See Gordon Parks and Ralph Ellison; Meet Mrs Paul Robeson

Did you know that legendary photographer Gordon Parks and legendary author Ralph Ellison were friends, and collaborated in the late 40s, early 50s? I sure didn't, but thanks to the Art Institute of Chicago, I do now. If you haven't already, check out "Invisible Man: Gordon Parks and Ralph Ellison in Harlem", running through August 28th, which exhibits Parks' photographic illustrations of scenes from Ellison's novel, which originally appeared in Life magazine. As the exhibit states:

This exhibition reunites for the first time the surviving photographs and texts intended for the two projects, including never-before-seen photographs by Parks from the collections of the Art Institute and the Gordon Parks Foundation and unpublished manuscripts by Ellison. Revealed in these frank depictions of Harlem is Ellison and Parks’s symbiotic insistence on making race a larger, universal issue, finding an alternative, productive means of representing African American life, and importantly, staking a claim for the black individual within—rather than separate from—the breadth of American culture.

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At the moment I'm reading...

Eslanda: The Large and Unconventional Life of Mrs. Paul Robeson

Tags:  /  Biographies & Memoirs

Check the Library Catalog

Eslanda "Essie" Cardozo Goode Robeson lived a colorful and amazing life. Her career and commitments took her many places: colonial Africa in 1936, the front lines of the Spanish Civil War, the founding meeting of the United Nations, Nazi-occupied Berlin, Stalin's Russia, and China two months after Mao's revolution. She was a woman of unusual accomplishment—an anthropologist, a prolific journalist, a tireless advocate of women's rights, an outspoken anti-colonial and antiracist activist, and an internationally sought-after speaker. Yet historians for the most part have confined Essie to the role of Mrs. Paul Robeson, a wife hidden in the large shadow cast by her famous husband. In this masterful book, biographer Barbara Ransby refocuses attention on Essie, one of the most important and fascinating black women of the twentieth century. 

Let me know what you think! Possible book discussion for the fall?

See you all on June 21st for The Sellout! Several copies still available at the 2nd floor desk; call 847-448-8620 to get one.

Jam on the Vine

This month we're reading Jam on the Vine, LaShonda Katrice Barnett's fascinating and gripping novel of life as a female African American journalist in the early 20th century. A perfect complement to the age of "intersectionality", Jam on the Vine features Muslim characters, gay and bi-sexual characters, and  feminist characters, unafraid to speak out and to be themselves. Like role model Ida B. Wells, Ivo and Ona, the heroines of  Jam on the Vine take on racism without apology. In her fictional newspaper, Ivoe boldly states:

  "Whitecappers, Ku Klux Klan, police, and lynchers beware! The black worm has turned. The United States has done much to stoke the embers of unrest. But a race that has furnished thousands of the best soldiers that the world has ever seen will no longer be content to turn the left cheek when smitten upon the right. Vigilante rule shall not prevail".

When we think of African Americans during this time period, we often  leap to stereotyped images of quivering terrified victims, or docile servants. It's good to be reminded that even during the worst of the Jim Crow years, "The Nadir" of African American life, there were courageous men, AND women who stood up to injustice and tyranny.

For a brilliant nonfiction take on the significance of African American Newspapers, read The Defender: How the Legendary Black Newspaper Changed America.

See you May 17th! We've still got copies of Jam on the Vine at the 2nd floor desk.

Evanston Literary Festival Starts This Week

Welcome to the 2nd annual Evanston Literary Festival! Co sponsored by the Chicago Book Expo, Northwestern University's Creative Writing program, Bookends and Beginnings bookstore  and Evanston Public Library, the festival is bringing over 50 author readings, book discussions, exhibitions and other literary events to Evanston between May 4th and May 14th. Quite a few will be of interest to readers of African American themed literature...

"Writing American Race History Today"
 Saturday, May 7, 3 to 4:30 pm Bookends and Beginnings Bookstore 1712 Sherman Ave., Alley #1, 

Northwestern religion Professor Sylvester Johnson NU law professor and legal historian Steven Lubet discuss writing about America's racial past in light of today's controversies. How does an understanding of the past help us understand race relations in America today? And how do race relations today influence how historians research and write history? Professor Johnson's main area of study is African-American religion--see his African American Religions, 1500-2000 (Cambridge, 2015). Professor Lubet has written several books on slavery, abolitionism, and emancipation in mid-19th century America, among them Fugitive Justice: Runaways, Rescuers, and Slavery on Trial (Harvard, 2010). Their conversation will shed light on the turbulent past and the no less turbulent present in race relations in America.



"Writing From Life With Parneshia Jones, Megan Stielstra, and Ross Ritchell"

Saturday, May 7, 5 pm Bookends & Beginnings, 1712 Sherman Ave., Alley #1
The lines between “fact” and “fiction” are often blurred in literature, and the places where the two intersect can be both goldmine and minefield for writers. How do individual writers use life experiences in their work? Are some subject off-limits for publication? This event features a poet (Jones), a novelist (Ritchell), and an essayist (Stielstra) discussing these questions and reading from their works.

#LoveStories: A First Look Reading

Sunday, May 8, 3-4:30 pm, Community Meeting Room, Evanston Public Library
Join us for a special sneak peek! Inspired by #BLACKLIVESMATTER  #LoveStories by Gloria Bond-Clunie, Marsha Estell and Tania Richard is a three part play exploring the breadth of love in a world of deadly conflict. This is a world premiere play commissioned by Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre.
Gloria Bond-Clunie is the founder of Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre and an internationally recognized playwright. Marsha Estell is an accomplished actor and playwright; FJT produced her hit play Heat and her critically acclaimed one-woman play Big Butt Girls and Other Fantasies/The Remix. Tania Richard’s brilliant one-woman play Truth Be Told was commissioned and produced by FJT; she too is an accomplished actor and playwright.
Read more: #LoveStories: A First Look Reading 
 

 

Amina Gautier Reads from The Loss Of All Lost Things

Monday, May 9, 7 pm, Community Meeting Room, Evanston Public Library
The fifteen stories in The Loss of All Lost Things explore the unpredictable ways in which characters negotiate, experience, and manage various forms of loss. They lose loved ones; they lose their security and self-worth; they lose children; they lose their ability to hide and shield their emotions; they lose their reputations, their careers, their hometowns, and their life savings. Often depicting the awkward moments when characters are torn between decision and outcome, The Loss of All Lost Things focuses on moments of regret and yearning.  


  Amina Gautier, PhD., is the author of three  short story collections: At-Risk, Now We Will Be Happy and the The Loss of All Lost Things. At-Risk was awarded the Flannery O’Connor Award, The First Horizon Award, and the Eric Hoffer Legacy Fiction Award. Now We Will Be Happy was awarded the Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Fiction, the Florida Authors and Publishers Association President's Book Award and a USA Best Book Award. The Loss of All Lost Things was awarded the Elixir Press Award in Fiction.


 An Evening of Storytelling and Sharing: Exploring Racism
Friday May 13th, 6 pm potluck, 7pm program Unitarian Church of Evanston, 1330 Ridge Ave 

Professional storytellers Susan O'Halloran and Mama Edie Armstrong will tell their stories beginning at 7pm after a potluck supper in the Unitarian Church Sanctuary.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Who Do You Serve, Who Do You Protect: Police Violence and Resistance in the United States

Saturday, May 14, 4 pm Community Meeting Room, Evanston Public Library

Contributors to the new Truthout essay collection, Who Do You Serve, Who Do You Protect?: Police Violence and Resistance in the United States—including Kelly Hayes, Sarah Macaraeg, Page May, Maya Schenwar, and Monica Trinidad—read from the book.