This Fall in African American Books, Movies and Stage...

Hot discussion this past Tuesday on Medical Apartheid! One thing is clear: many African Americans of various ages and backgrounds feel deeply mistrustful of the American health care system. Stay tuned for more EPL health literacy programs in the near future.

We'll be moving back into fiction for our next two discussions. On November 17th, we'll discuss Valerie Flournoy's The Turner House, a novel treating some of the same issues we wrangled with in Family Properties; African Americans who discover that their property has not accumulated the wealth they thought it had. Yet this is  also a rich story of African American family life in all its complexity, with brothers, sisters, cousins, aunts and uncles squabbling yet generally supportive of each others' needs and eccentricities. The Turner House is a National Book Award finalist.

We're skipping December (too much holiday shopping!) and will pick up again January 19th with I Say A Little Prayer, E. Lynn Harris's marvelous novel about a gay man confronting homophobia in the black church. I've been wanting to discuss a Harris book for ages, and this is one of his best.

Finally, February 16th we'll be teaming up with the KeepinitReal nonfiction group to read My Grandfather Would Have Shot Me, the memoir of a German-African woman who discovered that her grandfather was the notorious Nazi commandant featured in Schindler's List. How do you deal with the knowledge of such ultimate evil in your family tree, especially when that evil was directed at people who look like you?

 

In other news: be sure to catch the Chicago International Film Festival's Black Perspectives series, starting this weekend! Saturday night 10/25, pioneering black director Charles Burnett will be on hand  to present his classic To Sleep With Anger, starring Danny Glover.

 

If you missed Gem of the Ocean at Court Theater, you have another chance to see an August Wilson play next month. Joe Turner's Come and Gone is on stage at Depaul Theatre School November 6th-15th, with previews on the 4th and 5th. Tickets are only $5-$15!

 

Aaannnddd, Raven Theatre is doing a highly acclaimed musical, Direct From Death Row; The Scottsboro Boys, in which the 9 young black men accused of rape in the 1930s, "return from eternity to our stage, where they keep their story alive through songs, a magic act, skits and soft shoe - all to convey the tawdry show that their case became".

Keep reading!

Beyond the Tuskegee Experiment: Mistreatment of Blacks in the American Medical System

Most of us have heard about the notorious Tuskegee experiment, in which African American men were duped into letting doctors study the progression of their untreated syphilis . However, medical researcher Harriet Washington carefully documents how the callous use of black bodies both living and dead as research subjects goes all the way back to slavery times, and continues today in research on prisoners, institutionalized children, and Africans.

As with several other books we've read for AAL, this is a long and at times harrowing depiction of atrocities. To focus our discussion a bit, and make it easier for those who don't have time to read the entire book, let's concentrate on chapters 1, 2 , 10, 11, 12, 13, and the Epilogue, "Medical Research with Blacks Today". And, if you're really short on time, the above video interview with Ms Washington covers the major points.

Some questions to think about: does the history of medical mistreatment explain why African Americans have such disparate health outcomes from other Americans? Or is health care discrimination still going on?

Getting subjects for medical experiments is always difficult, and frequently involves either coercion, or financial compensation. But is it ethical to persuade  poor people to undergo medical tests because they need the money? And if not, how should medical research be conducted?

Are African Americans overall more distrustful of medical science than other groups? If so how do we fix this? Should this be covered in medical education?

What can or should the medical establishment do to correct or atone for these past mistakes and abuses? Do individual medical schools, clinics or medical journals bear any responsibility?

If you haven't already seen them, I highly recommend the Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, The Pact, and Black Man in a White Coat for more on African Americans in the medical profession. Aaaannnddd...Wednesday night, (the day after our discussion) the History Book Group is discussing Remedy and reaction : the peculiar American struggle over health care reform.

See you this Tuesday October 20th at 7pm, Small Meeting Room on the 1st floor of the Evanston Public Library.

A King, a Saint or a Traitor? MLK's Last Year

This Tuesday September 29th, AAL will be discussing Tavis Smiley's Death of a King, an eye-opening behind the scenes look at the travails, struggles and failures of Martin Luther King's final year. Given the hagiographic tone of most popular treatments of King, complete with the sanctification of his January 15th birthday, few remember that towards the end of his career, King's legacy was far from assured. Accused of being a communist and traitor by the FBI, and of being a sellout and an Uncle Tom by the newly militant Black Power movement; his fervent, outspoken critique of the Vietnam war lost him key allies. President Lyndon Johnson felt betrayed, and many of the core Civil Rights leaders: Adam Clayton Powell, Bayard Rustin, and Roy Wilkins feared that King had weakened the movement by expanding his vision to include anti-war and anti-poverty efforts. Plagued with depression and self-doubts, King turned to alcohol and adulterous liaisons.

How did such a reviled, controversial and at times self-destructive figure become America's patron saint of racial understanding? Smiley's answer is to show the warmth, strong faith and devotion to the down and out which kept King going in the face of unimaginable pressure. His description of King's respectful and open hearted conversation with a group of young prostitutes who had been heckling him is reminiscent of Pope Francis' bypassing photo ops with world leaders to break bread with the homeless.

Yet Smiley argues that King’s radicalism toward the end of his life has been papered over, while King himself has been reduced to “an idealistic dreamer to be remembered for a handful of fanciful speeches”. How well do most of us today know the "real" King as opposed to the tolerant, peace loving, icon trotted out every January 15th?

In his January 2015 essay "Time to Take Back Martin Luther King Day", Rick Cohen argues that "This year, more than any in recent times, the onus on all of us should be to take back Martin Luther King Day from the emphasis on top-down, one-day, feel-good volunteer fix-up projects and refocus attention on strategies and actions to address racial inequity and injustice today...In 2015, we should all be showing courage to analyze, address, and attack overt, structural, institutional, and implicit racism on the day on which we all too often miss the point of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s life and legacy by making his holiday one that doesn’t forthrightly address issues of race".

Is Cohen right? Join our discussion this Tuesday!

African American History at Chicago Humanities Festival, Court Theatre and Siskel Film Center

 Dear Friends,

Last week's discussion of Americanah rocked! Thanks so much to all who participated. Hope to see everyone on September 29th for Death of a King : the real story of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s final year. We've got copies at our 2nd floor desk; stop by or call 847-448-8620 to get one.

There are echoes of our AAL discussion topics everywhere this fall. a few upcoming programs to watch out for...


Chicago Humanities Festival October 24th-November 7th  (tickets available September 8th for members, September 14th for nonmembers)

Americanah piqued my interest in Nigerian culture, so I was delighted to see that one of the CHF Evanston programs is  "Global Igbo" a reading by English/Nigerian author Chris Abani. Abani is a Northwestern professor, and is the son of an English mother and a Nigerian father who wrote his first novel at age 16. Through his prolific and varied writings – which include novels, novellas, plays, and poems – Abani has sought to capture the specifics of his own experience while conveying the political and emotional dramas that transcend and tie together disparate cultures. Abani will be speaking Saturday October 24th at 12:30 pm on Northwestern's campus.


Also on the program that afternoon at 3:00 pm: Ta-Nehisi Coates!! He'll be discussing his new memoir,  Between The World and Me, in which he  shares his evocative reflections on what it’s like to inhabit a black male body in contemporary America. Expect this to sell out fast, so call early!

Two Events for Stokely fans:

From the Bullet to the Ballot: Black Panthers and Chicago's Racial Coalitions
In his recent book, From the Bullet to the Ballot: The Illinois Chapter of the Black Panther Party and Racial Coalition Politics in Chicago, native South Sider Jakobi Williams uses sealed secret police files and first-person interviews to explore the history and impact of the Black Panther Party and Rainbow Coalition.  He'll be speaking Sunday October 25th at 3:30 in Hyde Park

The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution

 will be showing at the Siskel Film Center in Chicago September 25th- October 1st. On Sunday September 27 at 5:00 pm director Stanley Nelson will be present for an audience discussion. (This is NOT part of the Chicago Humanities Festival; tickets are available from the Siskel Film Center)






Crossing the "Invisible Line"
Remember our discussion of Fatal Vision and the Invisible Line last year? You'll want to catch
Passing in White America, also part of the Humanities festival.  Stanford historian Allyson Hobbs looks at the "chosen exile," a separation from one racial identity and a leap into another experienced by countless light skinned African Americans as an escape from slavery in the antebellum South and  Jim Crow. But in looking back at both American history and the story of her own family, Hobbs also uncovers the terrible grief, loneliness, and isolation of passing, and the ways it continues to influence our thinking about racial identity and politics.
Sunday, October 25 | 5:30-6:30 PM in Hyde Park.


Northwestern Profs Look at Echoes of Slavery in Popular Media

If you missed last year's wonderful Slavery on Screen presentation, you have a second chance to see our old friends Miriam Petty and Nick Davis unpack the traditions of slavery and plantation films from television landmarks like Roots to independent films like Sankofa and Daughters of the Dust. They'll be speaking Saturday October 24th at 4:30 in Evanston


Gem of the Ocean at Court Theatre



Resident Artist Ron OJ Parson continues his triumphant tour through August Wilson's iconic century cycle with Gem of the Ocean, his seventh Wilson production at Court Theatre.  Featuring Court favorites A.C. Smith (Fences, Jitney), Alfred Wilson (Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Jitney), David Alan Anderson (The Mountaintop), and Tyla Abercrumbie (The Piano Lesson). Nominated for the Tony Award for Best Play in 2005, Gem of the Ocean is a fantastical story of freedom, justice, and redemption.  

Enjoy, and keep reading!! 

Race, Sex and Hair: the Cross Cultural Politics of Americanah

Author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie discusses the politics of race, sex, and hair with British journalist Jon Snow


This Tuesday, we'll be discussing one of the most talked about books of the past two years. Although Americanah has won numerous awards and glowing reviews, it has also been criticized for caricaturing Nigerian life and culture, for being anti-American, anti-male, and for overall snobbery. Reactions clearly vary depending on the race, nationality or gender of the reader, (note for example Snow's bemusement in the clip above on why black hair is such a major issue, or Terry Gross's unwillingness to recognize that hair choice has specific relevance for black women).

Given the multitude of reviews, blogposts, discussion groups and videos discussing Americanah, I won't post much here.  Penguin/Random House has an excellent discussion guide, and you can follow two excellent online discussions at Goodreads Writers of Color Book club discussion  and Literary Fiction by Authors of Color discussion.


If you haven't had time to read the whole book, or if you really want to dive into deeper waters, I recommend Litcharts Americanah  Guide.  It's great for plot summaries, locating favorite quotes, and for understanding themes in the novel, and the character guide is especially helpful.

Some questions I hope we'll get to on Tuesday:


*The difference between tribal/class affiliations in Nigeria, and between African immigrants, and race/class divisions in the US.

*Importance of Barack Obama as a unifying symbol

*The meaning of "truth". Ifemelu is consistently depicted as outspoken, (often uncomfortably) and "truth" is a characteristic Obinze most associates with her. Yet is she a reliable narrator? What would other characters: Blaine, Aunty Uju, Dike, Kosi, Ginika, Raniyinudo, Kimberly, or Curt think of Ifemelu's truthfulness?


For a pointed, largely negative review from a fellow Nigerian writer, see:

Ikhide R. Ikheloa

Americanah: Through a looking glass glumly

"lfemelu’s “blog posts” in the book would have made good provocative essays. However, they are not very good, filled with generalizations and specious arguments, prescriptive at best, never examining why things are the way they are. They are at best mildly thoughtful as if the blogger was too lazy or timid to fully flesh out the thoughts. There is no vision here which is fine if it is just for entertainment but then the book strains to be taken seriously....

"Where Adichie really loses it is in her analysis of race issues in the West. The book swims in cute anecdotes about race – in black and white, but it is complicated. Adichie’s world view on race relations in America misreads the huge demographic shifts sweeping America. America is browning. It is strange, for example, that a book on exile, immigration and race is virtually silent on Hispanics (there is a little paragraph in the book somewhere that seems to do no more than acknowledge the existence of Hispanics).

"In Americanah, Adichie displays a knack for detail, nothing escapes her cynical eyes. Nigeria’s Jhumpa Lahiri, she is this fastidious house inspector groping for dirt in your bathroom. She takes superciliousness and patronizing condescension to chic heights. Americanah bears heavy echoes of Lahiri’s superciliousness. There is no joy here, just people waking up and doing what they have to do. Ifemelu will not be pleased. Nothing impresses her. Ifemelu is anal-retentive, indeed many Americans would call her an asshole. She has a huge chip on her cute shoulders. And it is ugly, bristling with impatience, a quickness to judge others using pseudo-intellectual psychobabble. And she overanalyzes everything. I mean everything. Even the peppersoup is overanalyzed. Just eat the damn thing. While Ifemelu’s preferred romantic relationships were with Western men, she hardly had any respectful conversation with anyone in the West. Everything is tinged with race. In Ifemelu’s world, America is a tired, smelly place clothed in a culture of despair. Many would disagree."

See you Tuesday, August 25th, 7:00 pm in the 1st floor Small Meeting room. To pick up a copy, stop by or call the 2nd floor desk, 847-448-8620.

Contract Buyer's League: an Exhibition

We had a full house for last Wednesday night's discussion of Family Properties! Special guest Jack Macnamara, who played a pivotal role in helping organize the Contract Buyer's League told us about this fabulous exhibit currently on display  at Neighborhood Housing Services of Chicago, North Lawndale, 3555 W Ogden Ave in Chicago. Here are a few photos from the exhibit.

 

And don't forget, this Sunday July 26th in Winnetka is Justice Day 2015, Open Communities celebration  of Martin Luther King's 1965 speech on the Winnetka Green. It will be a family-friendly event with tables from various community organizations, music, arts and crafts, and children’s activities. It is, "an opportunity to recapture the northern suburb residents’ desire for social justice and for every individual to get involved".  We're hoping to display some panels from the CBL exhibit there too. Hope to see you!

will be a family-friendly event with tables from various community organizations, music, arts and crafts, and children’s activities. It is an opportunity to recapture the northern suburb residents’ desire for social justice and for every individual to get involved. - See more at: http://www.interfaithhousingcenter.org/caldetail.cfm?calendar_id=1116945#sthash.7DDAXTvw.dpuf

will be a family-friendly event with tables from various community organizations, music, arts and crafts, and children’s activities. It is an opportunity to recapture the northern suburb residents’ desire for social justice and for every individual to get involved. - See more at: http://www.interfaithhousingcenter.org/caldetail.cfm?calendar_id=1116945#sthash.7DDAXTvw.dpuf

will be a family-friendly event with tables from various community organizations, music, arts and crafts, and children’s activities. It is an opportunity to recapture the northern suburb residents’ desire for social justice and for every individual to get involved. - See more at: http://www.interfaithhousingcenter.org/caldetail.cfm?calendar_id=1116945#sthash.7DDAXTvw.dpuf

The Tragedy of Chicago Segregation

This week, Mary Barr will be back in town discussing her book Friends Disappear: The Battle for Racial Equality in Evanston. Barr's memoir focuses on the lives of white and black school friends from the 70s, and how race and class affected the outcomes of their lives.

Evanston's path to racial integration has not always been smooth, yet it sounds positively idyllic when compared  with Chicago. As in many northern cities, real estate boards and banks, in collusion with the Federal Housing Administration's redlining, conspired to prevent African Americans from obtaining mortgages, refused to allow them to buy property outside of the "Black Belt" and forced them to resort to outrageous "contract " agreements for inferior overpriced housing. The result was overcrowded neighborhoods, black homeowners working 2 jobs to keep up with exorbitant payments, and family and neighborhood disintegration.

This month, Open Communities (formerly Interfaith Housing) in Winnetka honors the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King's speech on the Winnetka green, in which he addressed racial segregation in the Chicago suburbs. As part of this observance, EPL will be discussing  Family Properties: Race, Real Estate, and the Exploitation of Black Urban America, historian Beryl Satter's memoir of Chicago's unequal housing system, and those who fought it, including her father. Her fascinating mixture of urban history and family memoir explores the conflicts between family loyalty, communal responsibility, and racial animosity which resulted in tragedy for so many. We will also look at contemporary issues related to open and affordable housing in Chicago, the suburbs and the nation.

Please join us on Wednesday July 15th at 7 pm at Evanston Public Library. All are welcome! Call 847-448-8620 to get a copy of the book.