Givens Foundation | Black Market Reads

Author, playwright, and essayist Zetta Elliott talks with Shannon Gibney about her experiences with the publishing industry that eventually led to the creation of her own independent imprint Rosetta Press. She has published over 20 books for children and young adults, and her plays have been staged across the country. For more information, visit her website www.zettaelliott.com  

Special guests Irna Landrum and LaCora Bradford join Erin and Junauda in this week's episode as we gather in a Book Club edition of Black Market Reads to discuss The Sellout by Paul Beatty. Listen up, the read the book, and the NY Times review. Then Like us and Share us and let us know what you think. 

On this episode, Erin and Junauda are joined by Namir Fearce and Case Wilson, two youth readers, who got to interview author Shannon Gibney about her debut young adult novel, See No Color.  Readers then discuss the novel's themes, which include transracial adoption, sports, gender, parenting and mixed race identity. We had to talk about Macklemore's education on white privilege and Chelsea Handler's exploration of racism, so that happened, too.   Read See No Color and let us know what you think. We love our listeners. Share the love and the podcast with all your friends.

In this episode, Erin and Junauda discuss Jada Pinkett Smith's dignified response to another all-white Oscar nominations and the "Black Aunt Viv's" less dignified one.  Stacey Dash gets her first and only mention on this show. They discuss their experiences in the public school system, the highs and lows, and talk with Nothando Zulu and Beverly Cottman about their work as storytellers in the schools as part of Givens K12 program.  Erin's bestie Michael Kleber-Diggs also reads from an essay about Central High School and his role as a parent of a high school student. #BlackMarketReads is a project of The Givens Foundation for African American Literature produced in cooperation with www.iDream.tv Thanks for listening. Please subscribe, share and comment. Your reviews and feedback make our show stronger.

In this episode Erin and Junauda chat with entrepreneurs Felicia Perry and Mychal Fisher, banter about cultural context of beloved 80's icons and celebrate the poetic gifts of J. Otis Powell‽ and Namir Fearce. Thank you for listening to Black Market Reads. Let us know that stories matter. Please give us your comments and reviews, subscribe, share, and like. We love our listeners and we want to hear from you!

The Givens Emerging Writers' Mentor Program engages Black writers from diverse genres in a six-month program. Each year 10 emerging Minnesota-based writers work intensively with nationally acclaimed writers and Minnesota based mentors. Black Market Reads went on location to listen to the voices of Romelle Adkins, Maya Beck, Michael Kleber-Digs, Irna Landrum, Erin Sharkey, Bernard James, Stephanie Christen, Cherish Gibson, and Joi Lewis in the culminating showcase. 

This edition of BMR features a book club style exploration of Blues Vision with special guests Lisa Brimmer and Valérie Déus. Blues Vision is a stunning anthology of essays co-edited by Alex Pate, Pam Fletcher, and J. Otis Powell ?!, with cover art by Ta-coumba Aiken, and co-published by Minnesota Humanities Center and Minnesota Historical Society Press. Blues Vision features writing by Minnesota luminaries Tish Jones, Rohan Preston, Mary Moore Easter, E.G Bailey, Frank B. Wilderson III, Sha Cage, Andrea Jenkins, Shannon Gibney, Kim Hines, Carolyn Holbrook, Arleta Little, Clarence White, Angela Shannon and more. Cultural producers Erin Sharkey and Junauda Petrus. Brought to you by the Givens Foundation for African American Literature in partnership with iDream.tv

Erin and Junauda enlighten in a wide-ranging conversation about Erykah Badu, Abby Fisher and Affirmative Action, The Wiz and the Encampment at the 4th Precinct with special guests Jayanthi Kyle, Felicia Perry, and Irna Landrum. A poem and a song or two. Listen to Black Market Reads on iTunes, sound Cloud and a variety of other sources. Check us out, leave a review, let us know what you think. 

Join Keegan Xavi, Michael Kleber-Diggs, Erin Sharkey, and Junauda Petrus for an in-depth examination of topics, themes, characters and personal impacts suggested by Loving Day By Mat Johnson. New York Times Book Review    

On the occasion of his visit to Minneapolis as featured author for Givens Foundation Black Books Talk, Mat Johnson author of Loving Day, took time out to chat with Erin and Junauda.  Mat Johnson is the author of the novels Loving Day, Pym, Drop, and Hunting in Harlem, the nonfiction novella The Great Negro Plot, and the comic books Incognegro and Dark Rain. He is a recipient of the United States Artist James Baldwin Fellowship, The Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection, and the John Dos Passos Prize for Literature.  Mat Johnson is a Professor at the University of Houston Creative Writing Program.  

If you’re nasty: A Janet Jackson inspired literary salon. With guests Danez Smith, Kamia Watson, Khary Jackson, Sha Cage and Tish Jones. Recorded in a live performance environment. Producer: Givens Foundation for African American Literature, Production services: iDream.tv BMR Hosts: Junauda Petrus and Erin Sharkey Special thanks to Seven Steakhouse & Sushi in Minneapolis for hosting the inaugural salon.   Danez Smith – a Saint Paul native, Danez is a current mentor in the Givens Emerging Writers Program, a winner of the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry, a 2014 Ruth Lilly - Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Fellow, a Cave Canem and VONA alum, and recipient of a McKnight Foundation Fellowship. 

 Sha Cage – Writer/Performer, Givens Writing Fellow, and IVEY AWARD winner for her tour de force performance in grounded last year and her solo work U/G/L/Y.

 Khary Jackson – Poet, playwright, dancer, musician, and Cave Canem Fellow.

 Kamia Watson – A native of Minneapolis, she writes under the name KamRynnKay

 Tish

With guests Bree Newsome, Andrea Jenkins and Dread Scott - Junauda and Erin return to The Convening: Resistance & Rebellion, sponsored by The Givens Foundation for African American Literature.

The inaugural Book Club meeting of Black Market Reads features a lively discussion of Octavia's Brood: Science Fiction from Social Movements, an anthology of visionary science and speculative fiction written by organizers and activists. inspired by Octavia Butler, edited by Adrienne Maree Brown and Walidah Imarisha. Book Club participants Tish Jones, Senah Sampong, and Chastity Brown in a discussion led by BMR co-hosts Erin Sharkey and Junauda Petrus.

Junauda and Erin go on location to the Givens Convening: Resistance & Rebellion with Adrienne Maree Brown and Walidah Imarisha editors of Octavia's Brood, Cheyenne Sewell from Yarn Mission,  Roger Guenveur Smith, and Eshay Brantley and Namir Fearce.  

BLACK MARKET READS interviews the quixotic and brilliant multidisciplinary artist Dean Moss who is presented his work, johnbrown, at the Walker Art Center. He was also a speaker at Convening: Resistance and Rebellion, a day-long international convening exploring the role of art in revolution presented by the Givens Foundation for African American Literature in partnership with Million Artist Movement. Check out minute 13:04 to hear the interview from the beginning in its entirety. johnbrown “Mr. Moss layers national narratives and personal narratives, moving bodies and moving images, haunting songs and heated conversations in ways that leave us contemplating the future by way of the past.” —New York Times In this dense and precisely executed work, Dean Moss creates a performative meditation on the complicated, controversial legacy of 19th-century abolitionist John Brown. Moss integrates transfixing choreography, visual design, video, theater, and community participation to question not only the turbulent pa

Junauda and Erin talk with the baddest feminist in the game, Roxane Gay, author of The Bad Feminist. Roxane Gay’s writing has appeared or is forthcoming in Best American Mystery Stories 2014, Best American Short Stories 2012, Best Sex Writing 2012, A Public Space, McSweeney’s, Tin House, Oxford American, American Short Fiction, West Branch, Virginia Quarterly Review, NOON, The New York Times Book Review, Bookforum, Time, The Los Angeles Times, The Nation, The Rumpus, Salon, and many others. She is the co-editor of PANK and the author of the books Ayiti, An Untamed State, Bad Feminist, and Hunger, forthcoming from Harper in 2016.