PUB: Contests - CutBank Online

Big Fish Online Contest: Flash Fiction and Prose Poetry

open October 1 - November 1

Description

 

A prize of $200 and online publication will be given for the best piece of writing under 500 words that we receive. Flash fiction, short-shorts, micro-prose, prose poems, poetic prose, just plain short stories--whatever you call your briefest prose pieces, send them our way. The contest winner will be chosen by the CutBank editorial staff and announced on our website on December 1. All submissions will be considered for both online publication and print publication in CutBank.

Guidelines

Submissions for the online flash fiction and prose poetry contest are accepted from October 1 to November 1 and must be accompanied by a $9 submission fee. Please submit using our new online submission manager. Make sure you select "Flash Fiction and Prose Poetry Contest" as your genre. Previously unpublished work only. Multiple submissions are acceptable, as long as each one is accompanied by its own submission fee. Simultaneous submissions are also acceptable, but please inform us promptly if your work is accepted elsewhere.

Submit to Cutbank Literary Journal

 

INFO: Breath of Life—The Persuasions, the Cornel West theory, and 20 versions of "Dindi"

The Persuasions bring us the best of a cappella doo-wop. A new, hip-hop band out of DC, the Cornel West theory drop some science on us. The week closes out with 20 versions of Jobim's "Dindi" featuring Antonio Carlos Jobim, Stéphanie Laliberté, André Mehmari, Lyambiko, Harvey Mason, Norman Connors featuring Jean Carn, Jamie Lynn Fletcher, Eugene Maslov, El Debarge, Carmen McRae, Landes Jugend Jazz Orchester, Natalie Cole, Flora Purim, Gene Bertoncini, Sarah Vaughan, Emilio Santiago, Com Voce, John Beasley, Mary Stallings, and Jon Lucien.

http://www.kalamu.com/bol/

These guys are the best existing, a cappella, doo-wop group—nobody else is even close. They started at the beginning of the sixties and have been going strong ever since. Sure there have been some changes in personnel over the years but the basic sound remains the same and remains sterling. Their forte is tight harmonies and emotive vocal soloing that can go from silky smooth to gutter gritty and back again with nary a slip.

They can blow you away with power or seduce you with sweetness. Singing like this is a lost art, especially singing without a backing band. They remind us that the voice is humanity’s first musical instrument and oh how they regale us with vocal stylings that make anyone who can talk feel like singing.

INFO: AALBC.com eNewsletter - October 28th 2010 - Issue #182

AALBC.com eNewsletter - October 28th 2010 - Issue #182
Celebrating Our Literary Legacy Since 1997
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AALBC.com's 25 Best Selling Books July 1st through August 31st 2010
http://aalbc.com/books/bestsellers.htm

Non-fiction

#1 - Confessions of a Video Vixen by Karrine Steffans
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Fiction

#1 - Getting to Happy by Terry McMillan
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Click to view all 25 top selling fiction and non-fiction titles
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Authors Your Should Know
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Kwame DawesKwame Dawes
http://aalbc.it/kwamed

Born in Ghana in 1962, Kwame Dawes spent most of his childhood and early adult life in Jamaica . As a poet, he is profoundly influenced by the rhythms and textures of that lush place, citing in a recent interview his "spiritual, intellectual, and emotional engagement with reggae music." His book Bob Marley: Lyrical Genius remains the most authoritative study of the lyrics of Bob Marley

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Donna HillDonna Hill
http://aalbc.it/donnahill

Donna Hill has more than fifty published titles to her credit, three of which were adapted for television. She has been featured in Essence, The Daily News, USA Today, Today's Black Woman, and Black Enterprise magazine, among many others. She lives with her family in Brooklyn, New York, where she writes full-time.

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Natasha D. TretheweyNatasha D. Trethewey
http://aalbc.it/trethewey

Natasha D. Trethewey is an English professor at Emory University in Atlanta, won the Pulitzer Prize in poetry in 2007. Her works forge a rich intersection between the historical and autobiographical. In poems that are polished, controlled, and often based on traditional forms, Trethewey grapples with the dualities and oppositions that define her personal history: black and white, native and outsider, rural and urban, the memorialized and the forgotten. The daughter of a black mother and a white father, Trethewey grew up in a South still segregated by custom, if not by law, and her life astride the color line has inspired her recovery of lost histories, public and private.

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Jarid ManosJarid Manos
http://aalbc.it/jarid

Jarid Manos is author of Ghetto Plainsman and Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Great Plains Restoration Council. He has been published or written about in the New York Times and many other publications, and is a featured guest speaker nationwide. He is also a health advocate and youth worker. Through his guidance, GPRC has helped found the new Ecological Health movement which helps young people heal themselves through healing our shattered prairies and plains. A vegan athlete, Mr. Manos resides in Fort Worth and Houston, Texas, and he and Karla are parents to 11 year old Kaiden. Ghetto Plainsman is his first book.

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Patricia Spears JonesPatricia Spears Jones
http://aalbc.it/patjones

Born and raised in Arkansas, Patricia Spears Jones aka Patricia Jones has lived in New York City since the mid-1970s where she has been involved in the city's poetry and theater scenes as poet, editor, anthologist, teacher and former Program Coordinator for the Poetry Project at St. Mark’s Church and working with Mabou Mines, the internationally acclaimed theater collective. She has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, the Goethe Institute for travel and research in Germany. Green Integer selected her for The PIP Gertrude Stein Awards for Innovative Poetry in English 2005-2006 . Agni selected “Sapphire” as an honorable mention for the Anne Sexton Poetry Prize in 2000.


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Yusef komunyakaaYusef Komunyakaa
http://aalbc.it/yusefk

Yusef Komunyakaa served in Vietnam as correspondent and editor of The Southern Cross and revived the Bronze Star. He was a Professor of English at Princeton University and is now the Global Distinguished Professor of English at New York University. Komunyakaa (born April 29, 1947) won the 1994 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry and the Kingsley-Tufts Poetry Award for his book Neon Vernacular and has won many other awards for poetic achievement. His subject matter ranges from the black general experience through rural Southern life before the Civil Rights time period and his experience as a soldier during the Vietnam War.

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Bridgett M. DavisBridgett M. Davis
http://aalbc.it/bridgett

Bridgett M. Davis was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan. She is a graduate of Spelman College in Atlanta, and Columbia University, where she received a MS in Journalism. As an Associate Professor of English at Baruch College in New York, she teaches Creative Writing and Journalism. She is also an independent filmmaker. Her award-winning feature film, Naked Acts, was theatrically released in 1998 and is now available on DVD and video nationwide. Touted by Variety as "fresh, funny and original," the drama about a young black actress' refusal to disrobe for the camera has screened in international festivals throughout the US, Europe, Brazil and Africa. Naked Acts has also aired on the premium cable Sundance Channel.
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AALBC.com Book Reviews (Fiction)
spacerAn inconvient friendAn Inconvenient Friend by Rhonda McKnight
http://aalbc.it/rhondamcknight

Themes of forgiveness, redemption and truth make this story line an inspirational tale of two women both locked in pain and sadness. The author shows the realities of a struggling Christian marriage when two people are unequally yoked. I cried with Angelina. I wanted so much more for Samaria and I even understood Greg's struggles. This book will take the reader in many different emotional places on the outside looking in.

Although a sequel; this novel stands alone as a testimony to the inner good in most people who are striving to find God in their lives. It was an all-night read!

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AALBC.com Book Reviews (Non-Fiction)
spacercreate dangerouslyCreate Dangerously: The Immigrant Artist at Work by Edwidge Danticat
http://aalbc.it/createdangerously

["Art for art's sake"] Has this attitude been widely-embraced or might it merely reflect the values of members of a leisure class able to ignore pressing issues of survival faced by the bulk of humanity? The question is legit, for flying in the face of that bourgeois aesthetic is Edwidge Danticat, an iconoclast who sees addressing the prevailing political and social questions of the day as a pivotal part of her calling.

A 2009 winner of a MacArthur Genius Fellowship, Ms. Danticat’s contrary approach ostensibly emanates from the fact that she was born in Haiti and had to spend her formative years under the thumb of the ruthlessly repressive Papa and Baby Doc Duvalier regimes. And in Create Dangerously, a collection of essays based on a series of lectures delivered at Princeton University, the American immigrant tackles a variety of universal themes apt to resonate with anyone reflecting about the oppression they left behind in coming to the United States in search of fundamental freedoms, particularly Freedom of Speech.

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Why do i have to think like a manWhy Do I Have To Think Like A Man? How To Think Like A Lady And Still Get The Man by Shanae Hall with Rhonda Frost
http://aalbc.it/thinklikealady

Faithful readers are well aware of how exasperated this critic has become about the recent flood of relationship advice books aimed at the African-American demographic. The latest contribution to the burgeoning genre is this how-to tome written from the female perspective by a couple of cutie pies who have a bone or two to pick with comedian Steve Harvey’s best seller on the subject.

The authors claim to be your average females, but that’s just not the case, judging from their photos (Va-va-va-voom!) and the fact that one of them, Shanae Hall, was once married to an NFL star. Furthermore, these divorcees don’t claim to have any professional credentials, rather merely a lifetime of experience in the battle-of-the-sexes.


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the warth of other sunsThe Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson
http://aalbc.it/thewarmth

What was most compelling and depressing about this documentary was how hated Blacks were both by their southern oppressors and the working class northerners who viewed them as a threat to their status. What was inspiring was how these pioneers persevered, kept on pushing, their eyes on the proverbial prize, as they drew from the inner strength that 400 years of degradation couldn’t kill.

I can’t say enough about the skills and artistry of the author a young black woman from Washington DC, whose parents were migrants from the south. As dense as this book was, it was a “painless” read with its seamless narrative and characters that came to life. The only problem I had was how she made no mention of the black migrants who after coming north, left the metropolises to settle in their suburbs. My parents moved from Chicago in 1922, becoming members of the black colonies who occupied their own little sections of the villages and towns that ringed the big cities, removed from the hazards of urban life, leading less stressful existences. This once again reminded me of how the black experience varies, and how mine is not that typical.

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the grace of silenceThe Grace of Silence: A Memoir by Michele Norris
http://aalbc.it/michelenorris

Quite surprisingly, it turns out that her heartbreaking memoir moved me to tears, as she wistfully recounts her family’s quiet, dignified way of dealing with racism and discrimination. Whether it was her parents having to witness a mass exodus of their neighbors via white flight after integrating a neighborhood in Minnesota in the early Sixties or, decades later, her father Belvin’s being teased for being drunk when he was actually suffering from a malignant brain tumor during the last days of his life, Michele describes lives painfully limited in certain respects by the color line.

She further recalls a litany of humiliations endured by relatives before she was born, such as her maternal grandmother who was employed by Quaker Oats to travel around the country dressed as Aunt Jemima in bandana and apron to give pancake cooking demonstrations at State Fairs and the like. Particularly poignant is the painstaking lengths she goes to resurrect the besmirched name of her father long after being falsely accused of a crime.

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jimiJimi: Sounds Like a Rainbow: A Story of the Young Jimi Hendrix by Gary Golio
http://aalbc.it/jimi_book

Jimi Hendrix (1942-1970) was a flamboyant rock icon who flamed out instead of fading away due to his also being a substance abuser who dabbled in everything from alcohol to marijuana to amphetamines to hashish to heroin to LSD before succumbing at the tender age of 27 to a combination of red wine and sleeping pills. Ostensibly enough time has elapsed since his passing that Hendrix can now serve as a role model to children, at least in terms of overcoming childhood adversity, exploring one’s creativity and, of course, making beautiful music.

Thus, he is appropriately the subject of Jimi: Sounds Like a Rainbow, an autobiography designed for 4th though 8th graders which focuses primarily on the legendary guitarist’s formative years spent growing up and exploring in Seattle. Faithful factually to what actually transpired in Jimi’s life, the book touches on such significant milestones as his acquiring his first ukulele, guitar and, later, electric guitar.

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say it loudSay It Loud! Great Speeches on Civil Rights and African-American Identity Edited by Catherine Ellis and Stephen Drury Smith
http://aalbc.it/say-it-loud

Five years ago, Catherine Ellis and Stephen Drury Smith published an anthology comprised of many of the greatest civil rights speeches delivered by African-American leaders in the 20th Century [Say It Plain: Live Recordings of the 20th Century's Great African-American Speeches: A Book-and-CD Set], including classic orations by Dr. Martin Luther King, Stokely Carmichael, Thurgood Marshall, Minister Louis Farrakhan, Julian Bond and Fannie Lou Hamer, to name a few. Now, the authors are publishing book number two, but the question becomes, what do you do for an encore when you've already used up a lot of the best stuff?

Well, it looks like maybe you look over to the right, politically, and add to the mix addresses by some relatively-conservative black folks to feature next to the usual suspects such as Dr. King, Malcolm X, Roy Wilkins, Bobby Seale and Angela Davis. What does it mean when alongside these firebrands we find the words of Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice and Ward Connerly, who built his career by appealing not to fellow African-Americans but to right-wing white zealots?

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white house diaryWhite House Diary by President Jimmy Carter by President Jimmy Carter
http://aalbc.it/whitehousediary

And thanks to a tip from President Nixon who made the suggestion the first time they met, Carter decided to start keeping a journal while he was in office. If you remember, Jimmy had a certain, down-home folksy charm which had endeared him to the electorate, and that same tone is reflected in White House Diary, a 600-page opus condensed from what was originally over 5,000-pages in length.

The former president augmented the chronologically-arranged text with a sprinkling of present-day commentary where necessary to help elucidate the material. Basically, the book offers both a broad look at the scope of the Chief Executive’s exhausting daily schedule as well as an intimate peek inside the workings of the man’s mind.

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extraodinary peopleExtraordinary, Ordinary People: A Memoir of Family by Condoleezza Rice
http://aalbc.it/condirice

Given all that Condoleezza Rice went on to accomplish in life, it’s hard to believe that she was born in Birmingham, Alabama in the fifties during the repressive reign of Jim Crow segregation. But somehow, despite spending her formative years in a city where state-sanctioned discrimination served to frustrate the aspirations of most other African-Americans, she miraculously managed to overachieve with the help of doting parents blessed with the sense to recognize their gifted daughter’s great potential and to nourish her dreams the best they could.

The former secretary of State pays tribute to that herculean effort in “Extraordinary, Ordinary People,” a remarkably-revealing memoir by a very private, public figure who has to this juncture in life played her cards pretty close to the vest. But you had a sense something might be up when she recently played piano behind Aretha at a concert in Philadelphia. And after reading this intimate autobiography it’s clear that underneath that seemingly-steely veneer beats the heart is an introspective sister who’s yearning to recognize her roots.

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AALBC.com Videos
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Eloise GreenfieldEloise Greenfield - An American Treasure
http://aalbc.it/eloiseg

Eloise Greenfield, author of 45 books for children reads from and talks about her work at the Author's Pavilion during the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation's 40th Annual Legislative Conference September 18, 2010, Washington, DC

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Ifa & NtozakeIfa Bayeza & Ntozake Shange read from Some Sing, Some Cry
http://aalbc.it/ntozake

Ifa Bayeza performs from her novel, Some Sing, Some Cry written by Ifa Bayeza & Ntozake Shange Recorded by AALBC.com, Oct. 3, 2010, Harlem, New York. Ntozake Shange is also the author of the now classic choreopoem, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide when the Rainbow Is Enuf

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Amazon Kindle - ebookAmazon.com Introduces the All New Kindle
http://aalbc.it/amazonebook

Starting at Just $139, this all new eBook reader boasts numerous enhancements over the previous version including: 50% better contrast, new crisper, darker fonts, 21% smaller body while keeping the same 6" size reading area, 17% Lighter (Only 8.5 ounces, weighs less than a paperback), Battery Life of Up to One Month, Double the Storage – Up to 3,500 books, Built-In Wi-Fi (Shop and download books in less than 60 seconds), 20% Faster Page Turns – Seamless reading, Enhanced PDF Reader – With dictionary lookup, notes, and highlights, New WebKit-Based Browser – Browse the web over Wi-Fi (experimental)

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Dr. Julianne MalveauxDr. Julianne Malveaux - How She Makes Literacy Fun
http://aalbc.it/malveaux

Dr. Julianne Malveaux is the 15th President of Bennett College for Women. Recognized for her progressive and insightful observations, she is also an economist, author and commentator, and has been described by Dr. Cornel West as “the most iconoclastic public intellectual in the country.” Dr. Malveaux’s contributions to the public dialogue on issues such as race, culture, gender, and their economic impacts, are shaping public opinion in 21st century America.

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Lee McDonald & Clyde McElveneLee McDonald & Clyde McElvene - Leaders in the Book World
http://aalbc.it/soultraindvd

Lee McDonald is the Chief Strategy Officer The Renaissance Group and Clyde McElvene is the Executive Director Huston/Wright Foundation. They both speak briefly about their respective roles promoting literacy at the Author's Pavilion during the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation's 40th Annual Legislative Conference September 18, 2010, Washington, DC.

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Breena ClarkeBreena Clarke - Stand the Storm Quilting Narrative Video
http://aalbc.it/breena

Oprah Book Club author Breena Clarke grew up in Washington, D.C., and was educated at Webster College and Howard University. Her writings have appeared in the anthologies Contemporary Plays by Women of Color and Street Lights: Illuminating Tales of the Urban Black Experience. She currently administers the Editorial Diversity Program at Time Inc. in New York City. She lives in New Jersey.

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Randy Fling Rolling OutRandy Fling, COO Steed Media Group (Publisher of Rolling Out Magazine)
http://aalbc.it/rollingout

During the last 8 years, rolling out UrbanStyle Weekly has become the new voice of the African American community. With our innovative approach to integrating engaging entertainment features with equally alluring and informative business profiles, rolling out is documenting the present successes and triumphs of our community, by building on the accomplishments of the past. Not satisfied with merely witnessing the rebirth of Urban America, we are actively involved in the transformation, by shaping and perpetuating the continuity of our culture.

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AALBC.com Articles
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Earl on BarackWhat’s Really Behind The Frustration With President Obama by Earl G. Graves, Sr.
http://aalbc.it/gravesonobama

Earl G. Graves Sr. is a nationally recognized authority on black business development and the founder and publisher of Black Enterprise magazine, the premier business, investing, and wealth-building resource for African Americans. Since 1970, the publication has provided essential business information and advice to professionals, corporate executives, entrepreneurs, and decision makers. Mr. Graves authored the book, "How to Succeed in Business Without Being White."

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Closed Book StoreTop Ten Reasons Why African American Bookstores Are Closing by Gwen Richardson
http://aalbc.it/yaabookstoresclose

Gwen Richardson is co-founder of Cushcity.com, the world's largest African-American Internet retailer with over 20,000 products online. Richardson and her husband, Willie, established Cushcity.com in 1998. The web site receives more than 2 million hits per month and has thousands of customers in all 50 states and internationally. Richardson has been a writer for most of her life. "Richardson is the author of Why African-Americans Can't Get Ahead: And How We Can Solve It with Group Economics"

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AALBC.com Film Reviews
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waiting for supermanWaiting for Superman - Scathing Expose’ Chronicles Failings of Public Educational System
http://bit.ly/wait4super

Every other month or so, another new documentary illustrates how America’s public schools are failing its inner-city students. Already this year, we’ve seen several scathing indictments of the educational system, from The Cartel to The Lottery to The Providence Effect to Race to Nowhere.

Now we have Waiting for Superman, which just might be the best of the genre’s bumper crop. The film was directed by Academy Award-winner Davis Guggenheim (for An Inconvenient Truth), a man who shows a knack here for weaving ordinarily-bland statistics and bureaucrat-speak into a riveting drama replete with empathetic victims, altruistic heroes and a maniacal, power-hungry villain.

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LagacyLegacy - Starring Idris Elba
http://aalbc.it/Legacy2010

It is to the film's benefit that it defies detailed description, for the sense of ominous uncertainty and gradually unfolding discovery more closely places the viewer in the position of that "one man" in that "one room," Malcolm Gray (Idris Elba). A soldier in a Black Ops squad, he holes up in a run-down Brooklyn hotel room to try to make sense of a recent, disastrous operation that has left him battered and scarred--in ways far beyond the literal, and, as becomes apparent, for long before that fateful mission. The film opens with a taste of those events that day in Eastern Europe, and this pre-title sequence sets the stage for what follows in the next 90 minutes--not just in terms of plot and general tone but also the storytelling. As a tense stand-off erupts into violence, Ikimi gets right what so many filmmakers do not in their depictions of visceral chaos: while there are the appropriately disorienting quick edits and such, the stylish technique does not come at the expense of general coherence.

That carries over to the entirety of Legacy, as Ikimi efficiently balances and intertwines style and content to the degree that they are one and the same, hence making an inherently and willfully enigmatic scenario accessible and engrossing.

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GhettoPhysicsGhettoPhysics: Will the Real Pimps and Hos Please Stand Up! - Radical Fringe Flick Breaks World Down to Pimp and Hos
http://aalbc.it/ghettophysics

The thrust of this incendiary expose’ is that “Capitalism is the biggest pimp game” around, judging by how “President Bush was Dick Cheney’s bitch” who invaded Iraq at the direction of the Vice President, a war profiteer determined to filled the coffers of his former firm Halliburton. Frankly, although director Brown’s thought-provoking thesis is initially intriguing, this critic eventually found his dog-eat-dog deconstruction of the planet to be frankly a little depressing,

Professor West stood out in my estimation for sounding a rare note of optimism in the midst of a seemingly ubiquitous, omni-permeating symphony of despair when he stated that the need is to “transform the gangsta orientation to a more compassionate and decent one.” His thinking contrasted sharply with the conventional wisdom generally propagated here that, “You get played and pimped if you’re naïve.”

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AALBC.com Interviews
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Janet JacksonJanet Jackson - The "For Colored Girls" Interview
http://aalbc.it/damita

Global icon, trendsetter, businesswoman, and multi-talented entertainer, Janet Damita Jo Jackson is a woman who needs no introduction. Her resume reveals an impressive combination of professional achievements and philanthropic endeavors, and she is currently ranked as one of the top ten best-selling solo artists in the history of contemporary music.

Janet will soon be publishing her first book, “True You,” a memoir offering an intimate look at her life and how she has dealt with issues of self-esteem. Here, she talks about her work as Jo in Tyler Perry’s screen adaptation of For Colored Girls, an ensemble drama co-starring Kerry Washington, Thandie Newton, Kimberly Elise, Loretta Devine and Phylicia Rashad.

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Condi RiceDr. Condoleezza Rice - The Ordinary, "Extraordinary People" Interview
http://aalbc.it/Condi

Condoleezza Rice was born in Birmingham, Alabama on November 14, 1954, the only child to bless the loving union of John and Angelena Rice. In spite of the considerable disadvantages she encountered just by virtue of growing up black in The South during the days of Jim Crow, she somehow managed to overachieve, first academically, and then career-wise.

In terms of credentials, she earned her bachelor’s degree in political science, cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, from the University of Denver in 1974; her master’s from the University of Notre Dame in 1975; and her Ph.D. from the Graduate School of International Studies at the University of Denver in 1981. Dr. Rice is currently a professor of business and political science at Stanford University and the Thomas and Barbara Stephenson Senior Fellow on Public Policy at the Hoover Institution

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AALBC.com Recommends
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large imageSay It Loud: An Illustrated History of the Black Athlete by Roxanne Jones & Jessie Paolucci with foreword by Tony Dungy
http://aalbc.it/sportsphotos

"Some of you may have noticed that this is the second book in this eNewsletter with the title Say It Loud. I hope you'll find this is a case when coming in 2nd is an extraordinarily good thing, for this is an extraordinary book! This hardcover volume is of full of terrific photos. It would make a great present not just for all sports fans but for lovers of remarkable photography.

One of my favorite shots is one of Eddie Robinson (1919 - 2007) who was the head coach of Grambling State University from 1941 until 1997. Not only is it a thought provoking shot but the accompanying text provided is both informative and inspirational. The same could be said for all of the imagines." -- Troy Johnson

Say It Loud pays tribute not only to such household names but to the forgotten many who made their success and glory possible. Charlie Sifford and Lee Elder, who blazed paths on the PGA tour’s fairways; Moses Fleetwood Walker, the last African-American in professional baseball for nearly a half century before the color barrier finally fell in 1946, and Rube Foster, whose Negro National League shined a light on black stars during that benighted period; Paul Robeson, the first black football All-America, who later became a versatile artist and activist, and Fritz Pollard, whose list of gridiron firsts could fill its own book; Junius Kellogg, whose integrity protected college basketball’s in the 1950s; Althea Gibson, who brought her overpowering game from the streets to Wimbledon’s Centre Court, and Dr. Robert "Whirlwind" Johnson of Richmond, Virginia, who nurtured Gibson, Arthur Ashe, and others in order to make a permanent place for blacks in a "white" game.
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Book Events & Related Events
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Mount Morris TalksMount Morris Talks!
http://aalbc.it/troy021110

Some 70 years ago, the Harlem Renaissance gained worldwide acclaim as the African American cultural and intellectual life began to flourish in NYC. MMPCIA is reviving those traditions in Mount Morris Talks! This 21st century take on the salons of the past is a series of conversations throughout the year that give members of the community a chance to hear from the leaders, news makers, artists, authors and thinkers who now call Harlem home and even share some stories of their own.

The common theme guests in the Mount Morris Talks! series have shared with the neighborhood has been the journey of discovering and following a passion which has — in turn — made a huge difference in the lives of many others. For Troy Johnson, his life passion actually came in unexpectedly through the back door.

Join us Tuesday, November 2, from 6:30 to 8:00 PM when Mount Morris Talks to Troy Johnson! Electrical Engineer, Website Developer, Entrepreneur, Consultant, Public Speaker, Father, Husband — and Founder of the #1 Website f or African American Literature.

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The Mosaic Literary Conference
http://aalbc.it/mosaiclit

The Mosaic Literary Conference presents creative ways for keeping books and reading valuable sources of knowledge and creativity. This day of professional-development workshops will help educators incorporate literature into existing curricula to further explore course work focused on cultures, history, and social studies.

This year we celebrate the 85th anniversary of the birth of Malcolm X and the 45 anniversary of the publishing of The Autobiography of Malcolm X. November 5 & 6, 2010 at Hostos Community College, 450 Grand Concourse, Bronx, NY 10451


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Interesting Discussion Board Conversations
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cnnprogCNN's shallow program on debt indirectly shows ineffectiveness of the Black Church

http://aalbc.it/cnndebt

Despite Kam's 4 star rating I did not think I would find very much appealing about CNN's latest special on "Black America". Any viewer expecting to learn anything about debt: how and why people get into it, why they stay in debt or how one might get out of it would be sorely disappointed.

The program was really a very shallow and painfully drawn out expose of a married couple about to lose their home, a 58 year old guy unable to find employment and an impoverished teenager trying to get into and raise money for college.

The married couple apparently had not paid their mortgage in 26 months. The family was shown driving BMW SUV, the home was nicely furnished; everyone seemed to be well groomed with nice clothing – all the visual trappings of success. However no one asked the simple question – why did you not make a single mortgage payment for the last two years?!

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Book Industry News
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Visit Daily to Get the Latest News in the World of Books

http://aalbc.com/book_industry_news.php


Ngugi wa Thiong'o. Photograph: University Of California/EPAWhy Ngugi wa Thiong'o should have won the Nobel prize for literature
http://aalbc.it/nguginoble

Yesterday Ngugi wa Thiong'o didn't win the Nobel prize. A few days earlier he'd become the bookies' favourite when the odds on his being awarded literature's highest accolade fell from 75-1 to 3-1. But at midday on 7 October, Mario Vargas Llosa was announced as this year's laureate for "his cartography of structures of power and his trenchant images of the individual's resistance, revolt and defeat".

It's easy to see how the confusion might have arisen. Ngugi has dedicated his life to describing, satirising and destabilising the corridors of power. As I sat mentally congratulating the Peruvian novelist I began to wonder what it would have meant for those of us working in the field of African literature if yesterday's announcement had taken a different turn ... by Zoe Norridge Friday 8 October 2010 10.48 BST guardian.co.uk

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VS NaipaulAt 78, author V.S. Naipaul's traveling days are over
http://aalbc.it/vsnaipaul

The Nobel Laureate has wandered the world for over 50 years, chronicling the views and faiths of ordinary people in more than 30 works of fiction and nonfiction; but now, asthmatic and unsteady on his feet, it is time to stop.

His latest book on African beliefs and religion, "The Masque of Africa," is likely the last leg of a journey that has taken him from his native Trinidad to England and later to India, Iran, Malaysia and many other places.

"I am too old to do another book of this type. It was a great strain," Naipaul told Reuters in New York. Being loaded into an African wheelbarrow when his legs gave out on a walk in Gabon is the kind of experience he would rather not repeat By Edward McAllister Edward Mcallister – Wed Oct 27, 5:07 pm ET, Reuters

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INFO: Indo-Africans: The forgotten story of the Black Dutchmen > AFRO-EUROPE

Indo-Africans: The forgotten story of the Black Dutchmen


An Indo-African Black Dutchmen family in The Netherlands
The story of the Black Dutchmen is an almost forgotten part of African, Dutch and Indonesian black History. That's why the Indo-Africans are now exploring their roots.

The Black Dutchmen are the descendants of 3,000 young West African men who were “bought” between 1831 and 1872 by the Dutch colonial army to help crush uprisings in what is now Indonesia.

They were given Dutch nationality, Dutch names, and many of the privileges of the colonial masters.

Many of these men chose to settle in Central Java, and took native wives. Their sons continued to serve in the colonial army until Indonesia's independence. The Belanda Hitam, or Black Dutchmen, as they were called, then sailed off the Netherlands, the homeland they had never seen.

Today every other year or so, the Belanda Hitam, or Black Dutchmen as they are now known in the Netherlands, gather to celebrate their unique ancestry, the RNW reports.

The scene is utterly confusing, even for those most at ease in multicultural settings: tall, black, curly haired older men in African attire; short, fragile, dark skinned, flat nosed women draped in Asian prints; the lighter skinned, more Mediterranean looking youths, and then the lighter haired Caucasians. What they have in common are their Indo-African roots.

With African music, Indonesian food, and an Indo-African fashion show, about 150 of them gathered again recently to share stories about their common ancestors.

“Our story”
The African roots were long kept hidden. Was it shame, or the desire to blend into Dutch society that prevented the Indo-African elders from revealing their secret?

“It’s our story”, says Joyce Cordus, and it’s still largely unknown in the Netherlands”, despite several books having been written about the Black Dutchmen. Her father is Daan Cordus, 89, the oldest remaining descendent of the group in the Netherlands who has devoted the past decades to gathering information about their shared background. Today, Joyce is taking over his responsibility as chairman of their association.

Like her, young members of the 5th generation want to understand why they feel different in Dutch society. “They have lots of questions and we have to look for other ways to reach them.” Joyce plans to do that by using social media platforms such as Facebook, its Dutch equivalent Hyves, and Twitter.

Video of book presentation "Zwarte Huid Oranje Hart" ("Black skin, Orange Hart") here

Read The Black Dutchmen: The Story of African Soldiers in The Netherlands East Indies here

Read Indo-African Dutch Soldiers of Ghanaian descent here

Interesting to note is that the same indo-black ethnicity is also present in Surinam. A large group of Javanese people from former Dutch colony of Indonesia were brought to Surinam to serve as contract labourers after the abolition of slavery in 1863.

INTERVIEW: Cecile Carroll—Chicago Parents Occupy Elementary School Building to Prevent Demolition

Chicago Parents Occupy Elementary School Building to Prevent Demolition
Whittier

A preliminary deal has been reached between Chicago Public Schools and a group of parents who have occupied a field house at Whittier Elementary School for thirty-seven days to prevent its demolition. The Chicago Public Schools have agreed to build a library and scrap plans to demolish the field house and lease it to the local parents’ association instead. We get a report from Democracy Now!’s Jaisal Noor and speak to Chicago community organizer Cecile Carroll. [includes rush transcript]

GO HERE TO SEE VIDEO OF THIS INTERVIEW

Guest:

Cecile Carroll, Chicago community organizer and co-director of Blocks Together.

Rush Transcript

This transcript is available free of charge. However, donations help us provide closed captioning for the deaf and hard of hearing on our TV broadcast. Thank you for your generous contribution.
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JUAN GONZALEZ: We turn now to the ongoing struggle to preserve quality public education across the country. Today we go to a longstanding battle in Chicago.

A preliminary deal was reached Wednesday between Chicago Public Schools and a group of immigrant parents who have occupied a field house at Whittier Elementary School for thirty-seven days to prevent its demolition. The Chicago Public Schools have agreed to build a library and scrap plans to demolish the field house and lease it to the local parents’ association instead.

AMY GOODMAN: Despite the agreement, the parents aren’t going home just yet. They’ve vowed to continue the sit-in at the field house until they get an agreement in writing.

For more, we go to this report filed by Democracy Now!’s Jaisal Noor, who traveled to Chicago last weekend.

JAISAL NOOR: In Chicago, forty school parents are entering their fifth week of an occupation of a small field house on the campus of Whittier Elementary. The school is located in the city’s impoverished Pilsen neighborhood, which is comprised mostly of recent Mexican immigrants. Daniella Mencia is a fifth grader at Whittier.

DANIELLA MENCIA: We normally call it "La Casita," "The Little House." We do a lot of things here. The moms know—they learn their GEDs—they earn them. They know—they teach them how to sew. They teach them how to make bracelets. And this Casita is really powerful because they use it for lots of things.

JAISAL NOOR: An assessment commissioned by the Chicago school system found the building unsafe for public use and put the cost of demolition at over $350,000. That amount would come from the $1.4 million in Chicago’s tax increment financing, or TIF, funds that parents had secured for renovations and an expansion of the school. Daniella’s mother is Araceli Gonzalez, a vocal member of the community.

ARACELI GONZALEZ: The school—there has been a fight for seven years. The school was in so bad of conditions, so finally the TIF gave money, and it was, you know, part of the—TIF is our tax money. So they remodeled, you know, renovated stuff that needed to be renovated. It wasn’t like a luxury. It needed to be renovated. If you would have seen this place before, oh, my god, it was bad.

JAISAL NOOR: The parents became skeptical of the school system’s claim when they learned the decision to demolish the field house was made prior to their structural assessment. The community commissioned an independent assessment, which found the building in, quote, "good condition" with only the roof needing repair. Whittier is one of 160 Chicago public schools without a library. Eager to preserve the building the call La Casita, community members launched a campaign to remake the La Casita into a library. Again, this is ten-year old Daniella Mencia.

DANIELLA MENCIA: When I heard that they were going to knock it down, but the moms wanted to make it to a library, I knew that this was my fight.

JAISAL NOOR: Daniella’s mother, Araceli Gonzalez, said that back in September the mothers decided to occupy the building until their demands were heard.

ARACELI GONZALEZ: I mean, we’ve been here since the 15th. The moms that made the decision, we were like about ten. And now we’re like about thirty-five to forty, about forty, I want to say, parents. And they’re coming more.

JAISAL NOOR: The demonstrators have resisted several attempts to remove them. On October 4th, Chicago Public Schools cut gas supplies to La Casita. But after two days of public outcry, the Chicago City Council ordered the gas be turned back on and the demolition be halted for six months. The following day, parents and volunteers opened their own makeshift library in La Casita. The community has since donated hundreds of books to La Casita. Daniella Mencia says her teachers are eager to make use of Whittier’s new library.

DANIELLA MENCIA: They’re telling us to come here and take out a book from the library, and they say it like really rejoiceful. And I know we’re going to keep this library, and this is going to be like—it’s going to be great for us to learn and to be better in reading.

JAISAL NOOR: Chicago community organizer Carolina Gaete, who has been working in the Pilsen community for five years, says the struggle goes far beyond Whittier Elementary and building a library there.

CAROLINA GAETE: This fight here at Whittier is not just about Whittier. It’s about really taking a stand and defending public education.

JAISAL NOOR: President Obama’s Education Secretary, Arne Duncan, was the head of Chicago Public Schools from 2001 to 2009. Through direct mayoral control of the school system, he oversaw a program known as Renaissance 2010. It aimed to close sixty public schools and replace them with more than 100 selective charter schools. Gaete says these policies resulted in a crisis that neighborhood schools like Whittier are facing now.

CAROLINA GAETE: This has been in effect for already ten years here in Chicago, and this—when you go to communities where there’s no public schools, and those are the communities with a high crime rate. We cannot separate the really drying people of resources, then expecting the community to flourish. When you’re taking away the schools, children don’t have access to education. And I think that has been the effect of Renaissance 2010. When a group of mothers from Pilsen, an economically challenged immigrant community, have to sit in for twenty-five days to get a library, that is insane.

JAISAL NOOR: Today, Arne Duncan is overseeing a push by the administration to aggressively expand charter schools and mayoral control across the country through programs such as Race to the Top.

CAROLINA GAETE: I think this is a call out for all the other cities that are asking for mayoral control in order to get extra money with the Race to the Top. Don’t do it. Fight it. Fight it tooth and nail. At the end of the day, it is the worst thing that has happened to Chicago. It is the worst thing that has happened to public education.

JAISAL NOOR: The parents are in negotiations with Chicago Public Schools over the future of La Casita. They have vowed to continue the occupation until the school system agrees to allow Whittier to keep its new library. Chicago Public Schools did not respond to interview requests for the story. Araceli Gonzalez says she hopes the Whittier struggle can serve as a model for other communities.

ARACELI GONZALEZ: You know, we need to step up and do something about it, and this is what we basically did for our community. And I hope it goes on and on. In those other schools, they need stuff. They have the courage, and they could say, "The Whittier moms did it, so we can do it, too."

JAISAL NOOR: For Democracy Now!, this is Jaisal Noor in Chicago.

AMY GOODMAN: And special thanks also to Nicole Hummel.

For more on the story, we stay in Chicago with Cecile Carroll, community organizer and co-director of the group Blocks Together. Juan?

JUAN GONZALEZ: Well, Cecile Carroll, this is almost like a Republic Windows and Doors struggle for education, public education. Could you talk about what the parents have decided with this latest offer from the Chicago school officials to end the standoff?

CECILE CARROLL: Well, I haven’t been with the parents in the last couple of days. I’ve actually been in Washington, DC, working on some facility stuff for the greater Chicago area. But with every negotiation that the parents have had with CPS, they’ve been cautiously optimistic. They’ve been trying to make sure that they are being very careful with each step that they put forward and making sure that they are still making it clear to the administration that they will continue the sit-in if the promises that are put on the table right now fall through.

JUAN GONZALEZ: And could you place this in a larger context of the impact of this more than month-long struggle on the Chicago community and what it means for parents’ struggles for public education nationwide?

CECILE CARROLL: Sure. I’m so inspired by the Whittier struggle, and I think it’s such a timely struggle, as well. I think what’s been happening here in the last couple of years under the education policy Renaissance 2010 is that when it started to play out in the local communities, is that some of the schools that were already struggling in a lot of our neighborhoods where there’s low-income people of color, some of the schools that were affected by the school actions from Renaissance 2010 ended up taking more resources from the schools that did not have actions. So you’ll have a community—let’s say there’s twenty schools, and five of those schools have some type of school action, a turnaround, a closure for a charter, a consolidation of a school for another one—

JUAN GONZALEZ: We have about ten seconds left.

CECILE CARROLL: And what happened was that the other schools that didn’t have these school actions ended up not having any resources. And Whittier is a clear example of that. And those top-down decision makings end up having the community actually struggling even more.

AMY GOODMAN: Cecile Carroll, thanks so much for being with us, Chicago community organizer, co-director of Blocks Together.

 

INFO: Pew Report: African Americans Outpace Whites in Mobile Phone, App Usage | Black Web 2.0

Pew Report: African Americans Outpace Whites in Mobile Phone, App Usage

by Sherri L. Smith

Pew Report: African Americans Outpace Whites in Mobile Phone, App Usage

As the discussion on net neutrality and equal access to high-speed Internet continues, minorities continue to make strides in closing the digital divide. According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, minorities are not only gaining access to the Web, we’re doing it without necessarily having to access a desktop or a laptop. When it comes to social media, we’re not only using it at a higher rate, but we also have a different perspective on how we engage with the technology.

According to the report, since 2000, the racial makeup of American Internet users has started to more closely resemble the offline population. In fact the amount of black and Latino users has almost doubled from 11% to 21%. In addition, increasing amounts of African Americans have broadband in their homes although whites are still leading. Blacks are also less likely to go online or own a desktop computer compared to their white counterparts.  51% of African Americans own a desktop compared to 65% of whites.

While African Americans might not being using desktops to access the Web, the mobile sector is a whole new ballgame. According to the report, Latinos and blacks are more likely to own a mobile phone than whites and outpace whites in mobile app use.

Compared with white cell phone owners, blacks and Latinos are significantly more likely to use their mobile devices to:

  • Text message (70% of all African-Americans and English-speaking Latinos use text messaging, vs. just over half of whites)
  • Use social networking sites
  • Use the internet
  • Record and watch videos
  • Make a charitable donation via text message (this finding is particularly interesting since white internet users are more likely to have made a charitable donation online—25% of online whites have done so, compared with 17% of African-Americans and 14% of Latinos.)
  • Use email
  • Play games
  • Listen to music
  • Use instant messaging
  • Post multimedia content online

When it comes to laptops, African Americans have recently been purchasing laptops at an increased rate. African-American laptop ownership has risen from 34% in 2009 to 51% this year.

We’ve seen recent interest in how blacks are using Twitter. The answer is a lot. Seven out of ten African Americans use social networking sites in comparison to six out of ten whites with a quarter of blacks online using Twitter. So what exactly are we doing online? Sharing information, most notably information about the latest happenings in their neighborhood. It was also noted that blacks felt that social networking sites were a good way to keep abreast of government news.

So what can we take from this report? As technology becomes more affordable and accessible, minorities are incorporating it into their lives at an encouraging rate. There are still a number of disparities, most notably in home broadband access, but hopefully as time goes on every American will have equal access to high-speed Internet and all its benefits.

 

VIDEO: RBG-Interview with the Honorable Robert F. Williams



RBGStreetScholar | January 23, 2009

THE PHILOSOPHY OF ROBERT F. WILLIAMS PROVIDED THE INTELLECTUAL FOUNDATION FOR AMERICA'S MOST MILITANT ADVOCATES OF RACIAL AND SOCIAL JUSTICE. FROM HIS ACTIONS, SPEECHES, AND WRITINGS EMERGED THE FOUNDATION FOR THE BLACK POWER MOVEMENT.
STUDYING WITH ROBERT F. WILLIAMS IS ESSENTIAL FOR ALL RBG STREET SCHOLARS THINK TANK LEARNERS WHO INTENDS TO DRAW LESSONS FROM THE 1960S LIBERATION STRUGGLE. HIS WORKS WILL INFORM YOU ON THE CIVIL RIGHTS AND BLACK POWER MOVEMENTS, AND AMERICAN RADICALISM, AND ON ONE OF THE MOST EXTRAORDINARY POLITICAL CAREERS IN AMERICAN HISTORY.
IF ONE COULD ASK THE LEADERS COMMONLY ASSOCIATED WITH THE BLACK POWER AND BLACK NATIONALIST MOVEMENTS OF THE 1960S--MALCOLM X, KWAME TORUE (STOKELY CARMICHAEL) , JAMIAL AL-AMIN (RAP BROWN), AMIRI BARAKA (LEROI JONES) , AND BLACK PANTHERS HUEY NEWTON, BOBBY SEALE AND ELDRIDGE CLEAVER--WHAT INDIVIDUAL HAD THE GREATEST INFLUENCE ON THEIR POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT, SURELY ONE OF THE FIRST TO BE NAMED WOULD BE ROBERT FRANKLIN WILLIAMS....Study more

http://rbgnation.ning.com/profiles/bl...









 

VIDEO: Mario Van Peebles’ “Bring Your “A” Game” > Shadow And Act

Watch Now – Mario Van Peebles’ “Bring Your “A” Game”

Now you can watch Bring Your “A” Game online. It’s a 22-minute docu-drama directed by Mario Van Peebles that addresses the plight of young black men, broadly-speaking, their options and influences (however limited), and provides solutions to change the course of the lives of many, emphasizing the essentiality of educational achievement.

The film was made in collaboration with Twenty-First Century Foundation (21CF), and features interviews with Black male local and national public figures, such as Spike Lee , Chris Rock, Sean “Diddy” Combs, Russell Simmons, Lou Gossett Jr., Lupe Fiasco, Hill Harper, Dr. Cornel West, Ice Cube, Newark, New Jersey Mayor Cory Booker, Damon Dash, Kevin Powell, Melvin Van Peebles, Geoffrey Canada, and former NBA star Alan Houston, and others.

Check out the 2 1/2-minute preview below and then head over to SnagFilms to watch it for free, in its entirety, HERE:

Watch more free documentaries

 

 

 

PUB: 6th Annual Warren Adler Short Story Contest | WarrenAdler.com

6th Annual Warren Adler Short Story Contest

Posted on 20 September 2010 by admin

</p> <p style="text-align: center;">ANNOUNCING<br /> THE SIXTH ANNUAL WARREN ADLER SHORT STORY CONTEST</p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #ff0000;">Winners Get Published on Kindle and Amazon and<br /> Win Cash Prizes. </span></span></p> <p style="text-align: center;">SUBMISSIONS ACCEPTED BEGINNING OCTOBER 15, 2010<br /> CONTEST ENDS JANUARY 15, 2011</p> <p>

The Warren Adler Short Story Contest is the most prestigious international short story contest online thanks to the extraordinary literary quality of our submissions. The theme is short fiction in all of its varied genres. We are looking for original, imaginative pieces featuring compelling characters and creative plots. Your story entry can be mainstream fiction, romance, horror, fantasy, science-fiction, satire, mystery, or any of their subcategories.

The top 15 winners will be published on Kindle and Amazon exclusively in what we hope will be an annual Short Story Anthology.

Entries must not exceed 2,500 words. We will only accept stories submitted using our web form (see Pay Now button below), no exceptions.

Stories from all the points of the globe will be considered provided that they are written in English. The Grand Prize will be $1,000.

The People’s Choice winners will be determined by public voting. Cash prizes and publication will be awarded for those stories chosen as “Honorable Mention.”

  • 1st Prize: $1,000
  • People’s Choice Prize: $500
  • Remaining finalists: $50 each
  • Honorable mentions: $25 each

Authors retain worldwide publishing rights.

Contest is open for worldwide entries from October 15, 2010 until January 15, 2011.
WINNERS WILL BE ANNOUNCED FEBRUARY 15, 2011.

A $15 fee in advance is required for each story submission.

When you are ready to submit your story, make your payment to proceed to the story submission form. Each story must be written in English, previously unpublished and no longer than 2,500 words.

Good luck to all. We look forward to reading your work.

PUB: Here Come the Brides!

You Are Cordially Invited to Submit Your Writing …

Call for Submissions: Here Come the Brides! The Brave New World of Lesbian Marriage (Seal Press, 2012)

2,000-4,000 words

Editors: Audrey Bilger and Michele Kort. Audrey Bilger is the Faculty Director of the Writing Center and Associate  Professor of Literature at Claremont McKenna College. Michele Kort is Senior Editor at Ms. magazine, a freelance writer and author of three books (including Soul Picnic: The Music and Passion of Laura Nyro).

The Book: Same-sex marriage is obviously a hot topic these days, and we want to look specifically at the lesbian side of the equation. Given the secondary status of women throughout much of the globe, bonds between women—particularly intimate connections—can redefine the political landscape as well as the domestic realm. Anna and Eve don’t get as much press as Adam and Steve, but they’re potentially more threatening to the status quo.

The anthology Here Come the Brides will primarily cover legal marriages, but also lesbian commitment ceremonies in locales where the legal status of gay marriage is still up for grabs. We hope the book will be able to represent a diversity of points of view in terms of race, class, ethnicity and geography, and incorporate transgender perspectives. Although the book will be generally upbeat about lesbian marriage, we’d also like viewpoints from those who are opposed to either being married themselves or who have issues with the institution or the politics of same-sex marriage.

We’re looking for a variety of material: primarily first-person essays, but also secondhand observations, bridesmaid/mother-of-the-bride/etc. stories, and even analytical pieces (as long as they’re written in an accessible style). We’re open to graphic essays/cartoons as well, and we’re eager to see lesbian wedding ephemera: great photos, invitations, newspaper wedding announcements, vows, guest favors.

Needless to say, we’re looking for terrific writing—colorful, moving, funny, surprising, insightful. We can imagine essays that cover a lesbian marriage from soup to nuts, but we think it’s more likely, given the word limitation, that it might be best to focus on a certain aspect of lesbian marriage or of your particular wedding—at least as an organizing principle. Here are some questions to think about; perhaps one or more will inspire a resonant tale:

What made you decide to get married?

How significant was legalization in your state/country in your decision?

How/who popped the question?

What trepidations did you have about marriage?

What does marriage mean to you? What doubts do you have about the institution?

How is marriage the same/different for a lesbian couple?

How did your families handle the news? Was there any particular joy or heartbreak about someone who did or did not support your wedding?

What was the planning process for your wedding? Was it a fancy affair, or just a trip to the courthouse?

Did you have a best man/woman or bridesmaids/bridesmen?

Do you have children, and were they involved in the wedding?

Do you have a good story about your wedding outfits? About the ceremony/reception? Who did you invite?

If you’re an interracial couple, did that bring out issues beyond your lesbian connection? Same question if one or both of you is transgender.

Was your wedding traditional—or did you purposefully try to “queer” it?

Did you write your vows? Did you put out an announcement in the newspaper?

Did you go on a honeymoon?

What do you call your spouse?

How has lesbian wedded life met/exceeded/confounded your expectations? Does your relationship feel different since you married?

Has marriage made you more/less radical about LGBT issues?

Deadline for submissions: January 30, 2011.

Please consider running your ideas past us before you plunge into writing. We also encourage early submissions.

Please email inquiries and submissions to: abilger@cmc.edu

Looking forward to hearing from you!