Tonight at the National Press Club here in DC, I'm presenting a fiction award (can't tell you to whom but check the site and C-SPAN later
). It's the Annual Hurston-Wright Foundation's Gala. Much moolah to deserving writers and poets, both famous and unrecognized. Tonight will be an escape not from Dog Chapman, but the fools who e
nable or excuse this kind of b
ehavior. Then again, the 
National Press Club's a spit and a skip from the White House, and there's a photo of Sean Hannity up there. At least the latter's tiny compared the one of Walter Cronkite and Edward R. Murrow...--------------------------------------------------
addendum 11/04/07
Category Winners: Edward P Jones, Fiction (Pulitzer Prize Winner), Wangari Maathai, NonFiction (Nobel Peace Prize winner), Patricia Smith, Poetry, Aminatta Forna, Debut Fiction
North Star Award: Sonia Sanchez
Madame CJ Walker Award: Shrine of the Black Madonna Bookstores
Got to converse with Zora Neale Hurston's niece, a professor, at the presenters' table. Very interesting. Nope, didn't see Karen Hunter there, nor any of her pornstar or video vixen authors, nor the whole Triple Crown paddock, nor Eric Dickey and Travis and Earl, et al. You might say it's insightful cutting edge non fiction's and literary black fiction's Alamo. Sad? Not when you think about how many Mexicans got shot-up before they stormed the place. So take heed, "Santa Ana" Hunter...
12 comments:
As long as it is not "Zane" or any of that Relentless Aaron nonsense. Though I would doubt the awards would "sell-out" like that!
Is chica from "Law and Order" the mistress of ceremonies again this year? A girlfriend said she was truly amusing last year.
Oh wow this event sounds great. I am sorry I am gonna miss it. In response to your question about my reading... The event at Mocha Hut will end at 10pm. If you miss it, please consider coming by Mocha Hut on 11.18 from 4pm-6pm for my book reading and art exhibition. I will post a reminder in a week. Peace and thanks for stopping by.
Ananda
Blacks can write things other than rap lyrics and paternity checks?
American Eagle--I guess we don't keep your mother busy enough so got to come invade our blogs? Stay on the Rush Limbaugh side, please...
american eagle - put down the video games and go to a library or bookstore.
Who is Bryan Christian? My girlfriend said you presented the award for Edward P. Jones but you were going to accept the award for him? I saw the article this morning in the Washington Post about the awards. Very interesting!
Congratulations! I wish I had known about this yesterday - I would have tried to crash! Ahahaha!
L
"All Aunt Hagar's Children" may be my favorite of Edward P. Jones's three books, although it's hard to say because they're all good. I haven't had a chance to read any of the other nominated fiction yet, but I plan to read Dominion, the novel by Calvin Baker.
I'm a little disappointed that Louis Chude-Sokei's book, which I'm now more than halfway through, didn't win. It's about Bert Williams, West Indians in early black Harlem, and the phenomena of intra-racial and cross-cultural passing and masquerade -- in literature as well as society. Frankly, concepts like ethnic altercasting are new to me, so it's an eye-opening book.
Funny..the two of us in the same space and no introduction...maybe next time?
Joy!
B
I went to the site and saw the nominees--including a Pulitzer and Nobel Prize-winner?! So who won besides Edward P Jones (read in the newspaper)? How many poems did Sonia Sanchez read?
Thank goodness for Marita Golden. This group has provided a "refuge" (your word) for black literature, poetry, decent non fiction. So much of what we're measured by is profane "chicklit" ghetto novels and inane howto get a man self help books.
Thank you for the update on the winners. I didn't think the "Video Vixen" would be there anyway.
Post a Comment