Words to Our Now: Thomas Glave on Tour

Fiction writer and essayist Thomas Glave is on tour in support of his new book Words to Our Now: Imagination and Dissent (University of Minnesota Press). Glave is also the author of the short story collection Whose Song? And Other Songs. Glave’s work is, in a word, provocative—he aims to provoke real change in a world increasingly given to real forms of terror. And Glave has known terror first hand, given his work as a founding member of Jamaica Forum of Lesbians, All-Sexuals, and Gays(J-FLAG).

One of the most provocative essays in Words to Our Now is “Regarding a Black Male Monica Lewinsky, Anal Penetration, and Bill Clinton’s Sacred White Anus.” I was fortunate to be on a panel with Glave a few years ago when he presented an earlier version of this essay, to an audience that was stunned silent. All of Glave’s work has that kind of power.

Here’s a recent conversation between Glave and Masani Alexis De Veaux. Glave’s West Coast tour stops are below.


LOS ANGELES, CA:
Lucy Florence Coffee House, Nov 26, 2005
6:00 PM
3351 West 43rd Street
Los Angeles
Tel. 323 293 1256

LOS ANGELES, CA:
A Different Light Bookstore, Nov 27, 2005
7:00 PM
8853 Santa Monica Blvd.
West Hollywood/Los Angeles
Tel. 310 854 6601
www.ADLbooks.com

SAN FRANCISCO, CA:
City Lights Bookstore, NOV 29, 2005
7:00 PM
261 Columbus Avenue
Tel 415 362 8193
San Francisco
www.citylights.com
CONTACT: Peter Taravalis, peter@citylights.com

SAN FRANCISCO, CA:
Alexander Book Company, NOV 30, 2005
12:30 PM
50 Second Street
San Francisco
Tel: 415 495 2992
http://alexanderbook.booksense.com
CONTACT: Bernard Henderson

SAN FRANCISCO, CA:
A Different Light Bookstore, NOV 30, 2005
7:00 PM
489 Castro Street
San Francisco
Tel 415 431 0891
CONTACT: Scott LaForce, ADLSFEvents@aol.com

STANFORD, CA:
Stanford University Bookstore, DEC 1, 2005
6:00 PM
White Plaza, Stanford
Tel 650 329 1217
Tel 800 533 2670
CONTACT: Michelle Carson, m.Carson@bookstore.stanford.org
www.stanfordbookstore.com

OAKLAND, CA:
Marcus Books, DEC 2, 2005
6:30 PM
3900 Martin Luther King, Jr. Way
Oakland
Tel: 510 652 2344
CONTACT: Blanche Richardson, blancherich@aol.com

Warrior Poet: A Biography of Audre Lorde Wins 2005 Hurston/Wright LEGACY Award for Non-Fiction

Zami originated a new discursive space for more complex renderings of black women’s lives…With this reframed identity at its center…Zami posed Lorde’s identity and sexuality as fluid aspects of her transnational blackness, rooted both in migration between ‘there’ and ‘here’ and in the ‘there.

—Alexis De Veaux


Alexis De Veaux’s book Warrior Poet: A Biography of Audre Lorde just recently won the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award for Non-Fiction. Other winners include Maryse Conde who won the award for fiction for Who Slashed Celanire's Throat?, Chris Abani who one the award for best fiction debut (Graceland) and Tracey Price-Thompson who won for contemporary fiction. The awards are handed out every year by the Hurston/Wright Foundation whose mission is to “develop, nurture and sustain the world community of writers of African descent.”

I’ve known Alexis for 13 years—she was my dissertation director—but even more importantly she has been an incredible role model for me and has largely been responsible for any claims I make on a black feminist manhood. I am so happy that she is getting all the recognition she deserves for her thoughtful, loving, and critical examination of Audre Lorde.

“[HE] MAJOR”

Mirror to America: The Autobiography of John Hope Franklin

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JHF on All Things Considered

JHF on the Diane Rehm Show

JHF on News and Notes with Ed Gordon

Jonathan Yardley (The Washington Post) on Mirror to America

JHFC: A Personal Journey Into America's Past (The Washington Post)

We on Award Tour with Muhammad my man/Goin each and every place with the mic in their hand…

St. Augustine College
Raleigh, NC
Martin Luther King, Jr. Student Union
Tuesday November 1, 2005 at 9:30 am

Ms. Fat Booty and the Black Male Feminist

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The Paula B. Mack Child Development Lecture
North Carolina Central University
Durham, NC
New School of Education Building (Auditorium)
Thursday November 1, 2005, 6:30-8:30

Confessions of a Hip-Hop Daddy

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Third Annual University Scholars Symposium
Jackson State University
Jackson, MS
Blackburn Language Arts Building
Thursday November 3, 2005 at 6pm

Nigga: The 21st Century Theoretical Superhero

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The John Hop Franklin Humanities Institute Presents Wednesday at The Center

Duke University (Durham, NC)
The John Hope Franklin Center
Wednesday November 9, 2005 at 12:00 noon

“Black Macho Disturbed: Luther Vandross and the Re-imagining of Black Masculinity”

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The 26th Annual Black Consciousness Conference
California State College at Long Beach
Saturday November 12, 2005 at 5:00pm

“Ms. Fat Booty: Gender and Sexual Politics within Hip-Hop”

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The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio Foundation
Cleveland, Ohio
Max Wohl Civil Liberties Center
4506 Chester Avenue
Cleveland, OH 44103
Monday November 14, 2005 at 6:00 pm

“The New Black Man: A Conversation with Bakari Kitwana and Mark Anthony Neal”

Michael Eric Dyson for President

This should have been heard at the Millions More Movement March.

NBM News & Notes for October

Book News:

My UT homie S. Craig Watkins is getting some much deserved national attention for his new book Hip-Hop Matters. Check out his interview in the Austin-Statesman and KFPA’s Morning Show (joined by Dawn Elisa Fischer).

Just got Shayne Lee’s T.D. Jakes: America’s New Preacher (NYU Press) in the mail today. According to Publisher’s Weekly:

Arguing that West Virginia native T.D. Jakes "is the signpost for postdenominational Protestant America" for his "uncanny ability to blend the spiritual with the secular," Tulane University sociologist Lee offers an intriguing exploration of Jakes's popularity. Lee avoids heavy jargon and effectively pares his study down to the essentials, making this an accessible portrait despite some occasionally awkward prose. His approach is generally well-balanced; he admires Jakes's journey up from poverty, his hard work and innovation, but believes his "strong embrace of capitalism, penchant for self-invention and reinvention, rugged individualism, and... insatiable appetite for success" reflect the darker side of the nation that made him a Christian celebrity.

New Black Man has finally received some hometown love, courtesy of The Herald Sun in Durham and WUNC’s “The State of Things”. The latter runs for about an hour, but hang in for the first half when homie calls in an accuses me of wanting to be “a sellout”. As my man John Jackson puts it, “radio is the Greyhound Bus” of mainstream radio—“everybody cam buy a ticket”.

Speaking of the brilliant John Lester Jackson, Jr.—known to some as Anthroman—his new book Real Black: Adventures in Racial Sincerity drops officially on November 15th. Like his Harlemworld, Real Black is some groundbreaking ethnography.

“Black Media” Update:

Esther Iverem has dropped the October edition of SeeingBlack. Robert D. Bullard and Beverly Wright drop a serious piece on the “real looting” in N’awlins and SeeingBlack also runs my conversation with “Nu Soul” artist Rahsaan Patterson.

On NPR’s News and Notes, Farai Chideya talks with actress Denise Nicholas(still oh so fine after all these years) about her new book Freshwater Road, which examines The Freedom Summer of 1964 through the eyes of a 19-year-olf black women from Detroit. The book is loosely based on Nicholas’ own experiences during Freedom Summer. I had the chance to talk with Ms. Nicholas in late August—my feature on her will run at Felicia Pride’s The Backlist next week.

The Red River Shootout:

I was only in Texas for 11 months, but I developed an affection for Longhorn Football, largely because of Cedric Benson (who should have come to Bears camp on time) and Vince Young (who’s on some next generation Randall Cunningham ish). Anyway after five previous tries, UT finally defeated its archrival Oklahoma in the Red Rover Shootout.

The Color of Disaster

This info comes courtesy of Trica Rose

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The Color of Disaster:
Race, Class and Hurricane Katrina

A Symposium and Fundraiser
October 14th and 15th at NYU

Friday, October 14, 8pm
Eisner and Lubin Auditorium, Kimmel Center
60 Washington Square South

The Eye of the Storm:
Voices and Visions of New Orleans

Brenda Marie Osbey, Poet Laureate of Louisiana
Frank Stewart, Photographer, Jazz @ Lincoln Center
Deb Willis, Tisch School of the Arts, NYU
Hosted by:
Tricia Rose, American Studies, UC Santa Cruz
Robin Kelley, Anthropology, Columbia University

Saturday, October 15, 2pm - doors open
Loewe Theater
35 West 4th Street

2:30pm
Eyewitnessing the Storm:
Stories of Catastrophe and Survival
Moderator: Tricia Rose, American Studies, UC Santa Cruz

Tony Zumbado, NBC Photojournalist
Michaela Harrison, artist and New Orleans resident

4:30pm
Before and After Katrina:
History, Race and Space in New Orleans
Moderator: Lisa Duggan, American Studies, NYU

Adam Green, American Studies, NYU
Walter Johnson, American Studies, NYU
George Lipsitz, African American Studies, UC Santa Barbara
Brenda Marie Osbey, Poet Laureate of Louisiana

7:00pm
Weathering Katrina:
Community and Culture
Moderator: Robin Kelley, Anthropology, Columbia University

Mindy Fullilove, School of Public Health, Columbia University
Mandy Carter, Executive Director, Southerners on New Ground (SONG)
Charlton McIlwain, Department of Culture and Communication, Steinhardt School of Education, NYU
Eric Tang, community organizer, American Studies, NYU

9:00pm
Performance by Mother Tongue


All Events Are Free and Open to the Public. All monetary donations gratefully accepted for the Peoples Hurricane Relief Fund, a project of Community Labor United, New Orleans.

Sponsored by:

New York University's
Office of the Dean, Center for Art and Public Policy, Tisch School of the Arts
Steinhardt School of Education
Humanities Council
Office of the Provost
Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences
Dean for the Humanities
American Studies Program,
Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality,
Department of Social and Cultural Analysis
GSOC/UAW Local 2110, the Union for Graduate Assistants
UCATS/AFT Local 3882, the Union for Clerical and Technical Staff
ACT-UAW Local 7902, the Union for Adjunct and Part-Time Faculty