Nonfiction

The quote in the photo above from pioneering Black journalist and civil rights advocate Ida B. Wells (1862-1931) is just one of the many quotes featured on the walls and display cases of the soon-to-be opened National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) in Washington, DC.  More than 100 years in the making, this museum will officially invite visitors to enjoy its treasures starting on Saturday, September 24, 2016. Fittingly, the NMAAHC is located on the National Mall, in the shadow of the Washington Monument and across the street from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.

Through her prolific newspaper articles and opinionated editorials, Ida B. Wells sought to eliminate lynching and racial inequality. She is just one of the many women and men whose stories, accomplishments and/or artifacts are featured in the NMAAHC.  In honor of Wells’ legacy and the museum’s historic grand opening weekend, WAMU-FM’s The Big Broadcast radio series will air a half-hour drama about Wells written by another pioneer – African American broadcast dramatist Richard Durham (1917-1984).

Durham’s dramatization of Wells life, titled “Woman With a Mission,” features a professional cast that included Chicago-based actors Oscar Brown Jr., Weslyn Tilden and Fred Pinkard. And it was one of Durham’s favorite scripts.

So mark your calenders. You can hear this fascinating drama, on WAMU’s The Big Broadcast, Sunday, Sept. 25^th starting at 7pm. If you live in the Washington DC metropolitan area, tune to 88.5 FM. Or your can listen online from September 25^th through October 2^nd at http://wamu.org/programs/the_big_broadcast

Enjoy!

In this month’s edition of HNet, Michigan State University’s Humanities and Social Science Online publication, Morgan State University scholar Ida Jones reviewed my book Word Warrior.

In her spirited critique titled “The Revolution Will Be An Audiophile,” Jones indicated that “early black radio broadcasts in the community were an essential staple of modern communication….after the rise and domination of the black press, black radio provided common ground for intergenerational discourse, played our music, and/or served as a virtual platform for aspiring and established preachers, singers, and dramatists.”

She went on to note that Word Warrior “rightly situates” the late writer/dramatist Richard Durham “within the tradition of black communication and black radio, reaching back to his antecedents who assumed the significant cultural role of the griot-educator-activist.”

Jones called Word Warrior “an engrossing, at times poetic excavation of one man’sdealing with life and learning as an African American man. Durham answered the call to arms through the artistry of storytelling, advocacy, agency, and learning. He swirled those elements together throughout his inquisitive life.”

Savor Ida Jones’ entire review by clicking here.

Every calendar month, regardless of the year, decade or century, shepherds in its own joyous and heart-wrenching moments.

September is no exception.

This month regularly calls to children and adults of all ages to start or settle into a new school year. Its Labor Day marks the unofficial end to relaxed summer living and the beginning of more spirited fall days. And September is the month that four young African American girls senselessly lost their lives in a racially motivated 1963 Birmingham church bombing, while approximately 3,000 Americans of all races and backgrounds died in plane-fueled terrorist attacks on this month’s 11^th day in 2001.

September 2016 will provide its own unique milestone. Years in the making, the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) will open its doors on Washington DC’s National Mall this September 24th. This museum promises to illuminate the Black American experience in all its innovation, pain and progress.

NMAAHC Director Lonnie Bunch III says that the museum will tell “the quintessential American story.” While that story may be based in a specific culture, Bunch maintains that it is everyone’s story. In that declaration, Bunch echoes the sentiments of pioneering and award-winning African American writer/dramatist Richard Durham – born 99 years ago this September 6^th.

Back in the late 1940s, Richard Durham believed that the Black American experience represented a microcosm of “the human condition of the main body of people in the world.” In Durham’s view, oppression combined with poverty, inadequate education and health care, adversely affected most of the world’s population. Therefore, he said, the story of Blacks in America would resonate with millions of people who “also want to uproot poverty and prejudice.”

Based on this philosophy, Durham created compelling dramas, newspaper articles and other media about African American heroes and heroines like Harriet Tubman, W.E.B. DuBois, Mary Church Terrell and Muhammad Ali. The artifacts of many similarly notable men and women will be featured in the NMAAHC.

So why not join me in celebrating Richard Durham’s 99^th birthday and the highly anticipated birth of the Smithsonian’s newest museum by visiting Washington, DC’s National Mall this month? And to read more about Director Lonnie Bunch’s journey to make the NMAAHC a reality, click here.

Interested in a fascinating discussion about nonfiction writing? Then you’ll want to attend the National Association of Black Journalists/National Association of Hispanic Journalists’ joint 2016 conference session, “Tell Me A Story: Compelling Narrative Nonfiction Writing and the Authors who Create Them.”

Whether exploring heartbreaking church murders in Charleston, a broken justice system in Chicago or colorism, as well as the life stories of remarkable people from the eras of vinyl records and radio, authors Wayne Dawkins, (City Son), Herb Frazier (We Are Charleston), Nicole Gonzalez Van Cleve (Crook County), Rashod Ollison (Soul Serenade), Lori Tharps (Same Family, Different Colors) and myself (Word Warrior), will talk about our books – and sign your own personal copy.

This exciting NABJ/NAHJ Authors Showcase session starts at 10:30am on Friday, August 5th in at the Washington Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in Northwest DC.

For more details visit http://www.nabjnahj.com. I hope to see you there!

This month Word Warrior was selected as a finalist in the 2016 Phyllis Wheatley Book Awards. These awards were created in honor of the first published African American poet/writer by QBR, The Black Books Review – “the African American book review of record,” according to cultural critic Martin Arnold of the New York Times.

Phyllis Wheatley was brought to America as an enslaved African from the Gambia, West Africa in 1770. She was seven or eight years old. Wheatley soon learned how to read and write, and published her first poem at age 12. She went on to publish several poems that made her famous in early 1770s, and by 1775 Wheatley became the first enslaved African in America to publish a book.

How fitting that Word Warrior, a book about a man who loved poetry and who was a lyrical poet and powerful writer, would earn finalist status in the Wheatley Awards category that celebrates an author’s first nonfiction book!

Please click here to see the other finalists in this and the other Wheatley Awards categories. And thanks for your support!