81 Search results for "literary"

World-renown author, poet and actress Dr. Maya Angelou will be awarded the Norman Mailer Center & Writers Colony’s lifetime achievement award. Angelou received the National Book Foundation’s 2013 Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literacy Community earlier this month.

  There exists a certain irony that arises when Black artists attempt to achieve recognition in a country where Western European notions of what constitutes talent still predominates the artistic landscape. Recently, fellow blogger Anti-Intellect wrote a blog over at Funky Dineva challenging the Black community’s apparent outrage at Kerry Washington losing out on a […]

20-year old Caleb Clemmons has been in jail for 6 months after threatening to shoot up his school in a satirical Tumblr post.

BYP100’s Kai M. Green pens a short essay emphasizing the urgency of Black and People of Color Freedom Struggles NOW! The title sums it up: “If our Freedom is Criminal, We Must Change the Laws.”

Members of the jury that served on the George Zimmerman trial have chosen not to speak to media or reveal their identities, but one juror has already started writing a tell-all book about the experience.   Juror B37 in the George Zimmerman trial has signed (along with her attorney husband) with literary agent and Martin […]

Last week, writer Kiese Laymon published an essay, “You Are the Second Person,” chronicling his experience getting his novel, Long Division (which hit shelves earlier this month), published. Laymon’s thought-provoking, powerful, and inspiring work centered on exchanges between him and his former editor. Laymon’s former editor, described in the piece as a 54-year-old black man, […]

Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe has passed away at the age of 82. Achebe is best known for his classic novel, Things Fall Apart. Fortunately for us, Achebe left behind an impressive body of work. May he rest in peace. Thoughts on the life and legacy of Chinua Achebe?

“…come celebrate with me that everyday something has tried to kill me and has failed.” –Lucille Clifton   This has been a particularly troublesome week. Between the Sikh Temple Shooting over the weekend, and the execution of Marvin Wilson, we are once again reminded about how difficult it is to be person of color in […]

Generation Y, our generation, is consistently being understood by the intellectuals of Hip-Hop; this week our honorary speaker is Nico Segal. With the most recent release of his EP, Illasoul: shades of blue, Nico has gifted us with a project that companions our journey, or should I say trip. This intoxicated reputation that our generation […]

Emerging during the Harlem Rennaisance, Langston Hughes is one of the most important poetic voices of the 20th century. Honor his legacy today by checking out a few of his classic poems below, read by the man himself. “I, Too,” “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” and more! What is your favorite Hughes poem?

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ty6z9QMFKNw I want to join the chorus of the many in honoring Nikky Finney for being awarded the National Book Award for Poetry. Her written words and the recounting of her words in her own voice are amazing. And, I use the term amazing not in the typical ways in which we use it to […]

Visceral, in your face, in your ears, in your snapping fingers, and tapping feet, spoken word poetry sprang loosely from the expressive energies of the blues, the Harlem Renaissance, and hip-hop music which had each permeated black communities throughout America over the course of the century. Mimicking the 1960s beat poets of coffee houses and […]