My reading

I've been busy working on projects and catching up on my reading.  My reading list is pretty interesting.  Seeing the trailer for Tyler Perry's version of For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf and I can't really say for certain that I am impressed.  I am definitely going to see it.  Naturally the book of "choreopoems" has made my reading list.  I haven't read this since middle school.  I didn't fully understand it then so hopefully age has opened my eyes more.  I have never seen the play and I won't youtube it until I have read the book again.

What else is on my reading list?

The Strike That Changed New York:  Blacks, Whites, and the Ocean Hill-Brownsville Crisis, Jerald E. Podair (current read)

The Mis-Education of the Negro by Carter Godwin Woodson

How to Teach Black Children by Alton D. Rison  --- This was one hard book to find (at least affordably!).  Even the resellers on Amazon were at a loss.  I kept at it and finally (finally) found it!
Selected Writings and Speeches of Marcus Garvey --This is currently en rout. 

My Bondage and My Freedom and Collected Articles of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass

Up From Slavery: an Autobiography by Booker T. Washington (a reread)

Stolen Legacy by George James (a reread)

From the Browder Files by Anthony Browder (a reread)

Breaking the Chains of Psychological Slavery by Na'im Akbar---a definite reread.

The Goddess Black Woman by Akil--- (a reread) I was trying to get my niece and my stepdaughter to read this but they didn't show any interest :-(.

These are books I have to get a hold of:

The Willie Lynch Letter and the Destruction of Black Unity (Slave Chronicles) The Willie Lynch Letter and the Making of a Slave by Willie Lynch. --I remember when I was a member of a particular website I'll leave unnamed (because I am still a member) when discussions on this book would come up.  Naturally of course I read it at that time (2004/2005).  I was in the minority that appreciated the work.  The other "intellectual giants" on the site, the majority, belittled it, claiming it wasn't written during the time it claimed because some of the words used were not in popular usage during that period.  Like any of that actually mattered.  A true discussion of the content was lost in the battle for "who was more intelligent."  I love black uplift sites.  I just wish their focus was less on Eurocentric ideologies in regards to education, self....just plain living.

They Came Before Columbus: The African Presence in Ancient America by Ivan Van Sertima --This book is somewhere in my house.

The Black Male Handbook: A Blueprint for Life by Kevin Powell--I heard some good things about it.  Worth a read if it concentrates on the African part of the black male and not the "European."  I hesitate to buy it because I will be pissed off as the world if I see anything in it on how to live the so called "American Dream."

 Brainwashed: Challenging the Myth of Black Inferiority by Tom Burrell
“Black people are not dark-skinned white people." I like this book already. 

The Wise Mind of Emperor Haile Selassie I  by Prince Ermias

Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome: America's Legacy of Enduring Injury and Healing by Joy Leary

Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present by Harriet Washington

The Isis Papers by Dr. Francis Welsing

Hair Story: Untangling the Roots of Black Hair in America by Ayana Byrd, Lori Tharps --I bought and read this book at the beginning of my natural hair journey in 2004.  This book is floating around the house somewhere.

Black Moses: The Story of Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Association by E. David Cronon

Visions for Black Men by Na'im Akbar

Know Thyself by Dr. Na'im Akbar and Asa G. Hilliard III

From Miseducation to Education  by Na'im Akbar

Black Panther: The Revolutionary Art of Emory Douglas by Sam Durant

Black Comix: African American Independent Comics, Art and Culture by Damian Duffy and others

The Black Arts Movement: Literary Nationalism in the 1960s and 1970s (The John Hope Franklin Series in African American History and Culture) by James Edward Smethurst

A History of African-American Artists: From 1792 to the Present by Romare Bearden

African Art by Frank Willett


Creating Their Own Image: The History of African-American Women Artists by Lisa E. Farrington

Black Art: A Cultural History by Richard J. Powell

Assata: An Autobiography by Assata Shakur

Various writings of Dr. Malachi Z. York





Well I don't have a lot of these books yet but I will have them.  I will make it my goal to learn and then to fill the minds of every young black child I get a hold of with their true history and let them know the real truth of our innate genius!

What's Going On?

It has been a full month since I posted.  So much for weekly posting updates.  First things first.  On October 21st, I took my husband and kiddies to the opening reception of Tyrone Geter's "Black Works."  I remember when I first saw Mr. Geter's work.  It was my freshman year at Columbia College.  His work was shown along with Tonya Gregg's.  Now prior to ever seeing his work my professors had already mentioned his name in regards to my work, saying that I have a lot of the same "sensitivities" and styles so I was really looking forward to seeing the work of this artist.  I was blown away (actually totally floored) by his pieces, my favorite being a mixed media piece he did of a young child with angel wings with a trunk of old toys and items below it.  I can't find a copy of this piece online but I remembered just looking in awe at his mastery of the medium I was so in love with at the time: charcoal.  I thought my professors were insane for comparing me to a man that far surpassed my skills (although I did see the similarity).  Just amazing.  This show was no exception.  His new pieces were pretty striking.  He did have some of his older work here or there including one of my favorites of a young girl on grey paper.  I love his incorporation of 3d elements with the 2d. 

The reception was actually the first time I really met Mr. Geter even though I have talked to him on the phone.  The first thing he did was come up to my son and observe that he was the only boy of four.  He then told Ethan to always be nice to his sisters and about what happened to him as a child if he wasn't nice to his sisters. "I'd get a whupping!"  My little one, she really took a shine to him and even gave him a hug.  I call my oldest and my youngest my social butterflies as they are nowhere near shy.  My stepdaughter and my middle child are very quiet and reserve.  Just don't do anything funny around my Lana Mama.  She will laugh at you, lol.  I shook his hand and reminded him that I had spoken with him earlier in the year and he remembered and apologized (totally unnecessary though, I know he's busy) for not being able to meet with me at that time or make it to the show.   He said to give him a call and remind him that I was the young lady with the four beautiful children.


To be honest, I don't think my hubby or the kiddies like going to art receptions.  The kids get bored pretty quickly, which does reduce the amount of time I would normally spend at one and this one was no exception...we had to skip out earlier than I had originally planned.  My time is so tight I wasn't sure I would be able to make it back by the time it would come down.  

I love to talk about art.  I love to critique.  I love everything about it.  My children....eh, not so much.  There was one piece that incorporated black and blue paper.  On the bottom was a field of peas painted black with a lone blue marble in the middle.  My son made the mistake of asking me why there was only one blue marble down there.  It sparked a long explanation into color theory, balance and proportion which was very exciting to me.  When I was finished my son looked at the drawing, then he looked at me, then he looked back at the drawing and said "I don't get it."  I laughed and told him it was fine.  One of my favorite pieces was one done in pastels, which my little one said she liked because it was "so colorful."  I bit my tongue on a more detailed critique than "pretty colors" as the kids were bored enough.  How could I have four kids and NONE of them show any interest in art?  My Lana Mama has an eye but no interest really.  Well they are young yet.