As many of our customers know, one of our greatest pleasures is hosting events for people whose work we respect and admire. Lisa C. Moore of Redbone Press has done a terrific job with her small press. I hope you will come out this Saturday and check out the group reading for her new anthology, Spirited. Psyche A. Williams-Forson skillfully blends scholarly analysis, personal interviews, cookbooks and literature as she examines the intersection of African American women’s lives, food and power. We knew about former Black Panther Flores Forbes‘ new book for a couple years before it actually came out. It is timely as a new generation of scholars takes a look at the Panthers and their legacy. Taken together, these books represent facets of African American life and history that are frequently lost in the chain bookstores’ sea of books. Please join us.

The rain comes and fall approaches, time for a bit of poetry. Our friend, poet and literary activist E. Ethelbert Miller has work that will soon appear at Dupont Circle’s Q St. Metro exit, engraved on a bench. It honors the local volunteer response to HIV/AIDS. Here’s a sneak preview.

We Embrace
We fought against the invisible
We looked to one another for comfort
We held the hands of friends and lovers
We did not turn our backs
We embraced
We embraced
© E. Ethelbert Miller, 2005

This summer Chicago’s El has featured some wonderful poetry by school kids on posters of Elevated Verse. Now that summer’s almost over, this seemed most appropriate. Visit here for more info.

No public transportation plans? Then check out tinywords for a daily dose of haiku. It can even be delivered to your cell phone. So, when you are stuck in traffic, overwhelmed at work, irritated with the general chaos of the world: beep, you’ve got haiku.

Founder Dylan Tweney hopes to spread an appreciation of haiku while humanizing Internet/mobile technology. The bonus: a moment of quiet reflection and insight in the midst of a busy day.

thunderstorms–
tadpoles swimming
in my porch
-Mary Chapman