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June Jordan’s Legacy of Solidarity and Love Remains Relevant

Sriram Shamasunder Yes Magazine
We look to our elders to demonstrate another way of being in this broken world, extending our circle of commitment to the person in front of us, or to a group of people, like she did with Palestinian people. June taught us it is important to practice self-love, to show commitment to your community and to extend that care to those struggling for justice around the world.

books

The Legacy of a Caged Bird

On Gene Andrew Jarrett’s “Paul Laurence Dunbar” Los Angeles Review of Books
During his lifetime, Paul Laurence Dunbar, an African American, was among the most famous poets in the United States. It is one of the great paradoxes of the early Jim Crow era. This biography sheds new light on the writer's life and work.

Alice Walker Has ‘No Regrets’

Elizabeth A. Harris New York Times
Alice Walker is often an autobiographical writer, even in her fiction; the main character in “The Color Purple,” Celie, is based on her grandmother. Now, by publishing her journals, she has invited the world into some of her most private moments.

books

Blood on the Fog

Lou Fancher East Bay Express
Tongo Eisen-Martin’s latest book of poems challenges whiteness and the status quo with a strong revolutionary practice.

Langston Hughes Was a Lifelong Socialist

Billy Anania Jacobin
In the 30s and 40s, Langston Hughes wrote poetic tributes to the working class and socialist leaders worldwide. Some critics allege he abandoned his principles later in life, but they ignore the role of McCarthyist oppression and Hughes’s resistance.

books

New York Is Now

Omari Weekes Bookforum
Acclaimed novelist Whitehead offers a crime novel set in 1960s Harlem.
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