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
Megan Giddings, The Women Could Fly
“ I don't think that there's any neutral for people. I think people see Black women in extremes” Megan Giddings Reminiscent of the works of Margaret Atwood, Shirley Jackson, and Octavia Butler, a biting social commentary from the acclaimed author of Lakewood that speaks to our times—a piercing dystopian novel about the unbreakable bond between a young …
Morgan Jerkins on her debut novel, Caul Baby
“I don’t know this woman, I don’t like this woman, but I understand this woman,” says author Morgan Jerkins of what she wants her readers to takeaway from reading the complex, challenging women who make up her debut novel l Caul Baby (Harper 2021). In this episode, essayist, memoirist, and, now, novelist Morgan Jerkins sits …
Continue reading "Morgan Jerkins on her debut novel, Caul Baby"
“I pray for peace with the same mouth I hide the razor blade in”: Javon Johnson on his new poetry collection
In this episode, Lissa speaks with Javon Johnson, about his new poetry collection, Ain't Never Not Been Black (Button Poetry, 2020). Javon Johnson, Ph.D. is a poet, performer, professor and recipient of numerous awards. According to poet Rudy Francisco, Dr. Johnson is “is one of the most brilliant writers in the world”. This conversation was recorded …
Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop: Black Minnesota poets in response to the murder of George Floyd
One of the defining events of the past year, in Minnesota and around the world, was the murder of George Floyd and the international protests demanding justice. Though Mr. Floyd's murder was shocking, for many people it fit a pattern of racism and violence inflicted upon Black people and BIPOC communities in this country. In …
Tell Me Your Names and I Will Testify: Author Carolyn Holbrook on her new book
"For me, the title of the book is about testifying on behalf of myself, my family, my children and adding to the conversation about the beauty of our people," says Carolyn Holbrook about her newly released collection of essays, Tell Me Your Names and I Will Testify (University of Minnesota Press, 2020). In this episode, …
Continue reading "Tell Me Your Names and I Will Testify: Author Carolyn Holbrook on her new book"
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 …
Continue reading "Remembering Toni Morrison at the 2019 Twin Cities Book Festival"
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 …
Continue reading "Author Kalisha Buckhanon on her new novel Speaking of Summer"
‘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 …