Troy

Yeah, just as I thought...crickets.

I'm on this mission to identify independent, Black owned, content providers. I'm most interested in new sources (you know the places where journalists used to work) It is part of a larger effort -- more on that later. At this point I'm not looking for sites producing the content of a single individuals, i.e. a Blog with only one contributor or authors websites promoting a single writer. Think sites like: The Network Journal http://www.tnj.com or The Amsterdam News http://www.amsterdamnews.com/ NOT sites like Black Voices http://www.huffingto...om/black-voices or The Griot http://www.thegrio.com/ Thanks

Cynique it seems to me your description of a future Cain presidency "beholden only to the shareholders represented by corporate America" would fit Obama, Clinton, Bush I, Bush II...

When I tell you it was a party y'all trust me the whole audience was getting down! More photos from the celebration

Here are a just some of the recent nominees for 2011 National Book Awards. Dr. Manning Marable: http://aalbc.com/aut...ing_marable.htm Nikky Finney: http://aalbc.com/aut...kky_finney.html Yusef Komunyakaa: http://aalbc.com/authors/yusef.html Jesmyn Ward: http://aalbc.com/aut...esmyn_ward.html Carl Phillips: http://aalbc.com/aut...l_phillips.html

“...we have fewer independent book sites focused on black authors than we did five years ago. And the ones that remain are even more difficult to find.” Read the rest of the interview: http://aalbc.it/troy2011

Can you image two different Black men as consecutive US Presidents? Wow. While I'm not convinced that Cain will emerge as the GOP candidate it would be a fascinating study of American politics -- too bad the future of our country is on the line... Missed ya Xeon.

Anika99, I just read in the Wall Street Journal that Long has had a civil law suit filed against him for running a Ponzi scheme, He is accursed stealing millions from his members. He needs to be thrown under the jail -- even if half of what he is accused of is true. Absolute power corrupts...

This Brother seems to have a solution for the Sista's: Just marry white guys. Read a review of Ralph Richard Bank's book Is Marriage for White People? How the African-American Marriage Decline Affects Everyone http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eksJYVPKqNI

I got mines! (As we used to say) Pretty cool K.L. I noticed you thanked Selena James in your acknowledgements. She is a real trooper! I'll work this into the next eNewsletter. Kensington has always been a big supporter of website like AALBC.com, Mosaicbooks.com, etc.

Do tell. While I heard Long had affairs I had not paid enough attention to know he was "apparently" molesting young men.... Sheesh! I image the book will sell quite well. You gotta love the title

It looks like Michael "buy your way into a 3rd term" Bloomberg will have his hands full on trying to squelch the unrest in lower Manhattan. Will he sick the dogs on the protestors, or turn on the fire hoses? I'm sure he would like to just open fire...

Who is the most popular author on the list above. Do you think any of the writers are widely known, if so who and why? If not, why not?

Finalists for the 2011 National Book Awards include: Dr. Manning Marable (May 13, 1950 - April 1, 2011) http://aalbc.com/aut...ble.htm#2011nba Nikky Finney (b. 1957) http://aalbc.com/aut...ey.html#2011nba Yusef Komunyakaa (b. 1947) http://aalbc.com/aut...ef.html#2011nba Jesmyn Ward http://aalbc.com/authors/jesmyn_ward.html Carl Phillips (b. 1959) http://aalbc.com/aut...ps.html#2011nba

Buy a read more mug -- better yet buy a set http://aalbc.it/readmorecup Here is another why to support AALBC.com's on-line efforts and get something really cool in return. The read more mugs are made of high quality materials, dishwasher safe and lets those around you know they need to "read more". The mugs are only $10.99.

Common talks about not allowing another to "dim your light" a beautiful sentiment, however it is not necessary to relate the details of your relationship to communicate this idea. I'm sure Common and the publisher's incentive to reveal these details were financial. Indeed, without these details the book may never have been published. Common and Badu are celebrities and the public's appetite for relationship details is seemingly insatiable. I hope Badu was cool with it. So while I would not reveals details of my own relationships. No one is offering me a lot of dough to do so. Were this the case, i suspect I might be singing a different tune!

http://aalbc.it/courageousfilm Courageous - An AALBC.com Film Review "A moving, modern parable not to be missed by anyone who’s always wondering why they don’t make wholesome movies with uplifting messages anymore." The Film opened to weekends ago at #4 at the Box office, Last weekend it was #6. If you are looking for something goo check it out.

Cynique I think you've hit the nail on the head or at least touched on a major aspect of the issue. For the last 10 years I used to wonder way more people are not in the street -- what would it take? I now know; main stream America is now feeling the pain. it s not just Black folks, losing homes, out of work and unemployable and unable to pay for a decent education for their kids. We do know the ultra wealthy control all aspects of the country, to the detriment of the majority of us (the 99% if you will). They will not yield control easily. There is a long fight ahead and it will be hard, but it has to start somewhere. Perhaps this is a beginning...

Cynique I have so much to say about this and related issues, I feel like my head will explode - Over couple of years I've seen so many changes take place so quickly that the World Wide Web is quickly becoming a complete mess. As an active participant since the mid 90's; perhaps I have a perspective most don't. But it really is remarkable that these adverse changes are largely going unnoticed. The problem are due to unbridled capitalism and in some way I've been part of the problem. The spam email is really the tip of the iceberg.

Here is a link to more photos shot earlier today: http://aalbc.it/occupywallstphotos It is difficult for me to understand why some people would take issue with the protestors?

Valaida thank for sharing information about your new book here. I define philanthropy as any form of unforced donation of your wealth or time to a cause, business, organization or person you choose to support. I think the term "giving back" is a little loose in that it rarely means giving back to someone (or entity) that gave to you. I think we all need to think of philanthropy in more broad terms. For example everyone who believes your book is important should share the information you have provided here and consider purchasing the book if it is something they are interested in doing. Purchasing directly from the publisher while perhaps a little more cumbersome would support your efforts even more. Or of people wanted to purchase via Amazon they could use this link: http://bit.ly/bookgivingback and they would be supporting AALBC.com Non-monetary should not be diminished relative to financial support. We should engage in both and challenge ourselves to think of way to support to entities we believe in and want to see thrive.

Thanks for the acknowledgement Anika99. You might also want to check the free eBook sources I posted recently: http://bit.ly/ebooks-4-free

Nice tribute Kola I'll lin to this from the Derrick Bell Page: http://aalbc.com/authors/derrickbell.htm

ProQuest Unlocks New Paths for Research of Key African American Writers Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr.’s seminal microfiche collection linked to digital texts for online exploration. Ann Arbor, MI (PRWEB) October 06, 2011 Advances in the ProQuest research environment have streamlined access to a major literary collection assembled by Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Scholars and students who rely on Dr. Gates’ ground-breaking Black Literature, 1827-1940, a microfiche collection, can now quickly identify and connect to tens of thousands full-text, digitized versions of articles found through ProQuest’s Black Studies Center and Historical Black Newspapers. “ProQuest is continually looking deep into its databases to find connections between bits of content,” said Tim Babbitt, ProQuest Senior Vice-President, Platforms. “The paths aren’t always obvious, but we’re committed to finding them, exposing them and allowing information in multiple formats to interact with one another to make the process of research more productive.” In the late 1980s, Dr. Gates began the development of Black Literature, opening what he called the “hermetically sealed library of African American periodical literature after a century of neglect.” The collection captures novels, short stories, poems and reviews -- scattered throughout 110 black periodicals and newspapers -- and has been widely acclaimed for its ability to uncover early or little known works by some of history’s most influential authors. “Several previously unknown Zora Neale Hurston stories have been discovered through the Black Literature 1827-1940 resource, including The Book of Harlem, The Country in the Woman, The Back Room, and Monkey Junk,” said Dr. Gates. These Hurston stories were found by Texas Women’s University professor Dr. Genevieve West while conducting research for her book Zora Neale Hurston and American Literary Culture (2005). “These important ‘lost’ stories that I recovered in Black Literature 1827-1940 complicate and enrich our understanding of Hurston as a short story writer during the 1920s and 1930s,” said Dr. West. Despite the importance of the works, students’ and scholars’ only online access to this vast body of American literature has been a digital index, with full-text residing on microfiche. However, ProQuest used the digital index as ignition, enabling deep links that could seamlessly connect scholars to full-text, digital versions of articles archived in Black Studies Center and ProQuest Historical Black Newspapers. In fact, 27,000 works contained in Black Literature are now available for exploration through these online resources. Among the luminaries recorded by Dr. Gates in his Black Literature, 1827-1940 and now discoverable in ProQuest are works by Countee Cullen, Claude McKay, Waring Cuney, Edythe Mae Gordon, and hundreds of others. Well-known writers, such as Hurston and poet Gwendolyn Brooks, the first African American to win a Pulitzer Prize, authored works found only in these early publications and newspapers. For example, Brooks, under the tutelage of Chicago Defender columnist Langston Hughes, published 75 poems in the newspaper which are not found anywhere else. Scholars are now able to easily mine this resource and discover more gems of African American literature collected by Dr. Gates. To learn more visit http://www.proquest.com. About ProQuest (http://www.proquest.com) ProQuest connects people with vetted, reliable information. Key to serious research, the company has forged a 70-year reputation as a gateway to the world’s knowledge – from dissertations to governmental and cultural archives to news, in all its forms. Its role is essential to libraries and other organizations whose missions depend on the delivery of complete, trustworthy information. ProQuest’s massive information pool is accessible through the all-new ProQuest® platform, which moves beyond navigation to empower researchers to use, create, and share content—accelerating research productivity. ###