http://www.thedefendersonline.com A civil rights blog promoting informed discourse on issues of race, justice, equality and democracy. Wed, 17 Mar 2010 21:17:33 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 en hourly 1 http://www.thedefendersonline.com/2010/03/16/new-book-explores-link-between-blackness-and-crime/ http://www.thedefendersonline.com/2010/03/16/new-book-explores-link-between-blackness-and-crime/#comments Tue, 16 Mar 2010 20:31:40 +0000 The Editors http://www.thedefendersonline.com/?p=12672 Imani Perry Khalil Gibran Muhammad introduces his book, The Condemnation of Blackness: Race Crime and the Making of Modern America, with a contemporary lens. He cites the dire reality that “Nearly half of the more than two million Americans behind bars are African American…” and describes the commonplace of associating blackness with crime in the contemporary United States.]]> http://www.thedefendersonline.com/2010/03/16/new-book-explores-link-between-blackness-and-crime/feed/ 0 http://www.thedefendersonline.com/2010/02/12/a-wish-after-midnight-young-adult-novel-with-lessons-for-all-ages/ http://www.thedefendersonline.com/2010/02/12/a-wish-after-midnight-young-adult-novel-with-lessons-for-all-ages/#comments Fri, 12 Feb 2010 21:35:42 +0000 The Editors http://www.thedefendersonline.com/?p=12346 Paula L. Woods A Wish After Midnight is written with a lyrical grace that many authors of what passes for adult literature would envy as it examines universal themes of finding lost love, belief in one’s dreams and the power of friendship.]]> http://www.thedefendersonline.com/2010/02/12/a-wish-after-midnight-young-adult-novel-with-lessons-for-all-ages/feed/ 4 http://www.thedefendersonline.com/2010/02/09/the-black-book-at-35-still-rich-relevant-and-revealing/ http://www.thedefendersonline.com/2010/02/09/the-black-book-at-35-still-rich-relevant-and-revealing/#comments Tue, 09 Feb 2010 23:24:40 +0000 The Editors http://www.thedefendersonline.com/?p=12291 Eisa Nefertari Ulen In his introduction to The Black Book, Bill Cosby called it “a scrapbook…a folk journey of Black America…beautiful, haunting, curious, informative, and human,” and it is as intimate, revealing, heartbreaking, and uplifting as any treasured family album can be.]]> http://www.thedefendersonline.com/2010/02/09/the-black-book-at-35-still-rich-relevant-and-revealing/feed/ 0 http://www.thedefendersonline.com/2010/02/09/the-black-list-returns-with-stories-of-the-past-in-volume-three/ http://www.thedefendersonline.com/2010/02/09/the-black-list-returns-with-stories-of-the-past-in-volume-three/#comments Tue, 09 Feb 2010 18:08:58 +0000 The Editors http://www.thedefendersonline.com/?p=12283 Grace Aneiza Ali “Stories matter. Many stories matter,” said Nigerian author Chimamanda Adichie in her speech on “The Danger of the Single Story” at the TEDGlobal 2009 forum last year. She warned against one-dimensional views and singular stories that often depict Africans as “fighting senseless wars, dying of poverty and AIDS, unable to speak for themselves, and waiting to be saved.”]]> http://www.thedefendersonline.com/2010/02/09/the-black-list-returns-with-stories-of-the-past-in-volume-three/feed/ 0 http://www.thedefendersonline.com/2009/12/08/the-thrill-is-on-attica-locke%e2%80%99s-black-water-rising/ http://www.thedefendersonline.com/2009/12/08/the-thrill-is-on-attica-locke%e2%80%99s-black-water-rising/#comments Tue, 08 Dec 2009 21:24:57 +0000 The Editors http://www.thedefendersonline.com/?p=11457 Eisa Nefertari Ulen Attica Locke has added her name to the list of best black genre fiction with her debut thriller, Black Water Rising, acclaimed by many, from The New York Times to The Seattle Times, and named Booklist Best Debut Crime Novel of 2009.]]> http://www.thedefendersonline.com/2009/12/08/the-thrill-is-on-attica-locke%e2%80%99s-black-water-rising/feed/ 0 http://www.thedefendersonline.com/2009/12/01/funny-literary-funky-hip-victor-lavalle%e2%80%99s-big-machine/ http://www.thedefendersonline.com/2009/12/01/funny-literary-funky-hip-victor-lavalle%e2%80%99s-big-machine/#comments Tue, 01 Dec 2009 20:02:34 +0000 The Editors http://www.thedefendersonline.com/?p=11350 By Eisa Nefertari Ulen Victor LaValle’s third book belongs on your shelf if you enjoy fine literary work from African-American writers. Or if you like to kick back on a wild ride with a fast read. Or if you dig genre fiction.]]> http://www.thedefendersonline.com/2009/12/01/funny-literary-funky-hip-victor-lavalle%e2%80%99s-big-machine/feed/ 0 http://www.thedefendersonline.com/2009/11/20/remembering-scottsboro/ http://www.thedefendersonline.com/2009/11/20/remembering-scottsboro/#comments Fri, 20 Nov 2009 20:25:02 +0000 The Editors http://www.thedefendersonline.com/?p=11264 Ellen Feldman In March, 1931, as the Depression was deepening and 200,000 young people under the age of twenty-one were hoboing the country in search of an odd job, or a few scraps of food, or the little bit of fun that was supposed to be the birthright of youth, a group of young black and white men got into a fight on a freight train going from Chattanooga to Memphis, Tennessee, by way of northern Alabama. No crime in America, let alone a crime never committed, has resulted in as many trials, convictions, reversals, retrials, and Supreme Court decisions, including a seminal 1935 ruling. Collectively, the nine young men spent more than a hundred years in some of the worst jails and prisons in Depression-era America. Only one of them lived to be pardoned.]]> http://www.thedefendersonline.com/2009/11/20/remembering-scottsboro/feed/ 1 http://www.thedefendersonline.com/2009/10/21/nelson-mandela-the-authorized-comic-book/ http://www.thedefendersonline.com/2009/10/21/nelson-mandela-the-authorized-comic-book/#comments Wed, 21 Oct 2009 23:00:36 +0000 The Editors http://www.thedefendersonline.com/?p=10922 Paula L. Woods “Young people read comics,” Mandela said in a 2005 speech that launched the autobiographical series on his life. “The hope is that the elementary reading of comics will lead them to the joy of reading good books….If the comic reaches new readers, then the project will have been worthwhile.”]]> http://www.thedefendersonline.com/2009/10/21/nelson-mandela-the-authorized-comic-book/feed/ 0 http://www.thedefendersonline.com/2009/10/02/young-gifted-and-black-men-writers-who-rock-in-brooklyn/ http://www.thedefendersonline.com/2009/10/02/young-gifted-and-black-men-writers-who-rock-in-brooklyn/#comments Fri, 02 Oct 2009 18:25:21 +0000 The Editors http://www.thedefendersonline.com/?p=10646 Chinyere Osuala There’s an exclusivity that Park Slope, Brooklyn boasts, that makes it different, makes it stand out. No, it’s not the strollers, or the young married couples, or the yuppie-ness, it is the amount of writers, famous writers at that, who call this affluent Brooklyn neighborhood home, including Jonathan Safran Foer, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Pete Hamill.]]> http://www.thedefendersonline.com/2009/10/02/young-gifted-and-black-men-writers-who-rock-in-brooklyn/feed/ 1 http://www.thedefendersonline.com/2009/09/11/stormy-weather-the-rich-rough-road-of-lena-horne/ http://www.thedefendersonline.com/2009/09/11/stormy-weather-the-rich-rough-road-of-lena-horne/#comments Fri, 11 Sep 2009 21:25:07 +0000 The Editors http://www.thedefendersonline.com/?p=10384 Eisa Nefertari Ulen In many ways, James Gavin’s book tells the story of black America from the last lights of the Harlem Renaissance to the shining star that is the nation’s first black president. By focusing on Lena Horne, the trailblazer / activist / singer / actor/ dancer / icon, her rough road from the indignities of the segregated Cotton Club to an Upper East Side home is made clear.]]> http://www.thedefendersonline.com/2009/09/11/stormy-weather-the-rich-rough-road-of-lena-horne/feed/ 0 http://www.thedefendersonline.com/2009/06/23/an-unsettling-peek-into-the-heart-of-america%e2%80%99s-darkness%e2%80%94a-review-of-danzy-senna%e2%80%99s-where-did-you-sleep-last-night-a-personal-history/ http://www.thedefendersonline.com/2009/06/23/an-unsettling-peek-into-the-heart-of-america%e2%80%99s-darkness%e2%80%94a-review-of-danzy-senna%e2%80%99s-where-did-you-sleep-last-night-a-personal-history/#comments Tue, 23 Jun 2009 20:58:42 +0000 The Editors http://www.thedefendersonline.com/?p=8644 Pamela Newkirk Senna's characters are not the stuff of fiction, but are drawn from her real life. From shards of truths, half-truths, legend, and a searing search into her personal history, Senna reveals a larger truth of America's character of racial mixing, undue pride and shame, and unreconciled identities.]]> http://www.thedefendersonline.com/2009/06/23/an-unsettling-peek-into-the-heart-of-america%e2%80%99s-darkness%e2%80%94a-review-of-danzy-senna%e2%80%99s-where-did-you-sleep-last-night-a-personal-history/feed/ 1 http://www.thedefendersonline.com/2009/06/09/a-year-of-cascading-change-1989/ http://www.thedefendersonline.com/2009/06/09/a-year-of-cascading-change-1989/#comments Tue, 09 Jun 2009 19:20:59 +0000 The Editors http://thedefendersonline.com/?p=8076 Vernon E. Jordan, Jr. The year 1989 was the pivot point in moving the world from one era to the next. It was a year of cascading changes that introduced the world's nations and peoples to a new arrangement of global forces and relationships- the complex of issues and circumstances we are grappling with today.]]> http://www.thedefendersonline.com/2009/06/09/a-year-of-cascading-change-1989/feed/ 0 http://www.thedefendersonline.com/2009/05/22/kipp-the-power-of-high-expectations/ http://www.thedefendersonline.com/2009/05/22/kipp-the-power-of-high-expectations/#comments Fri, 22 May 2009 18:46:55 +0000 The Editors http://thedefendersonline.com/?p=7664 Jay Mathews This year, David Levin and his friend Mike Feinberg are close to becoming the most famous teachers in the country. They have founded the nation's most successful network of public charter schools, the Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP).]]> http://www.thedefendersonline.com/2009/05/22/kipp-the-power-of-high-expectations/feed/ 0 http://www.thedefendersonline.com/2009/05/19/embrace-the-contradiction-colson-whitehead%e2%80%99s-sag-harbor/ http://www.thedefendersonline.com/2009/05/19/embrace-the-contradiction-colson-whitehead%e2%80%99s-sag-harbor/#comments Tue, 19 May 2009 19:01:08 +0000 The Editors http://thedefendersonline.com/?p=7334 Imani Perry Sag Harbor is the first-person narrative of teenaged Benji Cooper and his relationship to the place and people of his summers: Sag Harbor, New York.]]> http://www.thedefendersonline.com/2009/05/19/embrace-the-contradiction-colson-whitehead%e2%80%99s-sag-harbor/feed/ 0 http://www.thedefendersonline.com/2009/05/01/what-is-this-%e2%80%9cthing%e2%80%9d-with-gay-men-and-divas/ http://www.thedefendersonline.com/2009/05/01/what-is-this-%e2%80%9cthing%e2%80%9d-with-gay-men-and-divas/#comments Fri, 01 May 2009 18:00:11 +0000 The Editors http://thedefendersonline.com/?p=6749 Stacey Patton Some years ago, I was a personal fitness trainer at the New York Sports Clubs Sheridan Square location at the corner of Seventh Avenue and 12th Street. One evening, a well-scrubbed young gay white guy named Alan meandered into the free weights section with bad posture, low eyes, and all kinds of insecurities shut up in his bones.]]> http://www.thedefendersonline.com/2009/05/01/what-is-this-%e2%80%9cthing%e2%80%9d-with-gay-men-and-divas/feed/ 8 http://www.thedefendersonline.com/2009/03/27/journey-of-a-great-writer-paule-marshall-triangular-road/ http://www.thedefendersonline.com/2009/03/27/journey-of-a-great-writer-paule-marshall-triangular-road/#comments Sat, 28 Mar 2009 01:11:14 +0000 The Editors http://thedefendersonline.com/?p=5100 Farah Jasmine Griffin An exquisite jewel of a book, Paule Marshall's memoir, Triangular Road, is a welcome work of nonfiction by one of our greatest writers. Neither tell-all nor confessional, Triangular Road does tell the story of a writer in motion, a self-described "traveling woman," one who has devoted her life to creating complexly rendered novels and stories about the historical, psychological and political dimensions of the African Diaspora.]]> http://www.thedefendersonline.com/2009/03/27/journey-of-a-great-writer-paule-marshall-triangular-road/feed/ 0 http://www.thedefendersonline.com/2009/02/02/between-the-lines-the-power-of-african-american-letters/ http://www.thedefendersonline.com/2009/02/02/between-the-lines-the-power-of-african-american-letters/#comments Mon, 02 Feb 2009 21:35:29 +0000 The Editors http://thedefendersonline.org/?p=3380 Pamela Newkirk The fleeting tradition of letter writing was in part the inspiration for Letters from Black America, a collection of more than 200 letters that traces the footprints, large and small, of a people from bondage to self-determination; from the Civil War to the War in Iraq; and from dusty plantations to the glistening White House.]]> http://www.thedefendersonline.com/2009/02/02/between-the-lines-the-power-of-african-american-letters/feed/ 0 http://www.thedefendersonline.com/2009/01/26/here-come-the-obama-victory-books/ http://www.thedefendersonline.com/2009/01/26/here-come-the-obama-victory-books/#comments Tue, 27 Jan 2009 03:16:25 +0000 The Editors http://thedefendersonline.org/?p=3184 The Editors The first wave of what will undoubtedly be a flood of books exploring what propelled Barack Obama to his historic victory have now come rushing from the printing presses. Taken together, they seem to mark the likely boundaries of the territory those that follow them will traverse.]]> http://www.thedefendersonline.com/2009/01/26/here-come-the-obama-victory-books/feed/ 0 http://www.thedefendersonline.com/2009/01/16/%e2%80%98identity-beauty-and-pride%e2%80%99-obama%e2%80%99s-campaign-in-photographs/ http://www.thedefendersonline.com/2009/01/16/%e2%80%98identity-beauty-and-pride%e2%80%99-obama%e2%80%99s-campaign-in-photographs/#comments Sat, 17 Jan 2009 03:21:02 +0000 The Editors http://thedefendersonline.org/?p=2864 Obama: The Historic Campaign in Photographs, 150 photos culled from thousands by photo historian, curator, and photographer Deborah Willis, with text by Washington Post Associate Editor Kevin Merida, provides a thoughtful bouquet of these images as a tribute to change-in-motion and history in the age of instant information and communications.]]> http://www.thedefendersonline.com/2009/01/16/%e2%80%98identity-beauty-and-pride%e2%80%99-obama%e2%80%99s-campaign-in-photographs/feed/ 0 http://www.thedefendersonline.com/2009/01/06/more-beautiful-and-painful-magic-from-morrison/ http://www.thedefendersonline.com/2009/01/06/more-beautiful-and-painful-magic-from-morrison/#comments Tue, 06 Jan 2009 20:55:47 +0000 The Editors http://thedefendersonline.org/?p=2609 Farah Jasmine Griffin With her latest offering, A Mercy, Toni Morrison creates a world populated by exciting and complicated characters of every race. It is a tale about the part of North America that would become the United States. A place where a white, teenaged bride is befriended by Native American servant who, in turn adopts and loves a little black girl, brought to them by a man who masters them all.]]> http://www.thedefendersonline.com/2009/01/06/more-beautiful-and-painful-magic-from-morrison/feed/ 0 http://www.thedefendersonline.com/2008/12/18/revisiting-the-classics-the-parable-of-%e2%80%98spook%e2%80%99-and-why-we-should-still-read-it-today/ http://www.thedefendersonline.com/2008/12/18/revisiting-the-classics-the-parable-of-%e2%80%98spook%e2%80%99-and-why-we-should-still-read-it-today/#comments Fri, 19 Dec 2008 00:23:38 +0000 The Editors http://thedefendersonline.org/?p=2280 http://www.thedefendersonline.com/2008/12/18/revisiting-the-classics-the-parable-of-%e2%80%98spook%e2%80%99-and-why-we-should-still-read-it-today/feed/ 0 http://www.thedefendersonline.com/2008/12/05/disturbers-of-the-unjust-peace/ http://www.thedefendersonline.com/2008/12/05/disturbers-of-the-unjust-peace/#comments Fri, 05 Dec 2008 18:36:02 +0000 The Editors http://thedefendersonline.org/?p=1797 http://www.thedefendersonline.com/2008/12/05/disturbers-of-the-unjust-peace/feed/ 0 http://www.thedefendersonline.com/2008/11/20/annette-gordon-reed-wins-2008-national-book-award-for-non-fiction/ http://www.thedefendersonline.com/2008/11/20/annette-gordon-reed-wins-2008-national-book-award-for-non-fiction/#comments Thu, 20 Nov 2008 17:10:17 +0000 The Editors http://thedefendersonline.org/?p=1423 http://www.thedefendersonline.com/2008/11/20/annette-gordon-reed-wins-2008-national-book-award-for-non-fiction/feed/ 0 http://www.thedefendersonline.com/2008/11/09/the-hemingses-of-monticello/ http://www.thedefendersonline.com/2008/11/09/the-hemingses-of-monticello/#comments Sun, 09 Nov 2008 22:42:08 +0000 The Editors http://thedefendersonline.org/?p=925 http://www.thedefendersonline.com/2008/11/09/the-hemingses-of-monticello/feed/ 0