Black Issues Book Review articles from January 2004

Black Issues Book Review archives from January 2004

5th anniversary reflections.(from the editor-in-chief)
January 1, 2004... BIBR readers, it has been a delightful challenge to be your link to the world of black books for five years. Taken together, BIBR's issues during our first five years present a capsule view of African American authors, reading tastes and...

Going forward.(executive editor's view)
January 1, 2004... With this issue, Black Issues Book Review proudly celebrates five years of publishing. As you read through this edition, you will also notice other anniversaries. We revisit Kindred, Octavia Butler's breakthrough speculative fiction work,...

Thanks for getting us together.(letters to the editor)(Letter to the Editor)
January 1, 2004... Just a brief note to let you know how fabulous the dialogue article turned out. ["This Property Is Not Condemned," September/October 2003] I think it's intellectual, sophisticated and engaging. Consulting editor Susan McHenry worked hard to...

More author fan mail.(letters to the editor)(Letter to the Editor)
January 1, 2004... I received my first copy of Black Issues Book Review a few days ago. It's visually arresting. Loved the interview with Bebe Moore Campbell and Valerie Martin. I was also interested in your article on Madam C. J. Walker because my great-aunt had...

Thanks for the boost.(letters to the editor)(Letter to the Editor)
January 1, 2004... DAPHNE MUSE'S ARTICLE "BOOK'EM!" REALLY gave my courtroom a boost (see BIBR, September-October 2003). I will be speaking to kids who are incarcerated in our county camp facility. They have asked for a copy of the article. I had no idea the kids...

Schomburg gets Ashe papers.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... The widow of athlete, activist and author Arthur Ashe, Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe, has donated his letters, speeches and other writings to the Schomburg Center for Research In Black Culture. Ashe, who died 10 years ago from AIDS contracted in a...

Hip-hop lit.(literature)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... Carl Weber, author of the best-selling novel Baby Momma Drama (Kensington. Janaury 2003), rolled out a new publishing enterprise for "hip-hop fiction" aimed at young, urban audiences. He is publisher and editorial director for the imprint,...

Return to romance.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... Kensington announced in October that it would once again publish books in the African-American romance genre. Its new line of romancew will be published under the Dafina imprint. The move comes a decade after it started the original Arabesque...

The Sistah Circle Book Club[R]: an African American women's book club.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... For the fifth year, the Sistah Circle Book Club, Inc. will recognize self-published authors and their independent presses with an annual award. Eligible books must be published between December 2002 and November 2003. The deadline for...

Gerald Boyd.(Deals)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... Gerald Boyd, the former managing editor of The New York Times, who stepped aside last summer after the newspaper disclosed serious journalistic lapses, has signed with the Amistad imprint of HarperCollins for a reported $300,000 to write a book...

FYOS Entertainment, LLC, recently struck a royalty-inclusive deal with Writer's Digest Book Club.(Deals)(for Literary Law Guide for Authors: Copyright, Trademark, and Contracts in Plain Language)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... FYOS Entertainment, LLC, recently struck a royalty-inclusive deal with Writer's Digest Book Club to offer Literary Law Guide for Authors: Copyright, Trademark, and Contracts in Plain Language, by attorneys Tonya M. Evans and Susan Borden Evans,...

The Harlem cookbook: Recipes and Reflections from the Abyssinian Baptist Church.(Deals)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... The Harlem Cookbook: Recipes and Reflections From the Abyssinian Baptist Church, where the Reverend Calvin O. Butts III serves, and My Testimony: Stories of Faith and Good Fortune From Members of The Abyssinian Baptist Church, was sold to...

Kimberla Lawson Roby.(Deals)(sells book to Morrow)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... A sequel to Kimberla Lawson Roby's novel about a philandering minister was sold by her agent, Elaine Koster, to Carolyn Marino at Morrow, according to Publishers Weekly.

Huey: Spirit of the Panther, by David Hilliard with Kent and Keith Zimmerman.(Deals)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... Huey: Spirit of the Panther, by David Hilliard with Kent and Keith Zimmerman's, a portrait of Black Panther Party founder Huey Newton, to Ryan Harbage at Plume, by Jim Fitzgerald at the James Fitzgerald Agency.

Martha Southgate.(Deals)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... Dreamland, a new novel by Martha Southgate, about the lives of three generations of African American women, to Jane Rosenman at Houghton Mifflin, by Geri Thoma at the Elaine Markson Agency.

Cornel West.(Deals)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... Cornel West's follow up to Race Matters, to be called Democracy Matters, was bought by Anne Godoff at Penguin Press.

Jacqueline Thomas.(Deals)(book sold to Steeple Hill)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... Legacy of Forgiveness, by Jacquelin Thomas, about a young widow, has been sold to Krista Stroever at Steeple Hill, by Deidre Knight at The Knight Agency.

Tia Williams.(Deals)(auctions book to Putnam)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... A first novel ForLove or Beauty by Tia Williams, Teen People magazine's beauty director, to Jennifer Hershey at Putnam, at auction, in a significant deal [$251,000-$500,000], for two books, by Mary Ann Naples at The Creative Culture.

Awards.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... The Hurston/Wright Legacy Awards for 2003 were announced on October 11, 2003. Debut Fiction: Tayari Jones (Leaving Atlanta), winner; Zelda Lockhart (Fifth Born), finalist; Nicole Bailey Williams (A Little Piece of Sky), finalist. ...

Signings & sightings.(Calendar)
January 1, 2004... NATIONWlDE The Fifteenth National African American Read-In Sunday, February 1, and Monday, February 2, 2004, sponsored by the Black Caucus of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) and by the NCTE. For more information, call...

Classics revisited.(as the word turns ...)(Cry, the Beloved Country)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 1, 2004... Oprah's Book Club Pick: Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton "Mr. Jarvis, I can handle my sister becoming a Johannesburg prostitute, my brother turning into a cynical politician, my son killing yours and being executed for it. But what I...

Black America's popular historian: Lerone Bennett Jr. almost retired after 50 years at Ebony. Now his next five books, like his first 10 works, will have to be written after hours, too.(spotlight)
January 1, 2004... Lerone Bennett Jr.'s plan was to retire from 50 years of magazine journalism so he could finish writing five books before he reaches age 80. The executive editor of Ebony magazine and author of Before the Mayflower: A History of Black America...

Reassembling Africa: a leading anthropologist proposes an essential library for understanding the Black Diaspora in the Americas.
January 1, 2004... It is estimated that 12 million to 15 million people taken from Africa were shipped to the Americas over an almost 400-year period beginning in the 16th century. We are most familiar with those who came to the North American colonies, but more...

Shhh! And cover your computer screen: librarians take on unwanted roles as Internet censors after Supreme Court ruling.
January 1, 2004... You believe the stereotype perhaps: Librarians are somber souls who stand up from behind their desks only long enough to hush chatty patrons or to dole out whispered words of advice. The reality, of course, is that today's librarians are often...

Bounty by the sea: the distinctive cuisine and culture of the Dafauskie's Gullah people.(Gullah Home Cooking the Daufuskie Way: Smokin' Joe Butter Beans, Ol' 'Fuskie Fried Crab Rice, Sticky-Bush Blackberry Dumpling, and Other Sea Island Favorites)(Book Review)
January 1, 2004... Gullah Home Cooking the Daufuskie Way: Smokin' Joe Butter Beans, Ol' 'Fuskie Fried Crab Rice, Sticky-Bush Blackberry Dumpling, and Other Sea Island Favorites by Sallie Ann Robinson, with Gregory Wrenn Smith, Foreword by Pat Conroy...

It's all in the cards! Learn how the greeting card industry can employ your writing talents.(bookbytes)
January 1, 2004... The start of a new year means upcoming holidays, such as Easter, Mother's Day and the Fourth of July, not to mention anniversaries, birthdays and weddings, All of these are huge occasions in the greeting card industry. And there's no reason why...

Make your life extraordinary!(Advertorial)
January 1, 2004... It's time to assert your right to an extraordinary life! Thrive! 7 Strategies for Extraordinary Living will equip and empower you with seven strategies that will help you push beyond surviving and step into a life of thriving! Join The...

Guess who's coming to a theater near you? Only a few movies adapted from books by black authors make their way to the silver screen. A handful of intriguing projects now in development are poised to beat new and diversified paths through Hollywood.
January 1, 2004... It's always been something of a mystery how books are chosen in the first place for Hollywood's magical conversion from page to screen, and then ultimately make their way through the development process, as it is known in Hollywood. But...

Blair Underwood goes for the greenlight: a six-year journey to develop and star in a film based on Tananarive Due's My Soul to Keep catches fire in a partnership with an enthusiastic studio. Here's the story so far in bringing one popular black novel to the screen.(Cover Story)
January 1, 2004... "Ever since I was a kid, I used to cut out pictures from catalogs to represent characters in my stories," explains novelist Tananarive Due about how she visualizes the people who inhabit her fictional worlds. "I have to feel that I'm surrounded...

Behind Black Music: Two Intriguing Critical Overviews.(Boogaloo: The Quintessence of American Popular Music)(Race Music: Black Cultures from Bebop to Hip-Hop)(Book Review)
January 1, 2004... Boogaloo: The Quintessence of American Popular Music by Arthur Kempton Pantheon, June 2003 $27.50, ISBN 0-375-40612-3 Race Music: Black Cultures From Bebop to Hip-Hop by Guthrie P. Ramsey Jr. University of California Press, June 2003...

Return of Kindred spirits: an anniversary for Octavia E. Butler is a time for reflection and rejoicing for fans of speculative fiction.
January 1, 2004... When Black Issues Book Review published its first edition for January/February 1999, it was with Octavia E. Butler's face staring out at us with the coverline "Bestselling Futuristic Storyteller." We said then that she was, as she remains, a...

Hirschfeld uptown.(Hirschfeld's Harlem)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 1, 2004... When the renowned illustrator and portraitist Al Hirschfeld died in January 2003, he left, as part of his legacy, more than seven decades worth of spirited artwork to be admired and appreciated. Though he was mostly known for his caricatures of...

Decoding Betye Saar.(Betye Saar, David C. Driskell Series of African American Art)(Book Review)
January 1, 2004... For more than 50 years, Betye Saar has sought to achieve mastery in her artwork and the maturity to address the African American condition. Her assemblages, collages and installations yield a body of work delicious in color, design and meaning....

The all-seeing lens.(The End of Polio: A Global Effort to End a Disease)(Book Review)
January 1, 2004... Whether disaster strikes in Ethiopia, Croatia, Indonesia, Somalia, Vietnam, or on the shores of what many people consider solid ground, images of the survivors and victims of tragic events can bring the heart to a mesmerizing halt, triggering...

Our kind of style.(Style and Grace: African Americans at Home)(Book Review)
January 1, 2004... MICHAEL HENRY ADAMS lives in an old kitchen, but you'd never know it. The architectural historian has transformed the space with antique mirrors, a Chinese carpet, artfully stacked books, a low-hanging chandelier, imported textiles, Bayard...

Thinking Harlem.(Spirit of Harlem: Portrait of America's Most Exciting Neighborhood)(Book Review)
January 1, 2004... Harlem--from its rural beginnings to its illustrious, modern-day status--has always held a mysterious allure for the prideful shopkeepers, the humble residents and the gawking passers-by. A somewhat magical energy flows through the streets of...

To each, his or her own genre: five hot African American writers who are creating novels for every kind of popular taste.
January 1, 2004... In the early '90s, to some people at least, African American fiction referred only to novels about sisters looking for brothers. Fortunately, the boom in black fiction has propelled authors, publishers and readers beyond the popular...

Haiti's bicentennial.
January 1, 2004... Haiti celebrates its bicentennial in 2004, dated from the hard-won independence secured by self-emancipated ancestors under the leadership of Toussaint L'Ouverture. Their effort resulted in the only successful mass revolt of enslaved Africans...

Great men, great minds, great food.(Pierre Toussaint: A Biography; C.L.R. James: Letters From London; A Taste of Haiti)(Book Review)
January 1, 2004... Pierre Toussaint: A Biography by Arthur Jones Doubleday, September 2003 $24.95, ISBN 0-385-49994-9 For many Americans, the Catholic Church has had little or no connection with the black experience. Arthur Jones's biography of Pierre...

Destinations to fuel love's fires: authors of the romance genre offer their favorite spots.(sojourn)
January 1, 2004... Planning a romantic getaway? Want an ideal place for a romantic interlude? The writers who create the steamy scenes readers enjoy often place their characters in exotic locales throughout the world. Black Issues Book Review asked a dozen...

Sweet hour of prayer: four new books highlight African-descended spiritual traditions of prayer, ritual, study--and laughter.(Book Review)
January 1, 2004... Standing in the Need of Prayer: A Celebration of Black Prayer by The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture/The New York Public Library Free Press, November 2003 $27.50, ISBN 0-743-23466-9 This superb collection of profound...

Hottentot Venus.(Book Review)
January 1, 2004... Hottentot Venus by Barbara Chase-Riboud Doubleday, November 2003 $24.00, ISBN 0-385-50856-5 These are the facts as we know them: In 1810, a woman from Southern African's Khoisan tribe was brought to England by two white men and put on...

Some Things I Never Thought I'd Do.(Book Review)
January 1, 2004... Some Things I Never Thought I'd Do by Pearl Cleage One World/Ballantine Books September 2003 $23.95, ISBN 0-345-45606-8 Regina Burns, an ambitious woman sidelined by drug addiction and rehab, is desperately trying to get her life back...

Baggage Claim.(Book Review)
January 1, 2004... Baggage Claim by David E. Talbert Simon & Schuster, October 2003 $22.00, ISBN 0-743-24718-3 In a society in which weddings are a billion-dollar industry, little girls often grow up to become women who dream about getting married. And...

Night Journey.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 1, 2004... Night Journey by Murad Kalam Simon and Schuster, October 2003 $23.00, ISBN 0-743-24418-4 Murad Kalam's gripping and compassionate first novel, Night Journey, resembles Boyz in the Hood, in its depiction of hell amidst what should be a...

The Honey Well.(Book Review)
January 1, 2004... The Honey Well by Gloria Mallette Dafina Books, November 2003 $24.00, ISBN 0-758-20468-X In her new novel, The Honey Well, Gloria Mallette weaves a complex tale full of unexpected plot twists and turns. The two main characters are...

A Family Affair.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 1, 2004... A Family Affair by Marcus Major Dutton, January 2004 $24.95, ISBN 0-525-94768-X In his third relationship novel, Marcus Major returns to his signature portrayal of the modern black family in this fast-paced, humorous, insightful read. The...

One Day I Saw a Black King.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 1, 2004... One Day I Saw a Black King by J.D. Mason St. Martin's Press, September 2003 $23.95, ISBN 0-312-30154-5 The new novel by author J.D. Mason is an unhurried, moving story about a man named John King, who is saddled with so much baggage that...

Posthumous jewels: Gwendolyn Brooks left us many rich words.(In Montgomery and Other Poems)(Book Review)
January 1, 2004... In Montgomery and Other Poems by Gwendolyn Brooks Third World Press, October 2003 $22.95, ISBN 0-883-78232-4 When a beloved artist dies I always fantasize that there is something wonderful yet to come: a manuscript that was in progress,...

America's glass house: essays on Cold War global politics and the Civil Rights Movement.(Window on Freedom: Race, Civil Rights, and Foreign Affairs, 1945-1988)(Book Review)
January 1, 2004... Window on Freedom: Race, Civil Rights, and Foreign Affairs, 1945-1988 Edited by Brenda Gayle Plummer, The University of North Carolina Press, February 2003 $18.95, ISBN 0-807-85428-X It is difficult to understand why black protest, as...

BIBR recommends.(Bibliography)
January 1, 2004... FICTION Dark Matter: Reading the Bones, by Sheree R. Thomas, Warner Books A Distant Shore, by Caryl Phillips, Knopf Some Things I Thought I Would Never Do, by Pearl Cleage, Ballantine/OneWorld Hottentot Venus by Barbara Chase...

The Colossus of New York: a City in Thirteen Parts.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 1, 2004... The Colossus of New York: A City in Thirteen Parts by Colson Whitehead Doubleday, October 2003 $19.95, ISBN 0-385-50794-1 Considering the title of the book, there is an expectation of something grand and towering. But what you get with The...

America Behind the Color Line: Dialogue with African Americans.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 1, 2004... America Behind the Color Line: Dialogue with African Americans by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Warner Books, January 2004 $25.95, ISBN 0-446-53273-8 Having made an exceptional mark in several literary genres--anthology autobiography, biography,...

Uncloseting a leader: a biography and an anthology of Bayard Rustin's writings round out our view of his humanity.(Lost Prophet: The Life and Times of Bayard Rustin & Time on Two Crosses; The Collected Writings of Bayard Rustin)(Book Review)
January 1, 2004... Lost Prophet: The Life and Times of Bayard Rustin by John D' Emilio The Free Press, August 2003 $35.00, ISBN 0-684-82780-8 Time on Two Crosses; The Collected Writings of Bayard Rustin Edited by Devon W. Carbado and Donald Weise...

Black Greek 101: the Culture, Customs, and Challenges of Black Fraternities and Sororities.(Book Review)
January 1, 2004... Black Greek 101: The Culture, Customs, And Challenges Of Black Fraternities And Sororities by. Walter M. Kimbrough Fairleigh Dickinson University Press August 2003, $49.50, ISBN 0-838-63977-1 In Black Greek 101, Dr. Walter Kimbrough...

Beyond the "Moses" myths: two new biographies examine who Harriet Tubman really was.(Harriet Tubman: The Life and the Life Stories & Harriet Tubman: The Road to Freedom)(Book Review)
January 1, 2004... Harriet Tubman: The Life and the Life Stories by Jean M. Humez University of Wisconsin Press November 2003 $45.00, ISBN 0-299-19120-6 Harriet Tubman: The Road to Freedom by Catherine Clinton Little, Brown and Company, February 2004...

Passing: When People Can't Be Who They Are.(Book Review)
January 1, 2004... Passing: When People Can't Be Who They Are by Brooke Kroeger PublicAffairs Books, September 2003 $25.00, ISBN 1-891-62099-1 Say the word "passing" and it's like pushing a "play" button in the mind that flashes that heart-wrenching scene in...

Ready for Revolution: the Life and Struggles of Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture).(Book Review)
January 1, 2004... Ready for Revolution: The Life and Struggles of Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture) by Stokely Carmichael with Ekwueme Michael Thelwell Scribner, November 2003 $35.00, ISBN 0-684-85003-6 In the autobiography of Kwame Ture, ne Stokely...

Souls of My Brothers: Black Men Break Their Silence, Tell Their Truths, and Heal Our Spirits.(Book Review)
January 1, 2004... Souls of My Brothers: Black Men Break Their Silence, Tell Their Truths, and Heal Our Spirits Edited and written by Dawn Marie Daniels and Candace Sandy Plume, August 2003 $16.00, ISBN 0-452-28460-0 "Black Men Break Their Silence, Tell Their...

Who's Gonna Take the Weight? Manhood, Race and Power in America.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 1, 2004... Who's Gonna Take the Weight? Manhood, Race and Power In America by Kevin Powell Three Rivers Press, August 2003 $12.95, ISBN 0-609-81044-8 Kevin Powell, former cast member of MTV's first season of The Real World, compiled three previously...

Precocious kid authors: three youthful writers make their own successful way into print.(self-publishing)
January 1, 2004... Imagine writing a novel, having 700 attendees at your release party, and selling 500 books at the signing. A dream for any writer, but this is a reality tot 17-year-old J.L Woodson, when his novel The Things I Could Tell You! (Macro Publishing...

Readers & writers, ink: contributors to an anthology create an alliance.(books & clubs)
January 1, 2004... In 1993, the African-American Heritage Society of Pensacola, Florida, published the first volume of When Black Folks Was Colored, a collection of memoirs, poems and essays by area women writers. Contributors to the anthology were inundated with...

Nubian Heritage: a flagship in Harlem.(market buzz)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... The December 2003 holiday grand opening of a 22,000 square-foot flagship store makes the 100 percent black-owned Nubian Heritage retailer, with two other locations in Brooklyn and Queens, the largest distributors and sellers of books for...

Black history for the young: books recommended for every age that teach about our heritage.(Bibliography)
January 1, 2004... The Collected Works of Langston Hughes, Volume 11: Works for Children and Young Adults: Poetry, Fiction and Other Writing Edited with an Introduction by Dianne Johnson University of Missouri Press, September 2003 $44.95, ISBN 0-826-21498-3...

Just Us Books 15th anniversary.(children's bookshelf)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... When Wade and Cheryl Hudson (at right) were unable to find books for their children that reflected the diversity of black experience, covering history, heritage and culture, they set out to fill the gap. Their first title was Afro-Bets ABC...

The African American book fair.(children's bookshelf)
January 1, 2004... Saturday, February 7, 2004, from 1:00 to 3:00 P.M. Community College of Philadelphia, The Gymnasium, 17th and Spring Garden Street, Philadelphia, PA Concerned that bookstores simply do not dedicate enough shelf space and promotional energy...

Recent biographies and notable historical fiction.(children's bookshelf)
January 1, 2004... Benjamin Banneker: Pioneering Scientist by Ginger Wadsworth, illustration by Craig Orback, Carolrhoda Books, Inc. February 2003, $5.95, ISBN 0-876-14104-1 Fires of Jubilee by Alison Hart Aladdin Library/Simon & Schuster November 2003...

Tom Feelings, visionary: a master of the craft of image opened doors in publishing.(tribute)
January 1, 2004... Tom Feelings, a celebrated illustrator of children's books, died August 25, 2003, at age 70, in Mexico where he was under-going treatment for cancer according to the Associated Press. Since 1989, he had been an art professor at the University...

Flying off the shelves.
January 1, 2004... Hardcover Fiction 1. Naughty or Nice/ Eric Jerome Dickey ($17.95, Dutton, ISBN 0-525-94776-0) A Christmas/Kwanzaa narrative about the three resilient McBroom sisters and their challenging love lives. Dickey's ninth novel. 2....