Old Blog

One of the great things about independent presses is that they are often the first to bring new or emerging voices to market. Craig T. McNeely’s Double Life Press is one such indy press, fairly new to the game, and already putting out established authors who I love, such as Will Viharo. Double Life’s newest release, A Negro and an Ofay, by debut author Danny Gardner, is sure to impress with its heavy cultural subtext.Set in the post-WWII 1950’s midwest, A Negro and an Ofay is, as the tagline rea …

What makes this book, as well as, his previous book, The Beautiful Struggle, so important is the perspective from which Ta-nehisi speaks. Like him, I myself am a black male Gen Xer. For most of my young life I heard about the statistics regarding my kind dying at a young age. It was an ever present feeling that you either get caught up in the madness surrounding you or somehow escape to the other side that was just a Metro ride away. This book is important because, whether you agree with it …

Inspired by James Baldwin’s 1963 classic “The Fire Next Time,” Ta-Nehisi Coates’s new book, “Between the World and Me,” is a searing meditation on what it means to be black in America today. It takes the form of a letter from Mr. Coates to his 14-year-old son, Samori, and speaks of the perils of living in a country where unarmed black men and boys — Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, Eric Garner, Walter L. Scott, Freddie Gray — are dying at the hands of police officers, an America where just last month …

July 7, 2015Dr. Ashley Robertson’s Book Pays Homage to Bethune’s Social Justice WorkMEDIA CONTACT: Damita Chambers, dchambers@bowiestate.edu, 301-832-2628 (mobile)(DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.) – “Ten years ago, I wouldn’t have thought or imagined this,” said Dr. Ashley Robertson (’08) from her office as curator/director of the Mary McLeod Bethune Foundation-National Historic Landmark. At the Bethune-Cookman University where she is also an assistant professor, Ashley preserves precious collections belong …

Artist Natasha Roberts will do whatever it takes to escape poverty, even if it means not marrying the guy she really loves. That her husband happens to be the leader of Haiti, and is offering her a way out - may or may not be enough to ease her refuge.Roberts is the heroine of "God Loves Haiti" (Harper Collins), Dimitry Elias Léger's debut novel. Published just last week, the book has already garnered praise from such literary heavyweights as Junot Diaz and Edwidge Danticat. Léger, who performed …