Givens Foundation | Black Market Reads

In this episode we honor the work of playwright and author J. California Cooper with a selection of recordings from her appearance at the 2011 Givens Literary Luncheon sponsored by the Delta Sigma Theta sorority. Our host for this episode is Beverly Cottman, storyteller and teaching artist, who was at the event. Ms. Cooper was born in Berkeley, California in 1931.  She was the author of 17 plays and more than 10 works of fiction. Over the course of her career she came to be known as an important voice in the American literary community of the late 20th century, with her work being compared to that of Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes. She died in Seattle, Washington at the age of 82, but her voice and the characters she shared live on.