In this episode we honor the work of playwright and author J. California Cooper with a selection of recordings from her appearance at the 2011 Givens Literary Luncheon in Minneapolis, sponsored by the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority. Our host for this episode is Beverly Cottman, storyteller and teaching artist, who was at the event.
Ms. Cooper was born in Berkeley, California in 1931. She was the prolific author of 17 plays and more than 10 works of fiction. Over the course of her career she came to be known as an important voice in the American literary community of the late 20th century, with her work being compared to that of Alice Walker (her first publisher), Zora Neale Hurston, Toni Morrison and Langston Hughes. She died in Seattle, Washington at the age of 82, but her voice and the characters she shared live on.
Original Recordings April 16, 2011, RELEASED JAN 11, 2017
03:23 Brief Welcome by Arleta Little, Executive Director (fmr), The Givens Foundation for African American Literature and a reading by J. California Cooper from Homemade Love (St. Martin’s Press)
19:47 Students from Ms Cottman’s Artist Residency at North Community High School provide a Chorale Reading based on an excerpt from Some Soul to Keep (St. Martin’s Press)
24:16 Interview with Ms Cooper and Edie French, President iDream.tv
Go Deeper
Book List in order:
Reviews:
Learn more about Beverly Cottman here
