A Celebration of Blackness
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Culture is What We Have In Common
Our “Cultural Connections” awake from the never-ending need to talk about what we’re reading within the larger context of society. It can also be used to write our personal histories into the lexicon. The posts you find on this page include a look back at cultural events and my general reading philosophy.
This also keeps with the goal of Black & Bookish:
TO SHOW THAT INDIVIDUALS WHO IDENTIFY AS BLACK ARE NOT A MONOLITH.
Black people are as complex as any group of people, regardless of how we are portrayed in movies and in the media. Our diversity is masked only by the shared history of violence and racism. What we hope to discover from the aspects of culture are the shared values we possess due to our torrid past.
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Sound as a modality of healing is my limitless source and what has sustained me throughout my life. Music also helps me activate the creative pathways that encourage me to dream and flow through my writing. A gift born out of pandemic-induced solitude has been all the new songs, artists, and songwriters I’ve added to my extensive quarantine playlist.
“From its early horrific treatment of female slaves to today’s often begrudging acceptance of Black women as business owners, writers, actors, musicians, scientists, dedicated stay-at-home moms, and many other note-worthy and empowering roles, this country is still struggling to fully appreciate and understand the significant positive impact Black women have had and still have on her.”
In this in-depth, historical look, contributing writer, Cassandra Veney explores the connections of past abolitionist and Civil Rights movements to the work of the Black Lives Matter organization. Join her on this journey of where it started and how far we’ve come.
The culminating piece in our three-part series on our language and culture.
Deborah Harris continues to focus her navigation of African American language, this time with professional photographer, Robeya Johnson.
Join Deborah Harris as she talks with Gwynn Johnson, Owner and Master Stylist, GoBy Geohaghan on fashion, language, and African American culture.
Have you gotten to know the story of why Black & Bookish came to be? Read about why I went “all-Black”.
In celebration of Black History Month and the contributions of Zora Neale Hurston, the Skirball Cultural Center, in collaboration with The Los Angeles Urban League and the Ebony Repertory Theater, presented "Barracoon: A Tribute to Zora Neale Hurston”. I was able to attend and share my thoughts on what it really means to celebrate Black History Month.
I love love LOVE books, but there are some bookish quirks that I like to keep in the dark. You can find what I'm reading or how I feel about my current book in multiple places around the web, but this is the only place I'll confess some of my uh oh's. Here are 6 weird confessions about my bookish life.
Book Reviews with Strong Cultural Connections
Not all book reviews are the same. Some are more about the reader than the authors.
These reviews focus on how they show up life of the reviewers and how they were changed after discovering them.
It took me a little over ten days to read Between the World and Me in the summer of 2016. When you find something so real and moving and painful, you can't help but want the other people in your life to feel those very real feelings too. Here is a long review of Ta-Nehisi Coates’ 2015 memoir.
Anyone up for poetry masquerading as a novel?
A special book to start this very special site.
I Can’t Believe It’s Been Two Years.
His death changed my life in ways I never thought were possible. He became the catalyst to get out and work toward the future we talked about. Activists have been doing this work for decades, but this was the first time I was able to expand my work outside of the computer screen and into the streets.