African American Halloween

As the nights get longer and the air chillier, our thoughts turn to ghostly spectres and brooding creatures of the night. If you've had your fill of Twilight, Anne Rice, and Freddie Kruger, maybe it's time to try some culturally diverse Halloween horror. I can't think of a better place to start than with Tananarive Due 's "African Immortals" series. Imagine a powerful tribe of, well...not vampires but superhuman beings who have experienced all of African American history firsthand. Dawit has survived as a black man for over 450 years, but he has one fatal flaw; he keeps falling in love. Will he be able to protect his mortal wife and child once they learn his secret? This atmospheric, romantic, and beautifully written thriller will keep you on the edge of your seat.

Meet author Cameron McWhirter this Sunday

"Red Summer"

Sunday, October 16, 4 pm, Community Meeting Room, Main Library
Cameron McWhirter reads from and discusses his new book on the unprecedented wave of anti-black riots and lynchings which swept the country in 1919, and how Blacks responded by fighting back with an intensity and determination never seen before.. Focusing on the worst riots and lynchings—including those in Chicago, McWhirter chronicles the mayhem, while also exploring the first stirrings of a civil rights movement that would transform American society forty years later.

Meet Tayari Jones

Tayari Jones is a brilliant young sistah whose novels are tearing up the bestseller lists. Born in Atlanta, where most of her fiction is set, her debut, Leaving Atlanta recalls her experiences as a 10 year old during the mysterious and terrifying child murders of 1979-81. She followed that up with The Untelling, the compassionate story of a young woman dealing with infertility and family trauma. Her newest novel, The Silver Sparrow, depicts the growing relationship, and resentments between 2 teenage girls who discover they share a father. Never melodramatic, but with a gift for presenting sympathetic characters in unsympathetic situations. Jones is a writer to watch.

"Whatever Happened to Elvira?"

Join us at EPL for an evening with Northwestern English Professor Julia Stern, as she examines slavery and citizenship in Robert Alrich's film "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?"

Tuesday, October 4, 7 pm, Community Meeting Room, Evanston Public Library

See Defamation, a play about race on the North Shore

 This Sunday  you can be the jury in this explosive play about a racially tinged court case. Written by Evanston native Todd Logan, Defamation presents a South Side African-American woman who sues a North Shore Jewish real estate developer. Logan is a playwright, filmmaker, and humorist who, in his words, "finally found a dramatic way into the subject (of modern segregation) through a story about a professional African-American woman, a successful Jewish businessman and a watch."

Sunday October 2nd, 3:30 pm, Evanston Public Library

Are We "Post-Black" Yet?

Here's another good possibility for a discussion, Who's Afraid of Post-Blackness? by Toure.

 "...Much has been written on the benefits that accrued to the generation of African-Americans reaping the rewards of the civil rights revolution. But we have heard surprisingly little from those in the post-civil-rights age about what these benefits have meant to them, and especially how they view themselves as black people in an America now led by a black president. In his new book, Touré’s aim is to provide an account of this “post-black” condition, one that emerged only in the 1980s but by the ’90s had become the “new black.”

See the New York Times Review, and let me know what you think!

October Discussion: Who Does She Think She Is?

As summer was winding down, we appropriately read and discussed the baseball-themed, A Well-Paid Slave, Brad Snyder's account of Curt Flood's struggles to establish free agency in the MLB. For October, we'll be kicking it with Benilde Little's rollicking look at African American family life: Who Does She Think She Is? What happens when smart successful "buppie" Aisha, daughter of a struggling single mother and social worker from Newark, gets engaged to upper crust Will, who is not only old, old money but (gasp) WHITE? Parents, step-parents, grandparents and friends all have their say in this sharply observed story, which touches on Black class anxieties as well as the taboo of inter-racial marriage. Don't miss it!!

Tuesday October 11th, 7:00 pm
Evanston Public Library, Church and Orrington, Evanston
Call 847-448-8620 to register and reserve the book