people, the centuries old demeaning damages. images of people and how that has as much to do with the lack of diversity. >> was book tv every weekend on c-span two. [background sounds] >> all right, distinguished guests, brothers and sisters, friends, and otherwise. my name is justin and i am the chairman of the board of directors of the olympus foundation. i like to welcome all of you to

the 40th annual american book awards. i say it is very appropriate that we are holding this ceremony on the day of the dead. in san francisco. and in california, and at the end of the west. not just geographically mind you, you go any further west, you are in the east. far east. so just this last month, afghanistan turned 18. i say it's you say is going to vote? congressional budget for every 24 hours the war cost hundred and $74 million.

so in a city named for st. francis, who city fathers and mothers now treated citizens as if they were merely detritus of capitalism, is trying these big two. and if state named for a black lesbian amazon clean of the islamic faith took up on that, but these are just the names that we know right now. because there are monday names for this place became long before any of us were here and there will be monday names to come. in fact the origin of those names came from a group of people who arrived from you're up are increasingly starting to up here within the arc of human

history as some sort of death cult. if you can imagine what the nation of nigeria might look like that went out any black people, you could get a pitcher of what actually happened here. before the arrival of the europeans. as a matter of fact, the state of california didn't even become a part of the united states into the 19th century it was almost halfway over. and i say it can be fairly argued that perhaps california remains and settled certainly not settle the matter of which we would say of virginia or maryland had any of the so-called 13 colonies so i'm

thinking of the day of the dead, and understanding that this is the centennial whole of red summer, 1919, red summer not just because of the race rebellions and race riots, but also because of amicus and socialists and labor leaders and communists who were gaining extraordinary power throughout the united states seeking revolution. in fact the american industrials are so terrified that the revolution that was unfolding in the you're up would cease north america that they began to commit to active extraordinary violence in order to eliminate both that threat that red summer and it was during a time 100 years ago, the claude mckay, compose this poem that i would like to share with all of you as

our beginnings of these ceremonies the state of the de dead. in san francisco. if we must die, let it not be like hogs. hunted and panned and in a glorious spot while ground is bark the man and the hungry dogs making their mock of our cursive lot. if we must die, oh let us nobody die so that our precious we'll have may not be shed in vain. then, even the monsters we define shall be constrained to alan or us though dead. oh kids men, we must meet the common foe though far

outnumbered let us show us brave. and for their thousand blows, neil one death. what though before us lies the open graves like men wear face the murderous cowardly pack pressed to the wall dying but fighting back. on the centennial of red summer i say that we must die is the very appropriate way to begin because all of those who are honored by the american book award this year, have answered in one way or another club case call and that went out them i like to redo the stage a poet, and fellow board number jenni lynn to begin her sermon is this afternoon. [applause] >>

>> thank you justin for that eloquent introduction to our american book awards ceremony. thank you all for coming. this was first published 1957 after the obscurity for 13 years. it was discovered by in a small bookstore in san francisco stay tampered a.k.a. japan town. like jeffrey chan and published and republished by the nonprofit group combined asian american resources project. i want to read an excerpt from this book notably by john nakata. i had this kawhi for live, a good 35 years and it has all these markings from the required reading in my creative writing classes in the humanities courses. in the main easterbrook, is

talking to his mother. i am not your son and i'm not japanese, i am not american. i can go someplace and tell people of we've god and inverted stomach and i am an american and true envelope and hail columbia but the army wouldn't have me because of the stomach. that's easy and i would do it all they have got to convince myself first and that i cannot do. i wish with all my heart that i were japanese or that i were american. i am neither an ugly meal and i blame myself and i blame the world which is made up of monday countries which fight each brother and chill and hate and destroy but not enough. so that they must kill and hate and destroy again and again. it is so easy and simple that i cannot understand it all. the reason i do not understand

is because i do not understand you who're the half of me that is no more and because i do not understand what it was about that half made me destroy the half of me which was american and a off which might've become the whole of me if i had said yes. i will go and fight in army because that is what i believe and want and cherish and love. he would refuse to sign the oath of loyalty to the u.s. this divided the japanese american community very bitterly in fact. i teach creative writing class to seniors and for years i couldn't understand why two of the women in my class who had husbands who were awarded very late in the life, they went to dc in their 80s to receive recognition for fighting with the 442. and the gentleman in the adjoining classroom, who they were always frowned upon by

these two women. found out later because he had been in the know boy. and refused to fight on behalf of the united states. so these are ones that are not totally historical. they fester to the present day. thanks to the page take effect cappelli exhibit a should of the development as an artist. the discovery never writing by o'connor, was done by frank kolbe and greg robinson and chain. they compiled meticulous research that is the lasting legacy to valuable writings that have not yet been published until this volume. in a comprehensive biographic study of the author his life work with his photographs. john nakata, the life and we discovered work of the author of notably by university of

washington press. i wanted to also mention but not go into any detail that this book was republished by penguin but there was an ensuing bitter loyalty fight but shaun heroically engaged in and thought penguin and one. the book had been called. because of copyright infringement. so thank good news, we have a book that really deserves an american book award. done with integrity, and scholarship, great scholarship. great robinson and floyd has brought here to receive the award. i like you to come up here. [applause] background sounds.

[background sounds] >> simply to be here, let's acknowledge the past of a previous of the book award. he works at with a real little boy. he refused governments royalty of questionnaire inside american conservation can't be thought to resend his american citizenship on duress. i'm in cobb's incarceration. ales actually passed away earlier this week. he wanted it he planned to be here today. we will miss you, he will be very much missed. john nakata, and brother races are like him and celebrated. [inaudible] novel 1957, recovered here in the bay area.

1974 by frank chen. the combined project. also along with nathan who is joining us here today. they see then. they included a chapter of it in the mythology of asian american writing. i.e. was might evoke an awakening that asian america has brought just asian and not just american and not just the best of these to the best of the west by the thing called asian american. with its own voice and sensibility in 45 years ago, there was a radical idea. i.e. would not have been possible with the publication by howard university pressure and 74. the first black university press in the nation. and chief executive late charles

harris the following year and it was published in the third issue of your reader. thanks to its publisher, and with the public reaction to the cart republished novel in its entirety. i say i see jenni has an original here. very nice. forty-five years ago was when i first arrived in san francisco as a wide-eyed know nothing from the south bay. i went to the theater. this was a time of continued discovery and great possibilities and ishmael want to thank you for being so welcoming welcoming to me. the wide-eyed kid i was. and at the center for me was this great novel. it gave voice to a japanese american which you just heard,

and it trivia, the cover design, and is based on a photograph of my 25 -year-old self. the after work of this book, by friction, as if you expressed information about anna at the time, in search of john nakata that ignited in me, desire to learn more about this author and his urge to write the great novel. so that it japanese american draft resistor. that search led to our book which much-needed biography. >> lori margaret solomon, and close the loop they've just reissued i.e. in the 45th anniversary edition. as arco editor would see if you

are here, imagine he would be here today accepting the american book award so is the humility that we accept this honor and surprise for john. thank you very much. >> thank you. it is actually back in 1971, a week after john early death at edge 47 that a team of young asian american writers and his novel and then all but unknown, championed the work of the range the publication and reprint edition to help bring it into the american tenant. celtic 47 more years before another team could complete the work they started by bringing to live the broad range of o'connor his writing and a full account of his life story. i am very proud to be part of that new team.

ten years ago while reading through the postwar seattle newspaper, started my research into japanese american history, i came upon the series of stories in the one-act play by the young john nakata. about my findings to frank whose decade-long spacers on the credit lending to interview family members and locate far flung documents. i audaciously suggested that we joined forces on a book. that unraveled this unusual men's life. this frankie was actually the real. here of the saga because he directed the project and made it happen. working with him was the best kind of partnership a joy mixed with an education. thanks to frank were able to recruit an all-star team of collaborators. frank was far more successful than the u.s. government to sway japanese-americans to see went

from no no cs yes. plus the irreplaceable stephenson data plus jeff, and martha, and it is further blessed my old friend floyd chung agreed to join our team. he conducted art his own research into the hal qaeda and is scholarship and what he found conducted his own, brilliant analyses of his unknown works. floyd helped us in monday ways. we also benefited from university of washington press editor, laura mclaughlin, and mike beckham. who are always welcoming and encouraging. i wanted to thank particularly the before columbus foundation. as a historian of our team, remember 35 years ago, monday skis meet received one of the first extraordinary graphic camp

citizen 13660. if exploited by see, we are standing in for john accepting this award today, it is also great honor for me to be able to follow in the footsteps and in those of hiroshi. thank you very much. [applause] >> useful phrases for immigrants. the strength of the stories, live in their unvarnished no-nonsense honesty. there are no rags to riches chinese-american and racial success stories. or women warriors triumphing over the patriarchy. an hillside from the island identified the body of a young chinese woman discovered by

construction workers and the new site. our shopping center in a chinese city. he's a rather ordinary men and women. young and old. his struggle for validation and survival on their own terms. whether it be the classic to press chinese-american daughter-in-law who strategizes cleverly to get rid of her abusive in law parents. or the poor fish scaler who literally fights his way out of the bottom of the barrel to become a street thug to be feared and reckoned with. their struggles for survival both noble and deviant weather in china or the american soil, in the face of social and economic oppression, are handled with humor and often a chilling irony. useful phrases for immigrants gives us both heart and a hard look into the suttles

complexities of the chinese culture and the psychology of assimilation of immigrant chinese in america. with great pride, i want to bring up here, mainly chai, you spoke phrases for immigrants. [applause] >> thank you so much. it is such an honor to be introduced by jenni, i am a tremendous fan of her poetry and activism. tremendous honor to receive an american book award from the beyond columbus, foundation. i cannot believe i'm enjoying the company of writers who have read and respected them in full by writing in the and never thought is rags i would join. monday legends.

monday. i decided to put together my short story collection useful phrases in 2016 during the presidential primary as you may remember when a certain new york real estate developer was talking smack about immigrants. i was shocked by the ugly over racism of his rhetoric and equally shocked the mainstream media was simply repeating the very ugly things he was staying that went out critiquing him. that went out questioning why such oh man might feel entitled to spread hate. as you may recall, he called mexicans rapists and he said the entire nation of china was raping the u.s. i had not heard such over hate speech since 1980s, one of the child. and my family was leaving in a rural community in south dakota in those days and white man used to shoot at her house. the killer dogs, the rate that yield racial slurs at us. they didn't like my father

because he was a chinese man married to a white woman. and they sent letters staying that he was a china man who didn't know his place that my mother was a suzie my brother and i, were satan his spawn. in the media was constantly feeding the hate and his agent in those days because of the rise of the japanese auto industry which was seen as economic threat to the united states. the term of the cover a national newsmagazine which had the statue of liberty dressed as a geisha. and another in a sumo wrestler striving rockefeller center because the japanese conglomerate had purchased the building. i remember when 27 -year-old chinese-american engineer vincent chan, by two white autoworkers in detroit because they blamed japanese carmakers for unemployment in their industry. i remember the. [silence] of the mainstream media in the face of this hate speech and the

violence in this anti- immigrant renter. i remember also the. [silence] from the reagan administration about aids that callousness from the administration the rising number of homeless veterans and every member of the hate and fear of this era. back in the 80s i was a child there was little i could do but try to survive but this time i'm an adult and i can fight back. so in addition of course to try to get the vault out and denouncing the orange ones he felt rhetoric, i thought what can i do. i'm a writer, so i can write. so put together in this collection of short stories stories about working people as jenni said, ordinary chinese and about migrants with in china from rural to urban areas in chinese diaspora to the united states and i wanted to write about my community and my family and i wanted to write about people in diaspora and i wanted to remind the media we exist and

we speak back and we will remember. eight speech has repercussions. we are human and we are families and we are here. we have a right to be here. we have voices and we have a right to speak truth to power and we have a right to hold you accountable. [applause] i am very grateful to my press which is the small defendant press in north carolina and their teams and i am very grateful to my editor robin and my publisher lynn your and i am especially grateful to novelist jones who chose my book and my collection for the award and that's why it was published. i'm also very grateful to novelist edward pretty jones who used his voice to bring attention to the stories. together we can speak truth to

power and we can hold these people accountable. i never imagined that that near real estate developer, when actually win the presidency. perhaps he did not want it but there he is. i never imagine how bad things would get less than naïve and feared children in cages and family supported separated from the children children denied their shots and immigrants and migrants across the u.s. targeted for harassment called bill that wall but ongoing destructive trade war with china. a member of the state department staying that china was the threat to the u.s. because that was the first time the u.s. was a non- convocation enemy. this is ridiculous. it is stupid and is terrifying. because there are people who will follow this hate and act upon it. but i know i had to speak up and keep speaking.

i'm grateful to the before columbus foundation that their work in providing the voices of resistance to colonization, of resistance to racism and hate speech the violence against the bodies of immigrants and migrants in the indigenous and the defendants of slate africans were kidnapped and brought to this country against their will. i'm honored to receive this american word accord in this historic moment and to be surrounded by the incredible writers and to hear them speak truth to power. thank you so much. [applause] >> this next award goes to luis for her memoir in the house of early sorrows. she wrote, i came to believe this forum of memoir that honors our forbearers by reimagining

their lives but that went out romanticizing them. especially necessary during a time when ordinary people are being robbed of their ability to lead a dignified life and where their path stands in danger of being erased, when in a nation of supposed promise, the future is bleak for those like my forbearers who work hard and long yet try to continue against all obstacles to hope to dream like all of the best literature in any work whether fiction or memoir, which reflects our own lives fears and unmet hopes and dreams, and the work that will live on. of that miracle and compromising memoir richard hoffman author of house rights. we realize we are not reading to find out about saul's life and

times. but her own. they also early sorrows, mmr will be awarded to luis accepting the award are jason and deborah. [applause] >> hello. i came to the breakfast table one morning this time trying to shake the effects of the nice work my 12 -year-old son jason, he was six when i began and usually cheerful in the morning is sitting at the table in the right mood he glares at me. i ask him what is troubling him. he tells me that they had a discussion in english class about the generation gap. do i realize he's the only student in the class who sees his mother leslie who sees his

father. regulus might work is killing him. and he hates it. they can't stay on them at my typewriter when he comes home from school. the sound typewriter keeps him up at night. that he reads that he needs to sleep. he began sobbing. i want to hold him but he wont allow it. i recall that the only time this child has ever had an uncontrollable temper tantrum was on the day he overheard me talking about beginning my second book. he looked at me and said, second book. then he threw himself off of the chair onto the fire began shrieking and beginning beating his fists against the floor. when i calmed him enough so he could talk, he told me he thought that when i finished the first book, he would have me back again. so that is an expert i am the person that was beating the floor. if you have a guess that yet. twenty plus books later, in one

day to the day after my mom passed away, i am here to humbly accept this award for the last published work at my mother, the house of early sorrows. i want to say foundation on behalf of my mother, and the disciple family, and the university press, and her students and colleagues that always gave her the energy to keep going. one of which is my wife deborah who is here somewhere. how fitting it is and when i read i believe they have it here. when i read in the website, with this book award stands for, and the paperback is i can't read the excerpts of it for you. i thought it was a perfect award for my mother and her writing. how fitting is it that this award is being bestowed upon a woman who was the first in her third-generation italian-american family to go beyond high school. chemo family a poor family that

lived in a tenement and organ and family plagued by history of both mental illness and abuse. and yet she went on to become incredibly important rhodes scholar and get her masters and doctorate from nyu and ultimately becoming distinguished professor at hunter university of both english and creative writing where she taught memoir. i'm going to read a little bit more for my mother his book. i love the sight of myself, walking up the steps of the newark public library pass alliance patience and fortitude. i would've preferred lionesses. thinking that the kid who grew up on the streets of hoboken new jersey was now walking past the painting of milton his daughters talking down the immortal and taking down the immortal words. now walking down the third floor corridor to the bird collection. now pressing the buzzer. they were actually loving me into the sacred recess where i would soon set next to all of those famous literary scholars

whose work i had read and do work of my own. the american dream. my mother his work was highly personal beautifully crafted and deeply researched. she was writing a book when chasing ghosts which was about her father mmr. of which life which is an expert in here, she it's been three years researching world war ii. just so that she could understand the times and with these men went through. so her memoir writing was also written in a way that someone who had done an incredible amount of historical work could put those two crafts together. it delivered more than just newark something that also had historical aspect that was deeply researched. and going to close with something that a regular eulogy. so this has brought written by her friend about. be something at least a fitting tribute to her.

my mom live, while she was life spoke almost every day. so this is an expert from one of those conversations. good morning sweetheart. how is everyone in your house. there is usually how mom would begin me. right i just got back from a wonderful bike. and the kids are still sleeping how are you. sometimes mom wasn't able to avoid talking about cancer. but even the way she did that was uniquely her. i'm having a rough day, yesterday dad and i got my most recent pet scan results my cancer is spreading. the drugs i've been on dull soon be working anymore. she met alone, am so sorry. what can you do. there are brother drugs to try lots of brother treatment options. we'll figure something out. i asked my long talk with my cancer i got news. you do what. well, i expect my cancer that

i'm okay with him leaving in my body but that we really do need to set some boundaries. to figure out how to share. i told them that if they got grady were is it too much, they will kill us both. that just doesn't seem to make much sense for anyone right. there's one acing the difficult truths like she did throughout her life. she never finished the book cancel and but that been the last work that she did about fighting cancer. thank you for this award. background sounds >>

>> is jennifer here. , ono, oh well. we are here. as many of us live our lives fully, are half-full. we know, the music that we listen to becomes us and we don't just listen to it with our ears, we listen to it with our entire body affect the movement of our body and our imagination is often the music that we listen to. but that we allow to move with us. in the land that we walk on in the sky that we are on has a song as well. and as we were taught, the movement of our body and our imagination is often the

response to the song. the voices of this music the singers and the dancers of this land that we walk throughout the americas and so-called new world are often our own stone or unheard which is part of the historical mission of it before the columbus finish and back. in fact i am very honored that our founder one of the titans of international literature, make time to be with us today. in fact, some of his most recent books are available here at the back. but before we get into that,

i'll talk a little bit about new poets of native nations which deceives the american book award. it brings together, the power of that imagination and song. many songs of the many nations which we share our lives with. we sent a couple of folks over to receive the award for her. but i see that they are not here. or maybe they are on the way. in her absence, i will share with you some of the words of one of our long-standing board members and before columbus foundation, joy who is presently the united states put. this 21st century of native

poetry is marked by digital singing and storytelling. dislocated and relocation. and moments of reception that float like moats in the eyes of creation as indigenous peoples we are always moving and always have been. from the sky to the earth from the east to west north to south and back up again. the root of all poetry and song making. unlovely dirt roads, or with ears at the apex, a sunrise as we listen for something to happen from our singular sound sculptures. or change, or change happen. eric 21 new and not so new native poets writing in english

and sometimes our original languages still listening and translating into language what is given to give back. these 21 new poets collect their predecessors are emerging from the earth or falling from the sky from industrial streets and boarding schools, fast cars all night tribal, or city dances, nfa programs and bureaucratic lines, beauty threads, with squalor and this is earth. collection and heritage has made so many places gather here. right here is happening, this new native nations poetry.

[applause] in his classic work on revolution and revolutionary violence, the wretched of the earth and friends, co-authored this book had a field hospital of the frontlines of the algerian war. as part of his theory of revolutionary violence, fred suggested that when the oppressed words is spoken in its full voice, when the voice of the oppressed brings a full circumference and wait in panorama, about life to full voice, it is the end of the world. it's in the end of the world because the world that the oppressor has constructed,

socially economically and politically and otherwise, is based to her on the object mute continence the colonized subject to the oppressed person. no footprints but not has generously offered to teach us is true, and angel garcia is doing some serious damage. [laughter] >> okay. >> and we have the great pleasure of the poet with us today. he received the market book award for the keep never sleep. because they don't. and as we welcome him to the stage, i will share with you a statement made by another one of our long-standing board members

who previously was a poet lori of the united states of america and before that of california. how could there be tenderness and resurrection and even for inside of rivers. in the brutality. this is the book that stands alone in its midnight boldness. its main shadow secrets. one of the most difficult parts of the poem is to descend into the lightless on realms. into what lies beneath the elegant surfaces here garcia examines our gendered roaring bodies, man, son, lover,

husband, father, mother, ghosts, woman. they are stripped down self, unmasked, are gobbled phoned and delirious lonesome acts and our abnormality. open this book, if you dare but it's not the animal smashed suddenly torn away from his innocent gait that garcia animates in various forms. betty is redeeming in his hands these pages. notice how he still cups and abandoned child shaped sling. the night nation perhaps reads into it regardless of its alarming things. and this is a wrong and sutured incredible collection and one-of-a-kind.

a nose breaking heart devouring blazing volume please welcome to the stage angel garcia. [applause] >> never sleep is it too. clearing out what is lift beneath my mother his bed, i find it outlined jewelry fox a shattered, of teeth. that cradled in my home. there can be certain memory clouded by 20 years of bedside dust, i remember once, one night while my father slept on the couch, my mother took out tooth

after tooth from the fox and recited the names of my brothers from his mouth they became in arranging them on her bed into bouts that had not spoken in years. just a boy, i saw this was a ritual only she knew. imagine it was her alone and night collected from beneath our fellows the boys we would never again resemble. the small animals from our mouths by my father close to, tied to a doorknob, or clenched between needle nose pliers. our bones. the words of soft belies the pools of we'll have we swallowed. each of us wanting to keep an amount holy fear losing or becoming.

thank you justin for the very generous introduction. thank you to all of the board of directors to the columbus foundation. in particular, in addition, the university of arkansas press. the generously made this book possible. and everyone here. the onus arrow this one i was 19 years old. which means, that i it's been nearly half of my life making these poems and revising these poems and having a love-hate relationship with poetry. and finally, when i had enough of them, when i had enough poems, putting them together to make this collection. the strange thing about having a ♪, is that my name and my name alone is on the cover.

this is what he misconceptions. while yes, i did make these poems, there are countless people who made that makings possible. many of those people are previous american book award winners. the list goes on and on and people i found in libraries and bookshelves. they were the first to show me how poetry can work again in. [silence] they were the first to show me that our narratives invoices are artistically urgent and politically necessary. but closer to home, there were those who helped me work against my own violence is in my own drama and depression and my use of alcohol in my anger, my fear, and shame. i will go through a list of names. many of those friends and fami family, mentors can be found in the first few pages of my book. but i dedicate this sale for in

this reading to her mother. the woman he kept me together, who kept us together, and keeps doing so the profound sense of love and strength. i will read one more poem. called full moon. >> area. full moon. in the slow cooling afternoons of summer, unable to brush and unable to hammer, my father took from my hands whatever tool i held and rumbled just go outside and play. but i did not tell him and what i couldn't tell him was beyond our front porch, nearly everything made me afraid.

legs, it is pincers employees sees the flesh, of my fingers, or enter, the red heart abounds ready to inject venom, their bodies miniature versions of satan, at least i was told cried out before being killed. like a child like a boy. outside my mother would find me crying and sat beside me on the bench that barely held us both. begin to same soft son whose name even out escapes me. i never asked for meaning. both of us staring at a full yellow moon and she would tell the story of my birth. my brother don. you were born beneath that live she would see and before nestling her head on my lap. i am tired.

the pain she complained of in her arms and shoulders and back, came from laboring to build her children and mother home and hammer and chisel in hand as she clicked away at the new concrete ceiling. what i didn't tell her, what i couldn't tell her, watching the small particles of concrete feeling wrinkles around her eyes, and the wrinkles around her mouth, noticing how in a few hours, she had aged. i learned she would not live forever. nothing made me more afraid. i would begin to comb my hands through her hair from the top of her scalp down to the bottom of each strand in the moonlight. the way she had taught me, this way to keep us. thank you. [applause]

>> is coming out there. well, that's how it goes. background sounds that can be very little doubt among america's greatest leaving writers, that went out any hesitation that he is likely one

of the greatest writers that this country has ever produced. the scope of his work alone is of such extraordinary generosity of spirit and emotional authority that it would seem that he and he alone would be able to take on with such precision and assiduous study and humor. kind of yellowed humor about the subject of climate change and global warming, and the inevitable fate of our earth as

we live it. i am very pleased that he could be with us here today. to share his thoughts and accept the word. the american book award for carbon ideologies. only one, no immediate danger and volume two, no good alternative those of you who are not familiar with them, he swore some big beautiful surprises. plus a few words about the book before bringing him on the stage. carbon ideologies is the two-volume work about energy production. in the human actions that have led to global warming. this is volume one here. no immediate danger. he lays out the many causes

climate change and then examines what exact step nuclear power might satisfy by recounting multiple visits he made over the course of seven years. to the contaminated zones and ghost towns of fukushima, japan. beginning shortly after the tsunami the reactive meltdown of 2011. volume two, no good alternative. he turns to an examination of cold her name. and oil and natural grass production. but investigative journeys that take him to west virginia, kentucky, colorado, bangladesh, mexico, lee united arab emirates. on a more personal note, the horror of global warming and

climate change has brought that went out laughter. like much, so much, that is vulgar in its ugliness and stupidity, the human folly of complicity that is all of us by the way, i know you not leave yourself out. and no americans, really shy away from the politics of self indictment. right. sorry. it is all of our faults. all right okay. so the human folly of complicity. in this in times of disaster, also lends itself to satire. if you are not laughing to keep from crying, okay, but attended jones see he lift to keep from lying. venal, open itself this increasing terror concerning our

planet, will be taken to the proverbial woodshed for literary ass whipping and this profound two-volume work of science and admonishment. william brings us his astonishing gifts of prodigious research along with his characteristic agility of imagination and perhaps most of all, love. taking on with wit, and gentleness, the most intimidating issue of our day. earth his inevitable fate and increasingly toxic environment. homan has elucidated both their grotesque and the sublime of our edge. as we watch or atmosphere evolved into a rage reddish flavian, moments generosity of spirit is the breath of fresh air. in it global political and economic state of crisis that can best describe as the inmates taking over the asylum bowman

has offered a new set of keys to the possibility of real freedom. so please welcome william t bowman to accept the american book award. [applause] a areas. and soon i thank you so much for that kind introduction i really appreciate it. i'm very grateful to be here. i'm very touched that my book was singled out and i am happy, i would be even happier as it turned out my work was all discredited we could throw these

people to books away. and that we have nothing to worry about. i came to considering climate change great resistance. it is as aforesaid, an inconvenient truth. we start to look into it and we find out that it is far worse than we thought. i say the single thing that i learned shocked me the most, as i was working with the night sky from the national oceanic and atmospheric administration. and i said supposedly hold all of the emissions down to zero. today. along with the planet keep forming all the carbon diet exide in our atmosphere. and he said, possibly 729,000

more years. then simply completely run everything to zero. question not doing that. in my particular way of dealing with the situation is to imagine which is probably true that it is already is it too late. so can just look back and describe how it was back in the day. i dedicated this book to a better lease and when she was little she used to see that, we knew were typewriters in your life. [laughter] as i write the book about the battle days when i was alive. and all of these things were happening for the future, there is nothing that needs to be done. because it is all is it too late. . . .

>> god put this call in had the ground for us to use because we know that goode is perfect and why el wouldn't it, you know, would it be there? the west virginias have been keg our lighting on for decades. they're told that it was because of their coal that we won world war ii. what do we say to people like that? what do we say to the japanese

or to these guest workers that i had to interview illegally in the emirates who said yeah you know this -- this gas coming out of the refinery smells like sulfur and i feel really, really sick. but you know, i don't have any alternative. my feeling is that it would be great for people with more energy and intelligence than i have to reach out to these various communities in west virginia. the thing to be would be to go through the church and get preachers to say you know we're the stewards of the earth. what can we do if i could -- i would thank the west virginia coal miners for what they used to do for me, and compensate them. and retrain them.

you know, that was hillary biggest mistake oh just a basket of deplorables we want to shut it all down. but no matter what we can do to help each other, understand this problem -- the really horrible truth is that there's not much that we so-called consumers can do. it's the people who make steel and nitrics acid and industrial entity that are deployed without our knowledge, all over the world -- at greatly varying rates of efficiency which means a vastly varying rate of climate change produced by the carbon dioxide and others gases unless those entity those corporation and governments are reigned in.

you know, it's completely hopeless, and it's probably homeless anyway. so don't worry about it too much and thank you very much. [cheering] [applause] for a memoir dancing in

blackness by osmari the beauty and tbrais that intellect and whit, the sheer will power and strength of osmari looms large in my creative imagination. she has inspired me and countless others in her role as performer choreographer, educator arts administrator, researcher and activist in the united states as well as in africa, europe and many other places. in her work, she's traveled many places including ghana where she lived and studied dance for nine months. and she returned to oakland where she founded everybody's dance center which is now kaska

center and particularly significant because of her profound influence in two ways specifically creating community and contradicting to the black arts movement. this dance center is still creating community today. osmari is is an antibiotic with the ph.d. in american studies for the university hawaii and her thesis the hip life in ghana explains culture and vice versa the influence of the oral tradition on hip-hop. i have a quote from -- [inaudible conversations] who she says gave her her name. and she says, finally someone who knows a dancers process and

a choreographer vision that has tackled the mystery that is the magic of contemporary african-american dance. in dancing in blackness, osmari has extricated fundamental influence and choreography strategy and alvin ali. what is so amazing about this book is that she explores this question what is black dance? defying and embracing stereotype. many her scholarly and academic look she analyzes trickses of blackness to modern dance. it's also intimate and personal story where she shares her life, love, her travels. he takes us from a small island

where she was born off of texas to many places around the world and most importantly to her modern contributions here. another quote from don and hill dancing in blackness belongs on every dancers and artist shelf is a wonderful personal telling of the black experience in dance, in art, in life. is a relevant voice from the black arts movement of the 60s and 70s. i believe writing this book is a revolutionary act. it is up to us to reclaim our own history and as people are now exploring more and more the black influence in many areas -- dance is some -- this is a new look something i had not seen before.

the intellectual exploration of the black influence in dance. very proud to present this award. [inaudible conversations] your award put your award up. thank you. women thank you so much karla for that beautiful introduction i would like to start off by thanking the founder of the before columbus foundation. ishmael reed who is a decade old

friend who had the vision to actually start this whole process of recognizing authors and pieces of literature that are becoming more a part of the center of the american literature. but still needs that extra push that before columbus foundation is doing. and you can feel that in the whole process. today -- in terms of the voice that are given more of a voice through this organization. sewlet give the before columbus foundation a hand. and i would like to thank a few people who gathered here to support me if you leave --

the acknowledgement at the beginning of the book my husband gene howell who is i call my rock and he definitely is. a few friends who have come come from a far to support me linda white is john here? john roberts. dear friend andens daker choreographer linda who is all over chapter six when you read it. i think every author knows when you go to a publisher to get your work done, you realize that there's going to be some changes. some editing and i told my publisher university press of florida that -- i would submit myself to all kinds of editing except for

changing the name of the book. dancing in blackness, and in the very beginning of the book and the introduction, i try to define what i think blackness is, and i say that it's a fluid constant. it is a constant because every time a black person walk out the door -- they are going to be viewed in a certain kind of way many this country. and so that constant never goes away. we think it does. especially when in obama era we were looking at some kind of poe racial society where did that go? so it's a constant in our lives, and as african-americans, we have to live with that and we have to understand that with and it's historical meaning and it is contemporary meaning with the rise of white supremacy.

and it is pliewd because i get to define myself. i get to say who i am becoming every day. and so the -- that fluid definition that i myself create is very important and i'm sure other people of color in the united states feel the same way. live through that fluid constant the major thing that i am very happy about today is the fact that you're recognizing a book about dance. and dance is a discipline that is oftentimes overlooked as having real substance. and academia which i went into after -- ing being an artist a dance

choreographer i realized that to say that you were a dance major did note compete with saying you were a biology major. that dance department did not get the same recognition within the hierarchy of ac deem why and same thing happens in arts itself because dance oftentimeses is -- is the stepchild of even performing art background to our seniors in musicians. used to build up a theatrical production, but the choreographer is not given total credit and so i really -- believe in my mentor katherine dunham definition of dance that it is pattern rhythmic movement

by beings and that is what i feel like i've been doing all my life and continue to do. patterned rit rhythmic movement as aing being -- when i chose dance askings process i didn't see it as a series of steps but i saw it as a way of making a contribution to social justice and a social change. and that's why in the black arts movement in the 19 60s early 70s, i took my choreography and a production that i continually develop in various iterations -- call the evolution of black dance to the east okay land community learning center which was the center of the black panthers, and at sunday showcases put my choreography

out there to community to show that dance could be a part of the revolution. and i also use dance as a way of showing how much it is at the center of black people sure vial in this country because if we didn't dance, if we didn't sing we would have been doing something else. and i don't think that would have been too positive. so it was a therapy that spilled over into helping this nation congeal as a nation itself. its dance, culture, and when i started everybody's creative arts center which in the dance theater and then the now --

on 14th on alice and 14th street in oakland the casket lord center for the arts, i wanted to show that important of the black dance experience and its connection to the whole africanness aesthetic that animate this is country and what animates the world itself. and so in chapter since i would like to read a couple of passages from a former student of mine who experienced the kinds of class it is that we created there. and -- she said we all invested in each other. we were all -- we all believed in each other. you weren't just teaching dance. but were teaching us about trsmtion and community this

valley that we all had for one other and joy that we could share, she went on to say -- the perfect metaphor was a circle at the end of your dance classes. when i was challenged to go into the the center of the dance circle to introvise what i learned, i was being pushed to be the fullest of who i was. while beg encouraged by other dancers and the drummers. when i was in the center i understood we were carrying something from earveg. i remember you talking about transformation for common good and we were inspired to pursue that together in the dance class. now i can see investing in each other and what you to us lives on. that was a jewish woman. i end the book with this -- kind of looking at what dance is meant to me in my life.

i say today i real that remembering messageses is process in which i have been engaged my entire career. dancing in blackness for my ancestor and for the future generations. for those who have the eyes to see -- and the ears to hear. my ancestor gave of themselves to make sure inked continue to dance in blackness to save myself. and process help save others. one important adage what -- it was a dear friend of mine -- and formed company that goes on today called for the congo his company uses this phrase wado -- what you inherit, you must value. what you inherit, you must add

value to. i have come to understand through my mission that dance is life and life is a dance. and i am the eternal dancer. thank you. [applause] unlikeness is us -- offers 14 new translations of old english poems from the 10th century exiter book some are well known like the sea fairer and the ruin. one max, one --

has rarely appeared whole, and what few publish translations exist ignore small, crucial almosts in the source. obscuring shame of it thought in action. christopher patton translations which draw the e literal is saxton into a richly patterned four beat line. emphasize the concrete tangible being of the poems as they are vetted on manuscript page error, fire damage, over the other worldly values they sometimes espoused. with the critical introduction commentaries and extensive note, this addition is equipped to

serve students and scholars. it also appeals quite deeply to the poetic mind. i would like to welcome up christopher patten -- [applause] thank you karla for lovely introduction. i thank you to justin and the, everybody on the board of before columbus foundation. it's an incredible honor to find

myself in this company. i'm in awe of the other work that i find my little book in the company of. i can't think of another group of writer or work in the world that i feel feel as happy to find myself among i apologize for my voice. the cold that i thought i had gotten past, has caught back up with me. so as i try to think what to say about this incredible honor, i was listening ail to his -- it's a work that always brings me to a quiet and radiant joy and i was in a back and for with brother, stepbrother, stepsister

and law, as we tried to reach two of our parents in sonoma county kinkade fire was grow by the day. their town was under a mandatory evacuation order. but rotating power outage left them without phone, without power so we couldn't reach them. and we didn't know what was up. fire was nosing up to highway 101 on west side of 101. one projection had the fire charging down the russian river valley all the way to the coast right through the town. which is where they live. and we have no way to reach them. no idea whether they were getting updates about fire or the not. in the urgency of our not know -- that was the thing that we knew and that thing that we knew bound us together one in one one

in new york city and one in red wood city one in victoria bc and i felt new ties of affection to a couple of folks that i didn't know very well brother-in-law, thomas. stepsister in law ourselves -- parent in the kitchen or around the wood stove -- maybe they had already left for point south and just department ever arrive and then who knew where they were. they're fine. i'm seeing them tonight the fire never crossed 101. thanks to some of the warriors of our climate. who stopped at a before it got across the highway the fire never broke the the line. and i know i'm not talking about old english poems here. but i kind of am. these poems i want to mention

poems are good at hopelessness if you need any tips on coping with hopelessness, i don't mean by this book but get yourself english poetry but poem know of every community we form is at hawk. they know most of the time working in the dark and in ignorance. and they know that from time to time you have to connect with and make sense of and make yourself sensible to another that you don't have any idea of how to with. that's what our creativity is from whether that goes into making a home or making a direct human connection or figuring out how to make phone contact with somebody who doesn't have any phone service.

i'll say finally these poems are poems of critique. whatever uses a caricature of culture has been put use to in recent year -- these are poems of critique. they're not in your face but on the down low. the -- the heroic war they throw into question and look at skeptic way and the structures that they assume -- they also trouble. they unsells and that for me is what makes them worth translating how unseelingsed and unsetting they are and a how capable they are in their own unease. so i'll read one short one spoken by a woman one of only two that are -- her whole life is on fire.

and a lot of uncertainty that was another sort of fire. we know that she's pregnant and father of the child is an enemy of her people. most of the rest is up for grabs. we take one more sip of water just to reduce the am of gravel in my reading. the wolf -- [inaudible conversations] sending well --

it made people an offering. that will receive him if he comes in violence.

unlikeness -- on an island i'm on another, mine is secure and surrounded by marsh and men on that island are a war. they'll receive him he comes on island unlikeness is us. i have born a wolf on thoughts passway then it was rainy weather, and i saw crime. when the war swift took me in arms the joy he gave me, it was that much pain a. wolf, my wolf -- thoughts of you sicken me. how sell dem you come makes me anxious not my hunger listen onlooker to our miserable wealth, about wolf bears to the wounds. ♪ ...

>> sometimes one of the greatest acts of love to say goodbye to say goodbye to the beloved it seems to

counterintuitive we cannot let go understanding how self-destructive that sort of thing can be can definitely understand the complexity of that gesture to say goodbye as an act of great love. there is a natural obligation to the things that we own and the things that we claim that connects us to other people. and much of that shatters the illusion of our singularity. i think most of us too often become trapped in the idea as the body we are merely one person. but of course none of that is true. we are many people within us. and part of that is what we

accept in name and oblige ourselves to. and in history and emotionally and otherwise. all of this comes to mind at memento park and i want to thank personally to members of our board of director in particular marlon james to bring this extraordinary work of out - - art to the before columbus foundation. i would say in terms of the complexity and was describing a few moments ago that that what mark has achieved also is

the deeply sensuous supple prose that is possessed of a unique fluid propulsion that is not only musical but was part of the dance that we share with each other rediscovering our own lives. so with that in mind i would like to welcome to the stage mark who can share more of his insight. [applause] >> thank you for that extraordinary and beautiful

introduction. that was unforgettable. thank you. i would like to thank the board and the judges in the before columbus foundation for this tremendous honor. to say that i am unworthy that i am ungrateful though - - grateful when i begin the year journey and never imagined i would end up standing somewhere like this. to acknowledge my editor and my agent and as a novel of family history thank you to my family and my mother and sisters and especially my nephew who is here today and my partner, jennifer. this is a deeply personal project and examination of my

troubled relationship with my father. over the many years that i worked on it to expand the scope of bigger questions and finally settling on what happens to us when the past is lost or to ask questions and those who can answer who have gone. much seems on the verge of a permanent loss. this state that i have adopted as my home is going up in flames and that is a metaphor for current state of affairs if any of my students had written this on the storyline i would tell them it was too on the nose. the deadly - - daily headlines political turmoil that was there and is now accelerated to become more visible. to make the writing of fiction seem trivial i know many writers most of them white or

comfortable now complain the difficulty of making up stories when they seem so high. and for many other writers of colors that we are late coming to this particular party. how do we continue to convince ourselves to show up and make up stories before the white screen cracks as children are dying in cages and rapist walk free your son to the highest score in the land and schools are shooting ranges targeted by the largest private arsenal in the world as the oceans rise and are forced to burn and as prejudice is fearlessly out into the open. i am keenly aware as a white european male the world has

never been a safe proposition just over a year ago we witness the slaughter of anti- somatic hate crimes and over what seems to be the most natural of allegiances with both groups that i consider home. and finally how amid all of this that seems almost idle in the parade of horrors. i wish i had an answer for you and could offer servitude. i can't. i can offer my instincts and got sense that we are creatures of narrative that we may find ourselves and the way forward. president obama said in an interview in a formulation

that i cannot be improved upon that i think of how i understand my role of citizen the most important stuff i have learned i learned from novels for go i love that. can you imagine a president saying that quick that has to do with empathy and to be comfortable with the notion that the world is complicated but there still truth to be found in you have to strive and work for that. the notion that is possible to connect with someone else even though they're very different from you. fifteen years ago i ran a well-known literary blog writing about many authors. i watch the world change and i never felt more grateful. of that connection to

president obama is possible it's because there are more voices than ever and i am grateful to have mine included among them. it is the promise of that connection that sends me back each day to face the blank page. i have read that quote many times when i try to defend this indulgent thing that i do only preparing these remarks for the first time i noticed almost a specific use of the word citizen that it has a role in civic discourse. in that citizen i see something more classical and historical than the current immigration debate refers to the obligation to engage and fight for fairness angina justice to participate and show up. so i donate to candidates and petitions and marches and twitter i perform many although not nearly concrete

requirements that this requires. but i returned to the page drawn back to the word and the stories that i hope may bind us together. it's almost reflexive when i'm asked to say something important from a hero who donated half of his book money to the black panthers. that line has been become associated with him never again will a single story be told as if it is the only one. there can never be a single story but just ways to see it it is in that spirit withheld military ingratitude i accept this award. thank you. [applause]

>> thank you. almost a century ago a historian philosophe philosopher, novelist, poet, edr w e-b do boys describe what he called the position of the black scholar and black writer and black intellectual and the need to revive and resuscitate and excavate black american history is the environment which is constantly already hostile to the resuscitation and revival of the image of the black american.

we still find ourselves in the situation obviously. and as we were instructed some years ago, that in the struggle you should argue from the center. not from the margin. we are not a marginal people. we are at the axis the very project that this all revolves don't argue from the margin. argue from the center. this whole project revolves around us and would not be here without us. at the beginning of the program i read from the poetry of the most famous sonnets in the english language. and was an exponent of one of the most fertile and

imaginative periods known to us today is the harlem renaissance. which continues to flourish in the imaginations and lives and the work of nearly all of us today. at the beginnings of this was scholar and educator it was a great honor to bring the american book award to jeffrey c stewart author of the new negro. winner of the pulitzer prize and biography, winner of the national book award and biography and today winner of the american book award. a triple crown.

[applause] [laughter] as we welcome him to the stage i will read a short statement of a previous american book award winner that we all cherish and honor and respect mister robin kelly. the long anticipated biography of the enigmatic book from the phils' promise and then some. it is magnificent. a panoramic portrait teachers and literary entrepreneurs of the early 20th century. the new negro shed fresh light on the intellectual firmament and the brightest star discovered african-american modernism in an era of colonialism and catastrophe. and the man whose complex and tragic life left him defeated

and unfulfilled and underappreciated until now. until now. please welcome jeffrey c stewart for the american book award. [applause] >> i definitely want to say that tremendous gratitude to win this award particularly for me because it is from california. i really do believe that

california was tremendously important for me to finish this book or maybe even started. i worked on this book for very long time when i heard the eight years mentioned i thought that is a short period of time. [laughter] but i think that california and the before columbus foundation and to create a california literary organization with the type of work that is celebrated here. that is not the type of work that is always celebrated on the east coast. and in literary societies. and there is a divide

culturally between the two coast and the midwest. the california is very important for me in the sense that we dedicated to my professor at yale university when i was in graduate school. but to grapple with the complex life i was always struggling to find what is the orb of the work quicksand one day it dawned on me it was really the answer to a question. how do black people forced to live in a world that is constantly assaulting us find subjectivity and agency and the power to re-create ourselves over and over again

in the most horrific and surprising circumstances so what is it about that? how is it faced with blackness can create an identity power that the center of america that despises us. how is that possible? i was thinking of this issue of subjectivity and it was a professor of mine at uc santa cruz philosopher her first flock to the issue and i want

to mention his name here. because he was a wonderful philosopher and actually instrumental to bring me into uc santa cruz as i started out at ucla but transferred to santa cruz after angela davis with whom i was planning on taking a class with went underground fleeing state persecution as she was being attacked by the state of california. and also uc santa cruz. but he actually reached out to me during a strike that occurred at uc santa cruz i was with my friend and it was because david lee's girlfriend was at santa cruz that was the

political motivation for the trip. [laughter] so we are up there and it went on strike. the whole campus. everybody said did anybody have any experience with the strikes? i had been at ucla so we had done so so i took over the whole strike process. i think later i was accused of the fbi to advocating to overthrow the government which was not true. that we had all of these dialogues about education. he said i hate to see isa support the students but i hate to see education interrupted. i said it's not being interrupted. it's actually going on during the strike. we are teaching ourselves and professors what is the burning issues of today. for some reason he was impressed with that he said if

you want to come to santa cruz uk on so i learned a great deal from him. i hope he may have learned from me. he was an existentialist and he worked but he had broad mind in bringing it to race and identity. and is written in the obituary but he was one of the first american philosophers to ride book that people thought would be obvious to write about but to say off of the systematic account of subjectivity to draw upon pharmacological and extend existential traditions the field of the subject could

be glimpsed through the irruption of everyday life. the break from the natural attitude to go along with everything we are supposed to do was the extension of belief in the every day could actually illuminate the possibility to go beyond themselves and then it revealed the world it all unrealized possibilities. i realized my interest in confit --dash conversations in particular he says the transcendental field of the subject could be glimpsed through the irruption of everyday life. i realized that i was going over and over again the same

thing written about harlem after returning from europe in a consistent expatriation that he had in the early twenties. he came back 1923 and he the transcendentalism that even though it took you two years to write a one - - write about it i like the term erection and something that was unusual a black people coming together in harlem. he doesn't describe it as a ghetto but a crucible in which elements mixed in mood and unusual ways and by people from africa or the west indies and white expatriates from ohi ohio, everybody was coming looking for something

in the biggest thing was the finding of each other to create this art that flourished out of harlem music and literature. it could be a place in america that was devoted to art and not to violence even though violence eventually overtook harlem in the thirties and forties. there was still a sense that you could turn away from the constant degradation to look inside and find that subject and creativity that could be born new every few decades as we see with african-american all - - art and culture to reinvent oneself over and over which is what he meant by the

new negro. things are suggested 1 mole of literature and art to allow the irruption of creativity through the imagination that gives us agency to go on and to resist the powerful forces of objectification and torrid critique which of course was by another california philosopher and historian. so i'm glad to come home to be here and be a knowledge by a single act literary creativity which is before columbus. [laughter] i got that part.

before columbus. thank you. [applause] >> winding down with a wonderful award. every year i am amazed how it seems to get better and better. and i am really grateful to be a part of the board and to give out these awards to these wonderful writers. in my elementary school days the graphic novel was comics i read dickens to tales of the city and the graphic novel has come a long way. it is diverse and has from

every strata and fabric of the united states and beyond. by the board members who could not be here today i have a quotation about the book, the graphic novel miss marvel volume nine by that it is just for kids in the immature crotch for adults and then to take the leotard. multibillion dollar industry to monopolize pop culture in movies and tv but what about a graphic novel? not at escape but a window

into what if. a reflection of a society and that the protagonists and the extraordinary story of an american actor, look on. have to slow the superheroes. to transform anyone into a hero. and with that social anxiety and occasional super affiliate super villain. she lives in the pakistani town with iron men and firemen and is just overpriced coffee.

to receive the american book award not only because of its phenomenal impact on modern pop culture helping to introduce and a character who now she is the reward because at the end of the day miss marvel is fantastic and well written story. in his all-american. i would like to bring up the author of this wonderful graphic novel miss marvel. [cheers and applause] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> what an honor to have all

of the little superhero books be recognized for some of the greatest in those two truly have an honor. i would like to thank the before columbus foundation and the incredible minds to keep it going. those who are here today in fact the entire read family who may not remember but i visited their home nine years ago with one of his old students and after one cup of tea felt i was leaving a part of the person that i had bed when i arrived by sitting in their wisdom. so it's truly truly wonderful to be here today with all of you.

but the editor and cocreator of the book and called me out of the blue but to put her on her own going monthly comic book series. but you catch jeff with that sentence. i said are you sure cracks. [laughter] at the time we were the only two and in my experience that there was a certain that what i did use but this would be a

muslim who and edited by a superhero. are you sure chris is this something you want to do crack that will do it with you. she said yes and it is time. the expectations were very modest. we thought he gets his juice to but we will not have crossed that threshold and collection the extra edition. to say that's great and maybe we can tell you other things

it took a year and a half of development to come into being which to push me more and more to get to the core of what this character would mean. all great superheroes are great but then before becoming a comic book that with that great power comes responsibility. we asian and it is not as easy

that with these few issues i thought about it a lot. and looking around that what we can turn to when we are not quite sure what to do next. and it occurred to me pre- trump but she makes things

from her closet at home including puffy paint. i whittled away in hell i got to do something great but this particular owner comes to this book as j thought we would only last five issues. because this is the legacy arc and takes place when the universe but without any

powers or background inviting crime but that is much but but the cocreator and those it will be close to my heart the rest of my life and of course the artist who would not have left to be here. argentina is a very long flights his amazing if the for

each but from the beginning the letters to children. but it's rare with the pet project like this with low expectations thinking the readership is not ready. we will go back to doing what we were doing before. asked it - - and instead it exceeds your wildest dreams. so i would like to close with something that has been in my head. i listened to all of the these amazing people's speech that are we really at the end of history cracks is this it?

are we coming up of what we can encompass? it reminded me of head east about difficult times. the hour of judgment is before you and you have a seedling in your hand then plant the seedling even if it's not the clear the work will bear the fruit this is the only world we've got and sometimes all the superpowers have to step into that costume to do what needs to be done. thank you for that tremendous honor. >> i wonder how many were out there trick-or-treating. hopefully next year my

grandson was spiderman. i had a spiderman and a ninja my grandson was upset he wanted to be a clown but his mom had got him a ninja outfit. i thank you wanted to be the joker and she said no way. but that is the culture that these creepy clowns these days. one of them in the white house. [laughter] this was the first year the columbus foundation and awarded the publisher award

into the usa chicano studies research center sorry rebecca epstein is not here today but it is an important recognition because the research center plays a pivotal role in the development of scholarly research of the latino population now the largest minority group and fastest-growing in the us it's also part for latino research with 25 institutions throughout the us currently there are 76000 children in border detention facilities and the likelihood of them being trapped is real. so this kind of scholarship is important with the false narrative of racial exclusion and the critical work for

social justice. and the next award, is she here? it goes to war mother digital sound artist and a timebomb with titles such as mental jewelry, jewelry, and a dangerous bad ass performer and you have to check her out. she has got some tracks on youtube. so that wraps up the awards with the exception of the lifetime achievement award.

>> before we welcome nathan up to the stage all of the award winners at the end of the ceremony was wonderful to have all of you on stage to take a single photograph of everyone here. also i want to extend my thanks to the san francisco public library and our friends at c-span for their continuing commitment to broadcast the american book awards. many of you are aware that nathan is not only one of the most significant figures in the history of the united states in the last century but also the embodiment of the principles of the true artist

warrior in his presence that led to the creation of the very first black studies department of which he was the initial head. [applause] he is so much of the embodiment of the artist scholar warrior what he brought to all of us as an educator and a warrior exemplifies the transition from the period of deepening democracy rather than the civil rights movement to what was characterized by the later thought of malcolm x. and to

the level of international human rights. i will share this wonderful quote by ishmael reed who is with us in the auditorium so when people told harry truman to give them hell he said i will tell the truth. and they think it is hell. last week my hometown newspaper called me a troublemaker and my answer is i try to tell the truth and i think it is trouble.

if i am trouble that nathan harris' double trouble. not because of his two phd's and then to be regardless of suspicion which is why many black writers are on the fbi's list to keep under custodial detention in case of a national emergency. with that the fbi was the only leadership we had. [laughter] i'm sure nathan's name is on that list for you to access those files. the resistance to assimilation that is required of blacks and latinos and asian americans and irish and it has been well

documented. 1961 with a professor at howard university in washington dc and they included stokely carmichael. later september 1966 to speak out against then university president to turn the university's student body white by 1970. as a result he was fired and in 1868 to become the program coordinator and the first of the united states of america. and as the program coordinator

with the term ethnic studies with the term minority studies. embattled leaving college one year later in 1969 needing a way to express his thoughts he founded the scholarly periodical of the black scholar in 1969. and then working as a clinical psychologist with hospitals and in private practice. 1979 he cofounded the black think tank that we missed julia who was the fastest in the room who could mow you down in a quiver. but we still have nathan. he wanted to be a boxer that would've satisfied his enemies.

that led to women's studies and queer studies and those that have been excluded from the curriculum. and then decided to knock out academia is the fortress of white supremacy. so again it is a great pleasure and a great honor to bestow the lifetime achievement award. [applause] >>

[inaudible conversations] [laughter] [inaudible conversations]

[applause] [inaudible conversat]

>> thank you again from all of us from everyone here. [applause] >>

[inaudible conversations] [applause] so as we bring this ceremony to its conclusion we will invite all of those that are with us this afternoon to join us on stage with the final photograph of everyone together if you please. thank you so much. [applause] [inaudible conversations]

>> we all know our first amendment rights and the bill of rights but sometimes i wonder if we don't appreciate separation of powers and how important it is to our liberty. many countries have wonderful bills of rights. north korea is my favorite. [laughter] it promises all the rights you can find in our bill of rights and more. free education. healthcare. and a right to relaxation. my favorite. know how that feels to the political prisoners in north korea but back writing the constitution that those are

just promises to get the separation of powers right the key to your liberty is to keep power separated. i am one ninth of one third of the federal government which is one half of the government of the country. divide power with separation of powers maybe we have forgotten. that does sound academic and it did to me when i learned high school civics. and i have been a judge for a while now with those day in and day out cases. so what happens when you blur the lines of separation of

powers. so what happens when the legislative power is transferred to the executive branch? than that could be public process and responsive to different electorates the whole idea is to make the fulcrum of the legislative process that's how he thought minority rights but that he didn't feel is necessary. what happens if you put it into the hands of the executive branch? 's if you can make it through this difficult process to put it all into the powers hands

like the president's if you take those elected representatives to put someone in his place for four years. i don't want to exaggerate but what happens when that is delegated? small business in colorado run a very tight operation. and to be accused of medicare fraud that's none of your business. but then it turns out through litigation that they complied with all the rules in place at the time but even the agency could not keep up.

how many of these criminal regulations are out there by federal executive agencies? and to say academics stopped counting years ago when they got over 300,000. but what happens if the power to judge is transferred to the executive branch? i have veterans and immigrants. when i look at the law they win. that independent judges should prefer the interpretation of the law by executive bureaucrat. so even though i think veterans are immigrants or social security benefit recipient should win i have to rule the other way.

what happens to your right to an independent judge or to participate in the lawmaking process? it is supposed to be a republic. >> we will have a fun discussion today about the new book power grab and to introduce him's editor mike lee and a friend of the constitution. >> hello. it's a pleasure to be with you