Perhaps life is not the black, unutterably beautiful, mysterious, and lonely thing the creative artist tends to think of it as being; but it is certainly not the sunlit playpen in which so many Americans lose first their identities and then their minds. I feel very strongly, though, that this amorphous people are in desperate [...]
Archive for the ‘literature’ Category
17 May
Reading, Writing, and Explaining
Some thoughts on poet Rita Dove’s response to the question: Are we striving toward a post-racial literature and art?
11 Aug
We ♥ Carleen Brice
* I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Carleen Brice is a 21st century Georgia Douglas Johnson. And I’m delighted to help support her efforts to promote black authors.
22 Jul
From King Arthur’s Court to Delany’s Nevèrÿon
I’d like to offer the Return to Nevèrÿon series by Samuel R. Delany for this week’s CORA Diversity Roll Call about people of color in science fiction and fantasy. But first, a geek confession.
30 May
Creative Freedoms and the Not Now Book
I’ve been banning books from my daughter’s library since before she was born. I always encourage family and friends to fill our bookshelves with preschool favorites, and yet I can make certain books disappear in a moment, sometimes to Goodwill, sometimes to the dumpster. Baby Bibles with pink cherub-cheeked Eves and button-nose Noahs. Fairy tales [...]
25 Apr
A Ntama of Children’s Stories
I’m fairly certain that I’m a week late with my entry for C.O.R.A. Diversity Roll Call, in which participants are asked to discuss authors from a country or region from around the world. My daughter and I are headed out to the county fair this morning, so in her honor I’d like to briefly mention [...]
6 Apr
C.O.R.A. Diversity Roll Call
I’m delighted to participate in the C.O.R.A. Diversity Roll Call, a blog meme from Worducopia and Color Online that explores and celebrates diversity in literature. This week’s prompt includes the following questions: Which is the character who’s the most different from you? (And how? Use this as an excuse to tell us your own background [...]
4 Mar
Desegregate Our Bookstores!
I went to Literature and did not see me. I went to Contemporary Fiction and did not find me, but when I fell back a couple of steps I found a section called African American Studies and there, arranged alphabetically and neatly, read undisturbed, were four of my books including my Persians of which the [...]
27 Feb
The Blues as Black History
All I know about music is that not many people ever really hear it. And even then, on the rare occasions when something opens within, and the music enters, what we mainly hear, or hear corroborated are personal, private, vanishing evocations. But the man who creates the music is hearing something else, is dealing with [...]
18 Feb
Happy Birthday, Toni Morrison!
Toni Morrison’s influence on our lives – as African Americans, as women, as lovers of literature – can be felt throughout this blog, from its odd title and the pseudonymous names Frieda and I have chosen for ourselves, to the way we see the word around us. Our eternal thanks and gratitude, Ms. Morrison. Happy [...]
