Troy

We were gonna name her Zora, but switched to Zoe at the last minute. Her sister's name is Maya. The names really have more to do with class than color. But the presumption is that all Black people are low class so the distinction is rarely made in our case.

Pioneer there is plenty of Black Sci-fi it just is not covered very well. I will be mentioning one new anthology in next eNewsletter. We have fewer websites, bookstores, magazines around to cover these books and what remains are mostly interested in covering the book you described and of course the celebrity titles.

Pioneer there is a big difference between using money in a transaction where you get a good or service in return. Using money in an investment where there are terms for interest or a share in a company -- that is cool too. But that is not what I'm talking about. What I'm describing are the daily requests for money from profit driven entities -- not charities, who want you to fund their project -- just because. Sure you are promised something like a signed DVD from a filmmaker, for example, but it is never equal to the value of what you've paid -- nor is it even expected to be. You are just funding a project because it is worthy. (And now that I think about it I have never received a DVD from any of the films I help fund). Maybe I'm sensitive to this because of the sheer volume of requests I get. I used to at least read the appeals. Now I'm overwhelmed and ignore them most of them.

Pioneer the loans were immediately sold after they were made. The were sliced and diced and used to create securities which were then resold. Determining what the underlying homes were was very difficult. I've been all over the continental United States and I have yet to see an "ideal" AfroAmerican community where most things are operating as they should. Pioneer I don't think the community you are referring to exists. One could, and it has in the past, but I doubt there is one in the US of A.

The mind and brain are separate. What about the soul? Is the soul yet another part of us? Are our minds distinct from each other the way our brains are?

For immediate release: October 7, 2013, 9:00 a.m. Contact Info: Harold Augenbraum, National Book Foundation 212-685-0261 haugenbraum@nationalbook.org National Book Foundation partners with msnbc’s “Morning Joe” to Announce the 2013 Finalists for the National Book Awards Morning Joe Hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski also to Emcee the National Book Awards Ceremony This Year New York, NY (October 7, 9:00 a.m.) On Wednesday, October 16, the National Book Foundation will partner with msnbc’s “Morning Joe” to announce its 2013 National Book Awards Finalists, for the second year in a row. In addition, this year “Morning Joe” hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, who are both authors themselves, will emcee the National Book Awards Ceremony on Wednesday, November 20 at Cipriani Wall Street, in New York. The Finalist categories will consist of five books each from the genres of Young People's Literature, Poetry, Nonfiction, and Fiction selected by a panel of expert judges, culled from the Longlists of ten each that were revealed to the public over four consecutive days during the week of September 16. Appearing on the show to reveal the Finalist books will be the Foundation’s Chairman, David Steinberger, President and CEO of the Perseus Books Group. “Last year’s Finalist announcement on ‘Morning Joe’ was a great success,” noted Steinberger. “We more than doubled the Foundation’s website visits from the previous year. Making the announcement on television gave us a whole new audience for these great books, and expanding the literary audience is our main goal.” Over the past two years the Foundation has increased its efforts to broaden its reach by recruiting board members from outside the literary world and forging partnerships with organizations and individuals with related missions. The creation of the Awards first Longlists this year and the expansion of the judging panels to non-writers (albeit with literary expertise) are part of this effort. “Both Joe and I are published authors,” said Brzezinski, “and our program focuses to a great extent on bringing the knowledge and expertise of authors to a wider public. We believe strongly in the written word.” “Morning Joe” recently announced the formation of a branded Book Club, focused on nonfiction. Scarborough’s new book, The Right Path: From Ike to Reagan, How Republicans Once Mastered Politics--and Can Again, will be published on November 12. Brzezinski’s most recent book is Obsessed: America’s Food Addition—and My Own. * * * The National Book Foundation's mission is to celebrate the best of American literature, to expand its audience, and to enhance the cultural value of good writing in America. In addition to the National Book Awards, for which it is best known, the Foundation's programs include 5 Under 35, a celebration of emerging fiction writers selected by former National Book Award Finalists and Winners; the National Book Awards Teen Press Conference, an opportunity for New York City students to interview the current National Book Award Finalists in Young People's Literature; NBA on Campus, a partnership that brings current National Book Award authors to Concordia College in Moorhead, MN; the Innovations in Reading Prize, awarded to individuals and institutions that have developed innovative means of creating and sustaining a lifelong love of reading; and BookUp, a writer-led, after-school reading club for middle- and high-school students, run in New York City and Texas. The National Book Award is one of the nation's most prestigious literary prizes and has a stellar record of identifying and rewarding quality writing. In 1950, William Carlos Williams was the first Winner in Poetry, the following year William Faulkner was honored in Fiction, and so on through the years. Many previous Winners of a National Book Award are now firmly established in the canon of American literature, such as Sherman Alexie, Louise Erdrich, Jonathan Franzen, Denis Johnson, Joyce Carol Oates, and Adrienne Rich.

I can hardly wait to read your insights!

Novels Pillorying Black Church Find Readers in Pews Books about a morally challenged minister find enthusiastic readers among churchgoers. From the October 5, 2013, New York edition of the New York Times By Samuel G Freedman In reaction to a presentation by author Kimberla Lawson Roby on during the Decatur Book Festival: “I am a fan of reality as opposed to hypocritism, if that’s the word,” he said. “The books, though they’re fiction, have a lot of truth in them. It does somewhat cast a negative light, and you worry that people will read the books and associate them with every minister. But it’s things that happen in the ministry and are swept under the carpet or handled within the four walls of the church. This brings it to the forefront.” --Rev. Brian Bullard of Community Fellowship Baptist Church in Covington, Ga. It clear even without Harry Brown's posts that Kimberla has enough material for a life time of novel

Pioneer I thought you might get a kick out f the comment on the review of Jane's book: "She's 'humanizing' creatures descended directly from Homo Erectus that aren't even within the same taxonomy as modern humanoids. She probably won't get it, even with a broken orbital bone and the usual ape-rape, just another idiotic female with warped or attenuated survival instincts that will end up in pieces in a dumpster somewhere. Curious George and Jane GOODALL, lol." I know whoever posted this is a racist cretin, but it did make me laugh when I first read it. It is just so absurd.

I always use my addresses label -- they even come with designed for the holidays you gotta love them. I contributed once, not I'm permanently on the mailing list it has been a quarter of a century now. I went to Wikipedia today (laud help me). Wikipedia had a very prominent appeal for money at the top of their site. Boasting about being the #5 website (thanks in no small part to Google), and to only having 137 employes but serving 5 million (I have only myself and I serve a quarter of a million). It seems to me that being the #5 site that Wikipedia should be able to raise money for their site without putting their hand out to the general public. If AALBC.com was the number 5 site I would be giving away -- seriously! Now Wikipedia seems to provide a good service but if you look carefully they serve as a vehicle for large company to promote their sites at the virtual exclusion of independent, especially Black independent, sites. I read somewhere that 85% of the content is generated by white males. I wrote and article about Wikipedia sometime ago on how the volunteers are really being exploited as large companies use Wikipedia's content on their own websites. What nerve...

Beelzebub leaning out of the camera frame huh LOL. Somehow I just imaged the Price of Darkness presenting a permanent countenance of agitation. He must be really pissed be associated with the clowns.

Those must have been some really sophisticated and highly evolved people they experimented on. Few people can actually "clear" their minds. Try it, it is not easy -- maybe impossible. I would like to see that episode. Do yo know if it was a new broadcast or an old one rebroadcast? If you tell me when it came on I might be able to check your local list to get more detail.

The works of 25 African-American Master Artists and their Contemporaries will be on display for the Black Art In America™ at The Faison Firehouse Theater Art Show and Sale October 3rd - 6th. The public is invited to attend. The Faison Firehouse Theater is located at: Six Hancock Place, NYC 10027 (124th Street between Nicholas & Morningside Avenues).

Spawns of Satan?! No, no, Satan himself.

MoCADA's PUBLIC EXCHANGE series presents... Tey Oct 3rd | 6:00 pm | Ingersoll Community Center | 177 Myrtle Avenue, Brooklyn In collaboration with the Brooklyn Young Filmmakers and the Ingersoll Community Center, join us tonight for an exclusive screening of Tey (Today), an award winning, visually captivating film that takes place in Senegal. Starring actor, poet and performer Saul Williams, the film takes us on the heartfelt journey of a man’s last day alive. Stay for a special Q&A after the film with director Alain Gomis, a young French and Senegalese filmmaker, and leading actor Saul Williams. RSVP

On a daily basis I'm being hit up by someone or some organization for money. I'm not talking about a sales pitch where you are get something tangible like a product or service. I'm not even talking about a charitable organization seeking a tax deductible contribution for a worthy cause. I'm talking about the solicitations for money where there is no direct benefit to you. The only benefit goes just to the recipient. These are not requests for a loan where you may get a little interest, or at least see your money again, but an outright request for money. These requests are indistinguishable from the "homeless" person asking for money from strangers on the street. We used to call this begging and the behavior was frowned upon in most circles. Sure the begging today is a little more sophisticated and slicker, but it is begging none the less. But unlike the beggar, you may encounter on the subway on the way home from work, this new form of begging is more difficult to ignore. In this modern form of begging the beggar actually refers to you by name. Indeed, you may even know and like the beggar. In fact, they already know this and are counting on it to make you an easy mark. Amazingly, these beggar can even get you to beg on their behalf without sharing in any of the proceeds with you. The worse part is the beggars often have more financial resources than the person they taking money from. In fact, the more money the beggar has, the more success they will enjoy, separating the less well off from their funds. I'm not sure when it started, maybe it was when Barack Obama first hit me up for $25. I guess some computer program sized me up and determined 25 bucks was the right about to ask for. At any rate, I made the donation, proud to financially support a Brother on his way to the White House to fight on behalf of the masses. But the requests never some coming, in fact I got another a couple of days ago. The elections are over, where is the money going? I ignore the emails now. It seems like every time I turn around there is another person with a kick-starter or Indie-go-go request asking for money for some project. I feel bad not being able to contribute, but I work really hard for every penny I earn, and frankly some of these organizations asking for money really do need to support AALBC.com for a change. Yesterday, I got several requests, all from organization I like and support. But I've also come to the realization that I can't support every individual in the way that they want me to support them. I feel like the parent who won't give one child a treat unless I can one to everyone. At the same time I realize I'm probably taking all of this begging too personally. The beggars are not looking to see whose has contributed and holding it against them: Barack reviewing his list of donors is taken aback that Troy Johnson has not contributed. Michelle, noticing his frustration, tenderly rubs Barack's brow, and whispers, "Baby what's wrong?" Barack blurts out, "That Negro, Troy has not given me any money since 2008! Doesn't he support a Black man in the white house?! Michelle these self-hating Negros will be the death of me. He probably is against Obama Care too." Michelle unaccustomed to seeing her Barry loose his cool, pulls Barack to her bosom and says, "Don't worry baby just get the IRS to audit him or have Google drop his page rank a few points that will fix his monkey a-s." No, despite the personalized salutation, these are usually mass mailings and the beggars are not thinking about me anymore than the more traditional beggar on the street corner. Maybe it is just the sheer volume requests coming from every from celebrities like Spike Lee and Alice Walker to regular people including my friends and family. At any rate, I'm just tired of seeing them. Lately I've been putting a lot of effort into Huria Search a website whose mission is to support independent Black owned websites. The website is run, like AALBC.com, by just me. But I'm not attempting to make money from it Huria Search, though of course it takes time an money to maintain. Free promotion through Huria Search and even the platform provided by AALBC.com and articles in my Blog is my contribution to the indie book sellers, newspapers, magazines, and other types of websites. This is much more valuable than a onetime $25 contribution. I just need to acknowledge I'm giving all that I can now and to stop feeling guilty about not doing even more.

Agreed with you last point and it is f-cked up on so many levels.

"... I see thousands of fat Black school kids standing around and leaning on telephone poles and mail boxes..." LOL I just visualized this and it made me laugh out loud. Then I read Cynique's. "...homeward bound, rag-tag parade of scruffy, loud, unruly..." and I see a herd of Cosby Kids making their way down the street an laughed again. I'm sure anyone reading this would wonder if we even like teenagers Del I live in the neighborhood I was raised in and I can tell you that kids absolutely do not play outside as much as we did. Besides basketball and touch football we played every imaginable variation of tag you can think of. The girls would jump double-dutch for hours on end. I don't recall the last time I saw kids playing tag or girls jumping double dutch... I don't even see kids play outside any more. I'm sure there is data to support the fact kids are getting bigger. I don't have time to look it up right now. Recently however the charter schools seem to run kids more during recess it is fun to watch a bunch of little kids running around it seems like an entirely stochastic process -- like the balls bouncing in the lotto machine before being drawn. Pioneer while we may observer similar things I think the only dispute is our explanations for them and the motivation behind them. Companies are motivated by money. Period. Any perceived good is performed because there is revenue behind it. The faster and easier the better. As a result corporations will always pick a large short term gain over a small longer term one -- even if society, the planet is better off. This is why we will continue to burn fossil fuels until we run out or the ozone layer is depleted to the point where our world can not longer support life -- then some genius will get rich selling oxygen masks. And Negroes will be losing homes because they can't afford to pay for air.

Yeah, but Will Smith is loaded :-) I just have spiritual wealth

Click Here to Support When a capitalist country such as ours implements austerity measures under the weird pseudonym "sequestration," one of the first cuts besides social services occurs among the non-profit sector. Due to this reality, The Intercultural Alliance of Artists & Scholars, Inc. (IAAS), a NY-based nonprofit organization, has been denied a major grant it needs in order for its publishing entity, 2Leaf Press, a multicultural independent press of poetry, fiction and creative non-fiction, has been hit hard. In order for it to maintain its publishing of dynamic list of books, it needs to rely on the generosity of the community it serves. At a time when presses dedicated to preserving the literary and artistic legacy of writers and artists of color who challenge a culture that would rather shut its government down than pay decent wages, provide social services, making housing and higher education affordable, and above all, provide decent health care for its citizenry, more and more the community must come together—as we have countless times in the past (and present) with rent parties and such, to cull our resources in order to sustain one another. I am asking you humbly to please, if you can, make a donation of what ever amount is comfortable for you, in order for 2Leaf Press, a NYC-based, multicultural small press "with big ideas," to sustain itself in this difficult time. Donations can be sent to FUNDLY. Below is a video message from 2Leaf Press publisher, Gabrielle David, giving you a sense of 2Leaf Press and its mission. Thank you very much for your time and consideration, and please share this message with your social networks and beyond. Sincerely, Tony Medina, author of "Broke Baroque" (2Leaf Press, 2013). Peace.

Del people tend to hate themselves more than anyone else. The suicide rate in the US is twice the murder rate. When you consider that the Black murder rate are really Brothers engaging in suicidal behavior the number are much more stark. The obesity rates fro US Black women grows every year. If memory service in places like DC, the Black female obesity rates exceed 40%. Cynique I saw Cark Hart on Bill's program when it originally broadcast. The fact most people do not get hooked on drugs comes as no revelation to me. But it is mildly interesting to know there is data to support my observations and personal experience At any rate, I really could not get past that head of hair of his. Is he Rastafarian? I can not image anyone want to deal with all of that hair for purely stylistic reasons. We published a review of his book

Actually when I moved back to Harlem about 13 years ago I thought about doing something similar, basically taking photos of groups of Black men just hanging out. If you can look past the cat calling of women passing by, the public consumption of alcohol and marijuana, the lack of shirts and sagging pants, the blasting music, littering, and over all dysfunction, there is something compelling about the camaraderie and the visuals. I knew these scenes would not last much longer due to gentrification, so I was interested in capturing and preserving them. I never did it though, figuring that some Brothers would not want to be photographed, and if something crazy happened because of something I captured on film I did want to be responsible. The idea really came from a coffee table book, that came out years ago, of photos of East Harlem taken when I was a kid. During that time East Harlem was the poorest place in the country (I learned this reading a story in National Geographic an issue I kept over 40 years). Relatively speaking we were quite fortunate to live in the projects. I actually purchased this book, probably the most expensive book I ever brought, which I could not afford really afford at the time, because it felt like a time capsule to my past. The way some people lived was actually quite horrific. I knew a girl whose baby sister was attacked and bitten by a rat in her own living room -- can you image!. So when Gil Scott Heron (who lived in East Harlem) sang about his "sister Nell," it was not hyperbole. At any rate, I thought something similar should have been done for Harlem. It is probably too late now.

Pioneer, I'm not saying that some white folks or the government are incapable of perpetrating some horrific shit. I'm just saying I don't believe the tale about spraying chemicals in the 'hood to make us more violent. Defunding schools and locking Negroes up has been very effective for our generation. The Tuskegee "Experiments" are a documented fact. I do not dispute it. In fact, I hold it up as a rational justification for Black people not to trust the government, at all, with anything. Who trusts anyone that would enslave you for 400 years, then implement a permanent Jim Crow. People talk about a "new" Jim Crow, I don't recall the old one ever ending.... really. It is no surprise that whooping cough, measles, mumps, and small pox are making a come back. Again I completely understand why people would opt out of the vaccinations. But I'm taking them and I vaccinated my kids too. I do think Del has a point. Anecdotally women just used to be smaller when I was a kid. A 200 pound girl in high school was exceedingly rare when I was young, now it not pretty common. SO common in far you have people celebrating it. We used to call them "fat", today they are "thick", and it is a complement... I think the crap introduced into the food supply is to blame. I saw a commercial the other day for diabetes medication. The commercial, features a middle age Black woman in a lovely home, surrounded by a loving family, who is now able to take her diabetes medication with her on vacation without having to worry about syringes and spoilage. This is a great thing if you are diabetic, but the feeling was that diabetes is so common place as to be expected by middle aged Black women as the grow older and inevitably gain weight -- just a normal part of life. Meanwhile pharmaceutical companies grow fat off our chronic illnesses, which are more lucrative than prevention or cure. No I'm not a big time conspiracy theorist guy, 'cause what people do in the light of day is f-cked up as it is...

I don't often talk about my kids on these forums but I have to admit my baby girl is developing into a very good writer. She writes a regular column for her school newspaper. Her latest column is on Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith's kid Jaden Smith's recent declaration that “School Is The Tool Used To Brainwash The Youth.” http://flathatnews.com/2013/09/30/if-newborn-babies-could-speak-twitters-philosopher-king/ I always that that was what mainstream media was for. At any rate, maybe one day I'll be able to get her to write for AALBC.com ;-)