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Tag Archives: 2011
“Warmth Of Other Suns” Named The 2013 Selection For Chicago’s City-Wide Book Club
With so much negative news spilling out of Chicago each day, we're happy to see at least one bright spot among the tragedies.
Isabel WIlkerson's 2010 work "The Warmth of Other Suns" was named the next selection of the Chicago Public Library's "One Book, One
Chicago" program, announced by Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel on Monday.
Of the selection Emanuel said:
“Isabel Wilkerson’s book brings to life the stories of African Americans who left their homes in the South in search of a better life. These are the stories of people who helped create the Chicago we know today – and of people continuing to come to our city each day in hopes of finding their dream. Each of us has a story to tell about our family’s path to Chicago and how we all helped to make Chicago the most... Read More →
We Can’t Get Enough Of Zora Neale Hurston
As we wrote before, Isabel Wilkerson has been educating her fans on the impact of the Great Migration by posting stories of prominent African Americans to her Facebook page. Recently, she profiled Zora Neale Hurston, one of our favorite writers and one of the literary world's greatest treasures.
We loved what she had to say about Hurston so much that we decided to share it with you here:
On this day, January 7, in 1891 or 1901, beloved author Zora Neale Hurston was born in Notasulga, Ala., to Rev. John and Lucy Hurston. She grew up in the all-black town of Eatonville, Fla., and went north as a young woman, just as the Great Migration was starting during World War I. She attended what is now Morgan State University and then Howard University, where she got her first story published in... Read More →
WE REMEMBER: August Wilson’s Play, “The Piano Lesson,” Debuted 25 Years Ago This Month
[caption id="attachment_3515" align="alignleft" width="335"] A photo from the 1987 premiere of August Wilson's "The Piano Lesson."[/caption]
In our rush to get to Thanksgiving dinner, we missed the anniversary of August Wilson's "The Piano Lesson." 2011 winner Isabel Wilkerson reminded us through a post on her Facebook page (she's just FULL of wonderful factoids about African American history), including a rare photo of Samuel L. Jackson (third from left), who starred in the play as Boy Willie.
Wilkerson writes:
It was 25 years ago today, Nov. 23, 1987, that the August Wilson play, The Piano Lesson, made its world premiere, starring Samuel L. Jackson (3rd from left) as Boy Willie, at the Yale Repertory... Read More →
Isabel Wilkerson Greeted By Surprise From Fan In Her Hotel Room
Isabel Wilkerson posted the above photo and the following message on her Facebook page - seems she has a superfan out there!
Deepest gratitude at this special time to every person who has embraced this book and the inspiring message of the Great Migration. Filled with joy for whoever created what is shown in this picture: an edible edition of The Warmth of Other Suns created with love and care by an anonymous fan. This greeted me in my room at the Ritz Carlton in San Francisco, where I was to speak in the City Arts and Lectures series.
Neither the event organizers nor the hotel said they knew how it got there or who had gone to such trouble to create or commission it. However it got there, this... Read More →
VIDEO: “The Great Migration Is The Story Of Most African-Americans” – Isabel Wilkerson
A full two years after her acclaimed book, The Warmth of Other Suns, was published, Isabel Wilkerson continues to work hard on the promotion trail, working to raise awareness of the Great Migration and its impact on today's culture. "They changed American culture as we know it," Wilkerson says in this short interview during the 2012 Leimert Park Book Fesitval. "So much of what we think of as American culture is actually the culture of the people who did this (migrated). We're talking about Toni Morrison, who became a Nobel Laureate; we're talking about people like August Wilson, the playwright; Lorraine Hansberry, who wrote The Raisin in the Sun...we're also talking about music. Motown wouldn't have existed at all. Rock 'n' roll, as we know it, would not have existed." Watch the short... Read More →
VIDEO: Will We See A Big-Screen Adaptation of “The Warmth Of Other Suns”?
Interview with Isabel Wilkerson from Mayborn School of Journalism on Vimeo.
To say there has been immense interest in Isabel Wilkerson's "Warmth of Other Suns" would be an understatement. She recently gave the ending keynote at the Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference last month, where she noted that she has been on the road promoting the book extensively since it was first released in September 2010. During the wrap-up interview, Wilkerson was asked if we might see her book on the big screen, similar to "The Help." Check out the video above for the answer as well as more on Wilkerson's process, her writing career and more.
Read More →
VIDEO: Isabel Wilkerson On The Great Migration
During a stop to the Tavis Smiley show on PBS, Isabel Wilkerson described her desire to capture stories of the Great Migration. It was a labor of love—more than a decade of researching, interviewing, writing, and rewriting to accurately capture the stories of African Americans who left the south for more opportunities and a better life in the North.
As Tavis Smiley says, "Everybody's talking about this now. But only because you had the discipline and courage and conviction and commitment to tell this story – a story that is at the very epicenter of what America is."
Check out the video and let us know - have you read the book? What were your thoughts? Read More →
Would You Like To See Your Relatives As The Subject Of A Book?
Isabel Wilkerson's 2010 masterpiece The Warmth of Other Suns focuses on the Great Migration, scores of Southern African Americans who packed up and left everything they knew behind for a brighter future in the North. With painstaking detail, Wilkerson recounts the lives of four African Americans and their dreams awaiting them in a new place. It was a difficult journey for most, with countless hardships along the way. One of the subjects profiled, Robert Foster, made his way to medical school, becoming a surgeon and later opening his own private practice.
His daughter, Bunny Foster, sat down with Isabel Wilkerson in the research stage of the book to share her memories of her father. In a recent interview, she talked about how the man she remembered is different (in a good way) from the... Read More →
VIDEO: Middle School Students Perform “Warmth Of Other Suns” Play
There's nothing like seeing young people get excited about history, something that is typically pretty hard to do. "Warmth of Other Suns" author Isabel Wilkerson found this gem and shared it with all her fans, writing:
Delighted that WARMTH is inspiring young people! A middle school in Milwaukee performed a play based on The Warmth of Other Suns, with lots of heart and just enough production values for someone in the audience to get it on YouTube. Just beautiful!
Check out Act 2 of the play above and let us know what you think! Read More →
On Writing: Nicole Krauss And The Magic Of Literature
It's always a question of whether the story will come when a writer sits down to begin a work and for Nicole Krauss, it's always a mystery. In an interview with Interview magazine, she talks about her strengths as a writer:
Part of the work of writing a novel is to uncover these symmetries or connections that make it whole, which might not reveal itself at first. I have a very strong sense of architecture in my novels. But, yes, at first it's sometimes like it's like building a doorknob before you have a door, and a door before you have a room.
When asked about her writing process for Great House, she admits that this is her favorite part of her job:
On different days I would work on different sections and sometimes I would get really absorbed into one voice and I would... Read More →
