of writers and artists from the African diaspora. The aim is to provide well-known and lesser-known authors as well as educators and students opportunities to create and expand the canon of literature produced by people of color. While the Killens Review of Arts & Letters welcomes unsolicited material, we prefer to publish original material, i.e. first-ever publication. Unless otherwise selected by the editors, we cannot run a piece that has previously appeared elsewhere in print or on the Web. Please submit to only one category at a time: essay, fiction, interview, poetry, prose, and art. We aim to respond to your submission within two months. Essay, Fiction, and ProsePlease send one piece at a time. We have no set maximum length or minimum length for prose submissions. (The average word count is about 1,500–2,000 words.) Most submissions, however, are between 2,000 – 4,000 words.Please set up your submission in letter-sized format, with ample margins, double-spaced, using a standard typeface (e.g., Times New Roman, Helvetica, Arial) and font size (12 point is best).Include your name, title of the work, and page numbers on your submission.Also include a one- to two-sentence bio about the author. If the submission is an academic essay with references, please include your bibliography at the end.Please do not submit book manuscripts. Poetry: Please send up to three poems. Art and Photography: We welcome all types of image submissions. Please include a short note about the context of the images and title and/or caption information. Please include no more than six hi-res jpegs (at 300 dpi). Electronic and Postal Submissions Kindly e-mail material to writers@mec.cuny.edu with “Fall 2015 Killens Review” in the subject heading. Please include a brief introduction of yourself and of the work being submitted. On the first page of your submission be sure to include: 1. Your name2. Telephone number3. E-mail addressPlease make sure the pages are numbered. Or mail material to: Center for Black Literature Medgar Evers College, CUNY 1650 Bedford Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11225 RE: Killens ReviewMaterial will only be returned if the sender includes a self-addressed, stamped envelope (SASE). Please send your submissions no later than August 1, 2015, to “Fall 2015 Killens Review” (in the subject line) to writers@mec.cuny.edu. Please include name and contact information on the title page. Purchase copies of current and back issues. ### Killens Review on AALBC.com

Yeah in an ideal world police officers would be true professionals. When a cop is confronted by a Black woman with an attitude one would think, THE POLICE OFFICER would defuse the situation. We have no expectation that this will happen. Black people have top make sure we don't ANYTHING that might upset the officer or confuse him with our actions. Imagine we live in a country where a child, in a park playing with a toy gun, can be gunned down about an officer without warning!? The police "Offiseers" (to bite KRS 1), are yet another problem Black people have to deal with living in the US. Do you realize a lot of people don't call the police when problems occur, because most of the time they just make matters worse. I have had countless interactions with the police. One even pulled a gun on me. But I have never called the police for anything. So when NWA ran around back in the 80's talking about "Fuck da Police" that struck a cord in me, as well as millions of other Black people.

Akia, I'm actually still not convinced. Indeed I'm even more suspicious of this story. The link you provided was not to the purported source, the Kenyan Times. This particular article you linked to links to the Kenyan Times, but not to this article. When you originally posted this story had already done a quick search on the Kenyan Times website and could not find the story. All I could find were a bunch of other sites linking to a bogus link on the Kenyan Times--if they even bother to link at all. This video is more of the same. It appears to be computer generated reading of the same, as far as I'm concerned, unsubstantiated story. Whether the story is true or not whoever created the video made some money given the number of views. If you find the original article in the Kenyan Times I may take this seriously. The fact that all of these other websites are circulating this story with reckless abandon is the problem with the internet. But I get it it is quite profitable to share crazy stories and if you wait around to find out if it is true, then you risk making a lot of money. If the story turns out to be bogus there is no penalty for spreading a fake story.

Akia, I tend not to believe unsourced stories like this. Can you provide a link to the actual article from the Kenyan Post?

Can you go to any website today without tripping over the Facebook or Twitter logos? Facebook and Twitter benefit from so much free publicity it boggles the mind. When I started noticing that major brands where telling people to; "Friend me on Facebook and follow me on Twitter," I really could not believe it. Today it is said so often it is like a freaking cliche. I mean when you have major content providers telling readers to check them out on Twitter, when they have a website they are trying to monetize, it defies logic! It defies logic because the idea is that you send people to Facebook, rather than directly to your site, where they so impressed with your content that eventually visit your website. But people on Facebook tend to stay on Facebook, because a huge percentage of them are accessing the platform via mobile and they are less likely up the cell phones browser to read an article. Besides they've just noticed the funny meme someone just posted and that potential visitor is off doing something else. I'm firmly convinced people who read literature for pleasure are not the same ones spending a ton of time on Facebook. Most of my traffic comes from search, very little (<2%) of it comes from social media. But major content providers are starting to double down and are beginning to post their content directly on social media?! Of course Mark is creaming his pants at the prospect of the like of the Wall Street Journal posting their content directly on Facebook! Can you image! Imagine if every author profiled on this website (>1,000) came here everyday and posted information just about their work; put my logo on their business cards and websites; and told everyone to, "Check me out on AALBC.com;" I would be richer than the guy who runs worldhiphop.com. But more importantly I would be able to pay for writers for articles, book reviews and have a much better site-authors and readers benefit. I too think Chris is on the right track with his idea. I'm working with other writers to compile and publish content that is not being provided anywhere else--and it is all book related.

It is beyond unfortunate Sandra never learned this lesson. You can NEVER win an argument with a police officer. Talking back, failing to respond to requests, resisting arrest can never end well. Even if you were pulled over for some bullshit, as Sandra was. You really have no choice but to comply. The police have the guns, and the support of the government. You can not win. I've been pulled over for less (doing nothing wrong, nor accused of doing anything wrong). Once a NJ state trooper got in my face and started screaming at me simply because I had the gall to inquire way I was pulled over. I knew better than to react. But my life was in order and I wasn't under any undue personal stress; meaning I was not bound to snap because some white state trooper that was yelling at me for no other reason that the fact that he could. I was pulled over yesterday (did I say I've been pulled over more time than I can count). Again, I was pulled over for no good reason--and it was a Brother that pulled me over. I wanted to go off, but again I know better ;-)

Troy's Note: The Nubian network was one of the first substantial, in terms of content, Black websites that I was aware of. I'm talking 20 years ago. They were so different than anything that I had encountered anywhere, that they made an impression. They once used the tag line, "The Uncut Black Experience." Today you still won't find them on Facebook or Twitter. The Nubian Network's Black Consciousness Online http://www.blackconsciousness.com This mail-out is dedicated to the human beings that want to have the slavers, child abusers, plantation owners, killers, murderers, kidnappers, profiteers and their slave plantations, taken off all currency and mediums of exchange. It’s easy for anyone to claim they are not racist, but then continue to pass slavers around, buying goods and services, proving their ignorance, arrogance and hypocrisy. Get the slavers of the money now! No votes until Sept. 15, 2015! The voting staff are on vacation! http://www.blackconsciousness.com/nubianvoting.html You can still go to check out prior voting results, use some of the product links or just to satisfy your curiosity! The NUBIAN TIMES is bi-monthly! The Jul/Aug issue is blazing! Read and shared by enough people to make a small city of about 300,000! Must have a PDF reader! Featured Articles: GET THE SLAVERS OFF THE MONEY! The Gospel According To Afrikans AFRICAN-AMERICANS WHAT? Crack Head News- What’s a Credible Source? BLACK NIGHT CLUBS European Facts Black Facts THE SINGLE BROTHER’S BED TIME PRAYER Pyramids Along the Mississippi DATING PAGES! Specifically for Black And African people on the prowl! http://www.blackconsciousness.com/sshop/DATING.html Lectures of the Month: The White Woman is a Bytch- Dr. Khallid Muhammad http://www.blackconsciousness.com/sshop/khallid.html THE FEMENIST PLOT TO DESTROY THE AFRICAN FREEDOM MOVEMENT- Dr. Brenda Verner http://www.blackconsciousness.com/sshop/buster.html BLACK DOLLS- IN YOUR IMAGE- Large selection with action figures for boys and children’s book! http://tinyurl.com/7fj42kd BLACK DOLLS & IMAGES ARE AN INTRICATE TO OUR FUTURE! Don’t get embarrassed at Toys R Us, Wal-Mart, Costco, Sam’s, BJ.s, Dollar tree, Dollar General, K-Mart, Target, and those other franchises selections. You wasting your time and money! We focused on your babies when we put this together. Haters ain’t got nothing better worth yapping about! Where there is a will, there is a way! We have to raise our children, not depend on a system we are unsure of and have limited control over. You are the PRIMARY TEACHER! Got children- Check out Home Schooling in the Nubian Mall! Home schooled children are more focused and disciplined! We still boycotting Florida…act like you know! They still playing at standing their ground, we still boycotting and standing our ground, unless you got something better! If you do, do it and stop yapping! Go someplace, anywhere besides Disney World, Universal or whatever! There is no status or prestige in going to Florida. STOP FRONTING! NUBIAN JEWELRY AND ALL THINGS- http://tinyurl.com/6oszfof Jewelry, furniture, mouse pads, lamps. Statues, figurines, tables, and all things Nubian, African and Kemetic! LEATHER BAGS AND MOOR GOODIES FOR TRAVEL http://www.blackconsciousness.com/nmalltravelbags.html NUBIAN MUSIC JUMPOFF- You want Music, We got Music! All kinds! http://www.blackconsciousness.com/nubianmusicjumpoff.html A DVD Search Link is now available! Hope it’s helpful! The NUBIAN MALL is an Internet shopper’s paradise! http://www.blackconsciousness.com/sshop/mall.html THIS SITE IS NOT MEANT FOR EVERYONE! Don’t even try it! We advocate power to our people! Yappers and Negroes beware! We salute the people that have supported our efforts over the past 25 years. That’s in the streets, on the Internet, in the Mall, in our differing stores and in the mind. Hopefully, we have changed lives and made a few people view things differently and correctly. WE are still the Home of the BLACK IQ TEST! (Intellect Quotient) When you get tired of searching You Tube and Google, you can come on home to your own. We a little bit more focused on Black and have been around longer than they have! If this mail was sent to you in error or to unsubscribe from the Nubian Matrix, please place "remove" in the subject box of a reply or new email to: nnetwork@blackconsciousness.com Please be sure the address submitted is not a forwarding address, but the original receiving address. Every mail-out has a number in the subject box. Please provide that number for fastest removal. Thanks for your cooperation! We like to keep our database as clean as possible. Anyone can also unsubscribe from the web site by following simply instructions at the mail list. http://www.blackconsciousness.com

Troy's Note: Innovative Butterfly, I took your attached document and pasted the text below. More people will see it that way. While your document was clean, downloading attachment is the easiest way to transfer viruses, so many people won't do it. I also added an image of your book's cover and modified the link to Amazon to go directly to your book's page. I also used an Amazon affiliate link (http://aalbc.it/roftheb) which will generate commissions. Finally I added a links to your website where you book title is mentioned. Thanks for sharing information about your book here. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 7, 2015 Contact: (678) 744-4646 Local Author’s First Book Addresses Building Better Friendships ATLANTA — Expected End Entertainment, LLC, and EX3 Books announced today the upcoming release of Reflections of the Butterfly: Affirmations for Empowerment, a book that delves into building and re-building relationships among females. Written by Necole F. Turner, founder of Innovative Butterfly, LLC, the book uses Turner’s experiences as a backdrop to help women see themselves and their relationships from a different perspective with hopes of creating lasting bonds. After spending most of her life trying to find her place and purpose in life, she eventually found that in teaching she was able to motivate and inspire students to become their best. Ultimately, she took to her journal and wrote Reflections of the Butterfly to empower others to “transform” into whom they were meant to be. The book: · Helps women understand that self-view can hinder relationships. · Provides insight into how to change perception. · Provokes inner-reflection. · Gives encouragement in the reflection process. · Empowers women to effectuate positive change. “I want to provide encouragement for people who have been frustrated by failed friendships. I know that begins with a positive self-image,” said Turner, a professor and legal researcher. “I wanted to share my journey and help people along their journeys as well. We can all be transformed into beautiful butterflies if we are able to have a healthy view of ourselves.” EX3 Books Publisher C. Nathaniel Brown said Reflections of the Butterfly will provide readers a sense of peace and purpose. Necole is comfortable sharing her personal experiences,” he said. “That type of transparency and her desire to help others, will have a huge impact on readers.” The book is scheduled to be released July 25 during a book signing celebration at Cornerstone Co-working, 279 W. Crogan Street, Lawrenceville, GA. It will also be available at www.EX3ent.com and www.Amazon.com. About Expected End Entertainment, LLC: Expected End Entertainment (EX3) is an Atlanta-based, full-service media and entertainment company that provides content for film, television, radio and the internet. Its book publishing division, EX3 Books, specializes in nonfiction publications and includes writing, editing, and publishing services among other resources for writers. # # #

Richard, as we speak I'm in the process of redesigning AALBC.com. It will take me many months of effort, and will be a much improved website, but there is nothing on my drawing board that will be fundamentally transformative, or earth-shatteringly different, about what I'm doing on the website. I think the most powerful thing I can do is to actually get Black writers to take advantage of the platform. It sounds so fundamentally basic, but authors underutilize this website. Thumper's corner is a great place to showcase one's work, but too few authors recognize this. Even those that do post info about their books don't do so ineffectively. Here is an example from today you can see the difference between what the author posted and what I posted on their behalf. This took all of 5 minutes and you just can't post anything close to this on social media. So if I can get authors to just take advantage of the website, that would be the most transformative thing I can do :-) Richard do you have any ideas on how to more effectively deliver positive content? So far all of the ideas I see coming from large corporations are not doing the job. Indeed their solutions seems to be not to bother trying--at least as it related to Black folks

Akia, please don't worry about offending anyone. Feel free to express your opinions and what you believe. That is one of the purposes of this forum. Of course there will be folks who will disagree with you and what you believe to be true, so by the same token you can't be offended when that happens. In fact sometimes you can learn from it. As far as Black women and their hair. I think Black women spend far too much time, energy and money on hair. I actually believe if is a form of exploitation, because as Chris (CDBurns) mentioned we do not benefit financially from this. I was talking to may wife yesterday and she was telling me about all of the African-American owned beauty salons that have gone out of business in Harlem. Some Black men have fallen into the hair trap as well--sitting in a beauty parlor getting their hair processed, braided, dyed--sheesh! Today I shave my head. I used to hate going to the barbershop. It just seemed like a big waste of time. I know Brothers who spend an hour or two in a barbershop every week,k just to get their hair cut. I used to go one a month, which is really pushing it. Now I shave my head every 5 days or so, saving a ton of money and time. But I have never been one of those brothers fixated on my hair, or clothing. I don't even wear jewelry. So I know I'm not typical and my opinion about hair, in general, is in the minority. I watched the first few minutes of the video and the subjects bores me. I'm not interested in the subject at all. Again I know I'm in the minority. I spoke at a Blogger conference earlier in the year, it seemed like 75% of the blogger (virtually all women), blogged about hair, or fashion....yawn

Akia, I (and maybe others here on this forum) can answer some specific questions. Creating a successful website depends on what you have to work with. Do you have; (1) a lot of free time, and energy; (2) financial resources; (3) technical expertise, and; (3) the ability to write well? You'll need at least two of those things to get started.

Yeah I see where Herbert “Rap” Dixon, was an outfielder with the Negro Baseball League... Glad you enjoyed the events Akia.

Well you might be right, Chris but many people feel, and I'm in this camp, that Lee's site popularity (and by contrast this site's much less popularity), is more a reflection of oppression than a contributor to it. Lee says his first site was a porn site. Mine was a site to help people learn about computers and the web. Lee gets awards from BET. BET has not covered me since they became white owned.Lee has become very wealthy. I have to teach on the side to make ends meet.Clearly our people place a much higher value on what Lee does than what I do. But why is this true? I think part of the reason is that we still suffer the effects of a couple hundred years of enslavement, followed by a century of legalized oppression followed by another 50 years hyper-incineration, forced into impoverished ghettos, subjected to inferior education, etc. It is a small wonder why we are not more dysfunctional that we already are. For example, today I watched the car cam video of that sister pulled over in the texas; ignoring the fact that the video was edited, I completely understand the woman's frustration. Sure she made matters worse by giving the cop grief, and no she did not deserve to be treating the way she was, but we literally live in a country where Black people can end up dead for failing to signal a lane change! Worse still, BET, the socalled "Black Twitter", music companies, and many of our other most popular websites reinforce all of this... So while I appreciate 50's and Meth's anger, it is like a drug dealer complaining when some drug addict smashed the car windows to steal quarters from the ash tray--this is the environment they help facilitate--facilitate, but not create. We know drugs were deliberately dumped into the Black community by the government. We know the government helped create the ghettos most of us live in. So while a 50 Cent havesome culpability we can't blame 50 for creating the environment, which elevates him to such a status that he is on talk shows, stars in movies and has become very wealthy, anymore than we cam Blame Lee for taking advantage of our dysfunction for a payday. If it were not them it would be someone else. I guess we need to create an environment where the demand for drugs and celebrity gossip is much less than the things that might feed us intellectually and spiritually.

Hey Del, yeah it seems pretty clear Bill did some very shiesty things with women, using his celebrity and drugs to take advantage of them. My position that the social media fueled media exaggerated the claims, and were sloppy with the facts, making Bill seem more guilty than he was. I still would not be so quick to throw an inportant brother (any Brother) under the bus because of media acussations. My suspicion that these allegations, coming to light now, after 40, 30, 20 years is no coincidence. But it does not seem likely this will ever be proven, bcause this poition is relatively extreme--admittedly fringe consipricary theory type stuff. But I would not put anything past very powerful people. On a related topic. Dr. West who, I have come to admire, really disappointed me by trashing Ta-Nehesi Coates. The statement I found on his facebook page which I have copied here, really forces me to rethink my opinion of Dr. West. But, honestkly it will take more than one crazy statement to obilerate a life time of service.

Cynique, we really do need the voices of the past, for perspective. Your self-described "2-cents" is priceless. One day I will have the resources to encapsulate your wisdom in such a way that more people can benefit from it. "People like what they like" is a point I'd like to explore. I agree people like what they like, but they can only like something they know about. Even if they are aware of something it may take some effort on their part before they can begin to appreciate it. Imagine someone who would potentially gain a lifetime of enjoyment from the card game Bridge, but they were never exposed to the game and only learned to play War. Sure they'll have fun playing War but how much deeper and fun would their card playing experience be if they learned to play Bridge. Our ignorance of what is available is constraining our experience. Corporations are not interested in providing us with depth--that cost more money to create But I will take it a step further, the very nature of the way the web works make us believe anything more profound that War is a waste of time. If you introduce Bridge to a War player, they won't even be interested in learning the more difficult game. They have become so arrogant in their ignorance that the refuse to believe that the extra effort required to learn the game of Bridge is worth their energy. Corporations have figured out that people prefer (find it easier) to look at pictures and videos, so words are diminished in favor of these visuals--so this is what we get. But how much less are we learning as a result? How much less rich is are our experiences? I find Twitter boring because it is, by necessity, shallow. However this shallowness has become the very nature of the web,. We have been conditioned to believe that no one wants to or will invest the energy required to write, or even read, something longer than a few words. A picture is worth 1,000 words right? Corporations in an effort to maximize revenue drive this mantra particularly as it pertains to content targeted to Black people. White people have the same pressure, but they enjoy a more diverse set of websites that speak to and reflect their culture and images. Black people have whatever white folks find most profitable to provide. Sadly the most profitable Black owned websites have follow the same lead. Yesterday a new contributor to the forums, Gabe stated on the conversation "The 10 Best Damn Black Websites Period!" I just posted a new conversation about this website here.

I just refreshed my list of the top Black Owned Websites, a list I maintain on huria.org. In another conversation on this forum, a visitor wrote that the number one website, currently Worldstarhiphop.com,"...is for the children." In reality, the website is designed for adults, and is currently the #1 Black owned website. I rank websites based upon Alexa rankings, an admittedly imperfect metric, but is all I have and is better than nothing. Worldstarhiphop.com is essentially a gossip site that posts embrassing vidoes of celebtrities, public brawls and the like. The founder Lee "Q" O'Denat, the founder of Worldstarhiphop.com. WSHH has been voted the "top hip hop and urban culture website" by BET four years in a row (see 2012 winners). Obviously BET has no interest in giving awards to book sites LOL! In the video below Lee speaks about his rise to prominence. Method Man says he hates Worldstarhiphop and Bossip. Which are two of the top 5 Black owned websites. You can't get better promotion than this. Hey Meth, why don't you publically diss AALBC.com a drive some traffic my way too :-) I agree with Method man. I don't believe because people happen to be famous that it is cool to put all their personal business in the street. Gossiping formerly the purview of stay at home moms has become a multibillion dollar industry. And gossip is seemingly the only way Black folks can make money on the web. 50 Cent expresses his anger with Lee "Q" O'Denat. While I was aware of the website, learning about it when I complied my list of the top websites, I was not unaware of the founder Lee "Q" O'Denat. Given that he is a extremely successful website owner, a Black man, and from the same city as I am, you would think we'd know each other. We don't. I fact, I don't know very many other Black webmasters. Sadly, I work in effective isolation learning everything on my own... but I digress. Lee's worldstarhiphop.com is no different, really, than MediaTakeOut, Madam Noire, Bossip, or BET all of which are in the top 10 on my list. I initially compiled the list to see, among other things, what type of content the top white owned sites, that targeted Black people, produced. Of course celebrity scandal ranks way at the top. Interestingly, the most successful Black owned websites produce the same type of content. White folks may bring cocaine into the the Black community, but we are the ones selling it to each other. In the words of Method Man's own group, the Wu-Tang Clan, C.R.E.A.M. (Cash Rules Everything Around Me). While he may hate worldstarhiphop.com and Wendy Williams, I'm certain he understands them.

Despite debuting with mixed reviews, Go Set a Watchman brakes records by selling 1.1 million copies in less than two weeks. From the publisher From Harper Lee comes a landmark new novel set two decades after her beloved Pulitzer Prize–winning masterpiece, To Kill a Mockingbird. Maycomb, Alabama. Twenty-six-year-old Jean Louise Finch—"Scout"—returns home from New York City to visit her aging father, Atticus. Set against the backdrop of the civil rights tensions and political turmoil that were transforming the South, Jean Louise's homecoming turns bittersweet when she learns disturbing truths about her close-knit family, the town, and the people dearest to her. Memories from her childhood flood back, and her values and assumptions are thrown into doubt. Featuring many of the iconic characters from To Kill a Mockingbird, Go Set a Watchman perfectly captures a young woman, and a world, in painful yet necessary transition out of the illusions of the past—a journey that can only be guided by one's own conscience. Written in the mid-1950s, Go Set a Watchman imparts a fuller, richer understanding and appreciation of Harper Lee. Here is an unforgettable novel of wisdom, humanity, passion, humor, and effortless precision—a profoundly affecting work of art that is both wonderfully evocative of another era and relevant to our own times. It not only confirms the enduring brilliance of To Kill a Mockingbird, but also serves as its essential companion, adding depth, context, and new meaning to an American classic. Troy's note: Here is the promotional video for the book. The most interesting part to me is the b-roll of the manufacturing process. You can even buy the The Harper Lee Collection: To Kill a Mockingbird + Go Set a Watchman (Dual Slipcased Edition) Hardcover – Deckle Edge.

Yo, whats new man? Did you go to the Harlem Book fair on Saturday?

Now Still a Pygmy this sounds like a very interesting story. I've embedded the video linked above below and provided a direct link to the book on amazon (with affiliate code applied): http://aalbc.it/stillapygmy This book will be in my next eNewsletter :-)

I'd encourage all authors to use affiliate links when sending readers to Amazon. Read this article, 5 Things Writers Must Do To Survive Online to learn why. Not to pick on this particular author, because she is becoming more typical; apparently she does not have a website, and is sending people to Facebook instead. I believe this does more to help Facebook than it does to help her efforts. The author is sending people to Amazon directly, again, rather than her own website. But even worse she is sending them to Amazon without even taking advantage of the affiliate program. LeTressa, if you ever come back to this website, here is a cleaner link you can use to send people to Amazon: http://aalbc.it/daughtercrynomore Someone should be getting a cut of that sale--while Amazon is still offering commissions. If you use the link I provided AALBC.com will earn the commission. Thanks for sharing information about you book here--I give you a big up for that :-). But you can provide much more information. I've added your book cover. This does not have tpo be the drive-by type of post one does on social media. We are actually here to learn about good books and to support writers. :-)

Brother Yao, thanks for coming here from Facebook. I really do dislike engaging on Facebook simply because it cannibalizing my efforts here and those of others who run indie content sites. You've been a soldier in this fight longer than most; I appreciate your support and wisdom. Interestingly the conversation was launched by Ishmael Reed. Despite his rhetoric on the platform he too has fallen into the trap that is Facebook. All of Ishmael Reed's terrific contributions, which I could never afford to purchase, are freely given to Facebook! Reed's contributions and many other like his concentrate power with Facebook which of course makes them richer and more effective at killing their competition--and all other websites are Facebook's competition. In exactly the same way the Huffington Post got many of our brilliant writers to write for free, in exchange for the priveledge of being on the Huffington Post, making Ariana millions while sites like AALBC.com had to PAY for the same writers. Today Black writers all say friend me on Facebook and follow me to Twitter. Facebook get tons of FREE promotions many writers barely mention their own websites. Increasingly many don't even have a website. Do you think Ismael Reed would ever write, "check me out on AALBC.com?" He knows this site. Image if an Ishmael Reed only posted here, instead of Facebook. What would happen? Would his contribtions fuel AALBC.com efforts and allow me to continue to do an even better job of selling an dprmoting Reed's work? Would it help the Black book ecosystem as a whole? I think Black writers, in their own self interest, should stop giving Facebook free content. OK lets assume content distribution is the alternative to the bookstore. I don't agree with the premise because I don't think they are mutually exclusive (it is not an either or proposition, white folks have both). The problem with using Facebook as a content distribution platform is that we do not control what or how that content is distributed. I've observed over the years, as an active Facebook user, that while my "fans" have quadrupled, my engagement has gone way down --even with promoted (paid posts). Basically Facebook has created a platform that costs increasingly more to get to reach people. As far as engaging with actual readers it is far less effective than a simple newsletter. I appreciate you asking what you can do to drive more traffic here. Well by posting here you've already done that Brother--thanks! If you initiated and joined in our conversations occasionally, and encouraged other to do so. I could not ask for more.

Kwame, you are right below I added a link an excerpt to the article your referenced from The Atlantic which is worth reading in its entirety. When asked about policy for African Americans, the president has said, "I'm not the president of black America. I'm the president of all America." An examination of the Obama administration's policy record toward black people clearly bears this out. An examination of the Obama administration's rhetoric, as directed at black people, tells us something different. Yesterday, the president addressed Morehouse College's graduating class, and said this: This clearly is a message that only a particular president can offer. Perhaps not the "president of black America," but certainly a president who sees holding African Americans to a standard of individual responsibility as part of his job. This is not a role Barack Obama undertakes with other communities. Taking the full measure of the Obama presidency thus far, it is hard to avoid the conclusion that this White House has one way of addressing the social ills that afflict black people—and particularly black youth—and another way of addressing everyone else. I would have a hard time imagining the president telling the women of Barnard that "there's no longer room for any excuses"—as though they were in the business of making them. Barack Obama is, indeed, the president of "all America," but he also is singularly the scold of "black America."

Kwame, thanks for sharing your sentiments.

Claudia Alexander, was the NASA scientist who oversaw the dramatic conclusion of the space agency's long-lived Galileo mission to Jupiter and managed the United States' role in the international comet-chasing Rosetta project, which recently landed a spacecraft on a comet moving through space at more 84,000 mph, died July 11 at Methodist Hospital of Southern California in Arcadia. She was 56. (see LA Times story). Claudia also authored several children's books. "She wasn't famous, although she spoke often to the public and was eloquent and impassioned whenever she did so. She was highly respected by basically everyone who met her, as far as I can tell. She was an extraordinary talent, a committed scientist and but most of all this warm and generous and intellectually curious and energetic person who greeted everyone with a big smile and always had time to talk about whatever you were up to, even as she was busy doing super important things like, oh, running the Galileo mission at its spectacular finale, or being in charge of the U.S. contribution to the Rosetta mission (yes the one that just landed on the comet, the orbiter part anyway). And apparently she was in the first 20 African Americans to graduate with a PhD in an astronomy/physics related field too. It is a shattering loss. I'm not posting this to seek personal sympathy but instead to remind you all -- especially this week as a spacecraft flies past Pluto -- that exploration is a human endeavor and it lives and dies by the people who put their life's work into it, people who largely remain invisible but who leave an indelible mark on our understanding of the universe regardless. And people whose stories will be lost if we don't tell them." -Janet A. Vertesi, Asst. Prof. of Sociology at Princeton University. (More) Question: What advice would you give to someone who wants to take the same career path as you? Claudia Alexander: When deciding on your career you should be aware of the balance of work, personal satisfaction and financial rewards. In the early days of my career I would compare notes with an attorney friend of mine, and I found that each of us were working the same long hours, but she was making about three times as much money as me! Loving your work can sometimes be as important as how much money you make. As a woman it is really tough to make the balance of family time and science work successfully. You have to decide if you want to spend most of your time working at the expense of family time! Having the right partner is an important part of deciding on that balance. Read the full Q&A More on Claudia Alexander, from the Black Community