LIFELINES: The Black Book of Proverbs

About the authors

Yvonne McCalla Sobers, a former educator who studied at the University of the West Indies, is currently a human and community development consultant,. She is also a human rights activist and researcher. Yvonne writes fiction and non-fiction, and is also the author of “Delicious Jamaica!: Vegetarian Cuisine“. Apart from a decade spent in Ghana and England, Yvonne has lived all her life in Kingston, Jamaica.


Askhari Johnson Hodari, Ph.D., an Africana Studies scholar and activist, earned degrees from Spelman College and Howard University. A former professor of African American Studies, she is the author of “The African Book of Names“. Originally from South Carolina, she was raised in Maryland and she now lives in Birmingham, Alabama.

About the book

Inspired by the biblical Book of Proverbs, LIFELINES: The Black Book of Proverbs (Random House, 2009) by Askhari Johnson Hodari and Yvonne McCalla Sobers, is a wondrously illustrated collection of aphorisms, witticisms, and sayings from Africa and the African Diaspora that will entrance, entertain, and enlighten readers of all ages.


*Birth and Parenting: “When a yam does not grow well, do not blame the yam; it is because of the soil.” (Ghana)

*Marriage: “Getting married is nothing: it is assuming the responsibility of marriage that counts.”(Haiti)

*Money Problems: “The poor person does not experience poverty all the time.” (Ghana)

*Peace and War: “To engage in conflict, one does not bring a knife that cuts but a needle that sews. (Kiswahili)

This book of proverbs is uniquely arranged by life cycle themes from birth to death and speaks to the tragedy and triumph in between. Unforgettable vignettes showing how African proverbs comfort, inspire, and instruct during different phases of life.

LIFELINES sharpens understanding of how traditions, civilization, and spirit survive and thrive, despite centuries of loss of freedom, family, identity, language, land, and wealth.

More about Lifelines:
http://www.lifelinesproverbs.com/

Don’t Bring Home A White Boy

About the author

Karyn Langhorne Folan graduated from Harvard Law School a couple of years ahead of President Obama. A former law professor, Karyn became interested in the many questions and issues surrounding interracial relationships after her marriage to her Irish American husband in 2004. After receiving hundreds of comments from readers after an essay in The Washington Post on the unique ways black Americans reacted to her relationship, Karyn decided to explore the issues further.


The result is her book “Don’t Bring Home A White Boy—and Other Notions That Keep Black Women From Dating Out.” Karyn is also the author of two interracial romance novels, A Personal Matter and Unfinished Business, and two other novels.

About the book

IN AN AGE WHEN AMERICA HAS EMBRACED a mixed-race president and a strong, independent black woman as first lady…when black women are on the move and more empowered than ever before…there remains one hot-button topic that stirs up cultural resistance and intensity of emotion like no other: interracial relationships — or, specifically, when black women date or marry white men.

What is it about the black female/white male dynamic that sparks such controversy and depth of feeling?


What keeps many single black women from exploring relationships outside of their race at a time when the pool of eligible black men is at an all-time low?

“Don’t bring home a white boy” is the cultural message stamped deep into every black daughter, an enduring twenty-first-century taboo with origins dating back to the Civil War era, the turbulent Civil Rights decades, and beyond. Now at last there is an honest, eye-opening examination of this societal phenomenon that will resonate with women everywhere and give voice to all sides of the debate. Karyn Langhorne Folan, herself a black woman happily married to a white man, brings together historical, statistical, psychological, and personal perspectives in a groundbreaking book that boldly debunks the “notions” that can keep interracial dating off the table for many women, including:



“After slavery, I could never date a white man.”

“I’m looking for a good black man.”

“I’m just not attracted to white men.”

“White men don’t find black women attractive.”

These are the things some black women say when the subject of interracial dating comes up. Although black men date interracially with little guilt and relative ease, black women remain hesitant about interracial dating– even though recent Census data reveals that 70% of black women are single… and don’t want to be.

Don’t Bring Home A White Boy examines– and refutes– the notions that keep black women from expanding their dating options. From history to sociology to psychology and including dozens of interviews from experts and average women, Don’t Bring Home A White Boy brings to light the myths and truths that cloud the black woman/white man dating dynamic. Available from Simon and Schuster’s Karen Hunter imprint in January 2010.

More about Karyn Langhorne Folan:
http://www.karynlanghorne.com/

The Mouth of Babes

About the author

As a child, Tosin Coker loved to read, a passion that stemmed from a desire to know what lay in the leaves that kept her mother so enchanted for hours on end.


She eagerly anticipated her and her mother’s weekly visits to the local library and soon challenged herself to read every book in the children’s section. Between the pages of the books she read, Tosin became lost in the worlds of the characters to the point of being oblivious to all else around her.

Tosin has never stopped reading, and now she has grown to become someone who also writes, and as such has become the first female, African British science fiction author. In her spare time Tosin also hosts her radio show – Nubian Scribes, volunteers as a spokesperson for sickle cell, and inspires others to live to their full potential by way of following their soul’s true path.

About the book

Destiny “Teeny” Kingsley is a healthy, happy, vibrant ten year-old – so it comes as a complete shock to her parents and everyone else when she suddenly falls into a deep coma. Furthermore, when all medical testing ultimately reveals no physical cause for her condition, it only adds to the fear and anxiety besieging the hearts and minds of everyone involved.



Little does anyone know, though, Teeny’s loss of consciousness is far from a random act or unforeseen coincidence; as a matter of fact, it was actually pre-arranged by her grandmother as a means to communicate with her on an alternate plane of existence. Over the course of their extended “visit,” Teeny subsequently learns eye-opening celestial truths that shatter her sense of reality and transform her view of the universe – as well as everything in it. And, when she learns of the all-important “mission” to which she’s been assigned, she quickly realizes that neither she nor those she loves the most will ever be the same…

The Mouth of Babes is the first in an exciting sci-fi trilogy by debut author, Tosin Coker

African Americans On Hawai’i: A Search For Identity

About the author

Ayin Adams is a performance artist, inspirational teacher and spiritual healer and has been published in numerous magazines, e-zines, and on-line publications. Author of more than five volumes of poetry books, including the acclaimed, “The Woods Deep Inside Me,” Adams was chosen as ‘Teacher of the Year 2008’ by the International Peace Poem Awards Committee.



She is the winner of the Pat Parker Poetry Award, the Audre Lorde Memorial Prose Prize Winner, Award Winner for Literary Excellence 2001, and the Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Award.

About the book

A new book, “African Americans In Hawai`i: A Search For Identity,” compiled and edited by Ayin M. Adams, Ph.D. is being released by its publisher Pacific Raven Press on Saturday, February 20, 2010.

The essays and interviews in the book document the difficulties and challenges as well as the contributions and successes of African Americans in Hawai‘i.

“The reader of this book will be left with fresh new images of and respect for blacks in Hawai`i, after learning of their 19th century migrations, leadership roles, successes and contributions to the whaling industry, medicine, business, education, science, civil service, the arts, social work, the military, and politics,” says Adams. “The reader will also discover issues of identity and pain, resulting from the derogatory images of blacks in western art, literature, and the media that have permeated the local psyche and eroded a positive self image and respect for blacks.”

The 220-page large format book has an introduction written by Kathryn Waddell Takara, Ph.D. and foreword by Aaron L. Day and Indira Hale-Tucker. Pacific Raven Press features new, emerging writers, and established writers of literary fiction and poetry. Pacific Raven Press publishes books by Africans and African Americans and People of Color in Hawai`i. Books are available at Borders, Barnes & Noble, Amazon.com, and online at www.pacificravenpress.com.

Hardcopy $ 39.99
Softcover $ 29.99 + Schipping

More about Ayin Adams:
http://www.ayinadams.com/

Race, Law, and American Society: 1607 to Present

About the author

Gloria J. Browne-Marshall is the author of the book Race, Law, and American Society: 1607 to Present (Routledge) as well as The Constitution: Major Cases and Conflicts (Pearson) and The U.S. Constitution: An African-American Context (Law and Policy Group Press). She is the recipient of the Ida B. Wells-Barnett Justice Award.

She is an award-winning playwright writing under the name Gloria J. Browne. Her plays have been produced in New York City, Brooklyn, Chicago, Pittsburgh, and Milwaukee. Her plays include My Juilliard, Jeanine, Waverly Place, and Killing Me Softly. Her plays explore race, class, and the consequence of life changing choices. She is a member of the Dramatist Guild, Mystery Writers of America, National Association of Black Journalists, and PEN American Center.

Ms. Browne-Marshall is an Associate Professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice (CUNY) and the Graduate Center where she teaches Constitutional Law, Race and the Law, and Evidence and is a member of the Gender Studies faculty. She has published articles on racial justice in the field of education as well as book chapters on international criminal tribunals and the rights of female inmates living with HIV/AIDS. She is a Civil Rights attorney who has litigated cases on behalf of the Southern Poverty Law Center, Community Legal Services in Philadelphia, and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Inc.. She is a member of the bar of the United States Supreme Court.

Browne-Marshall’s civil rights litigation has involved education, children’s healthcare, and criminal justice issues. Gloria has worked with law and policy issues of concern to vulnerable groups, specifically children, women, and people of color in the United States, Africa, and Europe. She has presented interventions before the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, on issues of racial justice and is the former Legal Advisor to the Permanent Representation to the United Nations in Geneva and New York of the African Bureau of Educational Sciences/OAU.

Gloria J. Browne-Marshall is the Founder and Director of The Law and Policy Group, Inc. The Law and Policy Group is a “think tank for the community” that provides policy information, speakers, public outreach, and legal analysis on issues affecting the lives of children, women, and people of color. The Law and Policy Group, Inc. released the first of an ongoing national Report on the Status of Black Women and Girls(R) in 2008. It is the first national ongoing report on the state of Black females in America. To purchase copies for your school, organization, college or high school student, library, community or individual reference, see: lawandpolicygroup.org/

While in England and Africa as an exchange scholar in Fall 2007, Gloria J. Browne-Marshall began research on a new book project. She currently resides in Manhattan and is completing a book of essays titled The Haunted Woman.

About the book

In Race, Law, and American Society: 1607 to Present Gloria Browne-Marshall traces the history of racial discrimination in American law from colonial times to the present, analyzing the key court cases that established America’’s racial system and showing their impact on American society. Throughout, she places advocates for freedom and equality at the center, moving from their struggle for physical freedom in the slavery era to more recent battles for equal rights and economic equality.

From the colonial period to the present, this book examines education, property ownership, voting rights, criminal justice, and the military as well as internationalism and civil liberties. Race, Law, and American Society is highly accessible and thorough in its depiction of the role race has played, with the sanction of the U.S. Supreme Court, in shaping virtually every major American social institution.

More about Gloria J.Browne-Marshall:
www.racelawsociety.blogspot.com

General Authority

About the author

Lahiny Pierre was born in Jacmel, south of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Her first public presentations date back to pre-school years at Kindergarten Marie Carline. At the age of fourteen she reunited with her parents in Brooklyn, New York and finished her academic studies.


She now resides in Georgia where she is a full time Writer and grassroots community organizer. Her literary works include poetry, literary criticism, screen plays, and two novels, addressing the struggle of migration, loss, and coming to terms with one’s story, which she believes, affects the present in multiple ways.

About the book

Struggles of migration, loss, and coming to terms with one’s history affects one’s present life. When Denis decides to run from Port-au-Prince, he is not sure the fake passport will take him to New York City. For eleven years he has been the leader of the Engagés, a secret society fighting the Militia for the return of the city and a stop to the “Cut Heads Burn Homes” societal renegades.



Days before Denis and his troops launch a key attack, one of their top men is assassinated. The Militia commands local thugs after Denis who must flee to save his skin. Denis bounds for the U.S. to escape death and maybe stumble into the American Dream. The problem of adapting to this dizzying new world fades as he suddenly finds himself in the middle of an interracial marital meltdown that could send him straight into the arms of his enemies back in Haiti.

This book illustrates themes of the struggle of migration, loss, and coming to terms with one’s history; exile by choice because of economic circumstances; assimilation – cause and effect; the myth of the American dream, an idea held by people worldwide; cultural alienation; socialization of the immigrant; leaving home; learning new experiences; adapting to a new life; speaking a new language; the reuniting of old friends; friendship; male bonding; spirituality; African Deities; Haitian Culture; Voodoo; facing the past; nationalism; community building; cultural awareness; music and dance in the Haitian culture; political unrest; murder; vengeance; and civic duties.

More about the author:
http://www.lahinypierre.com/

Hija De Mi Madre

About the author

Carmen Mojica is a 24 year old woman born and raised in the Bronx. She is a poet, writer, producer and model. She is a graduate from the State University of New York at New Paltz. She has her bachelor’s degree in Black Studies and Television/Radio Productions. Carmen is a member of the Intangible Collective (intangiblecollective.com).

She teaches writing workshops that are based on self-reflection and examination of one’s emotional and mental health. She is a student in the art of holistic health practices and is on the path of helping the people around her, particularly women. She is currently writing a novel.

About the book

Hija De Mi Madre” explores the identity of African Latinas. The research included in this work entails the ethnogenesis of Afro-Latinos and the effects of phenotype and cultural institutions on identity. It also includes a personal memoir of a first-hand experience of an Afro-Latina.



Link to website for book (She self-published it): Click Here

GO TO HELL!

A book by Rev. Freda

Anybody ever flip you the finger and tell you to, “GO TO HELL”? Or when was the last time that you sent somebody there? More importantly, when was the last time you put yourself through hell?

What exactly is “hell”? Is it the Christian bible’s description of a lake of fire, ruled by The Devil, specifically created for all sinners and unbelievers (who are not saved) to burn as their eternal punishment after death? Or… is it the Webster’s Dictionary definition that says hell is, “any place or state of misery and cruelty”?

Or… perhaps hell is me–for so many years–not being able to let go of all of my personal struggles, pains and heartaches as a result of growing up as (all said in one breath with violins in the background) “a-poor-black-uneducated-ghetto-girl-who-had-to-endure-the-cruelty-of-her-sadistic-mother-and-the-molestation-by-a-family-member-while-facing-the-shameless-ridicule-of-society-for-becoming-a-young-unwed-mother-who-later-gets-married-and-has-yet-another-child-only-to-force-her-to-finally-come-to-grips-with-her-sexuality-as-a-latent-lesbian-which-causes-her-to-temporarily-lose-the-love-and-respect-of-her-first-born-son-and-family-not-to-mention-her-losing-her-mind-as-well-at-which-time-she-becomes-a-member-of-a-church-movement-that-fosters-and-promotes-the-spiritual-empowerment-of-Same-Gender-Loving-People-of-Color-which-inadvertently-leads-her-to-one-day-become-the-openly-gay-pastor-of-the-same-church-where-she-is-later-betrayed-by-the-founder-of-the-organization-causing-her-to-resign-her-position-and-embark-on-her-own-personal-spiritual-quest-sparking-a-long-and-tedious-tear-stained-yet-joyous-journey-through-the-hell-of-self-discovery-self-worth-and-self-love-only-to-be-inspired-motivated-and-divinely-ordained-to-write- this-book!” (Whew!!!)

Whatever your personal hell is, this book was created to afford you the opportunity to see, feel and experience “hell” in a different light… as a pathway to “heaven” here on earth. You see, we are taught to fear—fear things that we cannot control. Yet and still, it is ultimately those things–call them hard times, obstacles, set-backs, disasters, trials and tribulations—that we have the opportunity to show up and show out in life however we choose. It is those very times of struggle and resistance– when we are going through HELL–that we discover our capabilities, our vulnerabilities, and believe it or not, our strengths and our personal Power.

And guess what? Not everyone is out to get you! Well…maybe some are…but not everyone:) With every hellish person who tries to commit every hellish act, we have the opportunity to see them for who they really are, but more importantly, they hold up a spiritual mirror for us to see ourselves for who we really are, as they provide us with the opportunity to create who it is that we really want to be by choosing how we decide to respond.

When you go through hell, you are literally going through a spiritual rebirth and an authentic awakening, if and only if, you choose to experience it that way. Hell is perception…just like heaven is. You can either see it as death, or you can view it as a prologue to life. Most mothers, while deep in the pangs of labor, find it hard to focus on the beauty of what is about to be born into the world. And so it is when we feel like we are going through hell. Oh, but what joy when our beautiful baby is born! Every pain, every tear, every scream and every fear was well worth it. Likewise, the “living hell” we experience along this journey called Life pales in comparison to the wonderment and the natural high of finding “heaven here on earth”!

So now, are you ready to truly live? Are you ready to live life more abundantly? Are you ready to live an authentic life, filled with passion and purpose? Then as a citizen of the world and a minister of Truth, I tell you now in love… GO TO HELL!

Pre-Orders ONLY

Click Here

I Want What Most White Women Got: A Black Man

About the author

Veronica Blakely, the author of the best selling book of poetry titled, I Want What Most White Women Got: A Black Man, is a native of Tampa, Florida where she teaches Reading to inner city High School students. She previously worked as a Manager in Corporate America; however, she considers being a Teacher the most important, challenging and rewarding opportunity of her career. Veronica is working on her second book which will be the novel version of her first book.

Veronica is also a Voice Over Talent, Speech Coach, Reading Coach and she teaches life skills to inner city kids and adults on a consultant basis. She is a devout Christian who attends church regularly and she is a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. Veronica is currently working on her doctorate in Education

About the book

Veronica Blakely, a dark-skinned divorcee, has opened a can of worms and an opportunity for some dialogue in her book of poetry titled, I Want What Most White Women Got: A Black Man. The book looks at relationships in the African American community and ponders why some Black men prefer women who are “light” or white.
The book does NOT bash males NOR is it about racism. The book instead brings to the forefront how dating and marriage has changed drastically for African American women.

The book is written in three parts starting with The Issues at Hand with topics like:

* Color Struck
* P.H.A.T. vs. FAT
* Drama Queen
* W.W.W.F. (White Women Won’t Fight)
* Low-down vs. Down-low
* She is Still White to Me

In addition, there are poems of affirmation on the beauty Black women possess in spite of feeling they have been snubbed by Brothers.
The second section titled, Words of Wisdom is dedicated to women on life, love and living. Tips such as:”Find a God fearing man instead of just a good feeling man,” among other meaningful and uplifting tips.
The third and final section wraps up with B.M.W. “Black Men Wanted”, with poems describing men in all shapes, shades, sizes, and stages of their lives who are celebrated just for being who they are.

Veronica’s book was released in December 2006 and was listed as the #2 Best Seller on Mosaic Books.Com in February 2007 (2 months later). Her book is still on the top ten best seller’s list and has received critical acclaim from readers around the country.

More about Veronica Blakely:

http://www.vs-voice.com/

Ph.D. Stories: Conversations with My Sisters

About the author

Kent State University's Dr. Joanne Kilgour Dowdy was recently recognized for her book, "Ph.D. Stories: Conversations with My Sisters." She is the recipient of the 2009 American Educational Research Association Narrative and Research Special Interest Group's Outstanding Book Award.

Her book is a collection of interviews with tenured, African American female professors in Northeast Ohio and their experiences in obtaining a Ph.D. and working in academia.



About the book

Conversations with My Sisers paints a colorful and vivid picture of nine African American women professor-scholars, in their own voice. Dowdy sets out with the goal of exploring the strategies these strong women used to survive and thrive in the academy. Through the sincere stories of these nine women, we become present in their daily stories of trials and tribulations.