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TIME TO VOTE!

Here are the books, in alphabetical order, nominated for our November meeting. Please vote for no more than three (3) books.  You may vote until 10 p.m. Friday night:

Michele Alexander, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness

Maggie Anderson, Our Black Year: One family's Quest to Buy Black in America's Racially Divided Economy. 

Nathan McCall, Makes Me Wanna Holler: A Young Black Man in America

Eugene Robinson, Disintegration: The Splintering of Black America

NOMINATIONS ARE OPEN

We're back in business next week, as we gather at UR next Saturday, September 15, room 500 in Ryland Hall at 5 p.m., to discuss Our Man in the Dark, by Rashad Harrison. I'm looking forward to it.

Our next meeting after that, on Saturday, November 19, will feature WIDE OPEN NON-FICTION, which means exactly that: no fiction, no poetry, no plays. Everything else is in the mix as a possibility.

Please nominate no more than two (2) books. Nominations will stay open until Wednesday at 10 p.m., then we'll vote on the nominations for the next book selection until Friday at 10 p.m., when the poll  will close. If there's a tie---and only if there's a tie; even a one-vote margin is a legitimate victory---we'll break the tie by secret-ballot vote at the meeting.

Summer Screening Difficulties

You've read the e-mail; here's my response, again:

Looks like it was one-and-done for our usage of the screening room we used last summer. 

I don't know about you guys, but ain't no way I'm advocating coughing up hundreds of dollars for the use of a theater we used for free last year.  Anyone want to offer their house as a venue?  I would offer mine, but our den is pretty small; we’d have to adjust the number of people who can come.  But then again, I can offer a classroom on campus for discussion, but there won't be any plush, theater-style seating, and as I recall, I did receive some complaints year before last (from the womenfolks) about discomfort in a basic classroom.  Monti, you might know: are there screens in the “living rooms” on campus---I really have no idea. 

In any case, I haven’t yet replied to Carla---maybe you guys WOULD like to pay for the Ukrops Auditorium…

Any ideas?  Any preferences?

Weigh in below...

B.

Summer Screening, 2012

I’m hereby announcing our Third Annual Black Men Read?! Summer Screening. On Saturday, July 21st, in the Ukrops Auditorium in Queally Hall, home of the Robins School of Business at the University of Richmond (same place as last year), we'll screen and then discuss Pariah, a critically acclaimed, Sundance Film Festival selection, directed by Dee Rees, and executive produced by Spike Lee: http://focusfeatures.com/pariah

The film is 90 minutes long.  As we have in previous summers, we'll meet an hour earlier at 4 PM; watch the film; and then discuss it at 5:30 in the lobby outside the Ukrops Auditorium.  Last year my wife and I had a nice dinner afterwards at Mama J's with Eric McNeely and his wife.  Anyone who wants to eat afterwards is invited  to do so again this year...

As is always the case, WIVES AND/OR FRIENDS are more than welcome for the Summer Screening (the more the merrier), but certainly come alone if your better half can’t come.

See you in July,

B.            

TIME TO VOTE!

We'll meet on Saturday, May 19th, to find out, according to Baratunde Thurston, How to Be Black.  5 p.m. at our usual place.

As for our September selection: from today, WEDNESDAY, to FRIDAY, May 18, you may vote for up to three (3) of the books below.  If there’s a tie we’ll take a secret-ballot vote at the meeting to determine the winning book selection.

Breath, Eyes, Memory, Edwidge Danticat

I am Not Sidney Poitier, Percival Everett

Our Man in the Dark, Rashad Harrison

The Book of Night Women, Marlon James

Big Machine, Victor LaValle

NOMINATIONS ARE OPEN

First, I'd like to co-sign Aubrey's suggestion that you guys check out the "30 Americans" exhibition at the Chrysler Museum in Norfolk.  I saw it at the Corcoran Gallery in D.C.---twice---and highly recommend it.

Since we're selecting our book for September, we're selecting a NOVEL this time out.  Nominations are officially open.  From tonight, SATURDAY, to TUESDAY night, May 15, you may nominate no more than two (2) books of the above genre.  From WEDNESDAY, May 16 to FRIDAY, May 18, you may vote for no more than three (3) of the books that were nominated earlier in the week.  If there’s a tie we’ll take a secret-ballot vote at the meeting to determine the winning book selection.

Good morning, gentlemen

In case you have not already done so, I would suggest that you check out the 30 Americans exhibit at the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, http://www.chysler.org/. It is a wide-ranging exhibit featuring art by 30 contemporary African American artists. It is available through the middle of July. UR undergraduate graduation was yesterday so it is much less congested on campus. See you in a couple weeks.

Aubrey

TIME TO VOTE!

Please vote for no more than three (3) books. In case of a tie, we will decide the next book by secret ballot at Saturday's meeting.

Our Black Year: One Family's Quest to Buy Black in America's Racially Divided Economy by
Maggie Anderson

Neighbors, by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins [play]

Panther Baby, by Jamal Joseph

How to be Black, by Baratunde Thurston

Losing My Cool: How a Father's Love and 15,000 Books Beat Hip-hop Culture by Thomas Chatterton Williams

NOMINATIONS ARE OPEN

Nominations are open for our May 19th meeting. This time the selection is wide-open, wild card, and genre-free. Please nominate no more than two (2) books. Nominations will stay open until Wednesday night, then we'll vote on the nominations for the next book selection. If there's a tie---and only if there's a tie; even a one-vote margin is a legitimate victory--we'll break the tie by secret-ballot vote at the meeting.

Meanwhile, we will meet on Saturday, March 17th, at UR, in our usual spot, at 5 p.m. We'll discuss Edwidge Danticat's Brother, I'm Dying for two hours, and then make an eating move for anyone who can make it. See you then.

Flatbadgers Flashbacks and Fascinations: It's just how we rolled in the 70's!

Flatbadgers Flashbacks and Fascinations: It's just how we rolled in the 70's!

TIME TO VOTE!

Here are the books, in alphabetical order; vote NOW for no more than THREE (3) books. We'll meet on Saturday, January 21 at UR, at 5 p.m., meet for no less than two hours, and then go hang out:

1. Days of Grace by Arthur Ashe

2. Brother, I'm Dying - Edwidge Danticat

   
   

   Foxy: My Life in Three Acts - Pam Grier

   
   

   He Talk Like a White Boy - Joseph C. Phillips, Tavis Smiley

3. Michael Seth Starr, Black and Blue: the Redd Foxx Story

   
   

   Born on a Blue Day by Daniel Tammet
   

   
   

   Jerald Walker, Street Shadows

4. Richard Wright, Black Boy

How the ANC Lost Its Way

I wanted to share this story with you about the ANC. At the back of my mind, there's always this troubling question.. when will we as black people be able to pull ourselves together and run / established governments without (corruption, violence and third world wars..)? A friend and I had a long discussion about our track records as Africans has been spotty (i.e. Haiti - Over a 100 years of independence, etc..,etc..) Now, I know there are many other factors that go into such matters, but when I'm looking at this from a high level it just begs the question.. can Africans govern a society? I know.. someone will retort with stories of great civilizations, but I'm talking about now.. 21st century. What are your thoughts?

NOMINATIONS ARE OPEN

Happy New Year, gentlemen! Nominations are hereby open for our March, 2012 selection, for our March 17, 2012, meeting, 5 p.m. in Ryland Hall, room 500, at the University of Richmond. Nominated books should be MEMOIRS this time. You are free to nominate two (2) books. Nominations will stay open until Wednesday night. On Thursday and Friday we will vote on the nominated books.

The End of Men

I've read articles similar to this one over the years. The part of the article that mentions the boys eyes as "glazed over" is the reason I do what I do for a living. One of the main culprits to the decrease in the number of males seeking post-secondary education is the format of our educational system. The educational system is more suited to the learning style of females (passive, listener). Teachers, predominately, continue to stand and lecture in classes from elementary school through high school. Males are most suited for active engagement in the learning process. For a variety of reasons, people learn best by doing, but considering the way children are raised, females adapt better to being auditory learners when necessary than boys. One of the possible solutions to meeting the multiple learning styles and intelligences of learners is through technology-based interventions which is where I come in. I won't digress.

Society has become more driven by information and the skill of communicating that information. Research has long shown that females are more verbal than males. The reason for this could be debated with the classic "nature vs. nuture" theory/ born that way or developed that way. For those of you who are married, this may carry over to your household. Honestly, everything doesn't have to be a debate with spouse and shouldn't be, but it can be if you allow it sometimes. Sometimes it's best to just agree to disagree and keep moving.

So, one of the issues to consider initially is relationships. Relationships in the classroom, workplace, and home with females. They all start early in the life of males.

Just my initial thoughts. Feel free to join in or not.  :)

Still reading the remainder of the article.

TIME TO VOTE!

Here are the books, in alphabetical order, nominated for our January 21 meeting. Please vote for no more than three (3) books:

Rob Bell, Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived

Milan Ford, 83 Things I Wish the Black Church Would Stop Doing

Toure, Who's Afraid of Post-Blackness?: What It Means to be Black Now

NOMINATIONS ARE OPEN

Nominations are hereby open for our January 21, 2012 selection. Nominated books should be "TOPICAL" OR "ISSUES NONFICTION this time. You are free to nominate two (2) books. Nominations will stay open until Wednesday night. On Thursday and Friday we will vote on the nominated books.

This Saturday, of course, we will meet at 5pm in the usual space to discuss Is Marriage for White People, by Richard Ralph Banks. Looking forward to it!

Women Choose Flexibility Over Big Titles (NBC Nightly News Story)

Interesting story considering the current book we are reading. Applies to black women?
Click here.

Good Meeting

Enjoyed our meeting, as usual, last Saturday afternoon. As revealed at the meeting, the book we'll be discussing on November 19, 2011 at our 5 p.m. meeting will be Ralph Richard Banks, Is Marriage for White People?: How the African American Marriage Decline Affects Everyone. It should really be interesting...

Blog Posting/Commenting Issues

After having the experience of not being able to respond to a post or publish a new post to the blog I did some serious investigating.

If you continue having posting/comment issues, do the following:

(See the image below)
1) Sign in to the blog with the email address you gave me to grant you membership to the blog.

2) Enter your password.

2) Before clicking on the "Sign in" button, uncheck the "Stay signed in" box above the "Sign in" button.

3) Click the "Sign in" button.

4) Try a new post to the blog.


Let me know how it goes for you.