I think I’m gonna start incorporating more book recommendations to this blog. I want to build a neat bookshelf but I’m not sure if there’s much room in here. I’ll have to move the furniture around, don’t want it to get all crowded and whatnot. So anywho, every now and again I’ll recommend a book I think will provide a thought provoking jolt if you will, to our daily lives. Most of them will, naturally, come from my very own book shelf.
Today’s Must Read is:
Before the Mayflower: A History of Black America by Lerone Bennett JR.
“Before the Mayflower” traces black history from its origins in western Africa, through the transatlantic journey that ended in slavery, the Reconstruction period, the Jim Crow era, and the civil rights upheavals of the 1960s and 1970s, culminating in an exploration of the complex realities of African-American life in the 1990s. Here is the most recent scholarship on the geographic, social, ethnic, economic, and cultural journey of “the other Americans, ” together with vital portraits of black pioneers and seminal figures in the struggle for freedom, as well as additional material on historical developments in the Reagan, Bush, and Clinton years.”
The clouds outshine the sun today. They have somehow managed to rise from their floating thrones and to share their crown with us. There’s a splash of brightness in the air, but I am convinced it is not the sun; it is the clouds. And as the day looms with the kind of gloominess that gives off fatigue, I cannot help but wonder how many of us search ourselves in the shadows. In places where we are left with the ambiguity of image, and grow like a silhouette of flesh. Sometimes writing is gloomy like these clouds, light enough to swing suspended in the air but with rain drops too heavy to see. Illuminated, and yet barely understood. But the clouds outshine the sun today and inspiring writers have managed to reach the ground and nourish souls with their words. Writers, who emerge from behind obscurities like clouds, have come down from heaven to purify the air and make footstools of the soil, that their readers may eat.
I want to take this time to thank those of you who volunteered to review Beyond The Colored Line. I am just getting back in town so I ask your patience as I catch up to my emails. I am still allowing room for more reviewers for those who are still interested. Email me at ahouseofpoetry@gmail.com for a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. As stated this is a short story so it won’t take up too much of your time. Thanks again.
Last week was Launch Week for my new book, Beyond The Colored Line. This week, I am seeking the assistance of people who are willing to volunteer their time to provide me with some reviews.
I will send you a Free paperback copy in exchange for an honest review. Please email me (ahouseofpoetry@gmail.com) if you are interested in helping and I will give you further information. I will say that this is not a novel; it is a short story so it will not take up too much of your time.
(I also Review Books so if there are any authors who are also book reviewers, I’d be willing to swap books. You do a book review for me and I will do one for you. Team work makes the dream work so let’s make it happen. Self-Publishers rock.)
Thanks a lot for the consideration. I am traveling this week so I will respond to all inquiries by next week. Thank you all for your patience.
In 1968, a year after the release of the film Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner, about a black man who wanted to marry a white woman, a Poll revealed that just 20 percent of Americans thought it was OK for a white person to marry a black person. According to a recent 2011 Gallup Poll, 96 percent of African-Americans and 84 percent of whites accept the idea. Today, as of 2015, the subject of Interracial Relationships is still Taboo.
Are you in an Interracial Relationship? Would you mind being interviewed for a chance to share your story? You never know who you may touch with your experience. Join me in my Interracial Blog Feature Coming this Fall.
Welcome back to another segment of Movie Night Friday. Where I present some of my favorite movies and why I love them.
Today I would like to discuss Soul Food, one of my favorite movies.
Soul Food is a movie about one family and their ability to stay a family through their willingness to endure all of the trial and tribulations that befall them. Told from the perspective of 11-year-old Ahmad, the Chicago family creates a bond around the Sunday “Soul Food” dinners they have every Sunday. Documented to have been coined in 1964 when blacks exercised self-awareness concerning themselves and “Soul” and “Black Power” got popular, there are a lot of misconceptions concerning Soul Food. The assumption is that the essential ingredient is pork and that deep-fat frying is its ultimate technique. It is assumed that the food must be dangerously unhealthy (I have to agree with Huey on the Boondocks. How they gonna go back to eating the same food that gave Big Mama diabetes tho) and is even mentioned in the movie that because we didn’t have anything else to eat in slavery we made meals of whatever we were given and that this is soul food. While it is true that blacks during slavery had little to nothing to eat, Soul Food got its name, not necessarily because of slavery, but because of how it brought black families and communities together which predates the institution of chattel slavery. African Americans have always been a communal people and food has always been an art form. Even if it wasn’t called Soul Food specifically, “Soul Food” is a tradition that go back for centuries.
I still remember when I watched this for the first time back in ’97 or ’98 and it was the ideal family I imagined we have all wanted and if we had, something that we have all cherished. However, it is always easy to be there for one another during the good times, but what about when tragedy strikes? Multiple tragedies?
Can the Joseph family endure the ultimate challenge of betrayal, hurt, and Big Mama’s failing health? Does a family, who is knit together seemingly through the strength of one person, have what it takes to stay once that person is gone?
As is obvious, this became my favorite because of the family bond and the unity of love they had for one another. I wouldn’t say that I watch it over and over again or anything, but it is a good throwback classic.
Soul Food was eventually spent off into a TV series.
Trailer:
Is Soul Food among one of your favs? Why do you love it?
The PBS Blog 