About Last Saturday...

Excellent meeting, men---

For those who missed our discussion of The Art of Manliness, or came late, hopefully Hobbs will have the audio up sooner rather than later.

We’ll read and discuss Philip Roth’s The Human Stain in September (Saturday, September 18 at 5 p.m., to be exact).

And on Saturday, July 24^th, at 6 p.m., we will hold our first Black Men Read?! Summer Screening! Bring your wives or significant others or interested friends. We’ll do it in at UR, exact location to be determined.

Have good summers---

Bert Ashe

TIME TO VOTE!

Here, in alphabetical order, are the choices for our September novel:

David Bradley’s "The Chaneysville Incident"

Edward P. Jones, The Known World

Ann McMillan, Chickahominy Fever

Philip Roth, The Human Stain

Please vote for no more than three (3).

NOMINATIONS ARE OPEN

Men:

We’re meeting to discuss The Art of Manliness: Classic Skills and Manners for the Modern Man on Saturday, May 15, in our usual room in Ryland Hall at the University of Richmond at 5 p.m. Leading up to the meeting, as per usual, we'll select our next book. This time our September 18 meeting is [cue fanfare] a NOVELS ONLY nomination situation.

Nominations are NOW OPEN for NOVELS you want to discuss in September. You may nominate TWO (2) novels from now until I go to bed on Wednesday night. On Thursday morning we’ll vote on the novels that have been nominated.

TIME TO VOTE!

Here are the nominations; please vote in the comments section below for THREE (3) of the following:

Helene Cooper, The House at Sugar Beach: In Search of a Lost African Childhood

Miles Davis, Miles: The Autobiography

Will Haygood, Sweet Thunder: The Life and Times of Sugar Ray Robinson

Jimi Izrael, The Denzel Principle: Why Black Women Can't Find Good Black Men

Robin Kelley, Thelonius Monk: The Life and Times of An American Original

Bret McKay, The Art of Manliness

Jackie McMullen, When the Game Was Ours: Magic Johnson & Larry Bird

Richard Pryor, Pryor Convictions: and Other Life Sentences

Sapphire, Push

NOMINATIONS ARE OPEN

Okay, BMR?!ers,

nominations are officially open for May's selection. May is, you'll recall, a "wide-open, wildcard, genre-free" selection. As long as your nomination exists on paper and between two covers, it's a valid nomination. Nominations will be open, as usual, from now until Wednesday night. As of Thursday morning, we'll be voting on whatever we've got.

Now, I went back into the archives and looked at the original book selection process http://blackmenreadva.blogspot.com/2007/01/book-selection-process.html and discovered I've been doing it wrong for some time now. In fact, we're supposed to nominate TWO books, and then vote for THREE, rather than the other way around, as I somehow transposed it.

So. You brothers can officially nominate two (2) books starting now, by replying to this blog post. On Thursday and Friday we'll each have three votes on whatever gets nominated. (Sorry about the mix-up.)

Then on Saturday, March 20, we'll meet and discuss James McBride's The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother at our usual place at our usual time.

Summer Film Discussion

I'm suggesting Saturday, July 24, 2010---

Since it's summer, I'm going to assume that someone will have to miss; summer schedules are iffy, at best. But I'm throwing that date out there in the hopes that if we place it on our calendars in early March, we can try and schedule around it if something comes up in the interim.

(Oh, and remember, the protests of one of our number notwithstanding, WIVES and/or significant others and/or friends of any gender who you think might be interested ARE INVITED to this screening/discussion. Ahem.)

How's this date work for you guys? Do we have quorum?

When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost: My Life as a Hip Hop Feminist.

Alright, we're set to meet with the ladies in April to review the book:

When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost: My Life as a Hip Hop Feminist.

I'll send out an update with the actual date in April along with the place to meet.