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June 20, 2009
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The next issue of SABLE is themed, Word from Africa, following the successful event at The British Museum in May. The 'Spotlight' is on four of the new writers in Dreams, Miracles and Jazz, (Mamle Kabu, Biram Mboob, Mildred Barya and Tony Mocha, four exciting new faces and voices from Ghana, The Gambia, Uganda and Kenya, respectively.
Other pieces include: The winning story from the John La Rose competition by Molara Wood; New story by new talent Amran Gaye from The Gambia; Poetry from Stanley Onjezani Kenani and Khanyi Magubane;
Traditional Somali stories in Somali, translated into English; Poetry in Ndebele and Shona from Leeds Young Authors, Zodwa Nyoni and Dana Chinyanga; Lots of reviews of titles by African authors published in 2008.
AND to celebrate the 50 Years of Things Fall Apart - 50 writers say in just 50 words what the impact of TFA and Achebe has had on them.
To order this issue or to subscribe to SABLE, email us SUBSCRIBE TO SABLE
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Recommended: Young Readers
 The Kids at Latimar High
Deborah J. Copeland
Whirlabout, $9.95, 270pp
ISBN:0-98166020-7
Review by Stacey Seay
The Kids at Latimar High opens as Lauren lays down the rules she and her best friend, Rosalyn, have established for their friendship. The two girls can't be more opposite. Rosalyn is a confident, overindulged, pretty girl who loves to flirt and is always in search of a new conquest. Lauren is more scholarly, insecure, and while pretty, a little on the thick side, so she doesn't garner as much attention from boys. Despite their differences, their friendship works, especially when they both follow their rules.
Lauren is on the school newspaper staff, and sees herself as a journalist in the future. Her biggest frustration is that she rarely gets to cover what she considers real news. Instead, she is forced to cover things like sports, something she had little interest in until it involved interviewing Latimar's star quarterback, Kevin. Of course, Rosalyn has already decided she and Kevin are meant to be and initially Lauren accepts the idea as well. But after spending time with Kevin, Lauren quickly realizes she also has feelings for him that are heightened as she comes to realize she may actually have a chance with him. With both girls vying for the attention of the same guy, tension is high. The drama really increases when Lauren and Rosalyn begin to break their rules for friendship. The schoolmates soon discover that no one is as they seem, and everyone has their own crosses to bear. Each of the main characters begin to see themselves and their peers differently and they evolve into stronger, better people.
The Kids at Latimar High was an enjoyable coming of age story set in an average high school. Copeland has crafted well developed characters who endear themselves to the reader. The ending was a bit abrupt and left a lot of loose ends, however, teens will find it easy to relate to the story, as it touches on real life issues with an authentic feel.
Stacey Seay is a native of Northern Virginia where she currently resides. She is a stay-at-home Mom, an avid reader, and the Childrens Editor for RAWSISTAZ.
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COMING IN APRIL: POINT OF VIEW
Killing Me Softly: How Publishers Are Killing the Black Reader Market
 There has been a steady decline in the number of readers of black fiction. The street lit crowd is 'thugged out' or 'growed up'. The black hyper-sex stereotype is played and the blow-back has black book clubs turning to "general market" fiction for their reading. Still, publishers push writers to greater graphic detail while rejecting literary fiction that crosses their desks as "not selling right now". We go inside...
Recommended: Fiction
 The Hands of Love
Omar Scott
Outskirts Press, $23.95, 312pp.
ISBN-13: 978-1432734022
Lorenzo Love, or Ren as he's known on the streets, is not your typical veteran detective. He's a smooth-talking, streetwise brother who is quite cunning. He cleverly juggles his home life, which includes his young son and loving wife, a needy mistress, and a narcotics unit of dirty cops that have been taking money under the table from dangerous drug-dealers. Ren has always been crafty at maneuvering his way out of difficult situations. But now his "bad-boy" ways are finally catching up with him. His relationship with his mistress is unraveling, Internal Affairs is investigating his crew for an illegal shooting, and a string of young ladies are brutally murdered one by one with the evidence pointing directly at him. The race is on to cover his tracks, clear his crew, and find a serial killer before it's too late.
The Hands of Love is a fast paced, well-crafted novel that weavies its way through the crime-infested streets of East Dallas. This well-thought out thriller packs the requisite twists and turns one comes to expect from a more seasoned writer. The author of the acclaimed first novel, When Good Will Goes Bad, Scott delivers his talent for engaging storytelling.
Recommended: Nonfiction
 Mrs. Dred Scott
Lea Vandervelde
Oxford, $34.95, 496pp
ISBN-13: 9780195366563
Among the most infamous U.S. Supreme Court decisions is Dred Scott v. Sandford. Despite the case's signal importance as a turning point in America's history, the lives of the slave litigants have receded to the margins of the record, as conventional accounts have focused on the case's judges and lawyers. In telling the life of Harriet, Dred's wife and co-litigant in the case, this book provides a compensatory history to the generations of work that missed key sources only recently brought to light. Moreover, it gives insight into the reasons and ways that slaves used the courts to establish their freedom.
A remarkable piece of historical detective work, Mrs. Dred Scott chronicles Harriet's life from her adolescence on the 1830s Minnesota-Wisconsin frontier, to slavery-era St. Louis, through the eleven years of legal wrangling that ended with the high court's notorious decision. The book not only recovers her story, but also reveals that Harriet may well have been the lynchpin in this pivotal episode in American legal history.
Reconstructing Harriet Scott's life through innovative readings of journals, military records, court dockets, and even frontier store ledgers, VanderVelde offers a stunningly detailed account that is at once a rich portrait of slave life, an engrossing legal drama, and a provocative reassessment of a central event in U.S. constitutional history. More than a biography, the book is a deep social history that freshly illuminates some of the major issues confronting antebellum America, including the status of women, slaves, Free Blacks, and Native Americans.
 Painting a Hidden Life: The Art of Bill Traylor
Mechal Sobel
LSU Press, $34.95, 256pp
ISBN-13: 9780807134016
Born into slavery on an Alabama plantation in 1853, Bill Traylor worked as a sharecropper for most of his life. From 1936 to 1946, he sat on a Montgomery street corner and created well over 1,200 paintings. Collected and later promoted by a young Montgomery artist, Traylor's work received star placement in the Corcoran Gallery's 1982 exhibition "Black Folk Art in America," placing him among the rising stars of twentieth-century American artists. Most critics and art historians who analyze Traylor's paintings emphasize his extraordinary form and evaluate his content as either enigmatic or simply narratives of black life. In Painting a Hidden Life, historian Mechal Sobel reveals a previously unrecognized central core of meaning in Traylor's near-hidden symbolism - a call for retribution in response to acts of lynching and other violence toward African Americans.
 THE HIP HOP WARS: What We Talk About When We Talk About Hip Hop - And Why it Matters
Tricia Rose
Basic Civitas, $15.95, 304pp
ISBN: 978-0465008971
Given hip hop's prominence in our culture, it's no surprise that the music is a hot topic of debate. Critics condemn it for promoting violence, sexism, and a "ghetto" street culture, and supporters dismiss these charges in the name of "keeping it real." Black Noise author and Brown University Professor Tricia Rose says both sides are wrong, and she examines the debate - and the future of hip hop - in her new book.
Rose says that when we talk about hip hop, we're really talking about race and racism in America. She grew up in the Bronx in the 70s as hip hop was being born, and argues that the music is at a crossroads-commercial hip hop has become a playground for caricatures of pimps, hoes and gangstas, and worse, the simple-minded arguments in "the hip hop wars" have put creative progression at a standstill. Does hip hop cause violence, or merely reflect violence in poor communities? Does hip hop hurt black people and demean women? Or should rappers be absolved simply because they are "keepin it real?" In THE HIP HOP WARS, Rose examines the top ten arguments in the hip hop wars, objectively explores each side, and shows us what we're really talking about - everything from racism and sexism to questions about white consumption of black culture. THE HIP HOP WARS ultimately calls for a revitalization of the music that she - and so many others - love dearly.
Recommended: Poetry
Reality Trippin': Black, Blue and Blessed
Penny Meacham-Cornelius
HBF Publishers, $16, 80pp
ISBN: X00000053925
FOR NOW....
hmmm imagining.... my tongue tip touching your bottom lip tasting it circling to your top before taking it in tickling my fingers on the hairs of your jawline your subtle masculine scent inhaling deeply my heart aligning with the rhythm of your breathing feeling your essence surrounding me driving my skin crazy ignoring your pa, my ma (not easy) you know....on their own rhythm and rhyme too fast anticipating I send her/him the message "WAIT A MINUTE!!"
..of course useless ...they ain't listening but what do they know... here ...they don't run the show see.... more than curiosity I'm interested so for now.... that's not how we rollin' just delighting in your nearness I confess for now... seeing you is enough just to take in your delicious smile sufficient to hear your voice my ear fantasy delighted taking in you and me seeing you and your very own aurora borealis show hinting subtle layers of your living within your eyes holding volumes taking a life time to properly delve in for now...my hand in yours while together walking and talking is perfectly sublime yeah ...savor thoughts of you and me intimately of course parts of me do more freely salivate but because it's you and I'm
more than content to wait
Cumandá: The Novel of the Ecuadorian Jungle
Juan Leon Mera, Translated by Noé O. Vaca
Authorhouse, $17.49, 196pp
ISBN-13: 9781434325990
The story is familiar: Star-crossed lovers, brought together despite cultural divisions, ultimately meeting a tragic end. Place this Romeo and Juliet type story in the Ecuadorian jungle, amidst revolts from indigenous tribes against an invading Christian revolution, and you get the classic Cumandá, a newly-revived story for English-speaking readers that Latin Americans have devoured and cherished for 131 years.
The book first published in 1879 by Juan León Mera, centers upon Juán Domingo Orosco, a rancher from the province of Chimborazo, Ecuador, whose family riches were stripped away during the riots of indigenous tribes. Juán then decides to dedicate the remainder of his life to God and becomes a Dominican friar, helping to convert jungle natives to Christianity. His son Carlos falls in love with the beautiful Cumandá, a young woman from an Amazon tribe. Despite the disapproval of their people, they fall in love. Cumandá is then forced to marry a Jívaro chief in order to spare Carlos's life. With this, a tragic love story unfolds.
The events surrounding the love story of Carlos and Cumandá help readers to understand the history of the Ecuadorian Jungle during the 19th century, when Christian missionaries spread over the world to conform all races and ethnicities to their religion. The setting of the dense, Ecuadorian jungle represents all that becomes entangled with the lover's lives, symbolizing the complexities brought about by one's societal obligations. |
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