Does freedom have a sound?

For many, the answer is yes, and it sounds like jazz.

In honor of Juneteenth, readers, writers, and lovers of Black literature are invited to join a virtual discussion on June 27th @ at 3 pm EST of Toni Morrison’s Jazz—the novel that captures the improvisational spirit of the musical genre while exploring love, migration, memory, longing, and the possibilities of reinvention—with and me!

Published in 1992 and set in Harlem in the 1920s, Jazz is an innovative work. Like the genre, it moves like an ensemble: voices enter and depart, stories overlap, truths shift, and memories return in unexpected ways. Akin to life, it abandons the certainty of a single narrator and instead creates a literary composition that swings, riffs, and improvises.

Like jazz music itself, the novel is deeply rooted in Black history and creativity; born (and ostensibly bred) in New Orleans, it is a Black American musical tradition, and a language of innovation, resilience, experimentation, and freedom.

As a musical genre, jazz is the transformation of inherited structures into something entirely new, a means of finding expression through improvisation, call-and-response, and collective creation. It is America’s only true/original art form ~ everything else is stolen!

Morrison accomplished something similar on the page by crafting a novel that feels less like a conventional narrative and more like a performance.

As we gather during the Juneteenth season, let’s also consider the relationship between freedom and self-invention by exploring:

• Cultural and historical crossroads

• The Great Migration and Black urban life

• Love, obsession, betrayal, and forgiveness

• Memory, storytelling, and collective history

• The importance of Black cultural expression

Whether you are reading Jazz for the first time or returning to it after many years, all thoughtful readers are welcome. But to participate, you must register here in advance because the Zoom link will only be provided to registered attendees.

Bring your copy of the novel, your questions, favorite passages, and your willingness to follow the music wherever it leads. Because sometimes the best conversations—like the best jazz performances—begin with a theme and become something unexpected.

We hope you’ll join us at the (virtual) table.

Hi Friends:

To honor Black History Month in the most bookish way possible, AfroReads is hosting a discussion of Toni Morrison’s Sula, which I am facilitating. Widely regarded as a foundational Black feminist novel, it features a protagonist who embodies radical independence, rejects norms, and creates her own identity outside traditional female roles.

Frequently celebrated for its deep exploration of Black womanhood, friendship, and community resilience, it highlights non-conformity and the tension that exists when individual freedom doesn’t align with societal expectations.

Often defined as an accurate analysis of the Black experience of segregation post-emancipation, it’s one of the richest forms of literary craft ever published and an exploration of how history shapes setting, theme, and character.

As readers and writers, we don’t just study life; we study the specific ways in which individual lives are contextualized; we explore methods and facts and become better critical thinkers.

Join us in a literary-focused celebration of agency, resistance, and identity, and join the discussion on how nonconformity enabled one Black woman to escape the predictable.

When: Saturday, February 28th, at 3 pm EST.

Where: Zoom

How: Register here

By the way, to eliminate Zoom bombers, unregistered attendees will not be granted access to the Zoom room!

Read more

Hi Friends:

Because writer’s block isn’t an impressive supposition, this issue includes:

A sip…

If allowed to suppose, the muse would infer that Living Reflection is more than tentative conjecture….

A shout out…

To toot one’s own horn implies excessive self-promotion and is often viewed as immodest, especially when highlighting success. And to suggest that A Sip, A Shout

Read more

Hi Friends:

Because writer’s block isn’t restricted by longitude, latitude, or other geographic boundaries, this issue includes:

A sip…

If being A Lonely Island Lost in the Middle of a Foggy Sea floats boats, the muse may join the flotilla…

A shout out…

Suppose experience is the mother of invention, and the classics influence creativity. In that case, it should come as no surprise that political events and feminist perspectives

Read more

Hi Friends:

Because writer’s block isn’t a standard metaphorical connection, this issue includes:

A sip…

The muse contends that there is little difference between a white lie and nonsense… either way, one should not call Horsefeather…

A shout out…

Versatility suggests that one be chosen or selected... having work included as a Book of the Month pick, Good Morning America buzz pick, Target Book of the Month,

Read more

If Simone de Beauvoir is correct, “One is not born, but rather one becomes a woman,” and Spike Lee’s adaptation of Richard Price’s Clockers is proof that one is not born, but rather one is conditioned to become a drug dealer.

Set in and around the fictional Nelson Mandela Houses, if the opening scene filled with bullets and bodies doesn’t grab attention, then the run-down, yet post-modern complex with explicit references to urban decay and social neglect as Westernized Apartheid should.

A co-written feature, its critical acclaim remains relevant, as does its urgency.

Released when older members of Generation Y entered middle school, members of Generation Z may not be familiar with the title or recognize that epidemics include widespread outbreaks of violence linked to the post-19th-century drug trade. Rampant and uncharted, the illicit trade has always been most prevalent in economically distressed areas.

This film’s primary relevance has always been its ability to illuminate several facts: illicit drugs are, for all intents and purposes, an untaxed industry; drug dealing has always been a lucrative, albeit underground, profession; and drug addiction is an equal opportunity and non-discriminatory issue.

Few films and even fewer book adaptations feature twin anti-hero protagonists; this one keeps viewers shifting between Strike/Ronald/Ronnie, a well-read, stressed-out man-child who deals crack cocaine, and Rocco Klein, the middle-aged, burned-out, marginally corrupt cop destined to connect the dots in a rival street entrepreneur’s murder.

Both operate in the murkiest shades of morality, share a warped sense of order and logic, and cynically justify the use of questionable power tactics.

Symbolic of both a wise elder and a trickster, Rocco gossips to connect, bends the truth to uphold justice, and has a talent for placing institutional failures exactly where they don’t belong, on the backs of the urban and working poor.

A toy train fanatic and a sugary drink imbiber, Strike is prodigal because he isn’t the gainfully employed or educated son his mother hoped to raise. Instead, he is a frugal yet ambitious teenager who deals drugs steps from her doorstep to make sure her watchful eye stays on him.

Both Strike and Rocco are character studies of men worn down by urban decay. Despite their bravado of good versus evil, perceptive viewers will notice that ambiguity clouds morality, and each is compelled to accept that being seen as a protector in an urban setting is always influenced by personal experiences.

Aware that they are both products of their environment, neither is immune to using violence as a form of agency. However, both choose to and actively utilize the intelligence needed to maintain their status, which includes bragging to boost street cred, lying to preserve influence, and standing firm in their belief that truth and justice are not mutually exclusive.

With its indeterminate timeframe, viewers are compelled to empathize with the reluctant witness, played by Spike Lee.

Gainfully employed and dressed to reflect that status, he remains knowingly silent, presumably because he openly indulges in the most harmful yet socially accepted vice, alcohol. Seemingly harmless, he is very aware that the environment suggests there are no clear heroes, as urban settings imply that policemen and drug dealers can be seen as benevolent villains.

An allegorical, sensory, and symbolic feast, the unknowns do not distract from the implicit messages or the central themes: family loyalty runs deeper and is more crimson than blood, the sanguine life force that flows; morality is complex because childhood is a convoluted concept; and nobility is as fluid as the deception necessary to bend free will to align with circumstances.

Because social implications are usually viewed as affecting only minorities and the poor, this film intentionally critiques aesthetics related to addiction, race-based policing, and the false belief that drug trafficking only harms the most vulnerable.

Additionally, it shows that narrowly compensated civil service and the marginalization of large parts of society are cyclically destructive, because efforts at redemption are often based on flawed ideas about who has the right to seek and achieve absolution.

Truth is ambiguous and becomes more so as perspective shifts.

Part of this film’s power lies in its ability to subvert betrayal as a survival mechanism and to portray violence as elemental but not necessarily effective. Perhaps this is why the police station, as depicted, appears in greater disrepair than the public housing complex — in short, awareness is crucial because aesthetics can be deceiving.

Beneath the plot, this one is a scathing critique of social decay and the tendency to ignore institutional stagnation, which, if unchecked, leads to the gross exploitation of childhood through theft.

Sharp viewers will notice the reference to bond being equal to ten percent of the demanded bail, and the talented tenth neglecting its duty to the remaining ninety percent. Because environmental factors outweigh spiritual intervention, passive viewers will not miss the metaphorical references to keeping watchful maternal eyes.

Beyond highlighting the difficulties of resisting overt, external evil, this film also directly addresses abuse of authority.

Through the secondary character, Officer Andre, viewers see the inherent commission required of social servants. An anomaly because he gives a damn, he isn’t taken seriously until he descends into reactive reflection of the people he has chosen to protect and serve.

Implicitly, no one realizes true benefit from illicit drug trades, and rap music is the inferred lyrical expression of validly repressed rage. Perhaps this is why the film features two train engines colliding: life is unflinching, and where the tracks do not diverge, destructive impact is the final step.

So why was the book optioned for a film, and what remains significant?

With immediacy, viewers are compelled to recognize the symbolic social neglect depicted in the public housing complex. Cyclical, destructive, and tangential, its inward route seems progressive. Without light, indulgence is muted, and outward routes are diametric, diagonal, and linear.

Similarly, evil is like a hexagon; inherently opposing, it stands completely against nourishment, even though it has the potential to grow unchecked.

This blunt and clear statement about the absence of genuine good and universal evil offers a broad view of illegal drug economies. It realistically illustrates the resilience needed to survive inner-city life.

Upon release, it was praised for its era-specific portrayal of gritty realism and for highlighting the compounded dangers of being a lethal yet illegal heroine. Today, the dirt thrown on single mothers, the working poor, and others living within the margins is judged because their choices are limited by broken systems, which remains evident.

Clockers is worth a re-watch because reframing street culture as culture aligns with the idea of justice being blind, and because the role models include anti-heroes.

For your reading pleasure, here are a few comparable titles:

• Dopefiend, by Donald Goines

• Native Son, by Richard Wright

• American Tabloid, by James Ellroy

• Manchild in the Promised Land, by Claude Brown

• The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood, by David Simon & Edward Burns

And, for your viewing pleasure, a few comparable films:

• Sugar Hill, directed by Leon Ischaso

• Boyz n the Hood, directed by John Singleton

• American Gangster, directed by Ridley Scott

• New Jack City, directed by Mario Van Peebles

• Menace II Society, directed by the Hughes Brothers

Established to address the deep-seated dissatisfaction with the history of slavery and to honor Black Culture and history, today, November 20^th, is National Day of Zumnbi and Black Consciousness Day in countries like Brazil, and because it is, do you know that November Black History also includes:

• 16^th - Nigerian author Chinua Achebe was born (1930); Zina Garrison was born (1963); Lisa Bonet was born (1967); Pam Johnson was named publisher of the Ithaca (NY) Journal, and became the first Black American woman to head a daily newspaper (1981);

• 17^th - Omega Psi Phi Fraternity was founded on the campus of Howard University (1911); Susan Rice was born (1964); Barbara Jordan and Andrew Young made history as the first Black Americans from the south to be elected to Congress since the Reconstruction era (1972); WHHM, the first Black-operated radio station, aired for the first time at Howard University (1980); Audre Lorde succumbed (1992); Esther Rolle succumbed (1998);

• 18^th - Sojourner Truth was born (1787); Warren Moon was born (1956); Sinbad was born (1956); United Nations Ambassador Andrew Young was awarded the Spingarn Medal (1978); Cab Calloway succumbed (1994);

• 19^th - Roy Campanella was named MVP in National League Baseball for the second time (1953);

• 20^th - Howard Seminary (later Howard University) was founded (1865); Pauli Murray was born (1910); Garret T. Morgan received the patent for the traffic signal (1923); Dominique Dawes was born (1976);

• 21^st - Granville T. Woods received the patent for the electric railway conduit (1893);

• 22^nd - Marcus Garvey gave his speech outlining “The Principles of The Universal Negro Improvement Association” (1922); Elijah Muhammad established the Nation of Islam (1930); Guion “Guy” Bluford, the first Black astronaut, was born (1942); Colonel Frederick D. Gregory became the first Black American to lead a space mission (1989);

• 23^rd - A.J. Beard received the patent for the “Jenny Coupler”, still in use today to connect railroad cars (1897); John L. Love received the patent for the pencil sharpener (1897); Bobby Lee Rush was born (1946); Robin Roberts was born (1960); August Wilson received the Pulitzer Prize for drama (1990 );

• 24^th - Scott Joplin was born (1868);

• 25^th – Thirty-five formerly enslaved survivors of the Amistad returned home to Africa (1841); Ralph J. Bunche was awarded the Spingarn Medal (1949); Bill “Bojangles” Robinson succumbed (1949); Suriname gained independence from the Netherlands (1975); Flip Wilson succumbed (1998);

• 26^th – Tina Turner was born (1939); Charles Gordone became the first Black playwright to receive the Pulitzer Prize (1970);

• 27^th – Christopher J. Perry founded The Philadelphia Tribune (1884); Jimi Hendrix was born (1942); Dorothy Height was elected as president of the National Council of Negro Women (1957); Robin Givens was born (1964); Jaleel White was born (1976); Charles Johnson received the National Book Award for Fiction (1990);

• 28^th – Berry Gordy was born (1929); Richard Wright succumbed (1960); Ernie Davis became the first Black to win the Heisman Trophy (1961);

• 29^th - Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall was born (1908); Adam Clayton Powell Jr. was born (1908); Alice Childress became the first Black woman to receive an Obie Award (1955); Coleman Young succumbed (1997); Singer Rihanna was named the National Hero of Barbados (2021); and

• 30^th - Samuel R. Scottron received the patent for the curtain rod (1889); J.A. Sweeting received the patent for the cigarette-rolling device (1897); Gordon Parks was born (1912); Shirley Chisholm was born (1924); Judith Jamison debuted with Alvin Ailey’s American Dance Theatre (1965); Coleman Young received the Springarn Medal (1891)?

Hi Friends:

Because writer’s block isn’t regimented, this issue includes:

A sip…

The muse contends that The Unknown Soldier is entitled to honor…

A shout out…

Read more

The subtle difference between coincidence and synchronicity is that the latter involves seemingly meaningful events, whereas the former involves concurrent events with no causal link. Still, neither is uncommon; however, repetition isn’t necessary for either.

When life is lived on the edge, existence often involves a series of repetitive acts that may lack meaning but are necessary for survival. Although subsistence is an economic indicator, external factors usually lead people to focus solely on meeting basic needs.

Through a series of connected stories, The Madonna’s of Echo Park captures the history and transformation of the working-class inhabitants of a Mexican American neighborhood. Spanning several decades, the stories feature first-person narratives from nine accounts of the impact of a single traumatic event.

Using the Madonna, the central icon of Catholicism, to symbolize faith, it serves as an introduction to cultural traditions related to carrying medals, building altars, and tattooing images of the Virgin Mary. Considered the most morally grounded —perhaps because she is the mother of Jesus —her importance in each story reflects the perseverance needed to uphold one’s heritage, even as one gradually assimilates.

A comparison and analysis of the differences between American citizenship versus undocumented status and living on Ceded Lands—along with the nuances involved in racial versus ethnic identification—each story provides a realistic, present-tense account of distortion and disorientation.

Despite the absence of a single central protagonist, round-trip gentrification serves as the symbolic antagonist and remains a key figure throughout. Using paradox, decaying buildings symbolize dehumanization, poverty is depicted as self-imposed mental instability, and social distance is transformed into tangible emotional distance.

A layered ode to how often seemingly disconnected paths cross, intersect, and diverge, this explores what it means to be Mexican and Mexican American, and how ‘othering’ occurs both within and outside ethnic and racial groups within marginalized communities.

A debut by Brando Skyhorse, a dual-race and dual-heritage former resident of the characterized neighborhood, each tale shows that the past is nostalgic because its loss leads to mourning. A linked recording of how people, space, architecture, and neighborhoods change, each story voices the visibly invisible and prompts readers to question the seemingly inconsistent encounters that give life meaning.

A collection that explores both what gives residents a sense of belonging and whether race and culture provide shared meaning will be overlooked by readers with strong opinions that lean toward stereotypes, who will miss the subtle details that make this more of a tapestry than a worn-out rug.

A lyrical nod to the internal trait called resilience, this multi-voiced collective story was published before the social unrest that united nearly every part of Generation Z. The urban setting, fragmented plot, and focus on the erasure of immigrant, second, and third-generation communities will make this notable for readers who support ideas related to empowering women and the poor.

Rating: ★★★★

Similar titles exploring:

• How desperate lives intersect: The Barbarian Nurseries, by Hector Tobar

• Gritty LA immigrant life and class tensions: The Tortilla Curtain, by T.C. Boyle

• Navigating displacement: Tropic of Orange, by Karen Tei Yamashita -and Their Dogs Came with Them, by Helena Maria Viramontes

• The emotional pull of assimilation: The Leavers, by Lisa Ko, Chicano, by Richard Vazquez, and The Line of the Sun, by Judith Ortiz Cofer

Hi Friends:

Because writer’s block isn’t cured by scribbling a to-do list, this issue includes:

A sip…

Rare is the instance when the muse cannot decide, and that is why there are several Blacklisted options…

A shout out…

Apparently, the 31st birthday is significant because it marks a milestone in personal growth, self-reflection, and goal setting. However, some achieve great things before

Read more

November marks the following significant events in US Black History:

• 1867: Freedmen in Virginia registered to vote for the first time.

• 1922: The Harlem Renaissance began.

• 1935: Two Black teenagers were lynched by a mob of 700 white people in Colorado County, TX.

• 1957: Texas officials threatened and jailed NAACP officers for not disclosing their membership.

However, do you know that November Black History also includes:

• 1^st – The first free school, the African Free School, opened (1787); Mississippi approved the use of literacy and understanding test to disenfranchise Black citizens (1890); C.W. Allen received the patent for the self-levelling table (1898); W.E.B. Du Bois began publishing the NAACP’s Crisis Magazine (1910); Florene Mills succumbed (1927); John H. Johnson published the 1st issue of The Negro Digest (1942); John H. Johnson published the 1st issue of Ebony Magazine (1945); Dr. Charles S. Johnson became the first Black president of Fisk University (1946); John H. Johnson founded Jet Magazine (1951); Clarence Thomas was formally seated as the 106th Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1991); South Africans voted in their first all-race local government elections, completing the destruction of the apartheid system (1995); Stanford University introduced its African American History Couse concentrating on the Modern Freedom Struggle (2007);

• 2^nd - Menelik II, the former emperor of Ethiopia, was crowned King of Kings of Abyssinia, Ethiopia (1889); Haile Selassie was crowned Emperor of Ethiopia (1930); Charles C. Diggs was elected Michigan’s first Black congressman (1954); Condoleezza Rice was born (1954); Nelly was born (1974); President Ronald Reagan officially signed the law declaring the third Monday in January as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day (1983); Carol Mosely Braun became the first Black woman elected to the U.S. Senate (1992);

• 3^rd - John W. Menard made history as the first Black person elected to Congress (1868); John Baxter Taylor, the 1st Black American Olympic Gold Medalist, was born (1882); J.H. Hunter received the patent for the portable weighing scale (1896); Paul Robeson was presented with the Spingarn Medal (1945); Larry Holmes was born (1949); John Conyers Jr. was elected to the House of Representatives (1964); Thirman L. Milner was elected mayor of Hartford, CT, and became the first Black mayor in New England (1981); Jesse Jackson announced his candidacy for President (1983);

• 4^th - Cathay Williams, the only known female Buffalo Soldier, was born (1844 ); Thomas Elkins received the patent for the refrigeration apparatus (1879); Patricia Bath was born (1942); Hulan Jack was elected borough president of Manhattan and became the highest ranking Black municipal official at the time (1954); Sean Combs was born (1969); Zina Garrison became the first Black to win the Junior Singles Tennis Championship at Wimbledon (1981); President-elect Barack Obama delivered his historic victory speech (2008);

• 5^th - Theo Wright became the first Black American to receive a Theology Degree (1836); Ike Turner born (1931); the Maryland Court of Appeals ordered the University of Maryland to admit Donald Murray (1935); Art Tatum succumbed (1956) Shirley Chisolm became the first Black woman elected to Congress (1968); Walter E. Washington became the first elected Washington, DC Mayor since Reconstruction (1974); George Brown (CO) and Mervyn Dymally (CA) were elected lieutenant governors respectively, becoming the first two Blacks in the nation to hold the position (1974); Damon J. Keith received the Springarn Medal (1974); The governor of Arizona officially refused to acknowledge Dr. King Day as a national holiday (1986); Shirley Verret succumbed (2010); Jonathan Scott Holloway was inaugurated as the first Black president of Rutgers University (2021);

• 6^th - George Poage was born (1880); James Weldon Johnson and J. Rosamond Johnson composed “Lift Every Voice and Sing”, widely regarded as the Black national anthem (1900); W.E.B. Du Bois was awarded the Spingarn Medal (1920); W.A. Scott Jr. founded the Atlanta Daily World newspaper (1928); Sharon Pratt Kelly became the first woman mayor of Washington, D.
  C. (1990);

• 7^th - Meharry Medical College was founded at Central Tennessee College (1876); Arthur L. Mitchell defeated Oscar DePriest in Chicago to become the first Black Democratic congressman (1934); L. Douglas Wilder was elected governor of VA, and became the nation’s first Black governor since the Reconstruction (1989); David Dinkins became the first Black mayor of New York City (1989); Jimi Hendrix inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1991);

• 8^th – The racially motivated Wilmington Massacre, occurred in Wilmington, NC (1898); Ester Rolle was born (1933); Crystal Bird Faucet was elected state representative in PA and became the first Black woman to serve in a state legislature (1938); Alfre Woodard was born (1953); John H. Johnson was awarded the Spingarn Medal (1966); Edward W. Brooke was elected the first Black U.S. senator since Reconstruction (1966);

• 9^th – Benjamin Banneker was born (1731); Howard University Medical School opened (1868); Powell Clayton called out the Arkansas State Militia and declared martial law in 10 counties in a bid to put down a Ku Klux Klan-led insurrection (1868); William Monroe Trotter founded The Guardian newspaper in Boston, MA (1901); Dorothy Dandridge (1922); Mattiwilda Dobbs became the first Black person to sing a romantic lead at the Metropolitan Opera (1956); Sisqo was born (1975);

• 10^th - Granville T. Woods received the patent for the electric railway (1891); George H. White introduced the first anti-lynching legislation in the U.S. Congress (1898); Charlie Sifford won the Long Beach Open and became the first Black to win a major professional golf tournament (1957); Andrew T. Hatcher was named associate press secretary by President John F. Kennedy, and became the first Black person to hold the position (1960); Wilson Goode was elected and became Philadelphia’s first Black mayor (1983); Carmen McRae succumbed (1994);

• 11^th - Nat Turner is executed after leading a slave revolt in Southampton County, VA, and white mobs killed many other Blacks in response to his revolt against slavery (1831); George R. Carruthers received the patent for the image converter for detecting electromagnetic radiation (1969); Angola proclaimed its independence (1975); The Civil Rights Memorial was dedicated in Montgomery, AL (1989);

• 12^th - General George Washington issued an order barring free Blacks from serving in the army (1775); Henry Ossawa Tanner won the silver medal at the Paris Exposition (1900); Sigma Gamma Rho, Sorority Inc. was founded by Mary Lou Allison Gardner Little, Dorothy Hanley Whiteside, Vivian Irene White Marbury, Nannie Mae Gahn Johnson, Hattie Mae Annette Dulin Redford, Bessie Mae Downey Rhoades Martin, and Cubena McClure (1922); Madame Lillian Evanti founded the National Negro Opera Company (1941); Ernest Nathan Morial made history as the first elected Black Mayor of New Orleans, LA (1977); Alex Haley awarded the Spingarn Medal (1977); Wilma Rudolph succumbed (1994);

• 13^th - The Liberty Party, the nation’s first anti-slavery political party, was formed in Warsaw, N.Y. (1839); Albert C. Richardson received the patent for the casket-lowering device (1894); Dr. Daniel Hale Williams became the first Black elected to the American College of Surgeons (1913); the Harlem Renaissance began (1922); Janet Collins became the first Black ballerina to appear with the Metropolitan Opera Company (1951); Whoopi Goldberg was born (1955); The United States Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling which banned segregation on public buses in Montgomery, AL (1956); Carl Stokes elected as mayor of Cleveland, Oh, and became the first Black elected Mayor of a major American city (1967); Dwight Gooden became the youngest pitcher to win the Cy Young award (1985);

• 14^th – Booker T. Washington succumbed (1915); Valerie Jarret was born (1956); or

• 15^th - Payton Johnson received the patent for the swinging chair (1881); Arthur Dorrington became the first Black person to play organized hockey (1950); Professor Arthur Lewis received the Nobel Prize in economics, and became the first Black person to receive the award in a category other than peace (1979); Rosa Parks awarded the Springarn Medal (1979)?

Hi Friends:

Because writer’s block isn’t well-versed, this issue includes:

A sip…

Because of heat tolerance, the muse is unfazed by Satan’s Breath…

A shout out…

If writing what you know makes sense, ignoring a rule isn’t the same as breaking one. Perhaps that is why Salman Rushdie hasn’t taken time to fictionalize the racist taunts

Read more

Tired, average, expected to take up slack… This is the unofficial mantra of almost any woman on the planet, especially those who run the race in worn-out and worthless stilettos. Perhaps this is why change isn’t limited to good; it is a necessity.

Enter Juanita, the protagonist of the similarly titled film. She is fed up because she’s too old for bullshit, too young to retire, and suffering from a common psychological condition called midlife crisis. As a single mother to three adult children who still act like kids, she’s caring but also triggered by long-buried desires from before they were even a consideration.

A film about taking risks when money is tight, friends are few, and sanity is all that remains for one to seek. It stars Alfrie Woodard in a role that could inspire anyone to move beyond melancholy and escape from a never-ending cycle of disappointments and useless pursuits.

Second chances are not reserved for the adventurous because the soul doesn’t seek validation to get what it innately wants. Directed by Clark Johnson and released in 2019, this won’t appeal to entitled brats, grandmothers who willingly accept free babysitter status, or others who claim adulthood but behave as if just breastfed.

“I ain’t got to do shit for y’all, no more,” is a line from this film and the battle cry of every woman with a nest that refuses to empty. Culturally, the unyielding desire to remain tethered is likely epigenetic; all shades of minority children have historically been forcibly removed or separated from their lineage long before land masses were continuous.

Set initially in an urban environment, a more beat-down than fed-up Juanita declares, “I’m a fuckin’ ghetto cliché,” and casts fate to the wind. A quick check-in with her cash-positive best friend peels back any reservations and gives her the push to hop on the next Greyhound bound for wherever and ends up right in the middle of Montana.

With its open landscape and unobstructed views of vast mountain ranges, one would expect Juanita to grow, and she does. Romantic love blooms during her brief 6-to-8-week stay with a fine example of an Indigenous American called Jess. The owner of presumably the only French restaurant in the state, he is a war veteran and binge drinker drawn to her feisty attitude, and significantly more mature, yet younger, than any man she’s ever been with.

Given that the entertainment industry is driven by commerce, however, this film’s lack of box office appeal is actually the key to its brilliance. Adapted from the screenplay by Roderick M. Spencer and based on Sheila Williams’ novel Dancing on the Edge of the Roof, it makes a dynamic backstory unlikely within a 90-minute runtime. More importantly, the focus on underlying structural failures that exacerbate urban blight is documentary, not dramatic, in format.

Escapism isn’t unique to human experience; in fact, all mammals, birds, and reptiles exhibit a state of daydreaming. A psychological need driven by instinct, it allows data gleaned from inner thoughts to shift toward clarity. Portrayed as impulsive, Juanita’s impromptu departure is the shit that single, working-class women, regardless of matriarchal status, long for.

Criticized for its “lack of urgency,” this film explores the process of self-actualization. More than casual viewing is necessary to distinguish leisure from indifference and routine from a nuanced expectation to stay within one’s designated space. As a subtle challenge to cultural norms about reclaiming identity, it symbolically implies that, because aging is slow, self-discovery is also unique and equally time-consuming.

Brimming with colloquial meta-narrative, it’s a form of open diary written as a love note to its target audience—middle-aged minority women. Often overlooked, demonized, and expected to be averse to melancholy because of having borne children, this piece is a middle finger and loudly suggests that life, with its miasmal dirt and decay, and as previously lived, should fuck completely off.

Because personal agency and inner truth work together, any woman who hasn’t let her soul shout, “I ain’t ya mama,” is suffering from strong woman syndrome. A form of segregation, it’s a cruel, neglectful type of insecurity that keeps women from balancing the innocence of childhood with the disappointment of adulthood.

Being middle-aged and female has always suggested that women have passed their prime, not entered it. This film’s joy includes Juanita’s declaration of independence from fantasies that typically depict romance, as well as those that suggest approval is necessary for the heart and mind to grow together.

Maybe it is less emotional and introspective than other box-office hits; however, that does not diminish its cultural importance. With an open ending that directly challenges complete closure, Juanita is a film about triumph, freedom, and the bravery to pursue whatever form of healing the mind seeks.

A contemporary and blatantly honest slice into the interiority of minority mothers, this one omits a vulnerable wallflower. A direct interrogation of why guilt and shame should not be attached to refusal to breastfeed beyond lactation, its significance is its illumination of middle-aged minority women’s right to claim space for actual, not stereotypical, self-love.

For your reading pleasure, here are a few more titles by Sheila Williams, the author whose novel inspired Juanita:

• No Better Time

• The Secret Women

• Things Past Telling

And, additional titles that draw on themes of self-discovery/reinvention, like the film Juanita:

• Maame, by Jessica George

• The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho

• How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water, by Angie Cruz

• The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, by Rachel Joyce

Hi Friends:

Because writer’s block isn’t necessarily incremental, this issue includes:

A sip…

After one too few, the muse confused calls for Sherman with a male stripper by the same name…

A shout out…

Besides writing The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian—one of the most frequently banned and challenged books in the US—novelist Sherman Alexie is an

Read more

Once again, it’s 5 pm… somewhere, and because it is, why not raise an additional glass in celebration of more literary greats with October birthdays, including:

• 16^th

  Noah Webster, compiler of the first American language dictionary (1758); Oscar Wilde, author (1854); Eugene O’Neill, playwright (1888); and Günter Grass, novelist and playwright (1927);

• 17^th

  Jupiter Hammon, first Black American published poet (1711); Georg Buchner, dramatist (1813); Elinor Glyn, novelist, scriptwriter and romance writer (1864); Nathanael West, novelist (1903); Arthur Miller, playwright (1915); Lerone Bennet, Jr., editor, Black historian and writer (1928); and Les(lie) Murray, poet (1938);

• 18^th

  [Bernd] Heinrich [Wilhelm] von Kleist, romantic dramatist and poet (1777); Thomas Love Peacock, poet, essayist and novelist (1785); H(arold) L(enoir) Davis, reporter, poet and novelist (1894); Philip Pullman, fantasy novelist (1946); Ntozake Shange, poet, novelist, and dramatist (1948); Wendy Wasserstein, playwright (1950); and Terry McMillan, novelist (1951);

• 19^th

  Sir Thomas Browne, writer (1605); [Pierre Ambroise Francois] Choderlos de Lacloc, epistolary novelist (1741); [James Henry] Leigh Hunt, poet and essayist (1784); Vincas Kreve-Mickievicius, poet and playwright (1882); Fannie Hurst, novelist and short story writer (1889); Miguel Angel Asturias, poet and novelist (1899); and John Le Carré -aka- David John Moore Cornwell, spy novelist (1931);

• 20^th

  Thomas Hughes, author (1822); Daniel Owen, novelist (1836); Arthur Rimbaud, poet (1854); Frederic Dannay -aka- Daniel Nathan, screenwriter (1905); Art Buchwald, columnist and author (1925); and Robert Pinsky, poet (1940);

• 21^st

  Samuel Taylor Coleridge, poet and critic (1772); Alphonse [Marie Louis de Prat] Lamartine, poet and man of letters (1790); and Ursula LeGuin, sci-fi and fantasy writer (1929);

• 22^nd

  Ivan Bunin, poet and novelist (1870); Samuil Yakovlevich Marshak, writer, translator, and children’s poet (1887); Dámaso Alonso, philologist, critic, and poet (1898); Sidney Kingsley, playwright and screenwriter (1906); and Doris Lessing, novelist (1919);

• 23^rd

  Robert [Seymour] Bridges, poet (1844); Emily Kimbrough, editor and memoirist (1899); Michael Crichton, novelist (1942); and Gordan Korman, children’s and YA author (1963);

• 24^th

  Moss Hart, playwright (1904); Denise Levertov, poet (1923); and Elaine Feinstein, poet, novelist, and biographer (1930);

• 25^th

  [Henri] Benjamin Constant [de Rebecque], writer (1767); Thomas Babbington Macaulay, poet and historian (1800); Eduardo Barrios, novelist (1884); Henry Steele Commager, historian (1902); John Berryman, poet (1914); Harold Brodkey, novelist and writer (1930); and Anne Tyler, novelist (1941);

• 26^th

  [Desiderius] Erasmus, humanist and writer (1466); Charles Sprague, poet (1791); Beryl Clutterbuck Markham, memoirist (1902); John Arden, novelist and playwright (1930); Pat Conroy, writer (1945); Robb Forman Dew, novelist (1946); and Andrew Motion, biographer and poet (1952);

• 27^th

  Dylan Marlais Thomas, poet (1914); Sylvia Plath, poet (1932); Enid Bagnold, author (1889); Neil Sheehan, author and reporter (1936); and Fran Lebowitz, humorist (1950);

• 28^th

  Ivan Turgenev, novelist, poet, and playwright (1818); Velimir Khlebnikov -aka- Viktor Vladimirovich Khlebnikov, futurist poet; Evelyn [Arthur St. John] Waugh, novelist (1903); and Ayi Kwei Armah, essayist and novelist (1939);

• 29^th

  James Boswell, diarist and biographer (1740); Guillermo Valencia, poet and translator (1873); Jean [Hippolyte] Giraudoux, playwright and novelist (1882); and Henry Green -aka- Henry Vincent Yorke, novelist (1905);

• 30^th

  Richard Brinsley Sheridan, playwright (1751); André Marie de Chénier -aka- Constantinople, poet and political journalist (1762); Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, novelist (1821); Paul Valéry, poet and essayist (1871); Ezra [Weston Loomis] Pound, poet and critic (1885); and Larry Woiwode, novelist and poet (1941); and

• 31^st

  John Evelyn, diarist (1620); John Keats, poet (1795); and Dick Francis, novelist (1920).

“We drink to those who love us, we drink to those who don’t. We drink to those who fuck us, and fuck those who don’t!” ― Tamsyn Bester, The Line Between

L’chaim!

Thanks for reading,

It is still Black History Month in Ireland, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands, and because it is, do you know that October Black History also includes:

• 16^th - Million Man March was held in Washington, D.C. (1995); Black Olympic sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos, who engaged in a silent protest on the medal stand to bring light to the racial discrimination and violence against Black people in the U.S., were met with hostility by white supporters and the media (1968);

• 17^th – Capital Savings Bank of Washington, D.C., was organized (1888); Mae Jemison was born (1956); Congressman Elijah Cummings succumbed (2019);

• 18^th - Ntozake Shange was born (1948);

• 19th - Byrd Prillerman, co-founder of Virginia State College, was born (1859); Joseph H. Rainey, Robert C. Delarge, and Robert B. Elliott became the first Black Republicans elected to the House of Representatives (1870); Paul Robeson opened in Othello at the Shubert Theater in New York City (1943); Harriet Ida Pikens and Frances Wills were sworn in as the first Black females in the Navy (1960); 52 individuals, including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., were arrested in Atlanta following a sit-in protest (1960);

• 20^th - Colonial Virginia authorizes enslavers to kill enslaved resisters (1669); John Merrick, Dr. Aaron McDuffie Moore, and Charles Clinton Spaulding founded the first Black owned insurance company, North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance (1898);

• 21^st – Abolitionist, William Lloyd Garrison attacked by a white mob in Boston, MA (1835); James H. Conyers became the first Black admitted to the US Naval Academy (1872) Dizzy Gillespie was born (1917); Mary Louise Smith was arrested for refusing to give up her seat in the “whites only” section of a Montgomery, AL city bus (1955); Lois Alexander opened the Black Fashion Museum in Harlem (1979); Bertram M. Lee and Peter C.B. Bynoe purchased a controlling interest in the Denver Nuggets and became the first Black Americans to own a controlling interest in an NBA team (1989);

• 22^nd - Clarence S. Green became the first board-certified Black neurological surgeon (1953);

• 23^rd - The National Urban League (1911); the NAACP petitioned the United States on racial conditions in the U.S. (1947);

• 24^th - Republic National guilty of discrimination against Black Americans and women (1980); Italy invaded Ethiopia (1935); ‘Mulatto’, a play by Langston Hughes and the first long-run Black play, opened on Broadway (1935); Kweisi Mfume was born (1948); Birmingham City Officials announce plan to close city parks rather than permit racial integration (1961); the African nation of Zambia gained independence (1964);

• 25^th - The Black newspaper owners’ group—the NNPA (Na­tional Newspaper Publishers Association) was founded (1940); Benjamin O. Davis, Sr. became the first Black general in the United States Army (1950); an estimated 10,000 students led by Jackie Robinson, Harry Belafonte, and A. Phillip Randolph, participated in a march for integrated schools in Washington, D.C. (1958); Gov. George Wallace granted a full pardon to Clarence “Willie” Norris—the last known survivor of the nine “Scottsboro Boys” (1976); Toronto Blue Jays, Cito Gaston became the first Black American to manage a team to the World Series (1992);

• 26^th – The British parliament legalizes slavery in the American colony, which would become known as Georgia (1749); B.F. Randolph was assassinated (1868); Texas passed a law to restrict Black people from testifying in Court (1866); T. Marshal received the patent on the fire extinguisher (1872); Mahalia Jackson was born (1911);

• 27^th – P.B. Downing received the patent for the street letter mailbox (1891); Ruby Ann Wallace -aka- Ruby Dee was born (1924); President John F. Kennedy intervened to get Martin Luther King Jr. released from the Georgia State Prison (1960); Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., became the first Black Brigadier General in the US Air Force (1964); Andrew Young was elected mayor of Atlanta, GA (1981);

• 28^th - Levi Coffin (White), one of the founders of the Underground Railroad, was born (1798); Edward M. McIntyre became the first Black elected mayor of Augusta, GA (1981);

• 29^th - Alonzo G. Moron becomes the first Black American president of Hampton Institute (1949); U.S. Supreme Court, in the case of Alexander v. Holmes County Board of Education, ruled that public school districts must end segregation “at once” and operate only unitary, integrated schools (1969); Pearl Primus succumbed (1994); A report was published suggesting that the old self-hate mantra of “I am Black enough; I don’t need any sun­shine” by Dr. Jonathan Mansbach’s lends well to American are not getting enough sunshine or more specifically, vitamin D—the sunshine vitamin, and an astonishing 90 percent of Black children being vitamin D deficient;

• 30^th – Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Rev. Ralph Abernathy were arrested and forced to begin serving sentences in a Birmingham jail (1967); Muhammad Ali defeated George Foreman (1974); Richard Arrington was elected the first Black mayor of Birmingham, AL (1979); and

• 31^st – Ethel Waters was born (1896); Booker T. Washington was inducted into the Hall of Fame for Great Americans (1945); Earl Francis Lloyd became the first Black player in the National Basketball League (1950)?

Hi Friends:

Because writer’s block isn’t easily pushed over, this issue includes:

A sip…

The muse contends that Push Pop Sour is slutty, as well as slushy and sweet…

A shout out…

Like a developing mind, mineral crystals can be dissected, adorned, and polished. Perhaps this was why author and poet Sapphire devoted a decade to teaching adult

Read more

If it were as simple as leaving the devil over ‘there’ and allowing it to remain where it is, exploration of foreign lands would not exist.

Societies in general are complex, and to a noticeable extent, forcibly enmeshed, because differences, although appreciated, often expose shadowed ghosts. This is especially true when displacement results in homogenous environments becoming more diverse.

If violence isn’t the answer, bullying should be punishable, and because it isn’t, retaliation shouldn’t be surprising. With intensity, readers are introduced to Salomé Atabong, a mixed-race Dutch girl of Cameroonian descent. A high-achieving student at a private school, she is further stripped of agency when sentenced to detention at a juvenile facility.

An English translation, Confrontations, addresses intergenerational trauma caused by race-based alienation and gender-based injustice. Set in circular surroundings, it’s a coming-of-age story that critiques structural violence and the support systems that allow it to escalate when aimed at girls and women.

Written in lyrical prose by Simone Atangan Bekono, it offers an unfiltered exploration of how silence functions as a form of criminalization and how violence acts as a reflexive act of resistance. This title will challenge those who deny the existence of institutionalized microaggressions.

Structured mainly as a non-linear, present-tense internal dialogue, the author employs a reflective tone to evoke a sense of isolation, uses bold images to symbolize freedom and assimilation, applies achromatic colors to express resilience and trauma, and metaphorically portrays isolated natural environments as the body politic responsible for enacting harmful immigration policies.

With less emphasis on teen angst, this work offers an intimate look into juvenile incarceration as a clear example of disposability, and readers will identify alienation and marginalization as forms of tactical oppression. Unique in its stream-of-consciousness presentation of rational anger, it also accurately depicts systemic attacks against women of color.

Reframing anger as agency and reclaiming space, this honest critique of structural sexism also redefines violence as the absurdity linked to refusing to see racialization as supremacist behavior.

An impactful and emotionally raw depiction of institutional indifference, readers prone to misinterpreting their contributions to reactive rage, and others doubtful of the impact of racism on personal identity will not find an embedded social justice message in this work.

Dense yet broad, readers unfamiliar with stylistically disruptive character arcs or those seeking neatly resolved problems might feel restricted. Conversely, those craving realist fiction and others driven by indignation and defiance will breeze through this 179-page debut.

Rating: ★★★★★+

Similar titles:

• Exploring police/state violence: The Hate U Give, by Angie Thomas

• With emotionally raw narration of trauma and race: Push, by Sapphire

• With young women navigating alienation: Binti, by Nnedi Okorafor -and- Girl, Woman, Other, by Bernardine Evaristo

Hi Friends:

Because writer’s block isn’t the same as censorship, this issue includes:

A sip…

Although absinthe was banned, the muse contends that statutory illegality would cause Sazarac to be considered non-existent…

A shout out…

If youth is wasted on the young, author, producer, and speaker Angie Thomas is old enough to be among the first to dispute that. Living proof that many good things

Read more