African American Literature Archives

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Michelle Obama Wins Grammy Award For Audio Recording Of ‘Becoming’ Memoir | HuffPost

Fans are hoping the former first lady will go on to become an EGOT. Michelle Obama is now a Grammy winner. The former first lady took home the trophy in the Spoken Word Album category for the audio recording of her bestselling 2018 memoir “Becoming.” The Grammys’ Best Spoken Word Album award honors achievements in poetry readings, audiobooks and storytelling. In addition to Obama, nominees included members of the Beastie Boys, actor John Waters, producer Eric Alexandrakis and poet Sekou Andrews. Obama wasn’t at Sunday’s ceremony to collect her award, but Esperanza Spalding, who who won this year’s Grammy for […]

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The Snowy Day is Amazon’s beautiful, hopeful addition to television Christmas specials | The Verge

On Thanksgiving, Amazon quietly published its contribution to the Christmas canon. The Snowy Day is an adaptation of the award-winning 1962 children’s picture book of the same name, written and illustrated by Ezra Jack Keats. Odds are you’ve seen the book, or had it read to you. Its cover art, with a tiny boy wearing a red coat and a pointy hat, is iconic. And the book itself is a staple of kindergarten bookshelves. At 37 minutes long, the animated short has a meatier plot than its 16-page source material. But don’t let the book’s diminutive length short-sell its significance. […]

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Help combat racism. This holiday season, give the gift of a black children’s or young adult book | Daily Kos

In a time fraught with Trump- and Republican-fomented racial hate and vituperation, we move into a holiday season celebrated by 90% of the people in this divided nation. Over the years, many readers have asked for my thoughts on what can be done to change and eliminate the racial hate exhibited by a large, and mostly white, segment of the populace. My belief is that you can’t vote racism away. The only solution is education. So if you are one of the millions of people who are shopping for gifts for children or young adults in your circle of family […]

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Remembering James Baldwin: Here are Five Works by the American Author | News18

On the author’s death anniversary, here’s looking at 5 works by him one must read.

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Sweetness | The New Yorker

It’s not my fault. So you can’t blame me. I didn’t do it and have no idea how it happened. It didn’t take more than an hour after they pulled her out from between my legs for me to realize something was wrong. Really wrong. She was so black she scared me. Midnight black, Sudanese black. I’m light-skinned, with good hair, what we call high yellow, and so is Lula Ann’s father. Ain’t nobody in my family anywhere near that color. Tar is the closest I can think of, yet her hair don’t go with the skin. It’s different—straight but […]

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The Color Fetish | The New Yorker

Of constant fascination for me are the ways in which literature employs skin color to reveal character or drive narrative—especially if the fictional main character is white (which is almost always the case). Whether it is the horror of one drop of the mystical “black” blood, or signs of innate white superiority, or of deranged and excessive sexual power, the framing and the meaning of color are often the deciding factors. For the horror that the “one-drop” rule excites, there is no better guide than William Faulkner. What else haunts “The Sound and the Fury” or “Absalom, Absalom!”? Between the […]

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Who Gave You the Right to Tell That Story? | Vulture

Ten authors on the most divisive question in fiction, and the times they wrote outside their own identities.

Rhiannon Giddens, Carla Hayden, Jesmyn Ward, Mashama Bailey, Simone Biles, Oprah Winfrey, Dr. Regina Benjamin, Gina Chavez, Tayari Jones, African American Women, Black Women, Black Entrepreneurs, Incredible Black Women, KOLUMN Magazine, KOLUMN, KINDR'D Magazine, KINDR'D, Willoughby Avenue, WRIIT, African American Entrepreneur, Black Entrepreneur,

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20 Southern Women Changing the World | Garden & Gun

These powerhouses from across the region are making a difference

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Lupita Nyong’o Wrote a Book For Girls of Color to “See More Dark Skin in a Beautiful Light” | POPSUGAR

Chanel-Vargas, POPSUGAR Image Source: Amazon. Featured Image Lupita Nyong’o is now a published author, and her children’s picture book Sulwe — which means star in her native language Luo — sends a powerful and much-needed message to girls of color.

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The Changing Image of the Black in Children’s Literature | The Horn Book, Inc.

Augusta Baker, The Horn Book, Inc. The longtime couple have finally become engaged, celebrating with family and friends. (Image via NBC Chicago). Featured Image n the 1920’s and 1930’s, children’s books seemed to foster prejudice by planting false images in the minds of children. Most authors were white, with little knowledge about black life, and yet they wrote as if they were authorities. No wonder it was an accepted fact in children’s books that blacks were lazy, shiftless, lived in shanties, had nothing and wanted nothing, sang and laughed all day. Black writers for children were practically nonexistent, and the […]

African American Literature