Why Do Black People Love Fried Chicken?
And Other Questions You've Wondered but Didn't Dare Ask, by Nashieqa Washington
2010-02-11
By Kam Williams Special to The Skanner News
Over the years, many an unscrupulous author has assumed an alibi in order to pass as a member of another ethnic group. Perhaps the most infamous of these so-called “slippery characters” was Ku Klux Klansman Asa Carter who faked a Native American background to publish “The Education of Little Tree,” a critically-acclaimed memoir about growing up Cherokee which not only topped the NY Times Bestseller List back in the Seventies but won the Book of the Year Award as well ... Read the complete article
'Crying Tree' Wins NW Booksellers Award
2010-01-21
It was announced today that Naseem Rakha’s The Crying Tree has won a 2010 Pacific Northwest Booksellers award for fiction. This is Rakha’s debut novel, but she is a well-known, award-winning journalist whose stories have been heard on NPR’s All Things Considered and Morning Edition, as well as Marketplace Radio, Christian Science Monitor, and Living on Earth. The winners were selected by a committee of independent booksellers from more than 200 nominated titles, each written by a Northwest author and published in 2009. Read the complete article
Literary Nas: 'Born to Use Mics'
2010-01-07
When he was 19, Nasir “Nas” Jones began recording what would be one of the most important hip hop albums of all time. The 1994 “Illmatic” is a personal account of life in New York’s Queensbridge housing project... Read the complete article
'Wench' by Dolen Perkins-Valdez
2010-01-07
Wench” by Dolen Perkins-Valdez is startling and original fiction that raises provocative questions of power and freedom, love and dependence. An enchanting and unforgettable novel based on little-known fact, Wench combines the narrative allure of Cane River by Lalita Tademy and the moral complexities of Edward P. Jones’s “The Known World” as it tells the story of four Black enslaved women in the years preceding the Civil War... Read the complete article
The 10 Best Black Non-Fiction Books of 2009
2009-12-17
Kam Williams Special To The Skanner
Who even knew that any children of slaves were still alive? A debt of gratitude is owed to Sana Butler for compiling this bittersweet collection of revealing interviews with the offspring of folks freed by the Emancipation Proclamation well over a century ago. What makes this book special is how seamlessly the author contrasts her aging subjects’ fading recollections with her own expectations of them and her intimate reflections about being Black and female in present-day America. Read the complete article
The 10 Best Black Non-Fiction Books of 2009
2009-12-16
By Kam Williams Special To The Skanner News
Culture critic Kam Williams picks the top 10 best Black non-fiction books of 2009...
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Author Bases Novel on Own Ancestors
2009-12-03
In “Who Will Cry for the Little Girl” author Alexander Lee Barrett follows the life of his own great-great-great-great-great Grandmother, Chaney Rice as she deals with life as a slave on the plantation of one of the wealthiest and most prominent families in Greene County, Alabama Read the complete article
Grace After Midnight: Snoop Pearson of The Wire
2009-12-03
By the time Felicia “Snoop” Pearson was 15, she was serving hard time for a murder she says happened in self-defense. But now, the woman that was born a “three-pound, cross-eyed crack baby in East Baltimore,” is famous for starring as a cold-blooded villain on the critically acclaimed HBO series “The Wire.” Read the complete article
Book Review: Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud
2009-10-29
By Kam Williams, Special To The Skanner News
Everybody knows Cornel West, the public intellectual, the popular Princeton University Professor and best-selling author who has remained dedicated to the plight of the poor and underprivileged over the course of his illustrious career. Yet few know anything about his private life, or about what has inspired him to remain on such a righteous path and in touch with his roots over the years... Read the complete article
New Book Gives ‘The Black-print’ for Improvement
2009-10-29
In author Malik Green’s new book, “The Black-print,” the former crack addict and veteran spells out a way for wealth, prosperity and respect for African Americans. Despite 50 years or what Green skeptically calls progress, the Black community contuse to face a myriad of obstacles... Read the complete article
