theblackbottom

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, [...]

Citizens and law enforcement work to combat violent crime in Detroit. DETROIT (WXYZ) – A community effort is underway in Detroit where leaders are trying to take back the streets in the wake of recent violent crimes.
The effort follows Monday night’s wild police chase and two reported attacks on elderly women over the weekend.
During a [...]

Antiviolence Ritual From a Faraway Land
By RACHEL CROMIDAS
August 12, 2010
After years of frustration, Cheryl Graves was ready to consider a different solution to Chicago’s problem of youth violence.
Ms. Graves, a community organizer, had spent more than 10 years training representatives of the intervention group CeaseFire and administrators of violence-ridden Fenger High School in conflict-resolution techniques [...]

For all the talk of Maxine Water’s so call “ethics violations” the people in her district love and respect her. We have very few “Democrats,” especially blue-dog ones standing up for the black and brown urban working class and poor. We will watch the outcomes of Ms. Water’s very carefully.
Still Waters: Lawmaker remains popular at [...]

Once you learn how to read, you will be forever free~Frederick Douglass
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Source: Kalamazoo Gazette
NEW YORK — Jazz singer and actress Abbey Lincoln, 80, died Saturday in New York, according to the New York Times.
Lincoln, who was born Anna Marie Wooldridge, graduated from Kalamazoo Central High School in 1949.
Her death was announced by her brother David Wooldridge, according to the Times. Lincoln had lived in New York [...]

Daughter of Independence
By ANGéLIQUE KIDJO
Like a true revolutionary, I was born on Bastille Day (July 14), 1960, in Dahomey, which was then a part of the French Empire in West Africa. A few days later, on August 1st, 50 years ago this month, my country was declared independent: I was French for [...]

Can Black women tell their own stories? This article gives us a interesting look at just how far we have come in Hollywood when it comes to racisim,sexism, and the future of film production.

“Now I am an illusion, just like the films. They see me but they can’t recognize me.” –Mignon Duprée (played by Lonette [...]

Toi Derricotte was born in Hamtramck, Michigan, in 1941. Her books of poetry are Tender (1997), winner of the 1998 Paterson Poetry Prize; Captivity (1989); Natural Birth (1983); and The Empress of the Death House (1978). Her The Black Notebooks, a literary memoir (W.W. Norton, 1997), won the 1998 Anisfield-Wolf Book [...]

Interesting site, bringing a fresh perspective to Detroit.

To think, Margarita Barry wouldn’t be the woman she is today if her mom let her out of the house more often.
“I spent a lot of time on the computer as a kid,” says Barry, creator of the new website, I Am Young Detroit. “My mom never [...]