For the smart and free-thinking, Black Market Reads is a podcast featuring conversations with today's most exciting Black literary voices. We are a podcast for any one who loves to read, write, and engage. Black Market Reads is a project of The Givens Foundation for African American Literature.
"It's important to be your authentic self. If you're not you, the world doesn't know who to love." Jody Lulich Rising to accept a prestigious award, Jody Lulich wondered what to say. Explain how he’d been attracted to veterinary medicine? Describe how caring for helpless, voiceless animals in his own shame and pain provided a …
"You know, friends, much has been made about whether George Floyd's heart was enlarged, whether it was too big. But the real question here, and the real fact, is that Derek Chauvin's heart was too small." Keith Ellison Lissa talks with MN Attorney General and author Keith Ellison about his experience with the trial of …
Continue reading "Keith Ellison, Break the Wheel: Ending the Cycle of Police Violence"
"To tell the truth is to become beautiful, to begin to love yourself, value yourself. And that's political, in its most profound way." June Jordan In this episode, Lissa talks with writer Sherrie Fernandez-Williams about her latest work, Goddess of the Whole Self (In Line Press 2023), her inspirations, and her origin story. The Remembrance …
Continue reading "Sherrie Fernandez-Williams, Goddess of the Whole Self"
"The family itself is a tribe of people who are committed, who've taken the name out of a loyalty, out of faith, out of unity. And they are all coming together as a family... Just because we're not all blood doesn't make us any less of a family." Santi Elijah Holley “An Amerikan Family is a …
Continue reading "Santi Elijah Holley, An Amerikan Family: The Shakurs and the Nation They Created"
"I think that you'll have taught our history as our armor, that Black people are more than the sum of our traumas or tragedies. That Black history is the way, and a path to look back. I think that we will remember how to be good to each other and how to speak well of …
Continue reading "Charlayne Hunter-Gault, My People – Five Decades of Writing About Black Lives"
"We sit in the dark around the campfire and we listen to someone tell us the stories of our tribe, and we've been doing that as humans forever... And you can call it theater, call it film, call it whatever. We have to, there's no other way to know what's important, what's beautiful, what's courageous, …
Celebrating Black History Month, Lissa was invited by Books & Books in Miami to interview Dr. Clarence Lusane about his recent work, Twenty Dollars and Change: Harriet Tubman and the Ongoing Fight for Racial Justice and Democracy, (City Lights 2023). Join us for this in depth conversation linking past to present. https://givensbmr.libsyn.com/bonus-episode-dr-clarence-lusane-returns Link to purchase the …
Continue reading "BONUS Episode: Dr. Clarence Lusane returns"
"We are just a stepping stone away from being back in 1964, if you think that the overturning of Roe v. Wade was gonna be it and it was gonna stop there, I would bet you a mortgage payment, you're wrong. The gist of the book is if you don't vote, then you're part of …
Continue reading "Wanda M. Morris, Anywhere You Run – a novel"
Three amazing events, 3 venues, family friendly. Different stories every night. Visit Black Storytellers Alliance https://livestream.com/accounts/3288636/events/10598262/player?width=640&height=360&enableInfoAndActivity=true&defaultDrawer=&autoPlay=true&mute=false Livestream provided in partnership with iDream.tv http://www.iDream.tv - A Multimedia Production Company
“I will never forget the day that I walked into that courthouse and I encountered a group of young boys in the hallway chained together at their arms and legs. I had no idea that we shackled children in contemporary America." The Rage of Innocence: How America Criminalizes Black Youth, by Kristin Henning (Pantheon) In The …