Tonight at 7pm
Barnes & Noble (UWS)
2289 Broadway at 82nd Street
New York, NY 10024
Each August since 1998, Beloit College has released the Beloit College Mindset List. It provides a look at the cultural touchstones that shape the lives of students entering college. It is the creation of Beloit’s Keefer Professor of the Humanities Tom McBride and Emeritus Public Affairs Director Ron Nief. It is used around the world as the school year begins, as a reminder of the rapidly changing frame of reference for this new generation.
Allende Articulates Her “Obsession” with Freedom in New Novel
BOGOTA – Chilean-American writer Isabel Allende said in an interview published Friday in the online edition of Colombian daily El Tiempo that her new novel, which features a female slave as protagonist, articulates her “obsession” with freedom.
“My life is marked by my obsession with freedom ... All forms of oppression and injustice affect me personally and slavery, of course, is the most extreme form. I had to write this book. I think Zarite, the protagonist, was made from my own rib,” said Allende, the author of “The House of the Spirits” and one of the world’s most widely read Latin American authors.
While writing her novel “El Zorro” (Zorro) in 2005, Allende said Zarite (Tete), the female slave who is the main character of her new work – titled “La isla bajo el mar” (The Island Below the Sea) – “came to her” in the U.S. city of New Orleans.
“New Orleans at the beginning of the 1800s received a large number of French immigrants who fled the 1791-1804 slave revolt in the colony of Saint-Domingue, which today is Haiti,” said the writer, who currently lives in California.
Upon further investigation, Allende said she felt the need to articulate the cruelty that occurred in that Caribbean colony, which received 30,000 slaves annually.
“She embodies freedom of the spirit, a force as powerful as a hurricane,” the writer said of Tete, who in the novel is sold as a young girl by Madame Delphine to Violette to be the servant of her lover, French landowner Toulouse Valmorain.
According to Allende, “the worst form of slavery” in Latin America “occurred in Saint-Domingue, where there were 34,000 free people and a half-million slaves.”
“The idea the planters had was to work their slaves to death; if they lasted four or five years they were satisfied because it was more profitable to replace them with fresh meat from Africa,” she said.
“Despite all that, Haiti was the first independent republic in the Americas (after the United States). The Haitian people are friendly, creative, wonderful; it’s a tragedy that that country is ruined,” the author said of the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere.
Allende added that people should not forget that “slavery still exists, although there are attempts to hide it. They still sell people, especially women and children. They’re invisible beings.”
The worldwide release of “La isla bajo el mar” is scheduled for Aug. 20.
Facts About Hunger in America
• More than 36 million Americans (11 percent of U.S. households) suffer from food insecurity. Food insecurity is when you are unsure when or what your next meal will be.
• Statewide food insecurity rates in the ShopRite area are:
New Jersey – 7.7%
Delaware – 7.8%
Maryland – 9.5%
Connecticut – 8.6%
Pennsylvania – 10%
New York – 9.8%
• More than 12 million children are growing up hungry
• Nearly 2 million seniors suffer from food insecurity
• During 2007, nearly 18 million children received free or reduced lunch
• A $1 donation can purchase 10 pounds of food from a food bank
UPDATE: WE DID IT! GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED! Winner will be emailed.
One brand new, black, one-piece bathing suit (size small), a beach towel, some sunscreen, and of course, a book of your choice (under $15), to one random person who comments on this post in the next week (* but only if we get at least 30 comments).
Your comments are appreciated!
At Ghettobaskets.com, you can buy a gift basket for that special "ghetto" person in your life that includes Hot Sauce, Pregnancy Test, Grape Drink, Batteries, Beef Jerky, Potted Meat, Pork Rinds, Noodles in a Cup, After Shave, Plastic Commemorative Plate, Religious Candle, Porcelain Figurine, Kung-Fu DVD, Cassette or VHS Tape, Doo Rag, Vapor Rub, Energy Drank, Soap, and an Outdated Calendar.
Some of this stuff, makes you laugh (I won't play - you could walk in my mom's house and find about 80% of this, such as the potted meat, religious candle, vicks, an outdated calendar and more) but some of it just makes me sad. Who's laughing at who?
About Voices of the Desert
From one of Brazil’s most beloved writers, a magical tale of lust, power, betrayal, and forgiveness set in the royal court of thirteenth-century Baghdad: a sumptuous retelling of the legend of Scheherazade that illuminates her character as never before. In exquisite prose, Nélida Piñon transports us from the Caliph’s private sanctum to the crowded streets of the forbidden marketplace, to the high seas of imagination, and to Scheherazade’s innermost life, as she weaves her tales night after night.
As the novel opens, the Caliph, betrayed by the Sultana, vows to take his revenge on the women of his kingdom by marrying a different virgin each night and executing her at dawn. Born into privilege, a daughter of the Vizier, Scheherazade decides to risk her life by marrying the Caliph, in an effort to save the women of Baghdad.
Every evening, in an amorous battle devoid of love, Scheherazade succumbs to the Caliph’s advances, and every night, with the help of her devoted sister Dinazarda and her loyal slave Jasmine, she entices the Caliph with her storytelling, unfurling accounts from the desert, the tundra, the bazaar, the golden-domed mosques.
Scheherazade gives herself entirely to her characters, speaking as both man and woman, capturing the call of the muezzin, the speech of the caravans, the voices of the scattered tribes from the Red Sea to Damascus. The Caliph, unable to sate his curiosity, prolongs her life each day, desperate to hear how her stories will end. As Scheherazade brings him the tales of his people, he begins to question his cruel mandate and his own hardened heart, until, finally, Scheherazade discovers how to live out her story in a way that not even she could have imagined.
Here, for the first time, is the story of One Thousand and One Nights told from Scheherazade’s perspective, giving us the full breadth and depth of her longings and desires, her jealousies and resentments. Voices of the Desert is the ancient story reinvented—as a woman’s story, an erotic allegory, a haunting meditation on the power of storytelling.
About the Author
Nélida Piñon is a native of Rio de Janeiro, where she still lives. A former professor at the University of Miami, she has also been a visiting writer at Harvard, Columbia, Georgetown, and Johns Hopkins. The recipient of numerous literary awards, in 1996 she became the first woman elected president of the Brazilian Academy of Letters.
"In Venezuela, President Hugo Chavez has launched a "Revolutionary Reading Plan." Extending his book club urges, Chavez has given away thousands of free books and sent "book squadrons" around the country to urge citizens to read.
According to the BBC, the Venezuelan government has handed out thousands of free books, including "Don Quixote" by Miguel de Cervantes and "Les Miserables" by Victor Hugo, encouraging citizens to read to improve the country. Eager readers lined up in the capital city for "hundreds of meters" to get their free copies of the Hugo classic.
Here's more from the article: "[A] key part of the Reading Plan are thousands of 'book squadrons' ... Each squadron wears a different colour to identify their type of book. For example, the red team promotes autobiographies while the black team discusses books on 'militant resistance.'" (Via Book Bench)"
Via Jason Boog on Galleycat<
A man of many words and few delusions, Vollmann is a National Book Award–winning novelist, a daring oral historian, and an intrepid journalist. His latest moral inquiry is an encyclopedic gathering of facts, stories, impressions, and analysis about the volatile and tragic U.S.-Mexico borderland. Imperial is a county in California, a city, a valley, and a beach, but for Vollmann, “Imperial is the continuum between Mexico and California”—a geographical and spiritual entity, the “kingdom of secrets,” and the site of epic battles over water, work, sovereignty, power, and wealth.
Ten years in the making, this immense, poetically structured, provoking, and surprisingly intimate volume of reportage, history, and reflection chronicles Vollmann’s risky journeys through deserts, cities, and archives, through contradictions, confessions, and lies. Vollmann talks with all kinds of people under circumstances alarming, bizarre, tender, and funny. He navigates the infamously foul New River, descends into Mexicali’s “Chinese tunnels,” and vigorously investigates the urgent conundrums of illegal immigration and floundering agriculture, increasing water usage and falling water tables, and pollution and prejudice.
He writes of love and hate; strip clubs, churches, and the maquiladoras; and violence and generosity. He asks, “What can I learn?” And he confesses, “everything is precious to me.” In an age of trash punditry, Twitter, and gnat-like attention spans, Vollmann’s curiosity, forthrightness, lyricism, capaciousness, and empathy are revolutionary.
The poetry of Puerto Rican experience ranges from slams, to spoken word, to sonnets and free verse.
10. Miguel Piñero co-founded the Nuyorican Poets Café with poet Miguel Algarín. While in Sing Sing prison, he wrote the play Short Eyes, which ended up on Broadway and was nominated for 6 Tony awards.
9. Esmeralda Santiago writes memoirs and novels that deal with the themes of identity and culture of Nuyoricans. Her most famous novels are When I was Puerto Rican and American Dream.
8. Tato Laviera is a poet. His poetry, which is primarily spoken word, mixes spanish and english and addresses the issues of culture identity and language of Nuyoricans.
7. Jesús Colón is known as the father of the Nuyorican movement, and was the first Puerto Rican to write in English about his experiences as an immigrant in his most famous book A Puerto Rican in New York.
6. Julia de Burgos is one of the famous Puerto Rican poets. In her poetry and in her life, she advocated Puerto Rican independence as well as women’s civil rights and Afro-Cuban rights5. Giannina Braschi is a Nuyorican who wrote the first Spanglish novel: YO-YO BOING.
4. Edwin Torres is a Puerto Rican New York Supreme Court judge who wrote the novel Carlito’s Way, which was made into a movie.
3. Martin Espada is a Nuyorican poet, essayist and translator. Recently he's worked hard to promote young Latino poets.
2. Pedro Pietri is a poet and playwright. He co-founded the Nuyorican Poets Café. The poet Laureate of Nuyorican movement, he is the author of “Puerto Rican Obituary” a seminal Nuyorican poem about the difficulties faced by Puerto Ricans in New York.
1. Luis Palés Matos was Puerto Rican poet who wrote about colonization and slavery. His poetry is known for it's musical rhythms and Afro-Cuban influence.
via miapogeo.com
Fresh Off Worldwide Attention for Joining Obama's Book Collection, Uruguayan Author Eduardo Galeano Returns with "Mirrors: Stories of Almost Everyone"
Democracy Now spends an hour with one of Latin Americas most acclaimed writers, Eduardo Galeano. The Uruguayan novelist and journalist recently made headlines around the world when Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez gave President Obama a copy of Galeanos classic work, The Open Veins of Latin America. Eduardo Galeanos latest book is Mirrors: Stories of Almost Everyone. DN speaks to Galeano about his reaction to the Chavez-Obama book exchange, media and politics in Latin America, his assessment of Obama, and more.
The first national tour by Latinos in Social Media (LatISM), takes place in three states - NY, TX, FL - during the Hispanic Heritage Month (Sept. 15th - Oct. 15th).
With 21 million projected Latino Internet users by 2010, Latinos are adopting social media as their primary source of communication, news and entertainment faster than any other group. Their buying power is projected to reach $1.3 Trillion by 2013.
This two-day event will provide a networking opportunity and conference presentation, bringing together the leading minds and innovators in social media and technology. Attendees will benefit by learning how to leverage their business and utilize new opportunities within social media to connect with the Hispanic market. All are welcome to learn, understand and support Latinos in the current dynamic social media environment.
The Latinos In Social Media Heritage Tour, will present these topics and more: Latest trends in social media and effective marketing strategies. Case studies of top brands/companies; challenges and obstacles. Developing social media technologies and trends Latino culture and demographics in the U.S. today
The Latinos in Social Media Heritage Tour schedule:
Houston
September 24, 2009-September 25, 2009
New York
October 1, 2009- October 2, 2009
Orlando
October 8, 2009-October 9, 2009
This summit is sponsored by major national corporations.
LatISM is using their Facebook group and Twitter to promote and update their members:
www.facebook.com
@LatISM
More information about the conference can be found at: http://www.latism.org
Contact: lpagan@latism.org
In her lecture, "Belonging to Britain", Hazel Carby looks at the historic relationship between England and Jamaica, including the history of the slave trade in Bristol and the complex question of identity for those of mixed British and West Indian heritage. Carby is a professor of African American Studies and American Studies at Yale University. Born in Britain of Jamaican and Welsh parentage, she has broadened the range of African American scholarship by situating it in the larger context of the international black diaspora.
What are you? On the 2000 U.S. Census, for the first time, multiracial individuals were allowed to indicate more than one race. Nearly seven million Americans did so. Blended Nation: Portraits and Interviews of Mixed Race America features individuals from this rapidly growing demographic of mixed race Americans across the country who identify as more than one race.
Through words and images, Mike Tauber and Pamela Singh explore the concept of race in America through the prism of the very personal experiences of people of mixed race heritage. Ann Curry writes in her Foreword, “As dad would say, ‘You are the best of both worlds,’ and so are the people you see on these pages, who cannot but strengthen America’s dream, as they are living proof it comes true.”