Shaq Supports Mom as she Promotes Her Book

CLEVELAND — Cavaliers center Shaquille O’Neal is known for his scoring, rebounding and interior defense, but he came up with a big assist before Wednesday night’s game against the Milwaukee Bucks.
The 7-foot-1 O’Neal sat next to his mother, Lucille, in the concourse at Quicken Loans Arena, greeting fans and signing her new book, “Walk Like You Have Somewhere to Go: From Mental Welfare to Mental Wealth.”
The book details Lucille’s journey through life, which includes being an unwed teenage mother living on welfare, issues with alcoholism and ending her 30-year marriage.
“I’m very proud of her,” said Shaquille, who sat with son Shareef at the table. “I think for her it’s more about helping young, single women. We’re living in dire, tough times and I’m sure there are a lot of single women out there that just want to give up. MORE

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Authors Announced For the Arkansas Literary Festival April 8-11

Arkansas Literary Festival announces authorsLike last year — and maybe even more so — there aren't really any big names headed to the seventh annual Arkansas Literary Festival, which'll is happening April 8-11 throughout the River Market area.

Still, some good looking authors and programs. After just a quick scan through, here are some that stood out to me:

*Nolan Richardson biographer Rus Bradburd

*Marjorie Rosen, author of “Boom Town: How Wal-Mart Transformed an All-American Town into an International Community,” who had readings cancelled in Bentonville and Rogers libraries last year. David Koon wrote about it then.

*The Oxford American Southern Food Issue panel, which includes New Orleans Times Picayune columnist Lolis Eric Elie and restaurant writer Brett Anderson along with Sam Eifling, who's writing about the nature of Arkansas food for the issue.

*Martha Hall Foose, author of the FANTASTIC cookbook "Screen Doors and Sweet Tea," and Katherine Whitworth, talking about food. More

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Annual ZORA! Festival draws thousands to Eatonville

EATONVILLE – Zora Neale Hurston died 50 years ago, but her spirit and writings continue to be paramount for this small African-American community north of downtown Orlando.

As she had done decades earlier, fans of the dominant Harlem Renaissance author strolled down Eatonville's main street on Saturday to absorb the rich culture of the country's first incorporated all-black town, which Hurston often described in her novels. Cultural and art enthusiasts visited the town to honor the author and other black artists and scholars during the annual Zora Neale Hurston Festival of the Arts and Humanities – ZORA! Festival.

The event makes history real, said Sharahn Slack of Orlando. She played the abolitionist Harriett Tubman in a skit outside the Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church to encourage people, particularly youth, to pursue their dreams and celebrate their community – messages she says Hurston spread through her work.

"History is something to be celebrated rather than learned. When you celebrate history, it becomes personal," Slack, 16, said.

The three-day Outdoor Festival of the Arts, which wraps up today, is the conclusion of ZORA! Festival. It draws thousands of visitors from all over the U.S. and overseas each year. Event organizers estimate 250,000 people will attend this year's event. http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/os-zora-street-festival-20100130,0,248500.story

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Say You're One Of Them

Uwem Akpan's stunning stories humanize the perils of poverty and violence so piercingly that few readers will feel they've ever encountered Africa so immediately. The eight-year-old narrator of "An Ex-Mas Feast" needs only enough money to buy books and pay fees in order to attend school. Even when his twelve-year-old sister takes to the streets to raise these meager funds, his dream can't be granted. Food comes first. His family lives in a street shanty in Nairobi, Kenya, but their way of both loving and taking advantage of each other strikes a universal chord.
In the second of his stories published in a New Yorker special fiction issue, Akpan takes us far beyond what we thought we knew about the tribal conflict in Rwanda. The story is told by a young girl, who, with her little brother, witnesses the worst possible scenario between parents. They are asked to do the previously unimaginable in order to protect their children. This singular collection will also take the reader inside Nigeria, Benin, and Ethiopia, revealing in beautiful prose the harsh consequences for children of life in Africa.
Akpan's voice is a literary miracle, rendering lives of almost unimaginable deprivation and terror into stories that are nothing short of transcendent. MORE

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Queen of the Court: An Autobiography by Serena Williams

From gang violence to an inspiring trip to Ghana, the life of the younger Williams sister has been about much more than tennis, says Tim Adams
"You know I was always really very, very good," Venus said at the time, grinning. "Serena, on the other hand, wasn't very good at all. She was small, really slim and the racket was way too big for her. Hopeless. She started playing especially good tennis at around 15, which was soon enough – I mean, she won the US Open two years later – but still it was quite late compared to me." She then summed up the distinction in shorthand: "You know," she said, "I was always Venus …"

Serena, though, as this memoir makes clear, wasn't always Serena. Her book allows us to see how the younger half of the greatest sister act sport has known came out of the shadow of "V" through a process of intense self-invention. Serena recalls at one point how she was once asked how many grand slam titles she thought she would have won had Venus, her greatest rival, not stood in her way. She answered that she did not think she would have won any at all; Venus was her spur – her great advantage in life was that she knew from a very early age that if she could just beat her sister then she could beat anybody in the world.

She learnt through this to be at her best when everything was against her. Throughout her career, Serena has been in the habit of writing down inspirational words on Post-it notes and sticking them to her racket bag. Sometimes they read like text messages from Martin Luther King: "Show no emotion," she will write, "UR black and U can endure anything. Endure. Persevere. Stand tall." Or: "Be strong. Be black. Now's your time 2 shine. Be confident. They want to see you angry. Be angry, but don't let them see it."More

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We Are In Transition

We ask that you bear with us as we continue to make the necessary changes to The African American Book Review.
Thank You.

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Steve Harvey's Book Is Headed To The Big Screen

Cover via Amazon

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41FcQ4SRWUL._SL75_.jpgScreen Gems has acquired rights to turn comedian Steve Harvey's book "Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man" into a feature.

Harvey wrote the humorous book of advice for women seeking to better understand their male counterparts, an exercise inspired by a segment on Harvey's syndicated morning radio show.

Will Packer will produce, and Harvey will be exec producer. Screen Gems prexy Clint Culpepper will begin canvassing writers to hear different pitches for an ensemble comedy about romantic relationships. Culpepper first worked with Harvey when the latter acted in "You Got Served.""Steve has always provided an easily relatable perspective on men, the way they view women and their seemingly complex but surprisingly simple emotional needs," Culpepper said. Culpepper and Packer flew to Dallas on Sunday to close the deal with Harvey.

Packer recently produced "Obsessed," is shooting "Takers" and prepping a remake of "The Big Chill" for Screen Gems. MORE

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