ChickenBones: A Journal

for Literary & Artistic African-American Themes

   

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The Claude McKay--Romare Bearden

Literature & Arts Index

  About Romare Bearden   The Negro Artist and Modern Art

The Black Experience in America is Unique  /   The Fact of Blackness (1952) By Frantz Fanon  / Election Day Returns  / Emerge & See by Tony Medina

Send contributions to: ChickenBones: A Journal /  13219 Kientz Road / Jarratt, VA 23867  -- I became aware of Rudy Lewis’ labor of love a few short months ago during a visit to Kalamu ya Salaam’s e-drum listserv. As soon as I saw the title of the journal I knew it was about Black folks, and the power of the written word.  A quick click took me into a journal that’s long on creativity, highlighting well-known, little known, and a little known writers, and commitment to the empowerment of Black folks. I contacted Rudy to ask if he’d consider publishing some of my work. His response was immediate, and a couple of days after I’d forwarded some poems to him—they were part of ChickenBones. What I didn’t know was that this journal has been surviving for the last five years with very little outside financial support. . .  If we want journals like this to “thrive” we need to support them with more than our website hits, praise, and submissions for publication consideration.

—Peace, Mary E. Weems (January 2007)                     

Eighty Moods of Maya
& Other Photo-Poetic Moments from the Eugene B. Redmond Collection
Edited by Howard Rambsy II

Images and Homages: "Memwars" 

Kwansabas for Maya Angelou & Quincy Troupe’. Plus . . . Interviews with Angelou, Troupe & Michael Datcher

The Autobiography of LeRoi Jones  /  Biblical Scholars   /  ChickenBones Interviews  /  Depression Shopping List

Your Whiteness is Showing (Tim Wise )

Lingering Issues in Achebe's Female Characterisation (Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye)

Book Discussion: The Beautiful Struggle (video): Atlantic contributor Ta-Nehisi Coates reads passages

Nuking Nagasaki & Hiroshima, Our Nuking Nevada / / Like a Tortoise Shell  / Asa G. Hilliard III Obituary 

   

Apartheid dead but racism endures—Under apartheid, black education was purposely substandard and certain skilled jobs, notably in big corporations such as the railroad, were reserved for whites. Now white South Africans complain about government affirmative action programs that work against them. Yet despite these programs and a booming economy, more blacks are out of work than under white rule. Government statistics show that 10 percent of black households are in the top income bracket compared with 65 percent of white households. Blacks are 85 percent of the 48 million population. President Thabo Mbeki hoped business friendly policies would create a trickle-down effect, but they didn't, and many blacks criticize Mbeki for leaving the reins of the economy in white hands. Yahoo News

  The Exhilarating Generosity of Asa Hilliard  / Slow Death in Gaza (Margaret Kimberley)

      "Djimbe Danse"  Artwork (left) by Chuck Siler

 

 

Death from the Loss of Desire

The Sexual and Political Anorexia of the Black Woman (Julia Hare)

Death by Love: A Play by Ayodele Nzinga

Review by Marvin X

The So-Called Negro -- Plato in the Classroom   /  Chaka Khan / Rufus—Tell Me Somethin' Good (1974)

How the Media Uses Blacks to Chastise Blacks The Colored Mind Doubles By Ishmael Reed

 

Livin' The Blues:Memoirs of a Black Journalist and Poet

By Frank Marshall Davis

Edited by John Edgar Tidwell

Writings of Frank Marshall Davis:A Voice of the Black Press

Writing on Napkins

A personal remembrance of August Wilson 

By Dennis Leroy Moore 

Books by W.E.B. Du Bois

The Suppression of the African Slave Trade  (1896)  / The Philadelphia Negro: A Social Study (1899)  / The Souls of Black Folk: Essays and Sketches (1903)  

 John Brown (1909)  / The Quest of the Silver Fleece (1911)  /  Darkwater: Voices Within the Veil (1920)  Gift of Black Folk: The Negroes in the Making of America (1924)  / Dark Princess: A Romance (1928)  / Black Reconstruction in America (1935) / Black Folk, Then and Now (1939)

Color and Democracy: Colonies and Peace (1945)  / The World and Africa: An Inquiry (1947)  / In Battle for Peace (1952) /

A Trilogy: The Ordeal of Monsart (1957) Monsart Builds a School (1959) nd Worlds of Color (1961) / An ABC of Color: Selections (1963)

The Autobiography of W.E.B. Du Bois: A Soliloquy on Viewing My Life from the Last Decade of Its First Century (1968)

 

We Are A Dancing People

By Sandra L. West

When the Spirits Dance Mambo

 

Holguin Siempre Adelante

An Artistic Journey by Claire Carew

Homage to Frida Kahlo 1907 to 2007

 

One Writer' Legacy: Richard Wright and Our 21st Century

By Jerry W. Ward, Jr.

Dr. Jerry Ward Lectures on Richard Wright    Homestretch to Richard Wright Centennial (Julia Wright)  /   The Saga of Bigger Thomas

Two Scholars Discuss Afrocentrism as A Racial Ideology: History & Ethics

Wilson Jeremiah Moses & Cane Hope Felder

The Dark Role of Excess in the Literary Marketplace

The Genesis of the Urban Street Literature Market and its Foundational Tropes of Black Excess

By Keenan Norris

Another great library has burned down

Murry N. DePillars, Ph.D. (1938 - 2008)

The Sisyphus Syndrome: A Jazz Opera by Amiri Baraka

Music by David Murray / Choreography Traci Bartlow

Review by Marvin X

 Claude McKay Bio

Part Two West Indian Narrative

 

Melvin B. Tolson Chronology

By Joy Flasch

The Great Debaters Top Film of 2007

 

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The Black Arts Movement
Literary Nationalism in the 1960s and 1970s

By James Edward Smethurst 

The Black Arts Movement (Highly Recommended, a Must Read)  Global News:PoliticsLiterature & the Arts

Books by Danyel Smith  Bliss (2005)  More Like Wrestling Debut Novel by Denise Nicholas Freshwater Road

Louis Lomax Bio & Notes

on The Reluctant African

Conversations with Kind Friends  Katrina New Orleans Flood Index  Conversation on Black Film

The Homestretch to the Richard Wright Centennial

By Julia Wright

Dr. Jerry Ward Lectures on Richard Wright

March 11-13, 2008 at Dillard University / June 19-21, 2008, in Paris, France / February 21-24, 2008, at the Natchez Convention Center

On Richard Wright and Our Contemporary Situation  By Jerry W. Ward, Jr. 

The Art of Tom Dent: Early Evidence  (essay) After the Hurricanes (poem)  Global News:PoliticsLiterature & the Arts

 We Gotta Have It

Twenty Years of Seeing Black at the Movies, 1986-2006

By Esther IveremReviewed by Kam Williams

Do Me Twice: My Life after Islam A Memoir by Sonsyrea Tate / Women of a New Tribe By Jerry Taliaferro

Welfare Poets have been in existence since the Spring of 1990, when two Cornell students came together to write poetry/rhymes of protest and upliftment, accompanied by congas (percussions). A band was created from this union with the purpose of using culture as a tool of resistance, and in the summer of 2000, the group released their first independent album "Project Blues." The group plays Hip Hop with a fusion of various styles from the Caribbean, including Puerto Rico, Cuba and Jamaica. Over their 15 plus years of existence, the Welfare Poets have been not only cultural activist, but they have been directly involved in efforts for social justice, most notably against police brutality, political prisoners, the colonial status of Puerto Rico and theU.S. Naval occupation of the island, environmental justice in New York City and elsewhere and the death penalty. Through teaching residencies and workshops, through activism around community struggles and through sharpedged performances of music that incorporates Hip Hop, Bomba y Plena, Latin Jazz and other rhythms, the Welfare Poets bring information and inspiration to those facing oppression and those fighting for liberation. Sak Pasé  Welfare Poets

Baba Kwanzaa

J. Nash Porter was born 24 May 1942 (died 27 October 2007)  in New Orleans and raised in an Uptown neighborhood surrounded by the sights and sounds of the urban streets. His career combines documentary and commercial photography, and photo-journalism. "Through the lens of my camera, I share with others the exciting tradition that I grew up with. Hopefully, I can ignite a spark of enthusiasm and bring about an awareness in other communities for the New Orleans Mardi Gras Indians," said Porter.

Formally trained at San Francisco State University and the University of California at Berkeley, Porter owned and operated a photography studio since 1972. Although his most prolific work was with the New Orleans Mardi Gras Indians, his photographic exhibits encompass an amalgam of African American blues and jazz musicians, and traditional cultures of the American South, West Africa, and the Caribbean.         Chuck Siler 2007>>>

Race or Over-Reaching or Gullibility or All Three?Study after study show that minorities are more likely than whites to get subprime mortgages, which are high-cost loans made to people with poor credit. In its heyday earlier this decade, the subprime market was cheered as an avenue through which historically shut-out borrowers could get loans. That frequently meant minorities. So long as home prices rose, the subprime market seemed a positive example of how to increase home ownership, but as the housing market weakened this year, many began to question whether the loans were fairly priced. In September, the Federal Reserve released a study that found 52.8 percent of African-Americans got a high-cost home loan when they refinanced in 2006, compared to 37.7 percent of Latinos and just 25.7 percent of whites in the same year. A similar study by the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, known by its acronym ACORN, in September found the same pattern even when income was equal. Yahoo                                             <<<<<<<<<<Kwanzaa by Chuck Siler

St.Clair Bourne, Filmmaker, Dies at 64—St.Clair Bourne (1943-2007), a documentary filmmaker who recorded American black culture, produced portraits of eminent African-Americans and, in one stark film, drew a parallel between the civil rights movement and the “troubles” in Northern Ireland, died on Saturday (15 December) in Manhattan. He was 64 and lived in Brooklyn. I am proud to say that I know this brother and am sadden by news of his untimely transition. We met each other,  I believe in New York City in the late sixties or early seventies, when we were beginning our “media” related lives. I’m not sure who introduced us, but from the beginning I knew I was in the presence of a really “special” human being.  Somewhat self assured, St.Clair went on to create a significant body of work what will connect our people with their mighty history and greatness for generations to come. An article in the New York Times published Tuesday,  December 18, 2007 providing greater detail includes a nice video short by photographer Chester Higgins, Jr. Now, St.Clair  is beginning his journey amongst many of the ancestors whose lives he presented in his films. May they and the Creator treat him well. vernard r gray

 

The Painting: "My Friend Yictove”

By Bev Jenai 

Yictove Table

 Xmas Fifty Years Ago    Devil's Got a Lien on My Soul   A Discussion of "The Gift Outright" by Robert Frost"

 

The Situation of the Literary Arts in Sierra Leone

By Arthur  Edgar E Smith

Global News:PoliticsLiterature & the Arts

Grace Paley, Writer and Activist, Dies—born in the Bronx on 11 December 1922, died 22 August 2007 in Manhattan—taught for many years at Sarah Lawrence and the City College of New York, was also a past vice president of the PEN American Center. . . .Her parents, Isaac and the former Manya Ridnyik, were Ukrainian Jewish socialists who had been exiled by Czar Nicholas II — Isaac to Siberia, Manya to Germany. In 1906, they were able to leave for New York, where Isaac became a doctor. They had two children, and, approaching middle age, a third, Grace. . . .A “somewhat combative pacifist and cooperative anarchist,” Ms. Paley was a lifelong advocate of liberal causes. Her books include The Little Disturbances of Man (1959); Enormous Changes at the Last Minute (1974); and Later the Same Day (1985). Her other books include a collection of essays, Just As I Thought (1998), and several volumes of poetry, among them Leaning Forward  (1985) and New and Collected Poems  (1991) and The Collected Stories (2007). NYTimes

Haiti Cherie—The director stressed that while the film's plot was fictional, the experiences suffered by the characters were completely realistic."I wanted to show what life is like in the 'bateyes'," Del Punta said, referring to the encampments set up on the outskirts of the sugar plantations where the cane cutters are forced to live. The workers live crowded together in the communal bateyes which usually lack running water, toilets, electricity and cooking facilities, as well as health care services and schools. There are some 400 bateyes scattered across the Dominican Republic. The cane cutters toil for up to 14 hours a day for what  human rights organisation Amnesty International has termed "derisory wages" (typically the equivalent of $2.5 a day), while some are paid in vouchers which can only be used at plantation stores. The freedom of workers to leave the bateyes is also often restricted, turning them into virtual prisons that are patrolled by armed guards. A March 2007 report by Amnesty International detailed its long-standing concerns regarding discrimination, racism and xenophobia against Haitian migrants living in the neighbouring Dominican Republic and particularly its bateyes. Italian Film Helps Haitian Plantation Workers  Life in Italy

Larry Neal Interview in Omowe   Larry Neal Chronology  The Black Arts Movement  (Larry Neal)  Black Fire (Afterword)

Larry Neal Speaks

on the Black Arts as Folk-Based & Directed at Black People

Don’t Say Goodbye to the Pork Pie Hat  Sonnets for Larry Neal ( Rudolph Lewis)

Related Files:  Black Poetry 1965-2000  Black Arts Movement (Kalamu)  Haki Madhubuti  A BAM Roll Call (Baraka)  Report: BAM Conference (Marvin X)   The Poetry of Don L. Lee   Amistad 2  Black Art  Black Dada Nihilimus   The Revolutionary Theatre   The Claude McKay--Romare Bearden  Ed Bullins Chronology  Interview with Ed Bullins  New Negro Poets U.S.A.  ChickenBones Black Arts and Black Power Figures   Baraka Bio  Marvin X Table

 

In-Dependence from Bondage

Claude McKay and Michael Manley

Defying the Ideological Clash and Policy Gaps in African Diaspora Relations

By Lloyd D. McCarthy

Global News:PoliticsLiterature & the Arts

 Other Floyd Hayes files: The Cultural Politics of Paul Robeson and Richard Wright       Race in US Politics: A Syllabus    Pragmatic Solidarity

   Politics of Knowledge  A Tribute to Kwame Toure/Stokely Carmichael

 

 

New Negro Poets U.S.A.

Edited by Langston Hughes

Foreword by Gwendolyn Brooks

Indiana University Press, Bloomington & London Eighth Printing 1960, Copyright 1964

 The Cultural Politics of Paul Robeson and Richard Wright Theorizing the African Diaspora By Floyd W. Hayes, III

 

Modernism and the Harlem Renaissance

 'Mastery of form' and 'Deformation of mastery' as Interpretive Strategies for Afro-American Discourse

By Houston A. Baker

Atlanta Exposition Address

The 10 Biggest Myths About Black History  (Bennett)  The Propaganda of History (Du Bois)

Amistad 2

Edited by John A. Williams and Charles F. Harris

Vintage Books, February 1971

From A Black Perspective: The Poetry of Don L. Lee by Paula Giddings

Black Panther: The Revolutionary Art of Emory Douglas -- The Black Panther Party for Self Defense, formed in the aftermath of the assassination of Malcolm X in 1965, remains one of the most controversial movements of the 20th-century. Founded by the charismatic Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale, the party sounded a defiant cry for an end to the institutionalized subjugation of African Americans. The Black Panther newspaper was founded to articulate the party's message and artist Emory Douglas became the paper's art director and later the party's Minister of Culture. Douglas's artistic talents and experience proved a powerful combination: his striking collages of photographs and his own drawings combined to create some of the era's most iconic images, like that of Newton with his signature beret and large gun set against a background of a blood-red star, which could be found blanketing neighborhoods during the 12 years the paper existed. This landmark book brings together a remarkable lineup of party insiders who detail the crafting of the party's visual identity. Publisher Rizzoli

Dog's Day

a belated note to the editors of

The Norton Anthology of African American Literature

By Alvin Aubert

Black Theatre: Ed Bullins Chronology  Interview with Ed Bullins The Ground on Which I Stand   Professor Sandra Shannon   Situating August Wilson  

The Dramatic Vision of August Wilson   Black Art    The Revolutionary Theatre

 

 Socialist Joy in the Writing of Langston Hughes  by Jonathan Scott

 

The Niggerization of Palestine

By Jonathan Scott

What do you call a Black man with a PhD?  Nigger. —Malcolm X  / Global News:PoliticsLiterature & the Arts

Dog's Day -- a belated note to the editors of  The Norton Anthology of African American Literature by Alvin Aubert

 Region Sparkles With Katherine Dunham’s ‘Leg-a-cy’ Amidst Renewal of Her ‘Vision’

Katherine Dunham: A Familial Memorial Celebration

East St. Louis Plans Big Tribute to Katherine Dunham

June 22 Lincoln Middle School Gymnasium

12 South 10th Street — noon to 3 pm

   DrumVoices Revue

For true jazz is an art of individual assertion within and against the group. Each true jazz moment (as distinct from the uninspired commercial performance) springs from a contest in which each artist challenges all the rest; each solo flight or improvisation, represents . . . a definition of his identity, as member of the collective, and as a link in the chain of tradition. Ralph Ellison, "The Charlie Christian Story," Saturday Review of Literature ( May 17, 1950), p. 42.

 

Blackness and the Adventure of Western Culture

By George Kent

Global News:PoliticsLiterature & the Arts

Local Black radio news was an indispensable ingredient in the formation of a progressive post-Sixties Black political class. It was a fountain of social democracy, focusing the spotlight (microphone) on groupings engaged in the transformation of a Jim Crow America to . . . Glen Ford Bring Back Black Radio News: The People’s Network