Chinua Achebe discusses Africa 50 years after “Things Fall Apart”

The Literary Giant on his most influential novel, its impact on Africa and the rest of the world.

Buddy Guy wants blues music on the radio

Buddy Guy pushing for blues on popular radio, releases new CD featuring Keith Urban, Kid Rock
By Jonathan Landrum Jr., Associated Press

ATLANTA (AP) — Buddy Guy knows that blues music isn’t the taste of today’s youth, but the Chicago guitar legend wants to show directors at radio stations and aspiring musicians that the classic sound is still alive with his new album, “Rhythm & Blues.”

“I’m not saying play the blues every day like everything else,” said Guy, who released the album Tuesday, the same day he turned 77. “Just play the blues two or three times a week and I’ll be happy with that.

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Cartoon of the Day

Coltrane’s ‘Afro Blue Impressions’ to be reissued

Concord to Reissue Coltrane’s ‘Afro Blue Impressions’ with Bonus Tracks
Expanded edition marks 50th anniversary of original recording dates

By Jeff Tamarkin

Concord Music Group will reissue a remastered and expanded edition of John Coltrane’s Afro Blue Impressions album on August 20. Enhanced by 24-bit remastering by Joe Tarantino, three bonus tracks, and new liner notes, the new reissue celebrates the 40th anniversary of Pablo Records, the jazz label founded by Norman Granz in 1973.

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Picture of the Day

Jane Austen will be the new face of Britain’s 10 pound note beginning in 2017.

Bob Dylan pays tribute to The Band

Bob Dylan and The Band go back a long time having made great music together during several important periods of their careers.

From Dylan’s current US tour, a rare but wonderful performance of their most famous song, The Weight.

Toussaint Louverture brought to life in play, book

“I was born a slave, but nature gave me the soul of a free man,” said Toussaint Louverture, the leader of the successful Haitian slave revolt of 1791 to 1804.

The Haitain revolution reverberated throughout Europe, interacting with the French Revolution, inspired Georg Hegel’s philosophy, changed the shape of the world and echoes down the years to us — still demanding a response.

Under Louverture’s political and military leadership, the Haitian slaves defeated a series of enemies. It was an international revolution, interacting with events around the globe, redrawing maps and effecting great empires.

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20 Feet from Stardom

Trayvon

The justice system does not work for us.

There is no justice to be found for blacks, latinos, and all people of color in US courts.

The justice system does not work for us.

It never has and it never will.

The US justice system does not operate in a vacuum.

The justice system is racist and unequal because it is part of a deeply racist and unequal society.

More discussions, more protests, and more attempts for reforms will not fundamentally change a system that is rotten to the core.

That’s been the call for many, many years, and things still remain the same.

It will never work.

US Society and US Courts do not recognize the value and rights of black lives.

It has been that way from the beginning of US history and continues to be a daily reality, through out the years, decades, and centuries.

Right up until now, in 2013.

What happened in that Sanford court today is a daily reality for all people of color.

This reality doesn’t lessen the pain and it doesn’t contain the outrage felt about this latest miscarriage of justice.

The absolute truth about our civil rights and human rights as manifested every day, in every court, in every state, always has been and is still the same:

The justice system does not work for us.

The Greatest American Novel

Oh, that eternal question.

What is the Greatest American Novel?

The usual ones that are always in the conversation are included in this article but I was pleasantly surprised to see Invisible Man mentioned, in my opinion it is a serious contender that has never been given enough consideration, and I was shocked to see Corregidora on the list. Corregidora is a very powerful, thought provoking novel that deserves alot more acclaim and wider readership.

I think there needs to be a broader discussion within American Literature about its Greatest Novel that includes works by black writers. The many great works that have been written justify their place in the conversation.

Ralph Ellison, Gayl Jones, Zora Neal Hurston, Richard Wright, Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, James Baldwin, Ann Petry, and others have made great contributions to American Literature.

An American Literature that is alive and still evolving.

It did not end with Huck Finn and Moby Dick.

The Greatest American Novel?

9 Experts Share Their Opinions

The Great American Novel is the great superlative of American life. We’ve had our poets, composers, philosophers, and painters, too, but no medium matches the spirit of our country like the novel does. The novel is grand, ambitious, limitless in its imagined possibility. It strains towards the idea that all of life may be captured in a story, just as we strain through history to make self-evident truths real on earth.

So, when you set out to debate “the great American novel,” the stakes are high.

We asked nine English scholars to choose one novel as the greatest our country has ever produced.

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