African American Literature Discussion Group: July 2012

Saturday, July 21, 2012

A Summer's Worth of Black Literature

The African American Literature discussion group will be taking a break this summer, with our next meeting scheduled for Tuesday September 11th. We'll be discussing Percival Everett's Erasure, a fascinating novel about a black intellectual confronting what that terms mean to his colleagues, his readers and his family. Easily one of the best books I've read this year!

In the meantime, there are plenty of fascinating African American titles you might want to check out for your summer reading. A good place to start is EPL's list of notable recent African American fiction and nonfiction. If you're interested in biographies and memoirs, we have a list for that as well. But if you're in true "beach read" mode, perhaps this list of African American mysteries might be more to your taste!

Wherever your literary travels take you, I wish you a healthy and happy summer, and I look forward to seeing everyone in September for Erasure!

Lesley

Monday, July 2, 2012

Religion, Race and Family in American Politics

Just a week left until our discussion of Keli Goff's The GQ Candidate! Ms Goff is a lively, articulate presence on CNN, MSNBC, and the Huffington Post. Much of her commentary focuses on the destructive role she sees religion playing in political discourse. Although The GQ Candidate deals primarily with race, and with how politics affects families and friends, religion is also a key issue. The central character, Luke Cooper, is African American but was adopted and raised by a Jewish couple and now considers himself an agnostic. Is it possible to be a successful African American politician without being a Christian?

In Keli's video above, she mostly talks about the pressures political campaigns put on the families and friends of candidates. But check out this interview on Washington Watch where she explores the religious issue more fully.

Join us next Tuesday July 10th at 7:00 pm for the discussion! We still have a couple of copies left at the 2nd floor desk, so stop by or call 847-448-8620.

Trivia question: who did Goff name the lead character and his wife in The GQ Candidate after? Email lawilliams@cityofevanston.org with the correct answer for a chance at a free pair of Ravinia tickets! Hint: politics is such a soap opera, isn't it?

Welcome to the African American Literature Discussion Group blog!

Whether you are new to our group or a long-standing participant, feel free to check here for dates and locations of our book discussions, book reviews, commentary on African American literature, library issues, author events, or merely to share a post about an issue of interest. The AAL book group meets the third Tuesday of each month in the Evanston Public Library first floor Small Meeting Room and is open to the public. A list of upcoming titles is available on the Evanston Public Library website and you may register and pick up copies of each month’s titles at the library’s second floor Reader’s Services desk.

Here's a complete list of books we've discussed!

Check us out on GoodReads too!

Till our next post, happy reading!

Sincerely,

Lesley Williams
Book Discussion Facilitator

Evanston Public Library
1703 Orrington Avenue
Evanston, IL 60201
(847) 448-8620

What to Read Next...The Hanging Bridge

From guest reviewer Vaughan Jones: We all have had lessons in history in college, but being young, and never being in the Jim Crow environment, there was no real connection to the level of hate and white supremacy in the community. The book connected how the lynching and violence was used as a continuing campaign of subjugation to have a cheap and spiritually defeated labor force be brutalized for the slightest of infractions. It was like reading Theodore White's " Making of a President". It put the reader right there n Shubuta, Clark County MS. You felt like you were witnessing the barbarism and hate, at the scene. I can understand how the African Americans in Clarke County endured the environment and like the Jews of Europe, not all of them felt they had alternatives. They just had to endure. Just unbelievable. The book is completely readable for all levels and not making it as A. Bartlett Giamatti once called academic writing, "High Institutional". The focus was on the 2 separate lynchings of 6 young black residents (4 in 1918 and 2 in 1942), and how Clark County's continued to resist to any form of change. But your highlighting the work of Walter White and the early NAACP took so much courage, very few people understand the risks those people took in getting the story on the lynchings across the South. You also highlighted the real genocidal acts taking place outside of Mississippi in other areas, an example was the outright murder of the Black farmers in Arkansas. In a lot of ways, the US is not unlike other countries like Germany who want only to either brush over the barbarism and crimes. In the writing of "The Hanging Bridge, Prof. Ward transitioned and highlighted the work of the African Americans, who were able to get Early Childhood Care, through Head Start and the efforts of the county political leadership to manipulate and hinder any efforts to have any political or economic independence. This book would be a great addition to the curriculum of Evanston Township High School and surrounding high schools for the students to have the insight on why the language of demagogues is so dangerous. It is not unlike a virus that infects a population with the results being mob actions and murders.

African American Literature Discussion Group

Saturday, July 21, 2012

A Summer's Worth of Black Literature

Monday, July 2, 2012

Religion, Race and Family in American Politics

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