Jenifer Lewis shares secrets to Hollywood success in new memoir Jenifer Lewis, affectionately nicknamed “Auntie” in Black Hollywood, recently made a special appearance at the Duke Ellington School of Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. where she shared the trials, tribulations and triumphs of her journey to superstardom, while sending a strong message to millennials to […]
Books
A space for local and national arts and entertainment stories, with an emphasis on stories pertaining to African and African Americans.
Posted inArts + Culture, Books
BOOK REVIEW: ‘Policing the Black Man’
You have to believe it’s hard to go wrong with a book enthusiastically endorsed by Toni Morrison, Henry Louis Gates, Jr. or Walter Mosley, never mind all three, and your money’s safe betting on a copy of Policing the Black Man (Pantheon Books). Edited by American University Law Professor Angela J. Davis, eleven incisive essays, including her […]
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‘The Journey of Little Charlie,’ rich storytelling for all ages
Christopher Paul Curtis has the rare gift of being to effortlessly render a youngster’s reality readily accessible to readers of all ages. He did it beautifully with the multiple award-winning Bud, Not Buddy, about a motherless boy in search of his father. He does it again with The Journey of Little Charlie (Scholastic Press), looking over the shoulder of […]
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Black authors take center stage at first annual MN Black Authors Expo
Black authors in Minnesota haven’t always had a platform to come together and showcase their work. Well, this is about to change. Authors Jasmine Boudah and De’Vonna Pittman are hosting the first Minnesota Black Authors Expo. The event will be held on Saturday, November 18 at the Northside Economic Opportunity Network (NEON) on West Broadway […]
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‘Sights, Sounds, Soul’ offers vivid images of Twin Cities Black history
Sights, Sounds, Soul: The Twin Cities through the Lens of Charles Chamblis (Minnesota Historical Society Press, $25.95) is proof positive that, as the saying goes, anything worth doing is worth doing well, even a coffee table book. Accordingly, this admirably fills the bill, a catalog of richly compelling images chronicling Black Minneapolis and St. Paul circa the 1970s […]
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Rybak’s ‘Pothole Confidential’ plays it safe
T. Rybak’s Pothole Confidential: My Life as Mayor of Minneapolis(University of Minnesota Press) isn’t exactly a bill of goods but it does bear taking with several grains of salt. As concerns a political memoir, Pothole Confidential generally passes muster — innocuous, fairly interesting and often entertaining. The writing style is fluid, personably engaging and without benefit of an […]
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‘Invisible Ink’ takes on institutional racism in corporate America
“It has always been a struggle for the relatively few African Americans in corporate America who do exist, and it is made all the more difficult because we tend to operate in isolation. We are nearly always alone, with no one to fall back on… as we deal daily with an unending stream of slights […]
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‘We Were Eight Years in Power’ — a call for vigilance against history repeating itself
“For so much of American history, the fact of Black people is a problem… The demonstrable truth has been evaded in favor of a more comforting story… [But America is] a country trying to skip out on a bill, trying to stave off a terrible accounting… It’s clear to me that the common theory of […]
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‘My Grandmother’s Hands,’ an enlightening how-to approach to heal racial trauma
“For the past three decades, we’ve earnestly tried to address White-body supremacy in America with reason, principle and ideas — using dialogue, forums, discussions, education and mental training. But the widespread destruction of Black bodies continues. And some of the ugliest destruction originates with the police. Why is there such a chasm between our well-intentioned […]
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Roxane Battle shares insight into living a joyful life
Roxane Battle, the KARE-11 television journalism legend is, of course, a household name. She’s been featured in Ebony, Working Mother, Star Tribune and the Pioneer Press. She’s also been a keynote speaker for the Girl Scouts, Team Women Minnesota, and the Amherst H. Wilder Foundation, in addition to being a contributor to mariashriver.com. What’s not common knowledge is the veteran’s […]
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New author gives ‘pretty powerful’ advice
“Pretty powerful is the understanding that, as women, we have the duality of both ‘pretty’ and ‘substance’ that can (and should) be maximized to achieve any success we set our minds to… While there are significant challenges along the way… we have incredible choice around how we utilize our appearance, coupled with our substance… This […]
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New book champions marginalized players behind the ‘Minneapolis Sound’
Were Ralph J. Gleason alive and still running Rolling Stone magazine with such integrity it was called the “New York Times of rock,” journalist Andrea Swensson’s tenacious grit at championing underexposed artists in Got to Be Something There: The Rise of the Minneapolis Sound (University of Minnesota Press) would be a perfect fit. Swensson (AS) recently […]
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Silent no more: Local author gives voice to pain of Black mothers
“Being a Superwoman every day, 24/7 is not realistic. Being strong is being able to ask for help. If you don’t, you might not be here [much longer]” said Jasmine Boudah M.Ed (pronounced bow-duh) a teacher by trade, parent advocate at Phyllis Wheatley Community Center, doula, and now a published author. Boudah’s first book, Mothering Through Pain and […]
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BOOK REVIEW: ‘Regarding Megan Marie’
One can read all the stats on record about Black women and suicide without receiving the benefit that comes with Regarding Megan Marie: Conquering Depression & Acquiring the Skill of Happiness – Surviving Suicide (One Dragonfly Publishing). Megan Bussen’s exhaustively detailed, first-hand account of how she came to grips with mental illness goes beyond numbers and charts to put […]
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‘In Search of the Sandman’ awakens local author’s creative vision
It was a long time in the making, but the fruition has been sweet for South Minneapolis native Timi Bliss, who published her first book in April of 2017. What began years ago as a bedtime tale created for mother-daughter bonding moments has blossomed into In Search of the Sandman, a children’s story about a […]
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‘In Search of…’ is top-shelf summer reading
Kyle S. Taylor is, so to speak, an author’s author. Fellow writers can easily appreciate his skill of making the hard job of creating engaging fiction look easy. He brandishes a firm grasp of fundamentals like eye-friendly word-flow, solid character construction, compelling immediacy, and imagery that paints a perfectly clear picture. For good measure, Taylor […]
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BOOK REVIEW: ‘The Making of Black Lives Matter: A Brief History of an Idea’
Two recent Twin Cities news stories — the trial of former St. Anthony Police Officer Jeronimo Yanez and verdict in the fatal shooting Philando Castile, and the family of Jamar Clark suing Minneapolis Police Officers Mark Ringgenberg and Dustin Schwarze — highlight what has become all too commonplace here and across the country: African American lives selectively […]
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BOOK REVIEW: ‘Avoid Prepare Defend’ armed with common sense strategies
Ulrich Faircloth’s Avoid Prepare Defend: 25 Essential Tips on How to Stay Safe From Crime (Self Defense Bros.) is, you might say, profound in its simplicity. He states the obvious and cites common sense, smart ideas when it comes the subject of personal safety. After all, in the matter of preserving life and limb, what’s […]
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BOOK REVIEW: ‘This Is Where I Am’
Zack Caligiuri’s This Is Where I Am (University of Minnesota Press, $17.95) comes from a gifted author and would’ve worked with competent editing and a publishing house acting with integrity. Regrettably, this valuable volume suffers a disjointed rendering and worse, sensationalized publicity peddling a bill of goods: hawking the book as a prison memoir — […]
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Local fire captain shares his long road to authorship
North Minneapolis resident Cavis Adams is a full-time fire captain for the City of Minneapolis Fire and Rescue. He’s also a new author, having published the book Granddaddy last November. “I’ve always wanted to be a writer,” said Adams, who holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Spanish from the University of Minnesota, and freelances as […]