Zetta Elliott's Blog, page 112
June 26, 2010
"seg-book-gation"
Have you read Bernice McFadden's great op-ed in The Washington Post? If not, get over there now! Here's just a taste:
…a few select African American authors have "crossed over" into the mainstream — the work of many African Americans authors, myself included, has been lumped into one heap known as "African American literature." This suggests that our literature is singular and anomalous, not universal. It is as if we American authors who happen to be of African descent are not a people but...
June 24, 2010
yes, yes, yes, yes, YES!
As I think about potentially leaving Brooklyn and moving back into car country, the one advantage that sticks in my mind is an end to sexual harassment in the street. It's hard to get through a day in this city without multiple men of varying ages saying or doing something to offend me and disturb my peace. So when I found this post over at the Crunk Feminist Collective, I practically jumped for joy (it's by J.Neensy, whose website is called "Brooklyn Magic"!). I wish men (and women...
June 23, 2010
mulatta (fiction) fatigue
This self-diagnosis prevents me from fairly judging a book like The Girl Who Fell from the Sky. This one has an original plot about a family so dysfunctional the protagonist really didn't "need" to be mixed race. But she is, which means some of the same old same old (repeated references to her beauty/striking blue eyes: check; insensitive white boyfriend: check; menacing black girl at school who wants to beat her up: check; black family member who admires her good hair: check; reference to ...
June 21, 2010
A Place Where Hurricanes Happen
Today's the release day for A Place Where Hurricanes Happen, a beautiful collaboration between author Renee Watson and my good friend, Shadra Strickland. An award-winning illustrator, Shadra poured her passion and talent into this new book—these beautiful sample illustrations will give you a sense of how she captured both the innocence of kids in New Orleans, and the terror of living through a devastating hurricane.
You recently gave a talk about the healing power of art. How do you...
June 20, 2010
The Mariposa Club
Thanks to Amanda and Jodie, The Mariposa Club started off at the top of my TBR list following the Book Blogger Convention in late May. And even though I finished it a couple of weeks ago, the distinct voices of the characters are still fresh in my mind. This is one of the most original stories I've ever read, and the representation of four gay friends (self-dubbed "The Fierce Foursome") entering their senior year of high school in southern California brilliantly complicates our ideas of...
June 19, 2010
Happy Father's Day
Not to be morbid, but 6 years ago my father died of prostate cancer, which is a form of cancer that can be treated and even cured if detected early. So on this day, urge the men you love (of a certain age, 45-50) to get tested so there will be many more Father's Days to celebrate together…
links galore
Ok, I've been saving these links for a spectacular, coherent post…but maybe that's not gonna happen. I woke before 6am but just couldn't get up, and so lolled in bed thinking over the writing curriculum I need to pull together this weekend. So without further delay, here are some terrific links I came across this past week—check them out!
Neesha led me to this amazing post by teen blogger Brent:
My city's public libraries werent much better. The only LGBT book they had was The Meaning of...
June 18, 2010
magic & mermaids
I don't write poetry. I used to write one poem per year on average, along with a couple dozen haiku. But when you're teaching kids how to write poetry, you have to offer some demo poems—and I realize that writing poetry at that level works for me since my poetic powers are rather elementary. Wouldn't mind writing a collection of poems for kids one day…
I Make Magic
some look for
the shimmer of fairy
dust on rose petals
some wish on
a shooting star
some mix up a potion
or utter a spell
some follow ...
June 17, 2010
are you a NOC?
NOC stands for Nerd of Color–and if you answered yes to that question (or even if you didn't), I hope you'll read this interesting article by Bao Phi (thanks to Claire for posting it on CBS). Yesterday as I lay on the couch coming out of my post-migraine fog, I found myself hoping that Lord of the Rings was somehow available online. I needed a Frodo fix, and some days it's just like that…
What I've written less about is the books I gravitated towards: books about mythological monsters...
June 16, 2010
recent reads
I finished Wench a few days ago, and have been thinking about the best way to discuss it; Andrea Levy's The Long Song is waiting for me at the library, and if I include The Book of Night Women, I'll have read three neo-slave narratives in one month. I'm still thinking about how to write about The Mariposa Club—write a review? set up an author interview? both? It's harder for me to review LGBT novels because I've only read a few, and that means I can't really situate the book in relation to ...
