ICYMI: The Last Week in Black Writing and Culture (9/25-10/2)

In NPR's Code Switch segment, Beenish Ahmen highlighted the life and work of writer Henry Dumas. I, admittedly, haven't read many of Dumas's works, but he will now be added to my list of authors to read!

Ta-Nehisi Coates, author of Between the World and Me, has been named a finalist for the National Book Awards. His book is a letter to his son addressing racism and police violence, a topic Coates has frequently written on.

Keep an eye out for Kevin Powell's new book The Education of Kevin Powell: A Boy's Journey into Manhood. Powell's memoir attempts to grapple with the racism and poverty he experienced as a boy and his subsequent transition into manhood.

The New York Times reviewed Michael Javen Fortner's book Black Silent Majority. Fortner argues that the origins of the war on drugs had "less to do with white resistance to racial equality and more to do with the black silent majority's confrontation with the 'reign of criminal terror'."

Photographer and MacArthur Genius Grant Award winner LaToya Ruby Frazier was interviewed by NPR. In her latest collection, Frazier chose to photograph her hometown of Braddock, PA to pay tribute to the African American history and contributions to the steel industry on which the town was built.

In light of historical bias against minority writers when it comes to inclusion in anthologies, the Asian American Writer's Workshop has created a pen name generator, producing white-coded names, to help writers with ethnic names compete on an equal level with their white counterparts. Thoughts?