Selected New Materials: December 2008
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Africa In Europe, Volume One: Antiquity into the Age of Global Exploration. Stefan Goodwin. Africana Library: DT38.9 .E85 G66 2009, V.1-2.
Africa in Europe, in two volumes, is an interdisciplinary work about Europeans that demonstrates fluid boundaries and connections between them and Africans from antiquity until the present. Written by a scholar with expertise that includes anthropology, social history, and international relations, the subject matter of this fascinating work ranges from science to art and invites much new thinking about racism, territoriality, citizenship, and frontiers in a world that is increasingly globalized. (Bowker’s Books in Print)
Becoming King: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Making of a National Leader. Troy Jackson. Africana Library: E185.97 .K5 J343 2008
Without question, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is the face of the civil rights revolution that reshaped the social and political landscape of the United States. Although many biographers and historians have examined Dr. King’s activism, few have recognized the pivotal role that the people of Montgomery, Alabama, played in preparing him for leadership. King arrived in Montgomery as a virtually unknown doctoral student, but his activities there from organizing the Montgomery bus boycott to building relationships with local activists such as Rufus Lewis, E. D. Nixon, and Virginia Durr established him as the movement’s most visible leader. Becoming King: Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Making of a National Leader illustrates how the people of Montgomery influenced King as much as he influenced them. In Montgomery, brave citizens, both black and white, spearheaded a protest movement that also launched Kings public ministry. Author Troy Jackson demonstrates that spending his formative years in the city of Montgomery gave King the skills and experience to become a hero to generations of Americans. (Bowker’s Books in Print)
Make It Plain: Standing Up and Speaking Out. Vernon E. Jordan, Jr. Africana Library: E185.97 .J78 A3 2008
Black Americans have always relied on the oral tradition story telling, preaching, and speech making to assert their rights and preserve and pass on their history and culture. In the pulpit, courtroom, or cotton field, they have understood the power of words, distinctively delivered, to educate and inspire. Vernon E. Jordan, Jr., one of the nation’s finest speakers, imbibed this tradition as a young man and has given it his own unique inflection from his work on the civil rights front lines, to the National Urban League, to positions of influence at the highest level of business and politics. A friend and confidant to presidents, Jordan has never forgotten the men and women from Ruby Hurley to Wiley Branton to Gardner C. Taylor to Martin Luther King, Jr. whose oratorical skill in service to social justice deeply influenced him. Their examples and voices, reflected in Vernon’s own, make this book both a history and an embodiment of black speech at its finest: Full of emotion, controlled force, righteous indignation, love of country, and awe in front of the God-given challenges ahead. (Bowker’s Books in Print)
My Life In Porn: The Bobby Blake Story. Bobby Blake and John R. Gordon. Africana Library: PN2287 .B45494 A3 2008
The most successful African American in gay adult film, Bobby Blake has appeared in over one hundred movies. In "My Life in Porn," Blake for the first time goes behind the scenes of the sex industry to reveal intimate stories that are sexy, fascinating, and sometimes disturbing. Blake also shares his private spiritual struggle and the quest for love. (Bowker’s Books in Print)
Taylor Made Verse and Other Dialogue for Our Time. Terri Cartwright. Africana Library: PS3603 .A792 T35 2007
The Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal as catalyst for artistic expression? While most viewed the accounts of victimization with outrage and then returned to their lives, at least one individual experienced a true cathartic awakening. Fueled by the rage she experienced in response to the ironic brutality and inhumanity suffered at the hands of a few liberators, Terri Cartwright was called to create in words, quilts, and illustrations her unique perspectives on a dual history. These two histories, our current wartime experiences and the African-American struggle, converge in the author s understanding of Abu Ghraib as both a mirror for her self-exploration and a vehicle that transported her back to another time, when the conflict was in Vietnam. As history has regretfully repeated itself, the sentiments that the former and present wars engender strongly parallel each other. (amazon.com)
The United States and West Africa: Interactions and Relations. Alusine Jalloh and Toyin Falola. Africana Library: DT509.63 .U6 U55 2008
Over the last several decades, historians have conducted extensive research into contact between the United States and West Africa during the era of the transatlantic trade. Yet we still understand relatively little about more recent relations between the two areas. This multidisciplinary volume presents the most comprehensive analysis of the U.S.-West African relationship to date, filling a significant gap in the literature by examining the social, cultural, political, and economic bonds that have, in recent years, drawn these two world regions into increasingly closer contact. Beginning with examinations of factors that linked the nations during European colonial rule of Africa, and spanning to discussions of U.S. foreign policy with regard to West Africa from the Cold War through the end of the twentieth century and beyond, these essays constitute the first volume devoted to interrogating the complex relationship both historic and contemporary between the United States and West Africa. (Bowker’s Books in Print)
Hip-Hopumentary. Africana Studies and Research Center, Cornell University. 2008. 1 videodisc (50 min.). Africana Library: Videodisc 399
In this documentary, Cornell student filmmakers Angad Bhai and Sheyen Ikeda attempt to generate a provocative vision of hip hop via multiple fields and approaches. Participants: Angad Bhai, Sheyen Ikeda.
A Power Stronger Than Itself: The AACM and American Experimental Music. Lecture by George E. Lewis, Africana Studies and Research Center, Cornell University. 2008. 1 videodisc (83 min.). Africana Library: Videodisc 398
In this lecture George Lewis outlines his 2008 book, Power stronger than itself: the AACM and American experimental music. Analyzes and details the creation of the AACM (the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians), and its roles in the development of jazz throughout history all the while utilizing diverse research methods to place the AACM within historical context.
Ujamaa Unity Hour with Angela Davis: A Discussion with Angela Davis. Africana Studies and Research Center, Cornell University. 2008. 1 videodisc (65 min.). Africana Library: Videodisc 397
In this Ujamaa Residential College unity hour, Angela Davis addresses Cornell University students, faculty and guests in an open forum style, sharing her life experiences as well as her thoughts on the present state of the U.S. Places a particular emphasis on the United States prison system, its flaws and its need for reform all the while citing specific cases demonstrating each of her viewpoints.
Faculty Forum: Race and the 2008 Presidential Election, with Guset Panelist Angela Davis. Africana Studies and Research Center, Cornell University. 2008. 1 videodisc (122 min.). Africana Library: Videodisc 396
In this public faculty forum program Angela Davis is joined by a diverse panel of Cornell faculty in discussion of the ramifications of race in the context of the 2008 presidential election. Participants: Speakers, Angela Davis, Edward Baptist, Carole Boyce Davies, Elizabeth Sanders, James Turner.
Race, Democracy and Power, A Lecture by Angela Davis. Africana Studies and Research Center, Cornell University. 2008. 1 videodisc (81 min.). Africana Library: Videodisc 395
Angela Davis addresses the Cornell community on the issues of race, democracy, and power. Utilizes the current state of political affairs to draw attention to the fundamental undertones in the American ideology of the citizen.
“Sisters Outside: The Black Radical Intellectual Tradition”, A Lecture by Dr. Carole Boyce Davies. [Africana Studies and Research Center, Cornell University]. 2008. 1 videodisc (92 min.). Africana Library: Videodisc 394
Carole Boyce Davies outlines some of the key topics in her recently published book, Left of Karl Marx: the political life of Black communist Claudia Jones. By placing a particular focus on the life of Claudia Jones, she attempts to place into perspective the activism of Black radical women in the United States.
There Are Other Voices Within: a report on the voices featured in Zimbabwe’s national broadcasters as an assessment of its nature as a public broadcaster. Harare: Media Institute of Southern Africa, [2007?]. Africana Library: Videodisc 400
This documentary, There are Other Voices Within captures the under-representation and biased coverage of women in the media as sources or subjects of news. The documentary goes back in time and chronicles the state and quality of broadcasting before independence under the then Rhodesia Broadcasting Corporation and draws parallels and comparisons with post-independence broadcasting. It also reflects on the onslaught against the independence media vis-a-vis the birth of the country's vibrant privately-owned daily, The Daily News and the dawn of a strong opposition party, The Movement for Democratic Change in 2000. The documentary spotlights these developments in the Zimbabwean media, with particular reference to the gender debate: Are women’s voices heard in the media? Do women have a place in the media? When are women used as news sources? In this documentary extensive interviews were conducted with Zimbabwe's female journalists, lawyers and media activists, making it a strategic reference point for the media students, lecturers, researchers, journalists and training institutions.
