WILTW: How To Be Black

With the help of Baratunde Thurston and the esteemed Black Panel*, you too can learn:
-How To Be The Black Friend
-How To Celebrate Black History Month (buying this book is a start)
-The Pros & Cons of Being the Angry Negro
-How to become the next Black President
-How to harness the power of your blackness to become a spokesperson for the race.

Part memoir / part instruction manual and loads of fun, How to Be Black is not about limitation, confinement, or adhering to a 10 Commandments like set of rules to preserve racial/cultural purity.

How To Be Black is about being yourself because, as Elon James White would say, everything you do becomes a black thing.**

*The Black Panel is pretty diverse. In keeping with the books premise you get different views of blackness.
**This only works, of course, if you are already black. As pointed out in the disclaimer: The book is not How To Become A Black Person If You Are Not Already Black.

Life, Love & Lust 2011

I have two new stories included in this anthology: Losing Michelle and In Remembrance Of Her.

Get your  copy today! Print: amazon.com | eBook: Kindle / Nook

From Christmas Day to New Years Day – get the eBook edition for $3.99!

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CONTRIBUTORS INCLUDE:

Renair Amin
Tamira Augustine
Kelli-Lynn Daugherty
Katrina England
Dee Ferguson
Evelyn Foster
Adelina Gonzalez
Kia Hamm
Jessica Horton
Wett Ink
Carolyn L. King
Kysia “Maxx” McLendon
Claudia Moss
Nik Nicholson
Doreen Perrine
Pamela Sneed
Jessica Spencer
Spoken
Tawanna Sullivan
Teryn
Monique X. Thomas
Gre Diamond Walker
Jay Williams
Anondra “Kat” Williams

Charlie Chan & Race…

I’ve actually read all of those Charlie Chan novels. I want to write about race/racism in them, but I need to sit down and organize my thoughts about that. There’s so many different components: the anti-Japanese sentiment, racism as a tell-tale sign of class, the way Charlie Chan is treated by his friends, etc. Let’s not even get into how the  native Hawaiians are depicted.

In the meantime, I’m going to try to grab a copy of this:

Reading Charlie Chan

When I found out about Yunte Huang’s Charlie Chan: The Untold Story of the Honorable Detective and His Rendezvous with American History (whew!) – I put it on my “to read” list. In addition to exploring the life of Chang Apana (the real life inspiration of Charlie Chan), the author discuses racism in the Chan books, movies etc.

According to the review in the Washington post, Huang’s approach is to counter “the accusations of racial stereotyping and reductionism that have often been assigned to Chan and the Chan films.” (Not sure I trust this reviewer though.)

Before reading Huang, I’ve decided to judge the great detective for myself by going to the source material.  Turns out Earl Derr Biggers only wrote 6 novels, so I’ve  decided to read them all: The House Without A Key, The Chinese Parrot, Behind That Curtain, The Black Camel, Charlie Chan Carries On, and Keeper Of The Keys.

I’m 110% sure that when Biggers wrote these novels, I’m not the audience he envisioned…  Fun (or frustrating) times ahead!

Publishing ABC’s

Anondra “Kat” Williams of Sippin On Ink talked to a group of black lesbian writers about the growing popularity of lesbian literature. The participants in the discussion were S. Renee Bess, Cheril N Clarke, C.D. Kirven and Tawanna Sullivan (ahem, moi). Check out the interview: Publishing ABC’s.

What I’m Reading

Stopped in a small bookstore to do a little browsing and picked up The Cross Of Redemption: Uncollected Writings of James Baldwin. I am really having a ball reading this–both what he says and how he says it. His style of writing makes the little gray cells happy.  It’s interesting to see recognizable quotes in context of the entire essay/speech.

Also, I gave Leonid McGill, Walter Mosley‘s new detective, a try.  I devoured The Long Fall and promptly snatched up Known To Evil. Leonid is a PI who used to do just about anything for a price, so his clients weren’t rarely on the right side of the law–and innocent people often found their lives thrown into disarray (if not worse). He is trying to “do right” now, but the past haunts his dreams and his old underworld “friends” just aren’t ready to let him go.  Add his tumultuous homelife into the equation and it’s a wonder that Leonid hasn’t completely self-destructed.

Walter Mosley talks about The Long Fall and Leonid: