Mapp for Mayor: Positive Change for Plainfield After Nearly Eight Years of_____________(Fill in the Blank)

 

These are just a few reasons why Adrian should be an overwhelming "YES" as Plainfield's new mayor after nearly eight years of incompetence, stagnation, and controversy.

 

• Adrian brings financial expertise to the our city as a Certified Municipal Finance Officer and is chairman of the Council’s Finance Committee.
• Adrian brings 21st century vision and energy to Plainfield.
• Adrian discovered $1.7 million dollar error in mayor’s budget and created a workable solution to fix it.
• Adrian voted to restore full funding to the Plainfield Public Library and its literacy and children’s programs when the mayor wanted to cut the budget by 40 percent.

 MAPP: PROVEN LEADERSHIP FOR PLAINFIELD! 

 I hope you will come to the Plainfield Public Library at 7:00 pm this evening to hear Adrian speak about the issues facing our city at the co-sponsored FOSH/LWV forum--for more info, click here. We've had nearly eight years of the nonsense. Now let's hear issues and ideas to move our city forward.

Rebecca

 

Commemorating the Birthday of Black Lesbian Playwright and Activist Lorraine Hansberry, 1930 - 1965

I want to acknowledge the life and legacy of black lesbian playwright and activist Lorraine Hansberry, who was born on May 19, 1930. She died of cancer in 1965 at the age of 34, but left a lasting legacy in the form of her artistic contributions as well as her political writings (too many to name here). To start your immersion into Hansberry's aesthetic, I would suggest that, in addition to reading the original play of A Raisin in the Sun and watching the 1961 film version (the classic and superior version), you look at To Be Young, Gifted, and Black, the posthumously released collection of writings that was turned into a play and film, respectively. Required reading would be the essay written by her dear friend, James Baldwin, titled "Sweet Lorraine." I have a copy of the film, which was directed by Michael Schultz for WNET Playhouse back in 1972 and which stars Ruby Dee, Blythe Danner, Al Freeman, Jr. (who died just last year) Lauren Jones, and Barbara Barrie. The film is a sort of bricolage of all of Hansberry's writings, with her character being read by all the actors, irrespective of race, gender, and sexual orientation. It was the kind of experimental work that was being done by WNET in the early days of public television. Also born on this day was Malcolm X (1925), who also died prematurely (at the hands of assassins) in 1965 (aged 39). It is difficult the imagine losing two great black intellects in the same year (just a month apart), but we have their respective legacies. We can ignore them at our own peril. Finally, I invite you also to watch Nina Simone performing "To Be Young, Gifted, and Black" (the song she and Weldon Irvine wrote as a tribute to Lorraine) at the Harlem Cultural Festival (known as the "Black Woodstock") in 1969.

 

Best,

Rebecca

Literary Classics by Darkinboddy Editions!

As you all know, I am a voracious lover of literature and history. I am also working on a literary project in conjunction with The Darkinboddy Chronicles. It's called Darkinboddy Editions, and it is my publishing company, which focuses on publishing novels, essays, and short stories by 19th and early 20th century American authors. These particular editions constitute part of my larger mission to introduce modern readers to important literary and historical texts. The first available works, Frederick Douglass's The Heroic Slave and Other Tales of Madison Washington and Nella Larsen's Passing, are available for sale through the Darkinboddy Chronicles website and on Amazon.com. You can read descriptions of the first two releases below. 

Nella Larsen’s 1929 Harlem Renaissance novel, Passing, is a modernist masterpiece which resists categorization. Viewed as a comedy of manners, a domestic drama, a murder mystery, as well as a “race” novel, Larsen’s narrative crosses boundaries of genre and offers insights into the gender, racial, and class concerns of the black bourgeoisie in the early decades of the 20th century. Irene Redfield, an upper middle-class African American woman, finds her tightly-controlled domestic sphere is turned topsy-turvy by the sudden reappearance of her childhood friend, the seductive and enigmatic Clare Kendry, as both are drawn into a fascinating world of racial masquerades and illicit affairs.  

Paperback $6.95 click here!  

Kindle $3.50 click here!

The Heroic Slave, written by Frederick Douglass (ca. 1818-1895) at the behest of the Rochester Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society and published in 1853, brings to life one of our greatest American heroes, Madison Washington, the leader of the successful 1841 slave revolt on board the slave ship Creole. It is the only work of fiction Douglass ever wrote.  Also included in this volume: William Wells Brown’s 1863 eponymous biographical tribute, and a 1901 retelling of the tale by Pauline E. Hopkins, titled “A Dash for Liberty.” 

Paperback $5.95 click here!    

Kindle $2.99 click here!

Also forthcoming: 

Frederick Douglass on Freedom, Feminism, and Equality

Frederick Douglass

 Our Nig

Harriet E. Wilson

 Iola Leroy, or Shadows Uplifted

Frances E. W. Harper

Black Radicalism in the 19th Century: Essays and Speeches

Lucy Parsons, Timothy Thomas Fortune, and Others

 The Mulatto and Other Ambiguities of Race

Victor Séjour, Charles W. Chesnutt, Pauline E. Hopkins, and Others

Darkinboddy Editions is affiliated with Baked by a Negro Cookie Company.

CARIBBEAN JAZZ FEAST IN SUPPORT OF MAPP FOR MAYOR!

SPONSORED BY WOMEN FOR MAPP

Click here to make an online donation!

 

Home

“City Called Heaven”/
Melancholic Negro dirge/
Hope for poor pilgrims. 

Mahalia Jackson (1911-1972), by Van Vechten, 1962.

 

 

Rebecca's Black History Month Talk on Sunday!

This Sunday, February 24, I will be giving a talk in honor of Black History Month at United Church of Christ Congregational Church in Plainfield. Those of you who know me know that I will be focusing partly on the black intellectual tradition as exemplified in the works and lives of my favorite heroes, past and present. The talk will be delivered during worship service, which begins at 10:30 am.

The church is located at 220 West 7th Street (at Madison Avenue) in Plainfield. Click here to visit the church's website. It's also "Jazz Sunday" at UCC, so come and listen to America's original musical art form! I look forward to sharing!

Best,

Rebecca

Stop the "Willie Lynch" Hoax

I felt compelled to create this photo image of the "Willie Lynch HOAX" because it ALWAYS happens--this fakery is so confoundingly simplistic--and also designed to blame black women for the condition of African Americans as a whole--it is anti-truth! What upsets me so much is that this fraud is perpetrated by individuals who refuse to read or engage primary source documents that demonstrate that the truth of America's "peculiar institution" is at least A THOUSAND TIMES WORSE. Why fake a document?

All best,

Rebecca