Sharyn Skeeter's Blog
Posted by Sharyn Skeeter
June 2
“Power comes not from the barrel of a gun, but from one’s own awareness of his or her own cultural strength and the unlimited capacity to emphasize with, feel for, care, and love one’s brothers and sisters.”
Addison Gayle (1932-1991), literary critic
June 3
“I was learning the importance of names—having them, making them—but at the same time I sensed the dangers. Recognition was followed by oblivion, a yawning maw whose victims disappeared without a trace.”
Josephine Baker (1906-1975), jazz singer and dancer
June 7
“Truth-tellers are not always palatable. There is a preference for candy bars.”
Gwendolyn Brooks (1917-2000), poet, novelist
June 17
“The stubbornness I had as a child has been transmitted into perseverance. I can let go but I don’t give up. I don’t beat myself up about negative things.”
Phylicia Rashad, actress
June 20
“I think I must write a book. It has been my cherished dream and I feel an influence that I cannot resist calling me to the task.”
Charles W. Chesnutt (1858-1932), novelist, short story writer
June 22
“Go within every day and find the inner strength so that the world will not blow your candle out.”
Katherine Dunham (1910-2006), dancer, author, anthropologist
June 27
“I hope there is something worthy in my writings and not merely the novelty of a black face associated with the power of rhyme that has attracted attention.”
Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906), poet, novelist, short story writer
June 30
“It’s not the load that breaks you down, it’s the way you carry it.”
Lena Horne, singer, actress
Posted by Sharyn Skeeter
Lucille Clifton is this year’s winner of the very prestigious Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize. This is a prize with a $100,000 award, one of the largest literary prizes in the country. Lucille Clifton is a writer who certainly deserves it for her lifetime achievement as a poet and author.
Her first book of poetry, Good Times, was published in 1969 and declared by the New York Times as one of the year’s best books. Since then she has published at least a dozen poetry collections, numerous children’s books (including the Everett Anderson series), and a memoir. She has been a professor and poet-in-residence at many U.S. universities and colleges.
Clifton’s poetry reflects her love and respect for her African-American heritage, family, and the broader community. Her topics include African-American history, current events, women’s issues, indeed the whole spectrum of life’s experiences. Feelings of compassion and a sense of justice permeate her work.
Two of her poetry collections were nominated for the Pulitzer Prize--Good Woman: Poems and a Memoir 1969-1980 (1987) and Two-Headed Woman (1980). In 2000, she was honored with the National Book Award for her poetry collection Blessing the Boats: New and Selected Poems 1988-2000 (2000). Clifton has won numerous other awards--including an Emmy--and was Poet Laureate of Maryland (1979-1981).
In an interview with Hilary Holladay in 1998, Lucille Clifton said, “I have a poem that says something like, ‘the future is possible.’ I do believe that.”
Posted by Sharyn Skeeter
Congratulations to Natasha Trethewey on winning the Pulitzer Prize for her poetry collection, Native Guard (2006).
She was born in Gulfport, Mississippi, the geographic base of this collection. Some of the poems are tributes to her mother who died when Trethewey was a teen. Many of the poems are written as letters and diary entries by African-American Union soldiers stationed on Ship Island near Gulfport during the Civil War. The narrator is ironically an ex-slave who guards captured white Confederate soldiers.
Natasha Trethewey’s own background—growing up in Mississippi as the biracial child of an African-American mother and white father—is a factor in some of the poems in her three collections. Also, her father, Eric Trethewey, is the author of five collections of poetry and the 1990 winner of the Virginia Prize for Poetry.
She is no stranger to honors for her poetry. Her first collection, Domestic Work (2000), was selected by Rita Dove (former U.S. Poet Laureate from 1993 to 1995) to be the first winner of Cave Canem’s poetry prize in 1999. Among the many awards that followed are the Margaret Walker Award for poetry, the Grolier Prize, the Jessica Nobel-Maxwell Memorial Award for poetry, the Julia Peterkin Award at Converse College, the Bunting and Guggenheim fellowships, and the Distinguished Young Alumna Award at the University of Massachusetts.
Her second poetry collection is Bellocq's Ophelia (2002). She is an associate professor of English and creative writing at Emory University.
Posted by Sharyn Skeeter
May 1: Sterling Brown (1901-1989) was a poet and literary critic who was also interested in African-American folklore. Among his books are Southern Road, Negro Poetry, Drama and the Negro in American Fiction, and The Collected Poems of Sterling A. Brown (edited by Michael Harper).
May 10: Jayne Cortez has published ten books of poetry. She has recorded nine CDs of her poetry with her band The Firespitters. She has received several awards including the International African Festival Award, the Langston Hughes Award, and the American Book Award.
May 11: Edward Kamau Brathwaite is a Barbadian poet, historian, playwright, and essayist. He is a prolific writer who has published many books. A few of his poetry collections are Masks, Roots, Soweto, and Third World Poems.
May 19: Lorraine Hansberry (1930-1965), playwright, in 1959, was the first African-American woman to have a drama (Raisin in the Sun) produced on Broadway. She also wrote The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window and Les Blancs, as well as scripts for public television before she died from cancer at 34. To Be Young, Gifted and Black was adapted from her writings posthumously.
May 25: Jamaica Kincaid, Antigua-born, is a novelist and short story writer. Her books include Lucy, My Garden, Talk Story, Seed Gathering Atop the World, and others. She has received the Anifield-Wolf Book Award and The Lila-Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund Award.
May 30: Countee Cullen (1903-1946) was a Harlem Renaissance writer who published four collections of poetry, translations, plays, and one novel. The poetry included The Ballad of the Brown Girl, Copper Sun, The Black Christ and Other Poems, and Color. His most well-known poem is “Yet Do I Marvel.”
May 31: Al Young is a poet, novelist, and college professor who has won numerous awards for his writing. Among his many books are Dancing, Sitting Pretty, Who Is Angelina?, Kinds of Blue, and Mingus, Mingus. He has also written screenplays and edited African American Literature: A Brief Introduction and Anthology.
Posted by Sharyn Skeeter
Cave Canem was founded in 1996 by poets Toi Derricotte and Cornelius Eady. For over a decade it has been an exceptional resource for African-American poets. Its programs include a week-long summer retreat, a first book prize, a Legacy Conversation series, writing workshops, other publications, and readings.
Among Cave Canem’s faculty and judges have been such renowned poets as Lucille Clifton, Yusef Komunyakaa, Elizabeth Alexander, Sonia Sanchez, and Carl Phillips.
The two collections of poetry that have come from Cave Canem are Gathering Ground: A Reader Celebrating Cave Canem’s First Decade (University of Michigan Press) and The Ringing Ear: Black Poets Lean South (The University of Georgia Press).
The Lannan Foundation grant will support Cave Canem’s support staff positions, professional services, and marketing efforts.
Posted by Sharyn Skeeter
April 1: Augusta Baker (1911-1998) was a writer and storyteller from Baltimore who was a librarian at the New York Public Library for 35 years and who developed extensive bibliographies of African American-based children's literature.
April 1: Samuel R. Delany is a well-known, award-winning science fiction writer. Some of his novels are Nova, Dalgren, The Einstein Intersection, Hogg, and the Neveryon Series. He has also written short stories, essays, and he co-edited anthologies..
April 4: Maya Angelou is a poet, writer, and actress. Her memoirs—I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes—are well known. She has been honored with many literary, theater, and academic awards. In 1993, she read her poetry at President Bill Clinton’s inauguration.
April 5: Booker T. Washington (1855-1915) was an ex-slave from Virginia who rose to prominence as an essayist, autobiographer, biographer, educator, and social thinker. His best known book is Up From Slavery.
April 9: Paule Marshall is a novelist and short story writer who highlights her Caribbean heritage in her work. She has been honored with many awards including a MacArthur Fellowship. Her novels include Brown Girl, Brownstones, Soul Clap Hands and Sing, Praisesong for the Widow, and The Fisher King.
April 13: Nella Larsen (1893-1964) was a well-known Harlem Renaissance novelist and short story writer. Her novels include Quicksand and Passing.
April 19: Etheridge Knight (1931-1991) was a Mississippi-born poet whose first poetry collection—Poems from Prison—was informed by his prison experience. He also published Belly Song and Other Poems, Born of a Woman, and The Essential Etheridge Knight.
April 23: Charles Johnson is a novelist, short story writer, essayist, journalist, screenwriter, and cartoonist. In 1990 he received the National Book Award for his novel Middle Passage and he is a recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship . His other novels include Faith and the Good Thing, Oxherding Tale, and Dreamer.
April 27: Jessie Redmon Fauset (1882-1961) was a Harlem Renaissance novelist, essayist, teacher, and poet. When she edited The Crisis magazine she encouraged such authors as Langston Hughes and Jean Toomer.
April 27: August Wilson (1945-2005) , acclaimed Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winning playwright, who wrote a ten-play cycle which includes The Piano Lesson, Fences, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Two Trains Running, and Radio Golf.
April 29: Yusef Komunyakaa won the Pulitzer Prize in 1995 for his poetry collection Neon Vernacular. He has published many volumes of poetry including Copacetic and Dien Cai Dau, which is based on his experiences in the war in Vietnam.
Posted by Sharyn Skeeter
Poet Elizabeth Alexander, the author of four collections of poetry, is the first recipient of the $50,000 Jackson Poetry Prize. The prize is sponsored by the Poets & Writers organization and made possible by a donation from the Liana Foundation.
Elizabeth Alexander is also an essayist, playwright and professor at Yale University. Her books of poetry include American Sublime (a finalist for the 2005 Pulitzer Prize), The Venus Hottentot, Antebellum Dream Book, and Body of Life. Her collection of essays is The Black Interior.
The Jackson Poetry Prize honors an exceptional American poet who has published at least one book of poems of literary merit but who has not yet received national acclaim. Poets cannot apply for this award. They are nominated by an anonymous panel of their peers. Three nationally recognized judges make the final decision.
Congratulations to Elizabeth Alexander!
Posted by Sharyn Skeeter
March 1: Ralph Ellison (1914-1994) received international recognition with the publication of his novel Invisible Man (1952). He was honored with numerous awards including the American Medal of Freedom, National Medal of Arts, National Book Award Gold Medal, National Newspaper Publishers’ Russwurm Award and, in France,Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He also published essays and his novel, Juneteenth, was published posthumously.
March 5: Charles H. Fuller, Jr. is a playwright from Philadelphia, Penn. who won the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 1982 for A Soldier's Play, which was made into the movie, A Soldier's Story, in 1984. He was co-founder and co-director of Philadelphia’s Afro-American Arts Theatre.
March 12: Virginia Hamilton (1936-2002) was author of more than 30 children’s books. She won many awards including the National Book Award, the Edgar Allan Poe Award, the Coretta Scott King Award, the Boston Globe/Horn Book Award, and the Hans Christian Andersen Medal. Her M.C. Higgins, the Great (1971) won the John Newbery Medal.
March 15: Ben Okri is a Nigerian-born novelist, essayist and poet. His novel The Famished Road won the Booker McConnell Prize for Fiction. His other works include Songs of Enchantment, Astonishing the Gods, A Way of Being Free, and several others.
March 18: Michael S. Harper, the first poet laureate of Rhode Island (1988-1993), has published more than 10 poetry collections. His first, Images of Kin (1977), won the Melville-Cane Award and was nominated for the National Book Award. Harper is a professor at Brown University.
March 22: Houston A. Baker, Jr. is an outspoken literary critic. His books include Modernism and the Harlem Renaissance, Blues, Ideology, and Afro-American Literature and his upcoming I Don't Hate the South: Reflections on Faulkner, Family, and the South.
March 23: Ama Ata Aidoo is a Ghanaian playwright and fiction writer who also writes poetry and children’s books. Her works include Anowa, No Sweetness Here, Someone Talking to Sometime, and others. She won the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best Book in 1992.
March 25: Toni Cade Bambara (1939-1995)—fiction writer, essayist, and filmmaker—edited an anthologies, The Black Woman and Tales and Stories for Black Folks. She published collections of short stories, Gorilla, My Love and The Sea Birds Are Still Alive. Her novels include The Salt Eaters and Those Bones Are Not My Child. She won the Best Documentary Academy Award for The Bombing of Osage Avenue.
Posted by Sharyn Skeeter
No doubt, prolific author and "literary activist" E. Ethelbert Miller has devoted his life to African-American literature in particular, and American and international writing in general. His over a dozen poetry collections, anthologies, and memoirs have already left their valuable literary mark. His poetry reading series, work as an editor, and radio and television appearances have helped promote other writers.
On February 27, Miller will be honored--along with Francine Prose and Susan Richards Shreve--by Poets and Writers. The event, a gala dinner at Gotham Hall in New York City, will be In Celebration of Writers: Honoring the Barnes & Noble Writers for Writers Award Winners.
Here's a list of E. Ethelbert Miller's books:
Andromeda, The Land of Smiles and the Land of No Smiles, Migrant Worker, Season of Hunger/Cry of Rain. Where are the Love Poems for Dictators?, First Light, Whispers, Secrets and Promises, Fathering Words: The Making of An African American Writer, Buddha Weeping in Winter, and How We Sleep On the Nights We Don't Make Love
Anthologies: Synergy: An Anthology of Washington, D.C. Black Poetry, Women Surviving Massacres and Men, In Search of Color Everywhere, Beyond the Frontier
Posted by Sharyn Skeeter
February 1: Langston Hughes (1902-1967) was a dominant literary figure of the Harlem Renaissance. He wrote poetry, fiction, memoirs, plays, essays, articles, children’s books and more. A few of his works are The Weary Blues, Not Without Laughter, The Big Sea, and Black Nativity.
February 6: Melvin Tolson (1900-1966) was a poet whose works include Dark Symphony, Libretto for the Republic of Liberia, and Harlem Gallery.
February 9: Alice Walker is a Pulitzer Prize and American Book Award winning novelist, poet, and essayist. She is also involved in political action for civil rights and the environment. Her novel, The Color Purple, has been adapted for a movie and the theater.
February 18: Audre Lorde (1934-1992) was State Poet of New York in the early 1990s. She published 12 books—poetry collections and essays. They include Cables to Rage, Coal, The Cancer Journals, and Sister Outsider.
February 18: Toni Morrison is an internationally renowned novelist, playwright, essayist, and short story writer. She won the Pulitzer Prize in 1988 and the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993. Her novel, Beloved, was adapted as a movie and was listed by the New York Times as the best book of American fiction in the past 25 years.
February 22: Ishmael Reed is a novelist, poet, and essayist who is known as a satirist. He has won awards including a MacArthur Fellowship. He has published many books including The Freelance Pallbearers, Mumbo Jumbo, Conjure, The Terrible Threes, and Japanese by Spring.
February 23: Haki Madhubuti is an author, poet, and founder of the influential Third World Press. He has published more than 20 books (some early books are by Don L. Lee, his previous name). His recent books include New and Selected Poems 1966-1996, HeartLove: Wedding and Love Poems, and YellowBlack: The First Twenty-One Years of a Poet’s Life.
February 23: W.E.B. DuBois (1868-1963) was an author whose poetry, essays, novels, nonfiction books, and articles were infused with the depth of his scholarly knowledge of history and racial concerns. He was a social activist involved in the beginnings of the NAACP and other movements. He is known for his concept of the Talented Tenth and his most well-known book is The Souls of Black Folk.
Posted by Sharyn Skeeter
Whole Sight: The Intersection of Culture, Faith, and the Imagination February 1, 7 p.m. University of Washington, Kane Hall 120, Seattle.
Author and professor Charles Johnson presents a multidisciplinary lecture on creativity, race and the artist’s life. A reception to follow in the Walker-Ames Room.
For more information, phone (206)-543-3920.
12th Annual Black Heritage Art ShowFebruary 2-February 4, 11 a.m.-7 p.m., Baltimore Convention Center, Baltimore, Maryland.
This show highlights African-American art. It also features poetry readings, and gospel and jazz musical performances. It’s a celebration of African-American culture.
Admission is $5 and children under 12 are free. For more information, contact Black Heritage Visual Arts at (410) 521-0660 or info@blackheritageartshow.com.
Books + Authors, Kids! February 3, 10 a.m.-noon. Studio Museum in Harlem, 144 West 125 Street, New York City.
Artist and author Lisette Norman will read from her book My Feet Are Laughing. This is a story time family program.
Elliot Lewis, February 4, 7 p.m. (ET) C-Span2 Book TV
Elliot Lewis discusses his memoir Fade: My Journeys in Multiracial America
John W. Franklin February 4, 6:30 p.m. Western Connecticut State University/Midtown, 181 White Street, Danbury, Connecticut.
John W. Franklin, program manager for the National Museum of African American History and Culture at the Smithsonian Institution, presents a Black History Month lecture.
For more information, call Director of Grant Programs Dr. Margaret Leahy at (203) 837-8281.
African American Read-In February 4, 2 p.m. Headquarters Library, 401 East University Avenue, Gainesville, Florida.
This celebration of African American literature is to make literature a traditional part of Black History Month activities. Community leaders will be reading their favorite children's books and telling stories in the African tradition.
For information, contact the Youth Services Department (352)-334-3941.
Poetry Slam 2: Unplugged February 5, 8 p.m. Western Connecticut State University/Midtown, Alumni Hall, 181 White Street, Danbury, Connecticut.
The Black Student Alliance features music, poetry and more in celebration of Black History Month. Admission is $2 and the public is invited.
For more information or to participate, email BSA President Shelby Davis at davis039@student.wcsu.edu.
Lisa Thompson, Literary Conversation February 5, 7:30 p.m. State University of New York at Albany, Assembly Hall Campus Center, Albany, New York.
Lisa Thompson is a playwright, poet, and scholar whose work deals with African-American women and the middle class family.
For more information, phone the New York State Writers Institute at (518)-442-5620.
Spoken Word for Black History Month February 6, 4:30 - 6 p.m. Cleveland Public Library/Brooklyn, 3706 Pearl Road, Cleveland, Ohio.
You're invited to share your poetry and/or a poem of a famous African American. Open to the public.
For more information, phone (216)-623-6920 or email Brooklyn.Branch@cpl.org.
Panoramic Poetry February 9 and February 16, 7:30 p.m. October Gallery 7175A Ogontz Avenue, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
This is a blend of art, rhythm, poetry, and music. It will be an ongoing event taking place the second and third Friday of every month. If you’d like to get on the list to read, email panoramicpoetry@octobergallery.com.
Admission is $7. You can phone (215)-923-4737 for more information.
Coming For To Carry Me Home: The Negro Spirituals and the Early 19th Century Black Creative Expression February 10, 2 p.m. The Field Museum, 1400 S. Lake Shore Dr, Chicago.
Lecture on the “Sorrow Songs” in early African-American literature. It covers works by Frederick Douglass and other former slaves, in an exploration of this musical tradition and its relationship to bondage and freedom, literacy and illiteracy.
Admission is free with museum admission. Call (312)-922-9410 for more information.
Reading, Bernadette Gabay Dyer February 13, 7 – 8 p.m. St. Lawrence Library, 171 Front Street East, Toronto, Ontario.
Bernadette Gabay Dyer is author of the short story collection Villa Fair and the historical novel Waltzes I Have Not Forgotten. Author/critic Donna Bailey Nurse is also on the program.
Phone (416)-393-7655 for more information.
Pierre Joris and Nicole Peyrafitte February 16, 8 p.m. WAMC, 339 Central Avenue, Albany, New York.
Performance artist Peyrafitte and poet Joris are celebrating the release of their CDs—The Bi-Continental Chowder and Routes, Not Roots—with this multimedia event. This presentation features music, poetry, and “Bi-Continental Chowder” that will be served on stage.
2007 Afrocentric Book Expo February 24, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. The Mall at Prince Georges, 3500 East West Highway (Route 410), Hyattsville, Maryland.
This is the fourth year that the Prince Georges' chapter of the Black Writers' Guild presents African-American literary works and other activities for all ages. Writers, editors, publishers, entertainers, and poets will be on hand.
For more information, call (301)-703-7635.
Posted by Sharyn Skeeter
Third Annual Palm Beach Poetry Festival Tuesday, January 23-Sunday, January 28; 51 North Swinton Avenue, Delray Beach, Florida
Readings by renowned poet/writer Quincy Troupe and others.
For more information:
Palm Beach Poetry Festival, 3199 B-3 Lake Worth Road, Lake Worth, FL 33461
Phone (561) 868-2063
Posted by Sharyn Skeeter
African-American Vibes of the City Phoenix Center for the Arts January 5 – 26, 1202 North Third Street, Phoenix, Arizona.
This free art exhibit explores the city’s African-American community. It is an annual juried show of art works by local African-American artists.
For more information call (602)-534-3788.
MLK Commemoration and Interactive Student Session with Charles Johnson January 18, Noon, Portland State University, Multicultural Center, 1825 SW Broadway, Portland, Oregon.
Charles Johnson, nationally recognized author, delivers the keynote address at Portland State University's annual community-wide event celebrating the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
[Rescheduled to February 19 due to weather conditions.] For more information call (602)-534-3788.
Negritude as Performance in the African Novel and Film January 22, 2-5 p.m., 2006-2007 Visiting Fellow Seminar Series, The Institute for the Humanities, University of Illinois at Chicago, 701 South Morgan, Lower Level Stevenson Hall, Chicago, Illinois.
Manthia Diawara is a professor of comparative literature and film, and director of Africana studies and the Institute of African American Affairs at New York University.This seminar presents a reading of Negritude aesthetics in literature, arts and film. The focus is on classics such as L'enfant noir by Camara Laye and L'aventure ambigue by Cheikh Amidou Kane, and the film Trouki-Bouki by Djibrilk Diop Mambety.
For more information call (312)-996-6352 or email huminst@uic.edu.
Nikki Giovanni: Reading and Dialogue January 31, 7 p.m., Department of African American Studies, Glenn Auditorium, Emery University, Atlanta, Georgia.
Nikki Giovanni, world renowned poet, writer, activist, commentator and educator, presents a reading and dialogue. A book sale precedes the event at 6:30 p.m. and a signing follows the reading.
For more information call (404)-727-6847 or email aas@emory.edu.
Posted by Sharyn Skeeter
Can’t get out? Listen to Michael Eric Dyson’s radio interview with Charles Johnson, the author of Dreamer, a novel on Martin Luther King, Jr. Check listings for The Michael Eric Dyson Show’s schedule in your area or listen online.
Martin Luther King, Jr. Birthday Celebration January 15, 4 - 6 p.m., Strathmore Mansion, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda, Maryland.
Dr. King is honored with world class music. The keynote speaker is the first African American to walk in space, former NASA astronaut Dr. Bernard A. Harris, Jr. The event is free, but due to limited seating tickets must be reserved.
"When Peace was the Prize" January 15, 2 p.m., Seattle Center's Center House, 305 Harrison St., Seattle, Washington.
This is a staged reading of Martin Luther King Jr.'s acceptance speech for the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize, presented by Central District Forum for Arts and Ideas. The reading is repeated twice at Seattle University: January 21 at 2 p.m. at Pigott Auditorium and January 22 at 7 p.m. at Schafer Auditorium in Lemieux Library. For more information phone 206-323-4032.
Living Voices: The Right to Dream January 15, performances at 1 and 3 p.m. Museum of Tolerance, 9786 West Pico Boulevard, Los Angeles, California (310)-553-8403.
A discussion follows each performance. Admission is free but call for reservations. The museum is also featuring a display of the Los Angeles Ribet Academy's art department director, Phung Huynh Weiner's high school students’ works of art depicting Dr. King's contributions to U.S. history and society.
Hosea Feed The Hungry and Homeless. Martin Luther King, Jr. Dinner, January 15, 10 a.m.-4 p.m., Turner Field, Atlanta, Georgia.
Volunteer to feed the homeless. For more information call 404-755-3353 ext 305.
Martin Luther King Parade and Festival January 15, 8 a.m. – 3 p.m. Reverend Samuel Delevoe Memorial Park, Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
After a parade down Sistrunk Boulevard, a festival is held at the park to honor Dr. King. For more information call (954)-791-1036.
"Quilombo Country” Monday, January 15, 7 p.m. Tribes Gallery, 285 East Third Street, New York City.
Quilombo Films is previewing this new film about modern-day quilombos, This special preview screening features the film’s new narration by hip-hop legend Chuck D of the band Public Enemy. In Brazil, largely unknown to the outside world, today communities of former slaves, quilombos, struggle to preserve a rich heritage born of resistance to oppression. A discussion follows the screening.
MLK Day Event with Jearlyn Steele January 15, Noon, University of Indianapolis, Ransburg Auditorium, 1400 East Hanna Avenue, Indianapolis, Indiana.
Nationally known gospel singer and radio host Jearlyn Steele speaks and performs at the university’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration. She is accompanied by her pianist brother, Billy Steele, a member of the Grammy Award-winning group Sounds of Blackness.
“Come Share the Dream” January 15, 10:30 a.m. Howard Gilman Opera House, Peter Jay Sharp Building, 30 Lafayette, Brooklyn, New York.
BAM hosts the 21st annual Brooklyn Tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.— Come Share the Dream, a Celebration of the Music of the Civil Rights Movement. It features Rutha Harris, Black Rock Coalition Orchestra, The Full Effect Gospel Ministries Mass Choir, and hip-hop performance artist Will Power.
The Walters Art Museum, January 15, 11 a.m. – 4 p.m., 600 North Charles Street,Baltimore, Maryland
Learn about Dr. King and other influential African American heroes through activities in the Family Art Center. Watch Dr. King's “I Have a Dream” speech and a cartoon about his life. The museum is also presenting free docent-led tours of The Image of the Black in Art (11:30 a.m., 1 p.m.), Ancient Egypt (noon), The Chamber of Art and Wonders (12:30 p.m.). Meet in the Centre Street lobby for tours.
Annual “Marade” and Martin Luther King, Jr., yearbook signing January 15, 10 a.m. – 1 p.m., Martin Luther King Memorial site in City Park, 2100 Steele St., Denver, Colorado, ending at the Capitol.
This and other event activities are available. Check listings.
Posted by Sharyn Skeeter
January 7: Zora Neale Hurston (1903 [1891?]-1960) was a Harlem Renaissance novelist, short story writer, folklorist and anthropologist who became well known for her novel Their Eyes Were Watching God.
January 12: Walter Mosley is a very prolific author of over 20 books who is best known for his crime novels. His novel Devil in a Blue Dress was made into a 1995 movie starring Denzel Washington.
January 14: John Oliver Killens (1916-1987) was a novelist, chairman of the Harlem Writers Guild and teacher. He was also vice president of the Black Academy of Arts and Letters. His novel Then We Heard the Thunder was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. He wrote two screenplays, Odds Against Tomorrow and Slaves.
January 14: Dudley Randall (1914-2000) was a poet, editor and librarian. From the 1960s, as founder and publisher of Broadside Press in Detroit, he presented the poetry of many new and established African-American poets. His own collections include Cities Burning, (Love You), More to Remember and others.
January 15: Ernest Gaines is a novelist who has published many books including The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman. In 1993 he won the National Book Critics Circle Award for his novel A Lesson Before Dying. He also received a prestigious MacArthur Foundation grant.
January 19: Edwidge Danticat, originally from Haiti, is a novelist and short story writer. In 1995, her collection of short stories Krik? Krak? was a finalist for the National Book Award.
January 23: Derek Walcott is a Caribbean (Saint Lucia) poet and playwright who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1992. He’s the author of numerous poetry collections and an epic poem, Omeros. His many plays include Dream on Monkey Mountain. He has also written a nonfiction book, What the Twilight Says.
January 25: Gloria Naylor is a novelist, essayist and screenwriter. Her novels include Linden Hills, Mama Day and Bailey’s Café. In 1983 she won the National Book Award for The Women of Brewster Place, which was produced for television by Oprah Winfrey.