Life is hard for when your dad is running for President. You have to leave your overseas boarding school to go on the campaign trail with your parents and on top of that your father’s PR guru renames you with what she deems an Americanized nickname and then has a thirty-something year old man ghostwrite a vacuous blog for you. What is an adopted South Asian teen to do?
The other day I saw a commercial where a family was in search of the father’s New Year’s resolution list. The fifth goal on the list was write a novel. I snickered. Who doesn’t think they have at least one good book in them?
Writer Walter Mosley thinks you do, too, and in his book, This Year You Write Your Novel, he gives you the tools and the motivation to get started.
A slender book with easy to follow instructions, Mosley helps the beginning writer muddle through one year of constant writing, then re-writing. He encourages budding authors to write a thousand words a day without fail, finishing the first draft in three months then rewriting for the next nine months. He doesn’t promise the “Great American Novel” but hopes that in honing the craft every writer can accomplish their end goal: a completed book. Continue Reading…
A few days ago I heard a NPR story about a woman who decided to forego buying things from China for a year. It reminded me of the book I'm currently reading by an author who decided to opt out of the consumer market by not buying anything for one year. As I listened to the news piece and connected the books I thought how nice it must be to make the decision to not buy anything as opposed to not having the money to purchase, which is the way it is for some Americans.
As John Edwards continues his poverty tour during his bid for the '08 democratic nomination, we are again reminded of the lines drawn between the haves and the have-nots in this country. The poor's approach to consumerism is completely different than those of financial means because they don't have the wherewithal to spend. There's no statement they can make on mass consumption by withholding their dollars because more than likely they don’t spend frivolously enough to be missed
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Mildred Loving doesn’t give a lot of interviews anymore. She doesn’t see herself as that spectacular. She sees herself as just a girl who fell in love with boy and they got married. But at the time their marriage was against the law in many states, especially her home state of Virginia.
On June 12, 1967 the Supreme Court struck down anti-miscegenation laws and made it legal for interracial couples to marry. To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Loving case a few cities across the country are having Loving Day parties.
Randall Kennedy’s book Interracial Intimacies: Sex, Marriage, Identity and Adoption examines the long history of race relations in the United States. The book’s introduction opens with the story of Jacqueline Henley, a young New Orleans orphan whose aunt relinquishes custody because neighbors suspected Jacqueline was black.
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My husband and I are in a mixed marriage: he’s from Cleveland and I’m a native Cincinnatian. Sometimes it’s hard overcoming the differences. He is always touting how great Cleveland is; how it has this and how its wonderful at that. Usually it’s up to me to bite my tongue. We live in Cincinnati: argument won.
One of our disagreements recently was over food. I happened upon a book called Dim Sum: A Pocket Guide and was instantly intrigued. I love Chinese food but I have never had dim sum and I thought this would be the perfect antidote to weekend brunching at a place that is packed with people. I brought it to his attention and he quickly dismissed it. According to him I wouldn’t find a place here that would serve it but in Cleveland…
But I did! And we went, with kids in tow. Unfortunately I forgot the book. The book has only 80 pages but it’s a necessity to explain what is on the menu, what the ingredients are and how it looks. At least to me it is. I’m not an adventurous eater therefore I had to rely on my memory to think of the things I wanted to eat. Some places have carts that roll around and you get to choose your dish that way but the place we went to eat had a non-descriptive menu.
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The plight of young black male America has been discussed ad nauseam for the last year. Are we to believe the recent report that aired on Marketplace about young black men dropping out of the job culture?
Then there is the article from the New York Times that warned about the litany of problems facing black men?
And what about the stories presented in last year’s series from The Washington Post that gave an overview of black men? The series Being a Black Man reported on the varied lives of African American males.
In their latest book, Deconstructing Tyrone: A New Look at Black Masculinity in the Hip Hop Generation, writers Natalie Hopkins and Natalie Y. Moore sift through varying images of the black male in current media and social thought. Divided into eleven chapters, each portion is a different view of black men and their walk in life.
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“The In-Between World of Vikram Lall” is a fictional story of an East Indian living in Kenya during the days of the Mau Mau revolution. The narrative begins with Vic living exiled in Canada because of a bounty on his head. He recounts his once idyllic childhood in Africa where he, his sister Deepa and his friends Njoroge (an African), Annie, and Bill (English expatriates) play without discrimination until a tragedy rends them apart.
As Vic comes into adulthood a new Kenya emerges, but the heartbreak of the past reflects upon the decisions of the adult Vic and turns him into one of the most corrupt men of the country.
Writer M.G. Vassanji writes a beautiful, picturesque tale of life in Africa. ‘The In-Between World’ explores the relations between whites, blacks, and Asians, what nationality means for those who are native born but not of the same skin, and the impact of colonialism. Continue Reading…
Asian Pacific Heritage Month usually receives lesser fanfare than the months that are dedicated to other minorities. To kick things off in Cincinnati there was an Asian Culture Festival at the Cincinnati Museum Center this past weekend. Throughout the month of May special programs will air on PBS and PRI, which highlights the Asian communities' varied histories in this country. And, as a conclusion to the month’s festivities, the cable network AZN TV will air the Asian Excellence Awards on May 24.
Asians are one of the fastest growing racial groups in the United States and many can trace their ancestry on this soil to the 19th Century, yet many Asian Americans feel they are seen as foreigners in their own country. “Yellow: Race in America Beyond Black and White” by Frank Wu explores the experience of Asian Americans through their history in this country. It is a seminal work in Asian American history and has been compared to W.E.B. DuBois’ “The Souls of Black Folks”.
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I like ghost stories especially when the ghosts aren’t the usual apparitions.
In Jennifer Egan’s The Keep, Danny is on his way to an unknown location in Europe to help his cousin Howie renovate a castle. He is an electronics junkie who needs to be connected at all times (by cell phone or email) to the large group of people in his address book.
Danny is also running away from the mob, which is the main reason he takes the one-way ticket to a place he doesn’t know and can’t remember the name of. He also has an estranged relationship with his cousin because of a childhood prank that nearly took Howie’s life.
Juxtaposed against the introductory protagonist is Ray, who is similarly cut off from the real world but in a different way. Danny in fact is just a character in a story Ray is writing for his prison’s creative writing class.
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It’s never easy to deal with death. Even as adults we have a hard time reconciling ourselves to it. Things become twice as hard when you have to discuss death with a child. Whether it’s losing a beloved pet or the loss of a close family member, no one wants to mar the innocence of childhood with the ugliness of life.
But for the last few years it has been all around us. September 11, the tsunami that hit Asia and Africa, the Hurricane Katrina and the wars have been a large part of the national conversation for a few years now. Children need to feel safe and learn how to cope with all they are feeling.
H. Norman Wright’s book, "It's Okay to Cry" gives parents sound advice with how to assist children with their loss. Wright helps you to see the event through the child’s eyes and offers different prompts and activities to get the child to open up.
Debra Dickerson is ubiquitous.
For the last two months she has been everywhere. I have never really thought of her before although I have read a few of her articles on Salon and Slate. Maybe I have heard her on NPR. But after her article positing the question is Barack Obama black enough and then her article about raising her biracial children "aracial" I decided to pick up the book The End of Blackness. I wasn't sure how I was going to feel about it at first or even if I wanted anyone --especially African Americans-- to see me reading it, fearing that my black card would be immediately revoked on the spot.
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On March 27 it was announced that Haruki Murakami won the Kiriyama Prize for his latest book, Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman. "Blind Willow" is a collection of short stories that have appeared in various magazines over the last 20 years. The Kiriyama Award was established in 1996 as a way to recognize books about the Pacific Rim and South Asia with the purpose of creating an understanding of the peoples and cultures of that region. The award honors both Fiction and Non Fiction books. Greg Mortenson won for his autobiographical book Three Cups of Tea, which tells about his building a school in a small Pakistani town.
Other Finalists include:
Years ago, while my daughter was still in diapers, we were having a picnic at the lake with some of my friends. One male friend was taken by the sun shining on the water and sand (what little there was) and picked up my daughter, cradling her in his two hands. He held her aloft, offering her to her to the sky he said, “Behold, the only thing greater than yourself!”
We all laughed, recognizing the opening scene from Roots.
This Easter Sunday TV One will rebroadcast the show to mark the 30th Anniversary of its first airing. When it originally aired, Roots made history by becoming the most watched miniseries of all time. It had an all-star cast and gave actor Levar Burton his start.
After viewing Roots, the show prompted a lot of African Americans to research their family histories. PLCH has excellent resources for those who are looking to discover their own past or just want to brush up on African American history.
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