Greetings from Amazon.com Delivers Black Studies FEATURED IN THIS E-MAIL: * "Denmark Vesey" by David Robertson * "Winds Can Wake the Dead" edited by Louis J. Parascandola * "The Black New Yorkers" by Howard Dodson, Christopher Moore, and Roberta Yancy * "Never Before, Never Again" by Eddie Robinson * "Black Planet" by David Shields "Denmark Vesey" by David Robertson http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/067944288X/entertainmentsit In 1822, Denmark Vesey, a Caribbean-born free Negro from Charleston, South Carolina, led the largest attempted slave revolt in U.S. history with over 9,000 blacks. Although it failed--thanks to the confessions of a house slave to his master--and Vesey was executed, his heroic attempt continues to be a source of pride for African Americans. David Robertson's well-researched book chronicles Vesey's life as a slave in Haiti, his move to Charleston, his fluency in English, Creole, and French, and his skillful use of Christian teachings (and possibly Islamic ones, as well) to inspire the slaves to rebel. "He was a black man of great physical presence, strength, and intellect," Robertson writes, "linguistically fluent and politically facile enough to mold various African ethnic and religious groups into one unified force." Using court testimony from Vesey's trial and historical archives, Robertson unveils the stark and violent climate of antebellum life in 18th-century America, bringing to life a hero who fought for the same principles upon which the democratic nation in which he was made a slave was founded. "Winds Can Wake the Dead: An Eric Walrond Reader" edited by Louis J. Parascandola http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0814327095/entertainmentsit West Indian author, journalist, and essayist Eric Derwent Walrond (1898-1966) was the least-known and arguably the most complex writer of Harlem Renaissance. Born in Guyana and raised in Barbados and Panama, Walrond had a view of upper Manhattan's city within a city that was of an outsider of Afro-Caribbean descent. "The white man in America strangely does not consider the West Indian a 'nigger,'" Walrond once remarked. He is to him a 'foreigner.'" But unlike most of his countrymen who tended to mythologize their differences and allegiances with the United States and Great Britain, Walrond revealed deeper nuances of the race, ethnicity, and immigrant life of West Indians. "Like many people from the Caribbean, Walrond became a permanent migrant, always having a sense of home while simultaneously feeling the loss of it. This contradiction is what often adds power and poignancy to his work," writes Professor Louis J. Parascandola of Long Island University, who edited "Winds Can Wake the Dead," a pleasing potpourri of Walrond's eclectic work. It contains selections from his days as a reporter and editor for the Panama Star and Marcus Garvey's Negro World; his essays for the Urban League journal Opportunity, and his marvelous collection of short stories, "Tropic Death"--one of the most moving depictions of Caribbean life ever written. From his perceptive portrayal of Harlem in "The Black City" and his penetrating review of Richard Wright's "Twelve Million Black Voices" to his critique of the black condition in "The Negro Before the World," Eric Walrond's newly recovered works are a welcome addition to the Pan-African literary canon. "The Black New Yorkers" by Howard Dodson, Christopher Moore, and Roberta Yancy http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0471297143/entertainmentsit "The Black New Yorkers" is the companion volume to the Schomburg Center exhibit as well as a resource for the PBS history of New York City. With over 200 illustrations and 480 pages, it traces the nearly 400-year-old black presence in New York--from the appearance of the free Afro-Caribbean trader Jan Rodriguez in 1613, through the majesty of the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s, to the infamous 1998 Million Youth March. As Howard Dodson writes in his introduction, "Here is an unparalleled reference source designed to answer your questions about the history of Black New York," and "a fascinating story of great achievement and struggle in a dynamic global context." Indeed, we learn that West Indians and native-born blacks make Brooklyn, not Harlem, the largest concentration of people of African descent in the U.S. We also learn of "Liberty," the mid-19th-century drawing of a black woman that may have been the model for the Statue of Liberty. We discover that the bebop revolution was ushered in by Dizzy Gillespie and Thelonious Monk in Harlem--and that salsa and Latin jazz were also born there, thanks to musicians such as Mario Bauza, Tito Puente, and Eddie Palmieri, who blended Afro-Cuban and Afro-American rhythms and musical forms. The collection also contains excellent biographical listings, from Samuel Cornish--founder of the abolitionist newspaper Freedom's Journal in 1827--to the city's first black mayor, David Dinkins. "The Black New Yorkers" reveals the wealth not only of the Big Apple, but also of the Schomburg Center, arguably the most exhaustive resource on the African diaspora. "Never Before, Never Again" by Eddie Robinson http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0312242247/entertainmentsit Grambling State's Eddie Robinson started coaching college football when FDR was in the White House and didn't stop until Bill Clinton's second term. Along the way, he racked up 408 victories, but his real legacy isn't in the stats. A black man coaching black athletes in the Deep South for 57 seasons, Robinson witnessed and took part in amazing changes in society and in his sport, battling prejudice and hatred to earn respect for himself and opportunity for his players. "Never Before, Never Again" plays gamely in both those arenas--society and sport--because it has to; for Robinson they are one and the same. "I never thought that schools like LSU and Alabama would integrate," he can admit, aware that great performances by black athletes competing at those schools played a big part in their integration. Yet, amidst the upheavals of the '60s, he also knew that doing his job wasn't just about coaching football. He learned to harness that anger at the criticism hurled his way from more militant quarters: "I wasn't going to go out and hurt somebody or let one of my own get hurt to disprove that I was an Uncle Tom." Robinson proved his talents year in and year out, winning not just games and championships, but respect and admiration. He also helped change the face of his game in college and beyond, sending more than 200 players to the NFL, including Super Bowl MVP Doug Williams. The candor of "Never Before, Never Again" is as refreshing as it is revealing; the story itself is pure inspiration. "Black Planet: Facing Race During an NBA Season" by David Shields http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/060960452X/entertainmentsit A word of explanation: technically speaking, "Black Planet" is a chronicle of the Seattle SuperSonics during the 1994-1995 season. Since the team blew its shot at the playoffs, there's no chance for an uplifting grand finale. Yet David Shields had a different sort of hoop dream in mind from the very beginning. "The NBA," he writes, "is a place where, without ever acknowledging it--and because it's never acknowledged, it's that much more potent and telling--white fans and black players enact and quietly explode virtually every racial issue and tension in the culture at large. Race, the league's taboo topic, is the league's true subject." It's the author's true subject, too, and he goes at it from every angle--attending games, recording call-in radio shows, and making some abortive attempts to cozy up to the players. If Shields were simply slapping society on the wrist for its half-submerged racism, "Black Planet" would wear out its welcome in the first quarter. But he's consistently hardest on himself, so the book becomes not only a social critique but a critique of social critiques, cutting the ground from under itself in an infinite and entertaining loop-the-loop. Shields may not be the first writer to transform a fan's notes into literary gold--Frederick Exley beat him to the punch--but he's the most rigorously intelligent one in a long, long time. Swish! ****** Looking for power tools? From screwdrivers to scroll saws, our brand-new Home Improvement Store offers the planet's best selection of tools and more. Home Improvement ****** You'll find more great books, articles, excerpts, and interviews in Amazon.com's Nonfiction section at Nonfiction ******
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