Givens Foundation | Black Market Reads

In the Season Four Premier Lissa speaks with award-winning poet and spoken word artist Patricia Smith. Smith is the author of eight books of poetry, most recently Incendiary Art which was awarded the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award, Los Angeles Times Book Prize, NAACP image award, and was a finalist for the 2018 Pulitzer Prize. She is a professor of English at the College of Staten Island and in the MFA program at Sierra Nevada College, and serves as a Cave Canem Faculty member. Special thanks to the Department of English at the University of Minnesota. Visit blackmarketreads.com for additional content related to the episode.

On this episode, Lissa Jones sits down with author A. Rafael Johnson. He was named a Kimbilio Fellow in African American Fiction in 2014. Last year he published his first novel, The Through, which was a finalist for the Minnesota Book Award in Fiction. Johnson co-owns TerraLuna Collaborative, a social justice-focused consulting firm based in Minneapolis. He has co-produced Writer’s Resist – Twin Cities and Banned Together. He currently teaches Magical Realism at The Minneapolis College of Art and Design.

Dr. Artika Tyner, educator, author, speaker and advocate, speaks with host Lissa Jones about what led her to dedicate her career to fighting for justice and empowering others to be leaders in their communities. She shares with us why she decided to focus her efforts on children, writing the book Justice Makes a Difference: The Story of Miss Freedom Fighter, Esquire, and how traveling to Africa has impacted the way she understands racism in America. Dr. Tyner serves as the associate vice president of diversity and inclusion at the University of St. Thomas and is the author of several books for adults including The Leader’s Journey. To learn more about Dr. Tyner's work, visit her website www.artikatyner.com

In this episode, recorded at a live event at Jefferson Community School in Minneapolis, MN, Lissa Jones hosts a fascinating conversation with Sonya Renee Tayor the activist and author at the center of the global movement The Body Is Not an Apology, which advocates radical self-love as tool for political resistance and social justice. Sonya is an activist, award-wining performance poet, radical executive officer of The Body is Not an Apology, and now author of a book by the same name. Her website, theBodyIsNotanApology.com  reaches over a million readers each month in over 140 countries. Special thanks to our friends at Magers & Quinn Booksellers, one of Minneapolis's great independent bookstores, for organizing the event.   

Desiree Cooper, author of the award-winning short fiction collection Know the Mother talks with host Lissa Jones about the complexities of motherhood and the ways that motherhood interacts, and at times conflicts, with the many other roles that women take on.  Desiree Cooper is a Pulitzer-prize winning journalist, community activist, and a former attorney. She was also a founding board member of Cave Canem, the national residency for emerging black poets. Copies of her book can be purchased from on Amazon or from her publisher: http://www.wsupress.wayne.edu/books/detail/know-mother  

In this episode, Lissa Jones talks with writer Mary Moore Easter about history, family, poetry, and her newly published poetry collection titled The Body of the World (Mad Hat Press).  Copies of The Body of the World can be purchased here: https://madhat-press.com/collections/our-books/products/the-body-of-the-world-by-mary-moore-easter

On this episode, host Lissa Jones talks with author and educator Alexs Pate. Pate Is the author of five novels, including the New York Times Bestseller Amistad, as well as a collection of poetry, and the non-fiction work In the Heart of the Beat: The Poetry of Rap. He edited the 2015 anthology Blues Vision: African American Writing from Minnesota which highlights Black Minnesota writers of the last century. Pate is also the founder and president of Innocent Classroom.

Michael Starburry is a screenwriter and actor known for the film The Inevitable Defeat of Mister and Pete, which starred Jennifer Hudson and Anthony Mackie, and the animated series Legends of Chamberlain Heights which has run for two seasons on Comedy Central and for which Michael voices one of the characters. In 2014, First Lady Michelle Obama screened The Inevitable Defeat of Mister & Pete at the White House.

Host Lissa Jones sits down with Dr. Damani Phillips. Dr. Phillips is an active performer, educator and composer. He currently serves as associate professor of jazz Studies and African-American studies at the University of Iowa, where he teaches applied jazz saxophone, directs jazz combos and teaches courses in African-American music, African-American Culture, jazz education and improvisation. In 2009, Phillips completed the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in jazz studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder becoming one of the first African-Americans in the country to do so. Phillips recently published his first book titled “What is This Thing Called Soul: Conversations on Jazz and Black Culture.”

In this episode, Lissa Jones speaks with Twin Cites based actress, comedian, and educator Joy Dolo of Blackout Improv. Dolo is a founding member of Blackout, Minnesota’s first and only all-Black improv ensemble whose performances use sketch comedy, improv, and stand-up to tackle current events, race, and social justice issues.  This podcast is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a Minnesota State Arts Board operating support grant, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund. Black Market Reads is a production of the Givens Foundation for African American Literature. Production services provided by iDream.tv.

In the season three premier, host Lissa Jones sits down with retired Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Alan Page to discuss his children's books, advocacy work, and optimism. Justice Alan Page is widely recognized for his groundbreaking legal career, as well as for his time in the NFL. Page played for the Minnesota Vikings and the Chicago Bears before his retirement to practice law full time; he was elected to the NFL Hall of Fame. In 1992 Page became the first African American elected to Minnesota’s supreme court, where he served as an Associate Justice until his retirement from the court in 2015. Along with his wife Diane Sims Page, he founded the Page Education Foundation which provides scholarships and mentoring for students of color to help them pursue post-secondary education. Now, Page has taken on another role: Children’s book author, releasing three books--most recently Grandpa Alan's Sugar Shack--co-authored with his daughter Kamie Page and illustrated by Minnesota artist Dave Geister. For more inform

Author and Historian Duchess Harris returns to Black Market Reads, this time to speak with host Lissa Jones to discuss her newest book Race and Policing which will be published in September by Abdo Publishing. Duchess and Lissa discuss the complex history of race, policing, and force in america, and Duchess shares exciting news about her upcoming collection from Abdo. This episode also features 'Blank,' an original spoken word piece from local poet Ashley Oliver.

In this episode, host Lissa Jones speaks with Erica Armstrong Dunbar about her recent work, Never Caught: The Washington's Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave Ona Judge. Dunbar is an author and historian focusing on the experiences of African American women in the context of slavery, racial injustice, and gender inequality. Today, she is a professor of History at Rutgers University.

In this episode, host Lissa Jones talks with author/musician James McBride at Minneapolis' Ivy Hotel. McBride is the author of five books including Miracle at St. Anna, which McBride adapted for the Spike Lee-directed film of the same name released in 2008. His most recent novel, The Good Lord Bird, won the National Book Award in 2013 and inspired 'A talking music book,' combining pieces from the novel with music performed by McBride and an ensemble of other musicians called the Good Lord Bird Band. Recordings of The Good Lord Bird: A Talking Music Book were provided by Riverhead Books, and clips were used with their permission.  

A frequent contributor to the opinion pages of both Twin Cities dailies as well as the local Black press, Dr. Mahmoud El-Kati has published dozens of monographs and pamphlets, and has appeared on Minnesota Public Radio, and at a host of community-based conferences and events. From 1970 to 2003, Professor El-Kati taught many generations of Macalester College students in courses such as “The Black Experience Since World War II,” and “Sports and the African American Community.” In this episode, host Lissa Jones talks with Dr. Mahmoud El-Kati at Golden Thyme Coffee & Cafe in St. Paul, MN.  

In this episode, Host Lissa Jones sits down with Minnesota writers Carolyn Holbrook and David Lawrence Grant to discuss the creative process and how the past informs their work and activism. Holbrook and Grant each contributed an essay to the collection A Good Time for the Truth: Race in Minnesota which was published by Minnesota Historical Society Press in 2016. For more information, and to purchase the collection, visit www.agoodtimeforthetruth.com .  

In this episode, host Lissa Jones explores what it means to love the skin you're in. First, she speaks with author Sharon G. Flake, whose 1998 novel, The Skin I'm In, influenced and inspired a generation of young women. Then, Lissa talks with Twin Cities artist Robin Hickman, who created a curriculum inspired by Flake's novel, and curator Hawona Sullivan Janzen about "Doll Power: Black Dolls and the Power of Play", an exhibit of Hickman's work that appeared at North Minneapolis's UROC Gallery earlier this year.

Duchess Harris's grandmother was one of a small group of black women who worked as human computers for NASA in the 1950s, and who have largely been left out space-race narratives--until now. In this episode, Harris sits down with host Lissa Jones to discuss her research on the subject, as well as her personal connection to it, and the importance of exposing these hidden narratives to mainstream historical consciousness. Duchess Harris, JD PHD is the Chair of American Studies at Macalester College in St. Paul, MN. She is the author of four books including, most recently, Black Lives Matter and Hidden Human Computers: The Black Women of NASA which inspired the Oscar-nominated film Hidden Figures.

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.

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