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- Spanish-Language Books Finding A Tough Road To Bookshelves
- Natasha Trethewey’s Bringing Poetry To The Masses
- “Can I Touch Your Hair?” NYC Exhibit Lets Passerby Explore Black Women’s Tresses
- Congressman John Lewis Publishes Graphic Novel Of Civil Rights Movement
- Lorraine Hansberry Biopic In Development
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Anisfield-Wolf Community Blog
Spanish-Language Books Finding A Tough Road To Bookshelves
On July 2, Atria Books will publish eight versions of a new autobiography, “Unbreakable: My Story, My Way,” by Jenni Rivera, the Mexican American star who sold more than 15 million albums in a career cut short in a fatal plane crash last December.
“Unbreakable” will come out in English and Mexican Spanish—which Rivera sang and spoke fluently—and in hardcover, paperback and digital formats. The publisher will also print two special editions with extra photographs—an idea from Walmart, which committed to accepting 17,000 copies to sell, said Judith Curr, Atria’s publisher and founder.
Curr told an audience in Manhattan at Book Expo America that Atria is “one of many rooms where a different community can be heard.”
Founded 11 years ago, her upstart imprint enjoyed a... Read More →
Natasha Trethewey’s Bringing Poetry To The Masses
A 2009 National Endowment for the Arts study found that only 8 percent of adults read any poetry in the previous year. Children do better. The Poetry Foundation discovered that the main reasons adults take a pass is loss of interest, lack of time, lack of access, and the perception that poetry is difficult and irrelevant.
[caption id="attachment_4083" align="alignleft" width="223"] ©Joel Benjamin[/caption]
U.S. poet laureate Natasha Trethewey, recently appointed to her second term, is working to welcome more adults to the party.
"We can’t know what poem is going to be the poem that brings someone to poetry, comforts them in times of grief, tragedy, and loss, or celebrates with them in times of joy and triumph,” she told the Los Angeles Review of Books last year. “But it... Read More →
“Can I Touch Your Hair?” NYC Exhibit Lets Passerby Explore Black Women’s Tresses
As an African-American woman, I've had strangers grab and rake their fingers through my hair (without my permission) on more than one occasion. They seem amazed at my soft curls and ask me questions about my hair care regime. Once, when I was flying, my Afro puff on top of my head seemed to require a very thorough pat-down by TSA agents. The woman who checked my hair for weapons remarked, "It's so full! Wow."
These encounters illustrate the reality for many black women—what grows out of your scalp (and how) is always more than "just" hair, as exemplified in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s new novel, “Americanah.”
On the Huffington Post, Antonia Opiah, founder of the site Un-Ruly.com, shared her thoughts on strangers' requests to touch her hair, sharing one noteworthy incident that... Read More →
Congressman John Lewis Publishes Graphic Novel Of Civil Rights Movement
“Some of you may be asking: ‘Hey, John Lewis, why are you trying to write a comic book?’” said the legendary civil rights leader, smiling at the incongruity of this development for an audience at Book Expo America, the annual publishing trade show in Manhattan.
John Lewis was 17 when he met Rosa Parks; 18 when he joined forces with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Five years later, he was one of the “big six,” an architect of the historic Civil Rights March on Washington in August 1963. Standing at the Lincoln memorial, Lewis spoke sixth and King spoke tenth, stamping the day with his immortal “I Have a Dream.” Of all those who addressed the throng a half century ago, Lewis is the only one left.
Now, at 73, he has become the first member of the U.S. Congress to... Read More →
Lorraine Hansberry Biopic In Development
Films on Princess Diana, Steve Jobs, and Jimi Hendrix should make 2013 a rich year for biopics. An intriguing new one just has been announced: a movie on the life of Lorriane Hansberry, playwright, author, and activist.
The big question is who will play Lorraine? According to Shadow and Act, Taye Hansberry, Lorraine's grand niece, has been cast. She will also help write the screenplay. Jaleel White (from Family Matters) will play James Baldwin, one of Lorraine's close friends. Production begins in the fall.
[caption id="attachment_4044" align="alignleft" width="335"] Lorraine (left) and her grand niece, Taye Hansberry[/caption]
Lorraine's most-known work, A Raisin in the Sun, was inspired by her family's attempts to integrate a Chicago neighborhood. Unmarred by violent attacks... Read More →
REVIEW: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Soars With “Americanah”
Americanah
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Knopf, 477 pp., $26.95
Hair asserts itself on the first page of “Americanah,” a knowing, prickly and virtuosic novel from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. She was 29 when she won an Anisfield-Wolf award in 2007 for “Half of a Yellow Sun”; she picked up a MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant the following year. Her mother, a Nigerian university registrar, likes to say little Chimamanda started to read when she was 2. The writer herself thinks it was probably around age 4.
“Americanah” wears its genius lightly, starting with a pleasurable and assured set-up chapter that puts its central character Ifemelu on a train from Princeton to Trenton, N.J. Her mission: to have her hair braided. After 13 years stateside, most recently on a fellowship to... Read More →
VIDEO: “Nollywood” Brings Adaptation of Adichie’s “Half of a Yellow Sun”
If you can't find the art you want, make it yourself.
That was famously the mindset of Jay-Z, when the rapper started Roc-A-Fella Records in 1995, and that DIY approach animates "Nollywood," the Nigerian film industry.
Approximately 1,000 Nigerian movies are produced each year, surpassing the 800 films churned out annually in the U.S. For innovators everywhere, digital innovations have lowered technological barriers and production costs. Without a formal distribution model, Nigerian film prospers—many movies are watched at home in a nation of few theaters.
One of this year’s most anticipated projects is the adaptation of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's novel Half of a Yellow Sun, scheduled for release in November 2013. The book won an Anisfield-Wolf award for fiction in 2007... Read More →
VIDEO: Rita Dove’s 2013 Emory University Commencement Address
Pulitzer Prize-winner and former Poet Laureate of the United States, Rita Dove delivered the 2013 commencement address to the graduates of Emory University in Atlanta.
The Anisfield-Wolf jury member spoke on the beauty of imagination and finding confidence as they journey into the unknown. Dove also received an honorary degree, with Emory President James Wagner praising her ability to "generously illuminate the world of beauty that formerly was hidden."
Watch the video below and tell us: How did you respond to Dove's message? Just for fun—do you remember your commencement speaker or their message?
Read More →
Rare Slave Cabin To Become Crown Jewel Of New African American History Museum
[caption id="attachment_4017" align="alignleft" width="335"] The cabin will be dismantled and reassembled at the Smithsonian.[/caption]
Where can one find Nat Turner’s Bible, Emmet Till’s coffin and Harriet Tubman’s shawl? Answer: the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture when it opens in late 2015.
Additionally, one of the nation’s oldest remaining slave cabins will be joining these artifacts in Washington, D.C., according to the New York Times.
The 320-square-foot cabin is being dismantled piece by piece, to be rebuilt inside the museum. It is one of two slave cabins in Edisto Island, S.C. They have stood on the Point of Pines plantation since the 1850s. Neither cabin has ever had electricity or heat, but continued to shelter... Read More →
“Geography Of Hate” Map Shows Where Most Hateful Tweeters Lurk
Students at Humboldt State University in northern California analyzed more than 11 months of Twitter data to locate the biggest pockets of hate speech in America.
For the "Geography of Hate" project, students manually sifted through more than 150,000 tweets containing hateful speech targeting sexuality, race, and disability. Student read each tweet to determine whether the slur was used in a positive, negative, or neutral manner. Sample keywords included "homo," "n*****," and "cripple."
To enhance accuracy of the map, researchers "normalized" the data to ensure that larger populations would not appear more racist simply because there are more people living there.
Researchers found that most of the slurs were not centralized to one particular region. A few terms were more... Read More →
