African American Literature Discussion Group: An African American Themed Valentine's Day

Friday, February 10, 2012

An African American Themed Valentine's Day

Hello again, AAL fans! Remember next Tuesday, Valentine's Day, is our discussion of Condoleeza Rice's memoir Extraordinary Ordinary People. (Remember, you can also download the ebook version if you don't feel like dragging around the book.)
I know not everyone on this list is a big fan of Condi, but it should be interesting to compare her account of growing up in Jim Crow Birmingham to the recollections in Wilkerson's The Warmth of Other Suns. Very interesting!

Valentine's Day is coming up, and the Evanston Public Library is proud to welcome Northwestern's Dr. Harvey Young Jr, an award-winning author and an internationally recognized authority on African American culture and performing arts. Dr Young will be giving a public lecture: "A Racist Love Note: Stereotypes and Caricatures on Early 20th Century Valentine’s Day Cards". here at EPL on Thursday February 16th, 7 pm. He'll discuss the imagery of African Americans in early greeting cards and what this says about the larger society's fears and prejudices. A great way to celebrate Valentine's Day in the context of African American history.

So, hope to see everyone twice next week: Tuesday night for Condoleeza and Thursday to hear Dr Young!

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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!

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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

Friday, February 10, 2012

An African American Themed Valentine's Day

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