and this is one section on maxine. once i accidentally walked in on my mother and a customer having sex. e was covered by his body. i at an early age knew that she was working. saw no enjoyment in her eyes, heard few cries of pleasure or endearment and the room i shared with my ster where i was instructed to go when she was working i rd black literature. i realized sex was an empowering tool for beautiful women who like professional athletes had 10 year window or to find another trade. my mother, on her 34th on the other side of men lining upor favors and six years into the model and needle ended up cleaning houses for rich folk and unending cries of a lost life. seeing her like that tore my

youngeart apart and it helped determine my decision and lifestyle. i never drank alcohol, liquor, never been high, never smoked. i viewed drunkenness a weakness and a curse on our people without knowg it at 14, i was searching for a healthy lifestyle and eventually i was to find it in the literature and the music i consumed. i am sewhat of an anomaly. i'm an vegan. if it got eyes i'm not going to eat it. if it runs i'm not going to chase it. [laughter] >> i'm into this health thing but also i'm also into black people. i love black people. unapologetically. [applause] >> and so with a we try to do in chicago is to build -- and we have built these institutions. we have four schools. the betty sha-baz national

school, the sizemore academy, and new concept school. and we service over a thousand black children a day and my wife has been primary in this endeavor. and so third world press came in 1967. i founded third world press with $400 and a machine and when you come a chicago we own a black of chicago in the middle of the black community. [applause] >> and when we come to the schomberg we see beauty and art and ourselves here. you come to third world press and our schools you see the same thing. and what we do, at 2 1/2 years old we teach these children to love themselves and then we layer that love with an analogy about themselves as they come through our program. and we started it in 1969 and we

have young people all over the country who have come through universities and colleges and now they're lawyers and doctors and architects, anthropologists and so forth. why? because my wife and others decided that we would dedicated our lives to our people. to ourselves. i'm a poet. i'm a writer, all right? and so as a writer as a poet, as a man who loves humanity, loves people, we realized quite early, my wife and i and others, that essentially we can do what we work to do. our people were -- we did not come into this world as beggars. we did not come intthe world as beggars. somewhere along the way we lost our way. that's why this is institution is so important. and then we look at any people who are in control of their cultural imperatives about a healthy opinion of themselves. that's what we essentially are trying to do in chicago. and what really woke me up at 17 years old. i was selling "jet" magazine on

the south side of chicago. i was selling mission chronicle and i was selling everything trying to stay alive, all right? in 1955 there was a murder. somebody was going to read a section from that and move on rather quickly. 1955. killers arrived early for black boys and men who did not know or appreciate their place in money, mississippi. emma till, a chicago boy not much older than me joined the earth and our ancestors in 1955 as a result of one of the most brutal lynchings ever reported. it was rumored that emmett whiffled and incorrectly looked at a white women woman. the white men stole young emmett's young life. it was a not a killing, a ritua for black boys and men. it was a repositioning of boundaries. the putting of han on a boy to men who came in numbers, not by

ones, t by twos, but ten. these men by their racial righteousness took a possibility emmett in the night and the body returned to chicago unrecognizable. it was not just a bullet in the face or the hatchet splitting his head separating eyeball from eyeball or the force ejected of 30 teth from his moutheaving only his two front teeth partially holding his tongue hanging loosely from his mouth before the drowning of dth blow. it was a man stay in place state, in a place where who ever acknowledged black folk. emmett was locked down in a wooden box with orders n to be opened. a grieving mother whose heart had already been chopped into pieces and snatched from her

body confronted all who dare raise opposition to her seeing her son. upon viewing his tortured battered bloated mutilated hacked and disfigured body, she realized that this crime of crimes ceased to be personal. ceased to be just another about her baby. this was a national killing and the nation should as quickly as possible witness the cowardly work of th christian sons. emmett till's mother decided that her child's murder was not to be hidden in a casket and combined with pious sermons of evil doors. this mother demanded that the world see what the nation did to her child. to the credit of the johnsons, publisher of "jet" magazine. the photographs of young emmett face showed. people lined in the newstands

around the country to buy jet and from that day there was a new message in the nation. i heardhe roar of black people as i saw sold my 30 issues of jet i went to the brother that distributed them in detroit for more but for the first time in his memory, all over the nation, the magazine was sold out in less than 48 hours. emmett till's execution had touched black hearts. africans born in america now saw the endgame. white supremacy, nationalism, rage, violence, and ignorance sent us its message from the hellhole of mississippi. now artheid was state news, national news, was world news because "jet" magazine for that week, the black community nationwide put on muscle, shoes, and resistance, either-shaking

was beginning. emmett till's death held for a movement of march of a nation his mother did not let his death of history's forgotten page. in alabama, a woman named lowsa parks was quietly readying herself to give backbone to a nation of feet. her act of defiance heard our introduction to a new moses, martin luther king, jr.. the united statesas soon to meet his, ours and his future about to be rewritten. that's a short section from the book. and in the book -- [applause] >> this picture right here on the left, that's paul roberson. and this w.b. dubois. and under it i write, haki opted paul robeson and w.b. dubois as his cultural grandfathers. thank you ry much. [applause]

>> thank you. that is beautiful. [applause] >> we have 15 minutes for questions. yoknow the panel. if you'd like, you can line up to the -- my left and just direct your question to any author. all right. first question. if you don't have a question, you'd like to make a comment, you may also come right up. the microscope is over there. >> while she's coming to the mic let them just say -- i think

that y'all have here in harlem the harlem book festival and most certainly schomberg something that you can go to bed each night with a smile on your face. it's very important that these cultural institutions and these structures are not only supported but, you know, carried from neighborhood to neighborhood. and all too often when you're living in the midst of this you don't realize how important it is and how critical it is, you see. and i just want you all -- after today is over, you go home in your evenings, sit down and just jot a note to max rodriguez and chief howard dobson and say thank you. and i think it will be appreciated. >> thank you for that, haki. [applause] >> i have a question i'm going to did there ce a time haki but the other panelists may want to speak as well. you talked about the power of

the "jet" magazine in terms of the awakening of the consciousness of black america upon the death and killing of emmett till but today as you well know, "jet" magazine, ebony magazine in terms of johnson publication is teetering to stay alive. so i would like you all to comment on the significance of economic development and institution-building in terms of sustaining the ideas. i mean, even right now in new york city with the challenges you're having with the budget and the impact that that's having on the schomberg, so as we think about moving forward in terms of the next generation, how should we be preparing young people to think about taking up the mantle of the challenge that you posed and what that means of institutional and economic development?

>> i'll just be very brief. one of the real problems we face is mos young black people most certainly do not have any idea who they are. and if you don't who you are, anybody can name you. [applause] >> anybody can name you. and this is why it is so important, most certainly black people, is about the healthy development of black institutions. and these institutions have to be essentially institutions about growth and development. our history is critical and very important but we can't live, you know, 5,000 years ago. we have to understand, move on and where we're going in the future and that's what we're trying to do in our institutional structures and finally if that's not done, what ll happen and what has happened is that the lowest common denominator who can speak the fastest, who know the back rows will become t leadership. and you will have ignorant

people telling tm how other ignorant people are which will leave us in trouble. we have to be in the forefront in development of all areas of human evolution, you see? and finance is critical. that, i think, is one of my greatest weakness. how do we begin to make money not for money's sake in order to continue the development of our communities? at third world press one of our major problems -- and we're 42-year-olds olds and how do we find capital to do cultural work which is not going to be back a big return. [applause] >> the question is directed to drhaki from detroit as well. lower east side. i'm in education right now studying leadership at columbia. and the question i have for you is that when we go to the elementary level, we see very few men. what can we do? >> i think that you become an ambassador. and this is critical.

what we've done i chicago and we have the same problem finding young men -- and i tell brothers all the time, if you want an audience, get an undergraduate degree in education, right? but the problem is many of them do not want to go and work four years because university work is work. it's not play time. it's work, all right? so you become an ambassador. first within the context of your own family. see, all too often those of us who have had this privilege of education, we do not talk to our own families first. you know, finding young brothers and sisters in your families and encourage them to go to university so you find those brothers first. as an ambassador you become the teacher of the school, of the elementary school that you're in. and as you move in terms of education also begin to move in terms of administration. we need men like yound

women -- but men like you to essentially say i'm not only going to teach, always keep your hand in the classroom but also understand how can i move this school to the next level? our flagship school, we have waiting lists in the middle of the black community. we have a waiting list to get to that school, you see? thank you, sir. >> thank you. [applause] >> i'm sorry. this is another question for haki. i'm doing research right now in the area of childhood studies. actually moving into a doctoral capital and looking at spirituality as a way to modify juvenile behavior. childhood studies is a new discipline because it's bumping elbows of education, sociology. we're looking at children and childhood in terms of development is different than the childhood in which they grow up to.

we're finding now is how do we get the children's voice. oftentimes we're talking -- in stories we're telling especially the sister saying being 9 years old and trying to interpret what is around here. how do we get our children to write. i'm going down through the various venues. i see us eating food and i see we have an appetite for certain things. how do we get our children for appetite reading and writing and learning. >> i can answer these questions because this is what we've bee doing all our lives, all right? all my life. i can walk into your home and tell you exactly where you are culturally. the first thing is it clean? is it clean? and i walk into a living room i want to know what's on the lls. is the image walls reflect you your people and your culture, all right? and then i'm going to your bookcase, if you got a bookcase, what are you reading? because if you're reading the children will be reading.

that's what i'm saying. you develop a culture -- you develop a culture within the context of your own home. and i'm going through your dvd collection and see what movies -- especially the movies that are wrapped newspaper brown paper bags, you know, what are you looking at night and i'm going to your cd collection is it booty call music or great black music you're listening to you. this all defines you and getting into your children's rooms what's on their walls, darth vader and donald duck and you wonder why we're confused. so we are one of the few people who will let an alien culture into our homes and therefore define us. you walk into almost every black home 24/7 and you find the most dangerous monsters on the 21st century on television 24/7. if you're going to study you turn this off.

you can't multitask and read alice walker. you can't multitask and read toni morrison or richard wright and so it becomes culture. my wife, dr. carol lee, standing over the wall there. is one of the brightest and one of the most important educators in this country. my wife is the president of aera, american research associatio the largest body of researchers in the world, 25,000 members. [applause] >> my wife, dr. carol lee, did her ph.d. at the university of chicago, three years, three years? when she walked off the stage northwestern grabbedher. she's a full professor at northwestern university. she was also inducted in a national education academy about two years ago. there's only 225 members and she's one of this em.

and go to your workshop and she will ask your questions more accurately than i can. >> all right. i'd like to thank y for coming. >> i had a question. >> hi, how are you? my name is a my, per conditions. how are you and i just had a question. u can answer pretty quickly, i guess. but what you authors found out about yourselves by writing the biographies of, you know, mr. kojo is the biography you wrote for, what was it mr. weber and, you know, writing about the grandfather, mr. johnson. and then what you learned about writing this memoir, this autobiography of, you know, yourself over the first 21 years of your lives and, you know, how it came full circle by publishing the books that you've written? >> i keep going back to the

first question. in terms of what's happening in the newspapers and the economic development of that. and the last question in terms of how do we get our kids interested? the one thing i'd like to add on nature of cnition that is how we know in 2009 is quite different from how we know in, say, 10 years before. and -- in terms of how people learn and what they know, et cetera, is so different we've got to find ways in terms of how we use the new media to get people have a better sense of who they are and how we utilize that. that's my take on the whole question of education. and i think that is one of the challenges even for teachers. that you're teaching at up with level, user teaching at one way of knowing and doing while folks, these younger kids are listening and learning at a different level. that's my take. i thought i should mention that. what i learned about myself and learning about weber.

i think what i learned about our people in writing about weber is that we tend to lose and to forget those persons who have contributed so much to our own development. i think a few minutes ago i think i said dr. ben has been done out there and for her own knowledge and for development. i don't know what support he has now. it seems to me what i learned so much about weber, that he had done so much. here's a guy who i think and i didn't read from because of my time who, in fact, anticipated the two great theorists certainly in th western world of the 19th century,9th and 20thcentury. one is charles darwin and the other is lord and kings.

john was the person from whom darwin learned how to stuff birds. you never hear about him. but he's the guy when darwin went to the university of edinburgh that's what led him to learn about birds and stuffing ing down to south america. here's weber before talked about deficit spending and the need for government to intervene when private spending had finished and here's a guy who said how i became an economic heretic and part of the struggle is not just to know how we know but how to go as alice walker says embrace them as our own. >> okay. thank you for that. i'm sorry but our session is over and i'd just like to encourage you to do one thing. one commonality of all of us is the fact that we are book lovers

so i'm going to ask you to buy our books, go out there, walk from one part of the street to the other. greet the authors, thank the authors and buy their books. thank you so much for coming. [applause] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> we conclude our encore coverage of the 2009 harlem book fair with catherine acolonu on her book "they lived before adam." it's 25 minutes.

>> now we have author catherine acolonu, who is the author of the book "they lived before adam." in 2001, after more than 11 years of research, she discovered a library of ancient stone inscriptions made by the common ancestors of what she refers to as the niger-benue family of the nigerian tribes. these stone inscriptions are located cross river state nigeria. that discovery buoyed her research and created the access to the lost civilizations of ancient nigeria. as ground-breaking as the research found in john hope franklin's they ce before columbus, "they lived before adam" extends the conversation and controversy surrounding africa as the birth place of human civilization. again, it is indd my honor to introduce catherine acolonu as

she discusses in some depth her work, "they lived before adam." thank you. [applause] >> would you like to come to the podium? >> yeah. >> okay. >> i'd lik to first of all address the significance of the work we have done, the research we have done. we believe that our findings have expanded the parameters of knowledge. we believe that our findings call for another look at the history of mankind. we believe that it is important

that history be rewritten so that africa's place, black africa's place will be ensured. the contributions of black africans towards the making of world civilizations are what our findings are about. before i beginy talk, let them first of all acknowlge the following. her excellency of the first lady of nigeria. and hakim, governor of the state whom we -- whom we, the citizens, fondly the boy king. for his contributions and his support and that of his

admirable wife for their support in creating an atmosphere in my home state where intellectuals can function and where academics and new ideas can thrive. the new leadership, the organization, we're grateful for power in the world presentation of and putting their stamp of support on our new publication "they lived before adam." i stand here not just as myself alone but as head of a research team set up in 2004 under the auspices of the united nations forum of culture and nigeria. the united nations arts and culture is a program of the global secretariat which i help to be a nigerian supporter and

good will ambassador. and specialist of the united nations forum of arts and culture. and the senior culture officer in nigeria. and an applied arts specialist and a distinguished alumnist in new york, the arts and culture. these are a few names among our research team. i myself am a professor of linguistics and african cultural studies. a former fulbright scholar for international studies and visiting professor at manhattan college, marymount college all in new york state. "they lived before adam" is a second in a series which is the result of this research project which originally began in 1990, 19 years ago in the state of new

york and precisely from new york college. onehalf of my co-authors and my coresearchers we express our gratitude to the fulbright organization and to the western organizations for international studies for the support i received from 1989 when i discovered and published the roots of african slave author and american slave author. and in 1991, when this is mentioned granted me the honor of joining their hospitality and support as international visitor and as a fulbright scholar in residence here in new york. "they lived before adam" is a sequel before the other article reconstructing 450,000 years of

lost civilization. together these two books make up a total of 1,150 pages. and the importance the code of when it was published was presented to the world on the 25th of september, 2005, by the then-president of the -- represented by the minister of culture and tourism ambassador frank. i am here on the invitation of the harlem book fair the largest book fair in the world to present our new book "they live before adam" on the prehistoric historians of the niger-benue. two thingsark out our work as a new and groundbreaking discussion to scholarship. the first is the @iscovery and transcription of lost stone writings of prehistoric africans.

these inscribed stones look in southern nigeria in a cross-river state have been attracting international researchers since the colonial days but we were the first to see the inscriptions as a form of writing and to actually isolate and tribe some of these letters, some of its letters. another series of stone indescriptions found in ireland which many linguists have been struggling with for dedes. we're also describing our team in the african language. in fact some inscriptions were found in west virginia in usa. what we have found in the case of the inscribed monolithe is that they contain two letters of a writing system that was used in mesopotamia before 4,000 b.c.

the letters in question, the first and the last of the old worl we found some basic letters of egyptian hieroglyphics. but the majority of the letters on the stones are from an indian language as well as symbols now recognized as universal due to the fact that they now form the root of most ltures, religions and sciences in the world. these include the cross, the sparrow, the triangle, the concentric circle and every other known geometric shape. the antiquity of the stones and the fact that they were discovered in the forest where is many who are buried underground shows that they were indigenous and that they belonged to human history, prehistory indeed. oral tradition of the natives said that the inscriptions were

executed by the stone age people, the first humans to inhabit the area. and that they were invented by the first mother of human kind. they call this first mother and say that she was the first woman to have born a child b pregnancy and that her first child was a boy through whom death come in world. it was dedicated to her. just like the oral tradition. written in anna way, and it's the hebrew name which adam called eve in the biblical story of tlags there's a hebrew level which is the first in the hebrew

kabbalah. there are over 300 of these tombs in nigeria another thing that's mard a point in our research by a team of archeologist at the university of nigeria. of any stone implements belonging to the time zone of 1.6 million b.c. to 500,000 b.c. archeologists who are professors, working with some british faculty members of the department of archeology in the '70s discovered several nonpolished as well as pished hand axes, picks and other implements in a zone in

southeastern nigeria. their conclusion published in local journals at the time that the home -- was that the home of homo-erectus provided survival tools of the habitation worldwide. for this for us this means that it was from the prehistoric nigeria that the out of africa migrations of early man took off to populate the five continents of the globe. mostly because homo-erectus implements discovered all over the world all looked like they were made in the same factory. this was also the accomplishment of the archeologists. our linguistic -- it is

nfirmed what several oer linguists have long suspected. and concluded. that mankind -- as the hebrew bible says spoke one language at the beginning. our comparative linguistic analysis of words from many languages are acrosshe globe show that ebu language it was, in fact, spoke by the inhabit tants of countries as far flown as nigeria, egypt, mesopotamia, turkey, india, china, greece, united kingdom, north america, south america including the greenland eskis. in fact, the two vernacular words that survid in plato's description of atlantis were found to be in sound and meaning -- were found in sound

and me meang to have been directly derived from the language environment. so too were 90% of words used by adam andis household especially names of people and places. and there are many. our research includes the origin and meanings of symbols used in every religion and sacd literature all over the world. in these we found that hebrew bible, the kabbalah of the hebrews and the chinese, the hindus and the recently discovered egyptian christian bible was of immense importance in revealing lost knowledge. wherever we looked we found evidence confirming the claims by geneticsists that all mankind came from sub-harrah africa.

and it was previously believed that adam and eve were descended from east african lucy. our findings revealed it was not east african but a nigeria area. this is the name of the first lady of my state who iactually of the home of the homo-erectus. so what i'm saying it was not lucy but rather nigerian who was an ancestor of homo-erectus who did the out of africa migrations. we said this research conducted by french palologists led by a professor revealed that the direct ancestor of homo-erectus,

the ancestor of adam spent700 years predicting lucy and newfound ancestors. this again wt the traditions tell us that wdid not come from anywhere. that we are cldren of evolution. the never been ruled, it is kings and queens of the earth. the oral traditions confirm the findings of geneticists by 2008, 280,000 b.c., human evolution was interrupted and adam, a hybrid was created through the process of genetic engineering. however, our findings revealed that the creation of adam was a doward claim on the evolutionary ladder because he lost his define essence. he became divided. no longer whole or wholesome. all over africa and ancient

egyptian records oral traditions maintain that homo-erectus people were heaven beings and possess mtical power such as telepathy, levitation, that there was who could move rocks and mountains and change the course of rivers. adam lost all that when his right brain was shut down by those who made him. created him. the direct descendents of homo-erectus where the small dwarfs who were the heroes of folk tales in every part of the world. it was theyho founded and sustaine civilization where they continued to function till they were driven by colonialists only recently. it was those who transported the language and culture to all conies of the globe. therefore, we say that the things following our part when

you read about to whom this publication that lived befor adam is dedicated. it refers not only of the colonial period but of the prehistor prehistoric ebus. adam who was taken from his ancestor who was moved and changed and altered and was made to become less than his ancestry. the significance of the research work -- this research work confirms both theories of evolution, evolution as well as eationism. that these two theories played some part in the development of the human species. mankind is the oldest of mankind and the first to become homo.

in fact, it was a west african in nigerian location and the solutions to the problems created by modernity through the fall of adaare to be sought in black africa. thank you so much. god bless. [applause] okay. we're going to open up the floor for questions. if anyone has questions, i assume there are two mics -- there's a mic on this side. please feel free to stepp to the mic and pose any questions that you might have for the author this afternoon. don't be shy. [inaudile]

>> i find it very, very interesting. >> excuse me, for the benefit of the c-span audience it would be better if you stepped to the mic so everyone can hear the question. that's the mic, sir. >> hi. hello. that's good. i like that. my name is dominique. i'm an architect and also a professor at the city university of new york. new york city college of technology and i find your information to be very, very interesting, in essence, and the reason why is becau there are stories that we've all been listening to and hearing for the past centuries and most of the stories that we've been

listening to were certainly more of what we call folk tales and at times when we're not educated in terms of the process of reading certain documentation in regards to whether it's bibbio tech or whether it's the existence of mankind or the extensionality and my question to you is how does that book pertaining to they lived maybe before adam defined the stories of the bible itself or the bibliotech in a sense? >> well, we've spoken abo the beginnings of human kind. we've spoken about evolution and then creatnism. it's clear where adam falls in to that story.

there is science and there is religion. religion deals with issues of faith. and mostly we don't deal with issues of faith when we do research. because we believe that stories in the bible, for example, as well as some other scriptures are like what you call folk tales and oral traditions. they are condensed information. condensed in such a way that the essentials are there. but the details are not often there. in the case of the creation of adam and the -- how it relates to the 280,000 years ago event

when adam -- when suddenly homosapiens were different fm his ancestor, homo-erectus and without a proper and normal, you know, evolutionary growth that would have permitted that, ja geneticists said someone happened and had a hand in the evolution process and interrupted it. and so the story we have in the bible is actually -- t story in the bible is the process whereb a man and a woman who used to be naked and were not -- didn't know how to -- were not affected by sex and suddenly realized they were naked and it is -- that's the point where

evolution -- where creationism crosses the path of evolution. so that's all i can say at this point. [applause] >> doctor, my name is steven thompson. my question is, the region where you found the stone inscriptions, would that have been the region with the noke culture was located? now, when i say that i'm telling that with a capital n. woul they he been somehow related. >> yes, the answer is yes. because between 9,000 b.c. and 5,000 b.c. we discovered that there was a thriving

civilization in the area of nigeria cameroon. and that civilization was a mighty civilization. it enveloped most of nigeria and the cameroons and the environs. its center was where you now call nok. it appears to be its library where information was taught in the remote forests for safekeeping so to say. >> thank you. that's about all the time that we have for questions right now. we're goi to be taking a short 10-minute break. the next author cued up and is ready to go at 12:10 with author dana cannidy. relax in a few minutes and we'll be back in about 10 minutes. >> this event was part of the 2009 harlem book fair. to find out more, visit qbr.com.

♪ >> next, a portion of book tv's monthly three-hour live program, in depth. on the first sunday of each month, we invite one author to discuss their entire body of work and take your calls. in depth also includes a visit with the author to see where and how they wte their books. that's what you're about to see. >> can i ask you if there's a young person watching who wants to write their first book, what advice do you give people like that. >> don't make the mistake i made of spending three years in paris, thinking that because i had studied writing in good creative writing courses at harvard -- and i had wonderful teachers, you know, don't make the mistake of thinking you can just go and write a book.

if you never lived through anything that's worth writing about -- i mean, there's an awful lot of novels in which i'm sure most of them never get published which are basically -- what are they going to write about? they'll write about what it's like to be in a creative writing class. i mean, i essentially decided to give up writing when i left paris and came back to boston. and that's -- and the following year i was in the classroom. it's interesting the year i gave up writing is the year that i wrote eath at an early age." because suddenly i was doing something that actually tore at my heart.

and worth writing about. i mean, i took myself so seriously. young writers always do that and, you know, i'd been in paris. and i thought, well, here i am and i'm being given mentorship by great older writers, william styron. bill styron took me and fed me on numerous occasions. it was the only time i got to go to, you know, a nice restaurant. and richard wright was in paris at the time, literally bumped into him -- physically bumped into him at a bookstore and others. and so i came back and i thought, you know, i must be a writer but i knew the craft of writing but i hadn't lived through anything that mattered enough.

so i was very pompous, young writers are pompous and i remember i came back to cambridge. i was going to go back to grad school and do what my folks would have liked at that time in my life, which is become a harvard english professor. it was only the voice of dr. king and the death of those young volunteers that turned -- that halted that andhanged my life. but i remember i gave a party in cambridge in harvard square in which i formally announced to all my friends that i'm giving up whig -- writing. i'm going to stop writing. i'm not going to be a writer as if that was a terrible loss to american literary history. how pompous young people are. and then that year just

gradually, as i saw nightmare of what racism was doing to these children in front of me, kids i had that year had 12 different subs before they put me into that classroom. to be their permanent teacher. i just started keeping a journal. ask kids too to keep a journal. and every day i write down what happened that day. and suddenly around may my rlfriend said to me, you know, i hate to break the bad news to you but i think you've written a book. and i said well, it doesn't really have an end, you know, i n't see it and then they fired me. the black parents were very

loyal and they shut down my school and it helped to spark the civil rights movement in boston. and so i said thank you to the boston school system. for giving me an ending to my book. it took three years of rewriting. so i just say to young writers, don't -- i mean, you have to learn the craft. and i'm still learning it all the time. but you also have to get into the muck and the messiness of the real world. open up your heart and let

yourself be ripped apart by anger or or unbearable sorrow or incredible exhilaration at. >> wonderful beautiful little child who glows in the midst o it all. you got to go through that. and then -- i'll tell you writing, i'm addicted to writing every single day but when i'm writing a painful book, it's painful. and i get upset. i will actually cry sometimes at something that seems like unbearable. sometimes i feel like i'm, you know, speaking the unspeakable.

once oprah winfrey told me that she couldn't read my books at bedtime because they would upset her so much. and i think she was referring to "amazing grace" which ishe first book i wrote about the bronx. and, you know, i said to her, well, if it's so painful for you to read, let them sure you it's equally painful to write. if you don't put it in, the reader won't take it out. there's a lot in expression that i love that means nothi comes out of nothing and you just don't get it cheap. ♪

>> in depth airs live at noon eastern on the first sunday of each month on book tv on c-span2. log onto booktv.orgor information about upcoming guests. >> joan is editor-in-chief of the universityf illinois press. what new books does the university have coming out this year? >> well, actually all of the posters on the tableto display here -- these are all brand-new books and as you can see, we have a series of new books coming out in african-american history including this biography of sojourner truth. a biography of trm howard, in early civil rights. >> who is trm howard? >> he was a conservative civil rights advocate that doesn't get the sort of attention and respect he should, but was

instrumental in moving forward a lot of sort of black agendas in the uth. >> and joan, why did you decide that sojourner truth needed another biography at this time? >> the author has a new and unusual angle. it's different from some of the ones that have been published recently and it's a substantial biography so she touches on much -- you know, new material that other people haven't treated in the past. >> and what other books would you like to point out? >> well, let them see. this cafe society, which is a story of the josephsons and their sort of nightclub in n york city where there actually was a mingling of the races back when that wasn't done very much. it's a very readable kind book that sort of gives you a picture of the time, the era an@ the people who sort of frequented places like that. >> what's the focus of the university of illinois press. >> we publi heavily in u.s.

history with specializations in african-american history, labor history, women's history, ethnic history in general particularly latino kind of history and american music. >> how is the business model for a iversity press changed in the last couple of years. >> well, our print runs are much shorter and our prices are going up as a result. because the marke is soft. we're selling fewer copies bos and it's difficult. >> she's the head of the university of illinois press. ..