Troy

Pioneer, if you actually saw the film you would have to agree that it actually tries to show how senseless the violence in Chicago has become. Unfortunately it was just done in an inaccessible and unentertaining way. The last time I was in Chicago the violence subject came up in several conversations with native Chicagoans. I was told over the Mother's Day weekend, 45 Chicagoans were shot, this was on the heels of a campaign, to stop the violence. I did not hear this on the news, I heard this directly from Chicagoans themselves. Another Chicago native told me his loved Chicago, but his only complaint is the violence. I know what it is like to live in a violent neighborhood, to be literally concerned about your well being when going outside. I also know the government can turn things around tomorrow if they wanted to, because today, 40 years later, I live in the very same neighborhood. While it is not perfect it is like paradise compared to when I grew up. Chicago has a very serious problem, but it is not unique. To fix it, the government will need to do what is necessary. Chicago really is, and should be, the Black mecca of America--and this is a Harlemite writing.

@Pioneer1, have you ever considered that seeing past relatives is just one mind playing tricks on them? Also the experience is not universal. Why don't you hear stories of those about to be executed being visited by relatives to help them transition, or those who are about to die from an accident or heart attack? Surely we don;t have to be dying a slow death for them to know we are about to transition, right? Would you care to relate a personal spiritual experience? This is a situation where the phrase, "playing the devil's advocate" seems particularly apropos

Celebrating the Best in Black Literature (May 31, 2016 Newsletter)

@Pioneer1 Spike Lee's film CHIRAQ did not glorify violence or gangster lifestyle in Chicago, in fact it did the exact opposite. Did you see the film? @Sara, Spike's film bombed because it just was not very good. Interesting stats, basically what is says is that Spike has not made a commercially successful film in over a decade. That term "Super Predator," was a evil; turning Black men into nonhuman entities such that no one cared about locking them up and throwing away the key for minor crimes. I believe even Black people have internalized this depiction. Which is why I refuse to vote for Hillary as the so called "lessor of two evils;" a voting strategy that still makes no sense to me. @Cynique, I would not put a Jay-Z, Tyler Perry, Oprah, Bob Johnson, or a Dre in the same category as a typical entertainer/athlete. The individuals have power. Jay_z had sufficient power to start Tidal, in an effort to wrest more revenue from his music. Whether is is successful or not that is a show of power, but again who benefits... But to answer @Xeon's original question there is no Black African country in 2016, that leads the world in technological, medical and scientific development. But so what? What does that mean? African countries are European constructs that have nothing to do with the people that lived there. Still, do you know how many brilliant Nigerians there are? Where is that brilliance applied--who benefits from it--the West does. In fact what happens to all of the brilliant Black people in the United States, do they build their own companies, or do they go work for someone else? Do they create wealth for their own people or do they enrich someone else? What If every Black basketball player stepped off the court? What if every Black actor refused to work? What if readers stopped buying books from Amazon? The potential is limitless, but the reality is clear; NBA owners will call the shots over their "Million Dollar Slaves;" Black actors will continue to gripe about not being recognized, and and the limited stereotypical roles offered; and Amazon will continue to dominate, because individually we are too greedy to care about anything other than ourselves. So the questions I asked and the one posed by Xeon are not relevant because they presuppose conditions that don't exist to answer affirmatively.

@Mallah-Divine, do you have a website? Please share it here, I'd like to check it out.

Pioneer what informs your belief in an afterlife? Is it a specific religion?

My personal experience with the world wide web mirrors exactly what Rushkoff is saying in this video. If good to hear that he is hopeful about the long term prospects for the web, for the the same reasons that I am. This video and the commentary below is from the Big Think website. “It's harder for most people to making a living now than it was before the rise of online businesses like Facebook and Amazon. That's because the digital economy is hurting the real economy, says media theorist Douglas Rushkoff. Competition is increasingly fierce in just about every industry, and digital technologies have allowed companies to pursue monopolies like never before — because they chase the entire world's population as a customer base. Businesses have always sought growth, but applying the growth mindset to digital technology wields some very disturbing results. Take Twitter for instance: as a company, it makes $500 billion each quarter, but market observers have questioned the company's value because it doesn't have a growth strategy. Compare that to Amazon or Facebook or Google, each of which span multiple industries and have grown rapidly over the last decade. Interestingly, for all our fascination with businesses owned by shareholders, family businesses perform better in just about every metric. The reason, says Rushkoff, is that family businesses are more concerned for the future — the long term future, not just next quarter. Rushkoff explains more surprising facts about our digital economy in his book, Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus: How Growth Became the Enemy of Prosperity.” This net video

Well the question of whether Obama and Holder had sufficient power to do anything is predicated on the assumption that they actually wanted to to do something substantive for Black folks. As far as I'm concerned the jury is out on that.... no actually I don't think they really tried to do anything to specifically address the plight of Black people. Obama was the president for all people and most American's are not Black. So the question is not just do we have the power; the question is when we have the power do we chose to use it benefit our people. Collectively, we absolutely have power but we generally use it to benefit ourselves, individually--that is the american way. Entertainers (which include actors, athletes, and musicians, generally don't have power. They serve at the largess of the people they work for--they are as powerful as an hourly worker in a fortune 100 company.

I know we are only 17 years into the 21 century, but since people love lists I figured I’d create a 21st century version of the our list from the last century, “The AALBC’s Favorite 50 African American Authors of the 20th Century.” (I know; it is an ugly page, but it is on the list of pages to migrate to the new format) Renaming the list to the “Top” or the “Best” 50 Black Authors of the 21st Century, is more in line with the “click-baity,” attention grabbing headlines that are required now to attract attention. I wonder if people could come up with 50 favorite authors, When I created the original list 15 years ago, almost 1,900 people to cast votes. I'm actually confident that many would do it today—despite there being many more people with internet access today compared to 15 years ago. I’d probably have to create a list and give people the option to choose—make it real easy to participate. It has also been suggested by some that I create a 25 most powerful Black people in publishing (or the Black book business) list. Unless someone does it before me I’ll create that list as well. Black Issues Book Review did a very important articles naming the 50 most powerful people in publishing, I’d like to follow up on that article adding a “where are they now” component. But this will take resources and time that I don’t have now, so this article is many months off. But I think it is important for the public to know who the important Black people behind the books we read and in fact how few of them there are. As always I'm open to suggestions. And if you want you can start writing names in now for both the best authors and important people in publishing. Though I plan to compile the important Black people in publishing myself, I'm open to suggestions too.

That is easy to understand. They view the animals as innocent, whereas Black men are viewed as... well...I don't need to get into it...

Man it was a fertile time for authors in Harlem. Do you remember one of the owners of Harlemade, Kevin McGruder? Kevin is a published author as well.

@Tolly, if you create an account you will not have to wait for me to approve your comments before they go live. I have not seen the video yet, but running a query to understand the Julie Dash reference I came across the NY Times article which explains the reference and a whole lot more; The queasiest part of “Drunk in Love” comes when Jay Z raps, “Eat the cake, Anna Mae,” invoking a diner scene from “What’s Love Got to Do With It” when Ike (using Tina’s birth name) shoves dessert in her face. Is “Lemonade” a rebuke of that, too? Why not? Any wife who outs her husband on an album and in an hourlong video as a cheater, then makes him release that album on his streaming platform — exclusively — is having her cake and making him eat it, too. —Wesley Morris, The New York Times Sheesh! Maybe @Pioneer1 has a point about men; is be realistic for a woman (even a Bey) to think a man of Hova's power and wealth would remain monogamous?

Well since April 10th I've added 43 subscribers; which brings me down to 0.8 new subscribers a day. At this rate, I'll now reach my goal on September 19, almost 10 months after making my appeal, talk about playing the long game... I almost forgot why I needed 1,000 subscribers I just checked on Omar's progress. He has gained 66 subscribers during the same period. At this rate he will reach his goal on August 18, 2018. That is a lifetime on the web, YouTube will likely change such that the feature will no longer be offered or the requirement will be different.

Man has it been 13 years? I still remember the day I first met you at a party Musa Jackson held in Harlem. Harlem has changed so much in that short period of time... I guess we all have. Congrats on 13 years. Here's to 13 more!

In the case I mentioned with Urban Books, the authors had no control of the price which their book were being sold on the street. I recall one of the Urban Book Authors Jihad ranting in a video over what was happening during the period. To your last point about changes in the industry, which also relates to much of what you wrote is the importance of the author's "Platform." The concept of platformed seemed to become much more popular around 10 years ago. Authors were not just expected to come to the table with a great manuscript they were also expected for have a platform, a quantifiable, preexisting audience. According to some agents authors with a platform, got book deals over better writers. Publishers would look at how many Twitter followers an author had as a factor when signing them. But at the same time they were not sophisticated enough to know that Twitter followers could be purchased. The same goes for purported sales as a self published author, does anyone look at receipts from the printer for validate these claims? While publishers looked at the platforms of all authors, Black authors platforms seemed to be scrutinized the most. The idea of a promising writer being nurtured, by a major publisher just does not happen very often--especially if their characters are Black. As far as Black sites, or indie websites in general, traffic is down for a plethora of reasons. AALBC.com survives because of organic traffic, from search, but Google can take that traffic away tomorrow. Disappearing, or being pushed way down in search results killed many sites. When authors stopped linking to Black book sites, or stopped participating (for whatever reason), this only exacerbates the problem, the nail in the coffin was authors taking all of their energy and devolving it to social media--even over their own websites. This has the effect of cannibalizing the very platforms that can and will support them. In 2010, I wrote an article about the need to support Black book websites, highlighting a few of the more popular sites that remained (image on the left below). Five years later almost all of those sites were gone (grayed out in the image on the right). Now Mosaicbooks.com, The Urban Book Source, Rawsistaz, and the others may describe their reasons for the shutting down completely differently, but they were all operating under the same adverse conditions and they were generating meaningful revenue; I suspect they would still be around today. Just today when researching something related to urban lit, I used the Way Back Machine to retrieve an article that used to be in The Urban Book Source's site. As we continue to lose these sites the internet becomes less rich. Social media simply can not make up for what we are losing. Back to the renaissance, I'm beginning to see more entities authors, publishers, book clubs, etc, looking to work together to improve things. @TheroneShellman, your very participation in this conversation is reflective of this change in mindset. I think you can appreciate that a conversation like this could never have taken place on any social media platform. Hopefully, in 5 to 10 years, we will look back on this very conversation and agree that we were right about a being in the verge of a renaissance in Black literature

I live in NY City and there are simply not as many street vendors moving books as there once was. I understand the laws changed making it harder for street vendor to vend on the street, as you mentioned a Black owned distributor, who supplied many of the street vendors shut down. Then you know all of the controversy surrounding Carl Weber dumping books onto the street vendor market, way below retail, which effectively eliminated author royalties... Again I don't have data around how books are sold. I just know there are fewer bookstores and many of the ones remaining are struggling. (BTW please mention the two stores that you currently work with, other authors reading these can benefit from the information.) I also go into B&N's across the country and they simply do not stock a variety of Black authors and definitely no indie authors. Borders was a much better chain for Black authors, but you know what happened to them. I also know target and Costco and other retailers sell Black books, but again you will not find many different book. The library market has some potential, but getting into that market, while easier than in the past, is still tough--particularly as an indie author. The reason I mention Amazon and facebook is because this is what I see day in and day out--literally everyday. There is also a trend for authors toward suing Facebook as their only presence on the web. Most authors behave as if Black book sellers don't exist and using direct reader to buy on Amazon. Direct selling is perhaps the best way for an indie authors to sell books, but most simply don't have the skill or desire to do this. I've seen authors like Nikki Turner sell books like no other, she is a machine, but few people are like her. Many of the authors in the street lit space were successful because they are great salespeople, Wahida Clark, Relentless Aaron, J.M. Benjamin, etc,. On the commercial fiction side this skill can not be discounted NY Times bestselling author Omar Tyree back in the 90's was the hardest working author I had ever seen. Kwame Alexander, who just won a Newbery award the highest honor in children's literature was a worked hard on the promotion side too. Authors like Reshonda Tate Billingsley, Victoria Christopher Murray and many other grind, day in and day out. What do authors who are not great sales people (the majority) do? How do the great writers among this bunch get discovered? Honestly this is a gap that an AALBC.com can easily fill, but even I'm resource contrained and can only do so much. We need more booksellers recommending books online and off--the auhtor can only do so much on their own. @TheroneShellman, regarding other sites not lasting, don't remain mute. Say what is on your mind. I don't want to make the same mistake, otherwise I might be able to shed some insight.

Wangechi Mutu (artist), Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o (writer), Chimamanda Adichie (writer), Wangechi Mutu (artist), Kerry James Marshall (artist), Sammy Baloj (artist) and Taiye Selasi (writer) discuss how black people are misrepresented in today’s society and culture.

@Dr T, I'm not saying you can't link Facebook (though I'm obviously not a fan of this). I just think it is important for people link to their own sites or post the content here, and to understand why it is important. Below is Dr. T.'s excerpt: With the Champ's passing, this excerpt from the chapter "Muhammad Ali" takes on new poignancy for me: ...as mentioned, (my brother) Calvin had a personal and professional association with Muhammad Ali. Calvin had a business relationship with Ali’s manager and met Ali through that connection. One day Calvin called me from Vegas, ostensibly to check in on me and see how I was progressing... Dorey answered and handed me the phone, “Calvin is on the phone.” “Yo man,” I said. “How are you feeling?” The voice on the other end was very soft-spoken, deliberate, and somewhat halting. It was not Calvin but was very familiar sounding. “This is Muhammad Ali.” I damn near fell out of my chair. My mind was racing trying to determine what I should say to arguably the most well-known man in the world. If I was standing, I’m sure my knees would be knocking. I responded, “Hi.” How profound! For the next few minutes I listened intently as Muhammad Ali spoke. To be honest, I could barely make out what he said. Although in 1985 Ali looked vibrant and healthy—still “pretty” as he would so often refer to himself whenever a microphone was stuck in his face—there is no question he was already starting to noticeably deteriorate in terms of verbalization; despite the fact that he was cognitively sharp. Ali was so soft spoken and difficult to hear his every word, that I wasn’t sure when he was about to conclude. I sensed he was coming to the end of his comments by a subtle change in his inflection. So, my mind started racing with how I should articulate my honor, gratitude and sincere appreciation to Ali for calling me and wishing me well. Then he said something that I will hold onto for the rest of my life; it was the only thing I can quote verbatim from his difficult to comprehend, very soft-spoken, slightly slurred words. “I will pray for you..." (read additional excerpts from White Man’s Disease here)

Well Cynique, as many typos as I make I'm not about to go after Therone on that one . One could argue "whole new renaissance" is redundant, but this just a discussion forum and the expectation for editing is an issue only when there is a loss of clarity. Therone is an accomplished author and has been profiled on AALBC.com for more than a deacde, but I understand the point you are making... @TheroneShellman, thanks for coming by and sharing your thoughts on this subject. I can't speak to arts in general, but I can speak to Black books. I started running AALBC.com in 1997. Since then I've been a keen observer of what I call the “Black Book Ecosystem.” During this almost 19 year period I've seen Black books and authors really surge in popularity. Many independent authors (a term I prefer to self-published), were able to ride the wave of this expansion, due to enhancements in technology which dramatically lowered the cost of producing and selling book. When you got started in 2003 The Black Book Ecosystem had not yet peaked, and was still on the come up. In fact, the most notable writers, benefiting from this surge like, Ashley and JaQuavis, and Wahida Clark were largely unknown. Vickie Stringer's Triple Crown Productions was really just getting started pubbing Kwan's Gangsta, Stringer's own, Let That Be the Reason and Nikki Turner's Project Chick. Carl Weber's Urban Books and 50 Cent's G-Unit Books (both owned by Simon and Schuster) were brand new or had not yet started. Of course that is just the urban fictions genre, novels in romance, "chic-lit", sci-fi, and commercial fiction benefited a great deal. Today the landscape is very different, since 2003 we have lost a couple hundred Black owned bookstores, and we have lost many Black book websites. Black authors are not getting book deals in the same numbers, as a decade ago, and those that did, are getting smaller advances. Many authors have simply stopped publishing, have published independently, or have turned to small indie presses, none of which provide advances which help subsidize the careers of a writers. Technologies like print on demand and digital books have made it possible for anyone to create a book. As a result, we have more books in the marketplace than ever before.. But this is not resulting in better books getting into the hands of readers, or increased profits for the authors. This has just been a windfall for purveyors of ebook publishing and POD services. I've already mentioned there are fewer book stores and book sites, but there is also MUCH less coverage of Black books in magazines and newspapers. As result, it is harder for books to find their audience. Meanwhile social media and Amazon have promised to make promotion of books much easier for authors, still the only real beneficiaries of these promises are Amazon and social media. In fact today, the vast majority of book sold are sold by Amazon. I don't have hard data on this, but where else are large numbers of Black book being purchased and sold? But, to your point, I believe the pendulum is beginning to swing in the other direction, back in our favor, and that Black literature is indeed in the dawn of new renaissance. This renaissance, like all the others, is driven by need. Writers are beginning to see that all of these technologies are not serving us the way they are currently being used. I also believe that people are beginning to see that going it alone is not working. We are starting to exploit technologies to our benefit and stricking alliances to leverage our collective strengths. This is the change in thinking we must make, from a business perspective, to continue to fuel this renaissance. So the quick answer is; "Yes, we are."

Hey Dr T. would you mind if I reposted your except here, rather than sending people to Facebook? Alternatively can you pots and your site and send people there. One of the missions of this site is to uplift independent websites.

Cynique, while Roots was an 8 hour epic, and Straight Outta Compton is just a two hour flick, a direct comparison may not be fair, but I easily enjoyed Roots more that SOC. Comparing it to the first version Roots may not be fair either, but if you try to make allowances for the superior technology the latest version was afforded; I still think the new version was far superior. Also given the freedom to know that this version was purely fictional I could turn the part of my brain that checks for the plausibility of situations, and just enjoy the film. I was really just enjoyed looking at the people. The men we handsome, and the women were fine. The cinematography at times was simply spectacular, the beautiful Black people, the colors, the landscape combined at times to be simply awesome. While I know Snoop Dogg was calling for a boycott, who else called for a one? I haven't even seen part four yet. No one else in my family is interested in watching Roots. Last night I watched, it on demand, while everyone else who was at home was watching the NBA finals. Since I have no dog in the race or money on the line. The outcome of the bball game is of very little interest to me, Admittedly, I saw no use in investing time in another version of Roots, when so many other stories need to be told. But I guess remakes are so much easier to make from a creative standpoint, because crafting a new story from scratch, even one based on history, is always more difficult. But the upside of doing something brand new is much greater.

Hey you are doing big things Fanita, so it is my pleasure. I'll drop you a line in a few.

Humm it could be a bug in the software. I've made two upgrades this week. I suspect when you shut down you machine or reboot it things will work normally. My deleting of posts should have nothing to do your ability to access the board. Also I have not restricted your access or anyone else's--just in case that crossed your mind Care take and let us know what you think about Roots.

@Pioneer1, the red letters definitely help. If I feel the need to quote a paragraph from a different poster, another conversation or even another source I indent the text. Of course their are other ways to accomplish the same thing. What really gets on my nerves is when Sara fully quotes a comment that immediately precedes her in the conversation--this is completely unnecessary and nonsensical. And yes inserting replies directly within a quoted, without differentiating the quoted text from her reply is very confusing and potentially misleading. I don't consider this type of posting a "style." It is just sloppy use of the platform and I'm not going to tolerate it any longer. So this is a rule I've chosen to implement and will enforce as I see fit. No one will be booted without warning, Sara has been warned, and she can decide to comply or not. It really is entirely up to her.

As I slowly plow through AALBC.com's upgrade I'm constantly discover just how much I don't know about Black literature and it is fascinating. Most of us know Richard Wright for his bestselling novel, Native Son. I did not know Native Son was turned into a film back in 1951 (the film is on YouTube). I also did not know how many novels Wright had published, when I created his page many years ago, I found a few, today during the update I found 19 different titles Wright that has published including not only novels but nonfiction and poetry. It is also hard to appreciate today, just how prominent and influential Wright was in his day, given the complete lack of attentions paid to his work. Maybe @Cynique can share her perspective since she was an eye witness to the period and Wright passed before I was even born.