theblackbottom

Wanda Phipps is a writer/performer living in NYC and born in Washington, D.C.  She studied theater and English literature at Barnard College of Columbia University in New York City, acting at American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco, CA and poetry at Naropa Institute in Boulder, CO.  She is the author of Field of Wanting:Poems of Desire (BlazeVOX[books]), Wake-Up Calls:66 [...]

Once You Learn How to Read, You Will Be Forever Free!~Frederick Douglass
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James Baldwin Born August 2, 1924 in Harlem, NY, Died December 1 1987, St. Paul-de-Vence, France
The first of nine children of Berdis (Jones) a clergyman and a factory worker, David (step-father), in Harlem, NY. Baldwin was a storefront preacher for three years starting at [...]

Five myths about mosques in America
By Edward E. Curtis IV
Curtis is millennium chair of liberal arts at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. He is the author of “Muslims in America: A Short History” and the editor of the “Encyclopedia of Muslim-American History.”
Source: Washington Post
Sunday, August 29, 2010; B03
In addition to spawning passionate debates in the [...]

Daughter of a aristocratic WASP and Haitian Songbird, Susan Fales-Hill presents a rewarding novel of her adventures.

The memoirist-philanthropist-TV producer talks about her debut novel, Bill Cosby, Lena Horne and the philanthropic life.
By: The Root.com
The intrigue in One Flight Up, the first novel by Susan Fales-Hill, begins before the story does. Just after the title page, [...]

Tired of reading accounts of Africa through the eyes of outsiders, 14 African writers have set out to document the diversity of their content in a series of books and blogs partly inspired by the soccer World Cup.

One of the contributors to the project, Chinua Achebe

The first World Cup to be held in [...]

Tim Seibles is an extraordinary poet and dynamic reader. He has been honored with many grants and awards, including an Open Voice Award and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center.
Born in Philadelphia in 1955 to a high school English teacher and a biochemist for the Department [...]

If you learn how to read, you will be forever free!~Frederick Douglass
REVIEW
REVIEW
Attica Locke is a writer whose first novel, Black Water Rising, was nominated for a 2010 Edgar Award, a 2010 NAACP Image Award, as well as a Los Angeles Times Book Prize and was longlisted for an Orange Prize in the UK. Attica [...]

Lita Hooper is a poet, playwright and educator. Her work has appeared in several anthologies, including Crux: Conversations in Words and Images from South Africa to South USA (2008), The Ringing Ear: Black Poets Lean South (2008), Gathering Ground: A Reader Celebrating Cave Canem First Decade (2006), Role Call: A Generational Anthology of Social [...]

Once you learn how to read, you will be forever free~Frederick Douglass
REVIEW
REVIEW

Karla FC Holloway is James B.Duke Professor of English at Duke University. Professor Holloway is the author of eight books, including Passed On: African-American Mourning Stories (2002) and BookMarks–Reading in Black and White, A Memoir (2006) completed during a residency in Bellagio, Italy as [...]

If you learn how to read, you will be forever free~Frederick Douglass
INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
Carole C. Marks is a professor of sociology at the University of Delaware and the coauthor of The Power of Pride: Stylemakers and Rulebreakers of the Harlem Renaissance.
Robert Stepto’s fields of interest include early African American narratives (Equiano to Douglass and Jacobs), American Renaissance [...]