In this episode of Black Market Reads, Lissa speaks with historian and educator Dr. William D. Green to discuss his works on the history of race and civil rights in Minnesota. Dr. Green is a professor of history at Augsburg University in Minneapolis, and serves as Vice President of the Minnesota Historical society. He is …
Author J. Drew Lanham on his memoir The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man’s Love Affair with Nature, featuring guest host Michael Kleber-Diggs
In this episode we are pleased to share an interview featuring J. Drew Lanham, author of The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man's Love Affair with Nature (Milkweed Editions, 2016), in conversation with guest host Michael Kleber-Diggs. The interview was recorded at the Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis in 2017. J. Drew Lanham is …
Remembering Toni Morrison at the 2019 Twin Cities Book Festival
In October, we partnered with Rain Taxi Review of Books to record a special live episode of Black Market Reads at the 2019 Twin Cities Book Festival. In this episode, Lissa speaks with authors about the life and work of the author Toni Morrison who passed away earlier this year. http://givensbmr.libsyn.com/twin-cities-book-festival-2019 Toni Morrison is a …
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Poet, performer, and librettist Douglas Kearney
In this episode, Lissa sits down with poet, performer, and librettist Douglas Kearney to discuss his work. Douglas Kearney has published six books. His most recent, Buck Studies (Fence Books, 2016), was awarded the Theodore Roethke Memorial Poetry Award, the CLMP Firecracker Award for Poetry and was a silver medalist for the California Book Award (Poetry). His other works …
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Author Kalisha Buckhanon on her new novel Speaking of Summer
In the Season 5 premier, Lissa sits down with author Kalisha Buckhanon to discuss her new novel Speaking of Summer (COUNTERPOINT, 2019). This episode was recorded live at an event hosted by Magers & Quinn Booksellers in Minneapolis. Kalisha Buckhanon is the author of the novels Solemn, Conception, and Upstate, which was selected as an inaugural National Book Foundation …
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Kalisha Buckhanon presents Speaking of Summer, in conversation with Lissa Jones of Black Market Reads LIVE podcast recording!
Thursday Sept. 26, 7:00 pm Hey Twin Cities listeners! Black Market Reads celebrates the launch of Season 5! Join us for a live podcast recording at Magers & Quinn Bookstore (3038 Hennepin Avenue, Minneapolis). We hope you'll join us! Kalisha Buckhanon is the author of the novels Solemn, Conception, and Upstate, which was selected as an inaugural National …
A Special Offer from Graywolf Press and Black Market Reads (time sensitive)
Local literary publisher Graywolf Press is marking their 45th anniversary this year, and they’re celebrating the occasion with a Graywolf Literary Gala this Thursday, September 26th from 6:30 – 9:30 PM at Aria in Minneapolis, MN. This event will feature some of Graywolf’s biggest literary stars, including Eula Biss (On Immunity; Notes from No Man’s Land), Maggie Nelson (The Argonauts; The Red Parts), and Claudia Rankine (Citizen; The …
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Hope in the Struggle: Josie R. Johnson, Carolyn Holbrook, and Arleta Little
On this episode, Lissa sits down with civil rights icon Josie R. Johnson and her co-authors Carolyn Holbrook and Arleta Little to discuss Johnson's memoir Hope in the Struggle: A Memoir (University of Minnesota Press, 2019). https://oembed.libsyn.com/embed?item_id=10919197 Dr. Josie R. Johnson has been an educator, activist, and public servant for more than seven decades. Along …
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‘We are here in the right now and we have to be truthful and courageous’ – Author and professor Emily Bernard on finding her voice and speaking the truth
In 'Scar Tissue,' the first essay in Emily Bernard's debut collection, Black is the Body, she writes the story of a violent attack that left her critically injured as a graduate student, but which also led her consider her own voice and how she would use it to speak the truth of her own history …
‘I want to read something that tells me about about the strength of black women, the joy of black women.’ – writer Debra J. Stone
In "Grandma Essie's Vanilla Pound Cake," writer Debra J. Stone remembers an important moment in her childhood, and Minnesota history, when the adults in the family grappled with the news that her grandparents' home in St. Paul's Rondo neighborhood, along with many others, would be destroyed to make way for the I-94 corridor. This pivotal …