Warm winter wishes to all... I'm a fan of books but I also loved some short reads as my favorites of 2020. All are worthy time fillers to cozy up with in any season!
Category: Black Writers
On Native Son & Richard Wright…
This was my introduction to the great Black American novel. I was hooked.
“I allow myself creative freedom to make whatever kind of art I feel like in the moment…” – Tiffany Gholar
Gholar has a provided missive for a new way to write about the creative life, art-making and (most specifically) Black women navigating those historically troubled waters for all talents.
“I Came To Chicago To Work”
Dear Readers: Rachel Leรณn interviewed me for Chicago Review of Books on my latest novel SPEAKING OF SUMMER, the writing life and working in Chicago. Iโd forgotten how much we covered: the novel composition process, support (or the lack thereof) for mental health, inequities in approaches to men and womenโs meditative literature, unsafety for women. … Continue reading “I Came To Chicago To Work”
Tiffany Gholar Tells the Truth
Gholar's display of glorious art and life-giving paintings, completed across five years, come with grown woman commentary about what it took to see each piece through. In wisdom, she snakes the darkest corners of life- grief, breakups, economic peril- in a chronology of change and chaos where blank canvas was the steadiest hold.
If you missed it at the Minetta Lane Theater, then listen to OLIO LIVE online.
Every time I have declared the internet a graver impediment than asset to arts and culture, something comes along to renew my faith I will be wrong. That something came out of inspiration to commemorate Juneteenth with a listen to a live performance of Tyehimba Jess's Pulitzer Prize-winning poetry collection OLIO, transformed to an original production of Audible.
What Toni wrote to Obama…
In honor of her birthday and Black History Month, read a prescient excerpt from Toni Morrison's 2008 letter to Barack Obama.