Elm City Lit Fest Podcast - The Significance of Black Literature and Bl...

Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement: A Radical Democratic Vision by Barbara Ransby, 2003

Nine of us met on Saturday March 16 th to discuss Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement by Barbara Ransby, published in 2003. Although born 1903 in Norfolk, Virginia, Ella Baker was predominantly reared in Littleton, North Carolina. Her Civil Rights and Human Rights career spanned over five decades, some of her work took place in New York and some took place in the South. Some of the groups she worked with are YNC L Young Negroes’ Cooperative League WEP Worker s’ Education Project NAACP National Association for the Advancement of Colored People SCLC Southern Christian Leadership Conference M FDP Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party SCEF Southern Christian Education Fund SNCC Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee She established her place in these movements as a behind the scenes organizer and never sought leadership positions. Her philosophy abou...

Razorblade Tears by S.A. Cosby

Thirteen of us met on Saturday, Nov. 16 th to discuss Razorblade Tears by S.A. Cosby (2021.) The main characters are Ike and Buddy Lee. One Black and one white, fathers of sons who were married to each other. Both men hated that their sons were gay and pretty much wanted nothing to do with anyone from a different race. Yet, when their sons are murdered, the two men come together to find out who killed their sons and to seek vengeance. Shelara started us out, saying, “The biggest takeaway from the book for me was how cinematic it was: The way he weaves the story and layers the story and like illustrates the pictures and the way he writes the dialogue,. To me I read it like a movie. I imagine the characters; I know the actors I want to play the characters. I envision Bing Rhames as Ike and of course Sam Eliot as Buddy Lee. Barbara M. added, “I enjoyed the characters. I’m a mystery junkie. The way they introduced the characters was very challenging for me.” Kay said, “...

In the Upper Country by Kai Thomas 2023

Book Discussion of In the Upper Country by Kai Thomas Thirteen of us met on Saturday Oct. 5 th to discuss Kai Thomas’s In the Upper Country , his debut novel. The story begins with an elderly woman who has escaped slavey from the US, and is now in Canada, shoots a slavecatcher who has tracked her there. A much younger woman, a jou rnalist name Lensinda is assigned the task of interviewing the old woman, who is now in jail. When Lensinda asks the woman for her story, the woman responds by saying, “A tale for a tale.” Thus, Lensinda is required to tell a story to receive the old woman’s story. This starts a reciprocal arrangement of storytelling over the interviews. Kai Thomas, author Wendy started us out saying, “I have to say I loved listening to it, but I also think that if I had read it, I may have absorbed more. I thought the language was just exquisite . I also kept feeling that each story I would lose track of sometimes, bu t I stopped worryin...

Urban Life Experience Book Discussion Series

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