*STARRED REVIEW The deeply empathetic, decisively chameleonic Dion Graham proves himself to be an ideal aural collaborator for Esi Edugyan’s (Half-Blood Blues, 2012) stupendous novel, shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal and Man Booker Prize. George Washington Black, called “Wash,” is a young slave on Faith Plantation...
When he was just 11 years old, George Washington inherited ownership of 10 human beings. By the time he died in 1799, Washington's estate on the Potomac River, Mount Vernon, was home to 317 enslaved African American men, women, and children: 123 people owned by...
*STARRED REVIEW Versatile, seasoned narrator Robin Miles is as comfortable narrating literary historic context as she is effortlessly adopting the vernacular patois of an octogenarian former slave. Published almost 90 years after its completion, Zora Neale Hurston’s (Their Eyes Were Watching God) presentation of Oluale Kossula,...
According to 2016 International Labor Organization data, “at least 40 million people are held in servitude.” Among these modern-day slaves was Vannak Anan Prum, a Cambodian man whose determination to finance his pregnant wife’s impending hospital stay sent him away from their village to find...
*STARRED REVIEW Difficult life circumstances bring together two Indian village girls: Poornima meets Savitha because Poornima's recently widowed father needs help weaving saris; clever, kind Savitha must help support her impoverished family. The pair are soon inseparable, nurturing each other in a society in which their...
“I can’t think of a happier story”: Shobha Rao talks GIRLS BURN BRIGHTER After 15 years of writing and 15 years being rejected, Shobha Rao made her fiction debut two years ago with An Unrestored Woman, a collection of a dozen impeccable stories – savage and...
I’ve been hanging with a few serious Civil War buffs the last couple weeks (one of whom is a licensed historical tour guide and descended from a Civil War lieutenant colonel) and I haven’t yet met an “expert” who’s heard this strange tale about tiny...
*STARRED REVIEW Samuel, almost 13, and his younger brother Joshua are orphans but born free and growing up educated. During the Civil War’s final year, Samuel takes the blame for mischief that he’s convinced that Joshua committed, and finds himself betrayed by the priest who has...
*STARRED REVIEW Two hundred fifty years ago in what is modern-day Ghana, two half-sisters are each given a special stone by their mother. Effia marries an Englishman and lives in the ignominiously named Castle, the center of the African Gold Coast slavery trade. Esi is temporarily...
*STARRED REVIEW Richard Chapman – husband, father, businessman – hosts a bachelor party in his Westchester, NY, home for his younger brother. Two strippers are hired to provide the expected entertainment, until the debauchery ends abruptly when the girls murder their bodyguards and flee. Richard must...
When their own country wouldn't allow American artists of color the freedom of expression, many found stupendously appreciative audiences on distant shores, including such entertainment legends as dancer/singer Josephine Baker and actor Anna May Wong. Europe, and parts of Africa and Asia, welcomed expatriates-of-color throughout the...
Remarkable is indisputably the operative word here. Born into slavery, George Moses Horton didn't become a free man until he was 66. Even enslaved, Horton managed to teach himself to read – by eavesdropping on the master's children's lessons, then studying a book of songs and an...
Naysayers: picture book this is, yes, but I guarantee that unless you happen to be a post-Civil War scholar, you'll have something to learn inside these informative pages. Here are four reasons why most of us need to read this book: First reason: history. We all should know more about Reconstruction – a "cultural blind spot," as Chris...
For Patsy, literacy began "as a joke." On the Davis Plantation in South Carolina in the 1860s, Mistress Davis’ niece Annie told her aunt, "'We are only playing at school ...
February marks African American Heritage Month. Do you know where your books are? I've been picking up older, missed titles the last couple of weeks, and discovering some unique treasures, especially those that highlight unusual or lesser-known historical experiences. Stay tuned for more ...
Let's start with the bottom line: read this. [Or listen – narrator Adenrele Ojo is superb.] I guarantee this stupendously epic, unforgettably affecting story of Aminata Diallo will haunt you long after you finish. Born in 1745, Aminata is 11 when she's violently abducted from her...
In what should have been a year-long contract of difficult labor as a "pawn" for a 9-year-old girl whose family cannot survive otherwise, becomes a horrific journey to the other side of the world. Named Magulu by her parents, she becomes Margru because of a...
Clearly, James A. Levine is a 21st-century Renaissance man. He's an endocrinologist and professor at the renowned Mayo Clinic, he co-directs Obesity Solutions, a project of Mayo and Arizona State University (where he also professors), he's credited with pioneering the treadmill desk, he NEATly Gruves ...
