While the crowds gather in Washington, I will admit this: it is enough that it happened, more than enough that we see him standing there shattering all our good excuses: no, not bliss, not some balm over the wounds that still hurt, but it is enough to say that we saw it happen, the thing [...]
Archive for the ‘literature’ Category
1 Jan
“You Know I Don’t Mean You”
This week I spent some quality time with Dear Darkness: Poems by the incredible poet, Kevin Young. He draws on his Louisiana roots in this new collection, mourning the loss of family and faith with the characteristic voice of a bluesman. Poems such as “Another Autumn Elegy” are particularly moving, while other verses use images [...]
23 Dec
TBoH Makes a Guest Appearance!
Check out my post on “Liberating Literature: Encountering Slavery in Black Fiction” over at Carleen Brice’s blog, White Readers Meet Black Authors! Brice, the author of Orange Mint and Honey, recently published a thought-provoking essay in the Washington Post explaining her mission to introduce all readers to the books in the African-American section of the [...]
13 Nov
TBoH Recommends: A Mercy
The Bottom Line: In A Mercy, Toni Morrison takes a fresh look at familiar themes: mothers and daughters, self-destructive desire, and as always, the burdens of freedom. I was surprised by how often, during my reading of Toni Morrison’s A Mercy,my thoughts turned to another novel – The Known World,(2004) by Edward P. Jones. Both [...]
6 Nov
The Genius of America
I can’t stop staring at this photo gallery of the US Presidents. There is something about seeing Obama’s face juxtaposed with these other figures, all white, all men. Some of these faces are so iconic – Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln – we meet them every day on our currency, our government seals and documents, our [...]
24 Oct
Lost & Found: Barack O’ Lantern Edition
A few links, videos, and other online ephemera from our favorite sites this past week, including Obama pumpkins!
21 Oct
Obama & Ellison’s Invisible Man
I am genuinely puzzled by David Samuels’ recent in-depth article in The New Republic that compares Barack Obama to Ralph Ellison’s 1952 classic, Invisible Man. Like many who are familiar with Ellison’s work, I also sensed a cultural and literary kinship between the book’s unnamed black protagonist and the bi-racial U.S. Senator from Illinois. (See [...]
19 Sep
Obama’s Bookshelf
Wow, I just have to share this report on The Root by Keith Josef Adkins about “Obama and His Literary Tastes.” It’s truly a breath of fresh air amidst all the non-stop election madness.
30 Aug
Finding The Bottom; or, What We’re All About
In the prologue of Toni Morrison’s 1973 novel, Sula, the narrator describes how a small black neighborhood in the hills of Medallion, Ohio came to be known as the Bottom. It began cruelly, we are told, as a “nigger joke” set during slavery. When the slave in the story asks his master for the bottom [...]
