good afternoon, moon.

everyone has their own do it. people. i did not come here all the way from virginia on economy for that type of a response to a quote the late great bernie mac. i am not here for any foolish ness. we have a pivotal election in a week where our our democracy, our rights might be under assault because 47% of this country will elect a twice impeached vulgarian. so the majority that wants to protect our our freedoms, women's rights immigrants, people of color, the word has to be loud. so when i ask you how you're doing, i expect to hear from a living, breathing robe, a vibrant audience. oh, attendees of the 45th annual american book awards. how are you.

as my immigrant mother would not that we are so fancy that we are in sfjazz center and this being recorded by c-span. once you get c-span, this is why our parents came to america so that we would one day be recorded by c-span this is the 45th annual american book awards. my name is wajahat ali. i am allegedly the president. the before columbus foundation that gives out the annual american book awards, 45th annual american book awards, the foundation has existed for nearly 48 years. one of the original board members shawn wong right there. give it up to shawn wong said it's actually 50 years because they were talking about for two years and then they did it. one of the people that talked about it, his partner in crime, ishmael reed, one of the founding board members members. so this organization existed for

50 years. there were a bunch of young writers. they're still young ish who came up with this idea, create the before columbus foundation. and then out the annual american book awards. these are annual awards given to writers by writers. these are awards given those writers who do not obey in advance writers who do not bend one knee or both knees to fascists writers who don't abuse their and talents to saying what's the truth? writers who don't twist themselves in a cirque du soleil pretzel to engage in performative, both sides -- bleep that out c-span writers who don't sell their integrity to placate donors writers do not hold their figurative punches right wing media figurative punches against bullies. tyrants demagogue and twice impeached criminal vulgarian who quote hitler too soon. it's going to be like this for

the rest of the day. so if you're offended, buckle up these awards given to writers by writers who never concede inch or a word to a fascist, these writers resist. they provoke. they mock, they ridicule and they figuratively punch these writers also use their pens and talents speak uncomfortable truths to uplift marginalized communities, to give comfort, shelter and shade to those deemed illegal or like us who, allegedly hail from, quote, -- countries or threaten to, quote, poison blood of america. these writers fight for our collective freedoms and rights, even if it means they lose cable news. new york times columns or teaching positions. so it's a good crowd. these writers will write and publish editorials warning

against america electing an authoritarian even if it upsets their billionaire owners and donors too soon or not soon enough. these are writers who excavate stories and revitalize our ancestors who were erased and forgotten there are writers who criticize the country's numerous sins and injustices. out of love, out love and a bold that still, despite all the hardships and pain imagines a better future where the unsolved stories of our communities inshallah will flourish. these are the writers who are the recipient of the 45th annual american book awards. you can applaud them now now. all right. i have some words. we live in interesting time. interesting folks. some people in the united states of america would rather their kid getting shot at school than

read a book by toni morrison and speak about toni morrison. the toni morrison we have her son here in the audience today continuing the legacy. and continuing the legacy he is publishing a new magazine called tar baby. first two episodes are coming out, first ones coming out in the spring. that's the second issue. the issue right there. where can they two oh enter in chief? no one told me. tennessee reid is the editor in chief of tar baby. let me engage in shameless, shameless promotion. where can they find tar baby in a few months? it hits the stands in january, so purchase that magazine in 2024. we have book bands but a lot of assault rifles. we have criminals running for office promoting conspiracies about haitian immigrants eating

pets. but librarians and teachers losing their job for saying scary words like diverse city safe space. are you guys okay? do i trigger you? all right? all right. i say equity or inclusivity? oops. i said my bad. we have what you think a qualified indian-american woman running for president who has to be near-perfect while a rich vulgarian, white supremacists can talk about arnold palmer's -- and might barely win or lose an election by hitler mustache, hair. let that i'll just let that that that simmer for a second but then again this is america this is how it has always been but the hoods are off the dog whistles have been replaced by tweets, podcasts and bullhorns. there's no need to play taboo. there's no wait for it. quote, economic. it's pure, it's raw, it's organic i'm using very liberal s.f. terms.

it's out in the open. it's clear. these are forces of white supremacy trying to replace the stories of a multiracial, multi-faith, multicultural america with the monarchy of white christian nationalism and corporate. if these if i may use comic book references, i'm still a child at if these forces are thanos, then we are the avengers. and to quote edna from incredibles, no capes. i am overweight, middle aged captain america, who drives a minivan. this is what we got, folks just. just roll with me. in 1976, like i said, the before columbus foundation was founded by a group of young, quote, dedicated the promotion and dissemination of contemporary american multicultural literature before the word multicultural was mainstream. it was a word then. it's a scary word now. if it wasn't terrifying, they wouldn't be trying to ban our history books, would they? thankfully, i love scary stories. i love scary words.

i horror movies. halloween is right around the corner. so what terrifies them delights us? the majority. the majority that welcomes and embraces these stories. even the ones that might make us temporarily. we welcome it because we know the only way forward in america is to expand and stretch ourselves. our hearts our communities, our pens, and our. and with that, have the american book awards everything. the recipient has been chosen due to one trait and one trait only. the quality of their word. all right. do not waste any time with tokenism we do not waste any time with. we are independent. which means we can say what we want without fear or favor. there are no corporate interest attached. the way it works for those who are first time attendees of before columbus welcome is that we have an amazing, awesome board. let me flex and promote our board shamelessly if i may. every year we get inundated,

folks. all right, inundated books. editors come to us. they say, please give this new author celebrated author an award. we sift, through all the books each year we come together, we discuss the list. we debate it, and we unanimously pick the winners. all right. and we also reject a lot of folks as well. all right. speaking of our board, we a macarthur genius winners. pulitzer prize winners. poet laureates, plural of united states of america. booker prize winners. poets. academics. playwrights. novelists. journalists. historians. and i once more make up on television for cnn. that is my contribution. our board. let me flex our board. those who don't know consists of juan felipe herrera, joy harjo. henry louis gates, junior. shawn hill. ishmael hope ishmael reed. carolyn forte. t.j. english. justin dimmock. victor hernandez cruz. nancy carnival. mary anderson mitch burn berman. carla brundage. marlon james. maxine hong kingston. laila lalami jenny lim nancy

mercado viet tan win simon ortiz tracy smith gunders strides margaret porter and shawn wong. so for those of you who are award winners, just know that your words were read by this illustrious group and including one person who wears makeup. and of all folks, you were selected as a recipients of this year's american book awards, a flex for family members who came? a flex for the mothers and fathers who are like, how come you didn't become a doctor you save for the american book award, mom paula's is your mom here? mama flores, this is why? this is why. all right. so the way this is the following for the awards. all right? this is very important. i the fancy schmancy awards in the east coast, please notice there are no runner ups, no first prize, second prize, third prize. everyone is at an equal footing. everyone. this means if you come the

american book awards, you will have on the stage luminaries who've won the and a first time writer. you will have someone published by knopf and someone who published independently. equal footing. the quality of the word is what matters. right. and the way this is we're going to introduce the award, say a few words. the award winners they so choose will come and delight us. a brevity is beautiful. you can embrace it. but if you if the crier is with you, you run with it. so it's c-span. how often you get to be on c-span, you will get a nice plaque all we ask of you is to do the equivalent with wave once and once time. only either mean justin will stand with you with the plaque you'll wave. we'll a photo will be sent to your family. everything will be fantastic. and i have to say this before columbus foundation, which gives out annual american book awards, is independent somehow through thick and thin, over years, there have been good years. they've been lean years. we have kept the awards alive. we've kept the awards alive. this, as the words die, are

being banned. all right. so the words will the words will keep on going insha'allah. this year, we have generous support, but we also are independent. it's a51c3. it's tax deductible to children. so if you look on your program, there is a barcode at the bottom. if you can scan it right, give a donation, it goes to help fund the american book awards. if you are friends with wealthy folks in the bay area who have some disposable income after bought their tesla, tell them about the american book arts in before columbus foundation. please support us. either way, we're going to keep on truckin. there's no barcode we. there is a website and there is the paypal. we had the barcode on the pdf. it's okay. this is why we're independent. all right. you got to stretch the dollar to make it 20. just who i'm about to introduce will tell you how to donate, but

afterwards this is very important. i'm a child of immigrants. listen very carefully. we're fancy you know, even though we're independent, we're still do not spend a single on food or drink. why? because afterwards everyone here will get free food right here. and free. i was not supposed to the word free or a good 2 hours. you said use professional word complimentary. you will get complimentary food and drinks and. and because i'm a child of immigrants have so much food for everyone. take food home. all right. if anyone a dollar on food. in the next 2 hours, you will literally break my heart. all right, please, please. free food. afterwards, you will get to mingle. the family members, the award winners at 4 p.m. all right. so it's going to be right there. free food, free drinks. there's going to be a party afterwards. and without further ado. it is my pleasure to introduce the chairman of the board justin desmangles. he doesn't like this, but i will say it. we are independent, thriving for

50 years, just in jamaica. i got a call about six months ago. this is the call watch. i have thought about the american because. i'm like, why do you sound like that? it goes, i'm in the hospital. like, what? he goes, yes, they did the 14th surgery on my foot. i'm like, justin, save your foot. call me later. about the american book awards. he goes to american book. courts are too important. and so the lifeblood, the american book awards and the before columbus is our chairman of the board, justin dimming, who the man has poured his heart blood and soul into these american book awards, literally this man has gone through so much, but he has still persisted and for the first time in two years, just a man who's gone through so much is wearing a shoe on his foot because he can. so he's here for you. he's fancy. give it up for our chairman of the board, justin desmangles. he it. well.

good. that's very, very generous and kind. you. i hope you still feel the same way when it's all over today you choose. oh, thanks. so the before columbus foundation didn't need a war to honor poet most about. our. we didn't need anybody to die. in order for us to return the front lines for the advocacy of diversity or equity or inclusion because we've been fighting that fight from the very beginning. we weren't taking any cues cues

from the so-called mainstream dream, what we used to call the press today, we call the media because collectively we've understood from the very beginning, one of the distinguishing character of the history of the united states is for centuries preceding the declaration of independence and for more than a century afterwards, literacy was punishable by death for almost. 25% of the entire population. i believe, in many respects this attitude about education, about and what it is for is still maintained in the status quo. as the chairman of the board i read far more books than the law

allows the law of averages and increasingly the laws of this country. it is very dangerous. but i want to point out something that the founders of before columbus understood intuitively and practically, which is that the inside and the understanding of language as a resource both intellectually and sensually to gain and maintain power comes from that specific legacy of having once been put death for being able to read and write. and everyone here today who is receiving an award is part of that tradition. and as part of that resistance and make no mistake, the war is with us today as well has pointed out and to bring a little bit focus on to that

particular point, i shared this with fishmeal. i think last year. it's quite striking it's a the so-called father of the george washington. in 1795 and he's writing to a friend of his edmund pendleton and he's saying this about those he describes as that ignorant savages from whose hostile conduct we experience much distress he says. but it is not to be overlooked. washington continues. and they in turn, are not without serious causes of complaint from the encroachments which are made on their lands by our people who are not to be restrained by any law now in being or likely to be enacted.

they poor wretches have no. through which their grievances are related. pick up on that and is well known, he continues that when one side only of a story heard and often repeated, the human mind becomes impressed with it in sensibility. well, there it is so we're not. fighting for ourselves and each other. we're also opening a horizon of possible freedoms for those who will continue. this legacy which began with the before columbus foundation almost 50 years ago and. you know, before columbus first started it actually as an outfit

that distributing literature. it was a book distributor. and this was the first effort of its kind to consolidate and bring together more multicultural literature from throughout the americas under one roof with the possibility of mutual understanding and promoting each other's work. now, if anyone wants to take a look at this, i'd be more than happy to pass it around. but i would just tell you very briefly that the contents of this catalog, the books that were made available through before columbus in 1978 at this late date, 25 years into the 21st century, really read like a who's who of the eminent and preeminent writers who have

changed the entire of american literature to the state of inclusive or sometimes not that it is today. and before we begin the awards is formally at also like to share with you something i believe is also important about the early history of before columbus. this was one of the earliest events that was organized by before columbus. it is a reading in 1978 of harriet mullin and amosu bolton. in a down home reading you can see that. but here is the point i want to make here. poetry, disco, dance. okay. okay. so here's thing. if poem doesn't boogie your

body, that's part your ailment. okay, so here's the thing thing is that the sensual world and the role of the imagination in the possibility of real freedom, that is to say how we move how we groove and what we do and the choices that we make comes from poem. the origin. those lines is not on paper. they're from the mind song. the poet who brings the being to your imaginary horizon. now you decide which way you're going to move. you're going to sit there with that sub right goes, no, no, no, get your groove on, let that move you where you need to be. and that's where the poem is coming from. and that's where we acknowledge what that tradition really comes to. i believe, and i'll just say

this very quickly before start that a woman who meant a great deal to all of and was first published by ishmael passed away on this date not not six years ago and to zaki shonga who was a part of that initial group coming of before columbus, she really i believe into zaki shonga really more than anyone else brought that to its apotheosis and what i mean by that is the union of the word music rhythm and the movement of the body in concept that she described as the quarry, a poem that is where it's at the stillbirth. and that's where we are today. so we can with formal ceremony. i'm so glad to see so many of you here and we're going to

welcome chaitra steve coll running. who is winning her novel independence. i say that she has been part of the family for quite a long time. this is her second american book award and. as was mentioned few moments ago, our newest member of maxine hong kingston. had these words to say about the independence and our awardee, ms. diva karun. chitra, diva, karuna has published her 20th book, independence a heart clutching novel about india when it was becoming free of britain and dividing into two nations new

borders separate, a family of three sisters kind of hindu and a muslim, happily married how to uphold the politics and values of gandhi should one leave india for an education in america or stay. to build the new nation independence? an engaging love story once teaches and entertains and the history it tells ought to help us now vacate the borders that, crisscross today's world maxine hong kingston, writing for chihiro deva karuna, please welcome to the stage.

thank you. i am so honored this means so much you know that. an and i didn't know about maxine reading this book and saying these things and you'll see some serendipity over here in a minute i'm delighted and to receive this prestigious award today this is my second american book award and i am just excited as i was the first time in 1996 when i received for my first

book of fiction, a collection of immigrant stories titled arranged marriage the american book awards launched my career and brought my work to the notice the reading public this year. about 20 books later, i've it for my historical novel independence and i feel just as blessed. i would like to congratulate my fellow awardees. i am honored to be part of this very talented. let's give them all a hand. special thanks to the before columbus foundation for their deep insight and their continued commitment. championship of diverse in the literary landscape. perhaps more important today than ever before, heartfelt also

to my agents. santa dykstra, alice capron and andrea caballero of the dykstra agency, who have been with me since. that first book arranged marriage. my thanks to my publisher, william morrow, and my editor lucia macro who gave me excellent advice throughout writing process. but she did retire right after this book i don't know if that means something that she didn't tell me about but thanks my mentor, maxine hong kingston, whose kind encouragement and seminal book the woman warrior gave me, the courage to write my own stories. most of all, my thanks to my family, my husband, murthy and my sons anand and abhi for their continued and encouragement, their love and patience.

as i navigated the ups and downs of the literary for this independence, i especially thank my mother and maternal grandfather, both passed away now for the many they shared with me about their involvement in freedom struggle, inspiring stories led me to create this novel about three sisters who come of in 1940s india navigating way through a time both exhilarating and excruciating waiting as they learn what independence really means for a country and, for its women and the it demands i we're seeing some connections perhaps to our times and the country in which we live independence is also the story of a triumphant time when people of many

different backgrounds religious, cultural, education and financial came together to achieve the dream of decolonization and of the tragedy of partition. in an almost 1 million people were killed because people focused instead on their differences. thus i think of independence as a story not only for india but for the world. a cautionary tale of what happens when. we view our neighbors through the lens of suspicion and otherness it is a problem we today in the world. and yes, in america. i'd like to end with a favorite line from one of my favorite poets langston hughes. i came across it when i was to create my first stories and, wondering if anyone in this country or elsewhere would relate to them or care about them.

hughes i, too sing america. the words went through me like an electric shock. i thought, yes, that's true. i thought it for the first time. i sing america. thank you again to the before columbus foundation for your belief in my writing and your commitment to shining light on diverse voices so desperately needed in this divided landscape for asserting that, all of us award winners here are singing the multiple layered and multi-hued song of america.

thank you so much. among many unique features of the before columbus foundation is that astonishingly, three of the last four poet laureates of the united states of america are on our board. okay. oh, yeah. you can fact check me in real time, but i'm pretty sure that's never happened before in respect to any of literary organization. certainly not one is a radical. ours. those folks are, tracy k smith,

one. philippe herrera and joy harjo. joy harjo, who soon served two terms and. i bring her up because. with great care and gentleness, brought forward this novel from deborah magpie, heroine. as you are. there you are. oh, i'm so glad you're here. and share with you what joy had to say. what is so brilliant about this new novel by deborah airline is the skill and sensitivity she brings to recreating and writing the historical record of

sacagawea as part in the lewis and clark expedition in airlines hands, sacagawea emerges as a living presence with a voice that gives us full bodied sense of what it might have felt and sounded like to be a native in those times of catastrophe think change for native people with airplanes literary skill. the story reads as if we are hearing a native language spoken in english. this is nearly impossible to accomplish. but the airline has done it. joy harjo. and please welcome deborah

magpie airline to the stage. her book again the last of sacajawea, are. i'm so honored to be here. this the second american book award that i've received. the first i received years ago, daniel ellsberg received award also. and i had the privilege and honor of meeting him. they're warriors in this world and there are warriors for

peace. i come from montana and luckily or unfortunately for me i can pass. but i am the great granddaughter of the last recognized chief of my tribal. and i learned something in writing luster and was with sacajawea something that i didn't expect to learn. it is about not over 500 years ago when pocahontas. was the first woman who was mistreated? first indigenous native woman was mistreated. but i followed that line to sacajawea and all of the things that she suffered and lost. and i think about the mythology of the west or how lewis and clark are upheld as wholesome,

great, visionary. but they came with a mission. and their mission really was to erase native people, to take our culture was to take our language, to the thing that matters to us, our spirit. they didn't. but one thing that happened was, well, 20 tribes are wiped out whole language in the and washington state. 20 tribes are wiped out whole languages were lost. my own language suffered. we're still trying to get it back. so much lost in the people are you know there's words that we use and how resilient i guess people resilient but how you recover language how to recover

all the things that have been lost. and so to use english as a way to to speak to not only native people but to speak to our people to try to write the stories of missing, murdered indigenous women. that it happened. it started when columbus here and it still goes on. there are so many in my tribe who are missing missing women who have murdered and women who are just lost. my own aunt was. years ago, but it goes on. and what i love about before columbus foundation, all of you, all of you good people and ishmael reed, i'm looking at you

for. all that justice you've stood for, for all the good things you've done for, for people, this world, not just not just people of color, but all people. and i think we need to across the aisle, i come from a state that is so divided and there's like we a super majority red state. now. and there is so much hate in montana for native people. we have a senator or a person running for the senate now who has reverted back again to the old of calling native people drunken. and that's. in the state of montana, i guess. i hope not. i hope this election frees us all. but i say again, you before columbus foundation, i'm going to make a suggestion.

let's erase. from the before columbus foundation his name so prominent, and it is a here who welcomed the immigrants and made it possible for people live here. their name be in this. i'm going to say some. i'm to finish with a poem inspired by my colleague and it's by her and and i hope we reach across the aisle but richard hugo said believe you when i sing tiny and wise and could if we had to eat stone and go on.

some some some of what our friends in the academy called theoreticians have often asserted that the most serious questions in life can only be discussed in the form of jokes. and if that's true, then juan philippe halbert is a very serious dude dude and juan philippe, you know, every he and i get on the phone he always says, we've got to do something for josiah a man. we've got to do for josiah.

we're going to do for josiah. i said, well, you know, we'll create something. we're working on that creation. so but for those of you who don't know, josiah luis, he is really of the principal cultural workers and organizer here in the city of san francisco and he in hong kong exiles from city lights. are developing a. medicine for nightmares. and i could hardly think of more appropriate name for a cultural center art gallery bookstore in the 21st century in san francisco, because they are really the cult invaders of the garden of the soul of this city. and i was talking with. juan philippe and i said, well,

know, maybe we can bring josiah in to introduce paul flores and josiah luis said, yeah, i'll do that. oh, boy. so. we'll begin bringing paul up here by welcoming josiah and he's going to let you know where he's at. and he's coming from josiah luis alderete the. winters time. oh wow, that is exciting. when i started this familia, i started as my astros. oh, good to be here. good to be here. i don't know. the mission district, for those of you that know and for those of you that don't know that

mission is the place. the first poet laureate of some bunch i was from. alejandro moved here for la mission. that is where the only homegrown literary fest of all that honors latin x literature was created by juan felipe herrera in that neighborhood. oscar's at the coast, the brown buffalo road in an sro on valencia street. the plays of sherry moraga were first produced at the brava in that the mission center be right masse wandered those streets you know sonia sanchez wandered the streets of asia still wanders those streets cathy lionel wrote her beautiful queer book of poetry salvation on mission street. and let me see on, you know, in the eighties and nineties the

poets from nicaragua and el salvador came to that neighborhood and filled it with words of revolution and resistance and they found solidarity with the poets. and these poets actually went back and fought american imperialism, not just with palabras, but with burroughs, that neighborhood, a deep, deep literary lineage and legacy. and that's where paul comes from. paul been a part of that literary history, that living literary. because unlike north beach, the literature is still alive in the mission. it isn't ghost. it's real people walking down the street, you see leticia hernandez down the street, you see that. the antelope, of course, still walking down street. you know, you see cathy. cathy comes back and she walks those streets. so this is where paul's writing comes from. and paul is only a poet in that

neighborhood in that pueblo that we're all from he's been a community activist. he's a yesterday he's the director of the paseo at taco. this is the art by bilingual art walk in the mission. it happens like every other month. he was out there with his purple bicep artist to go shirt run and all of the places you know making sure everything was going on. this is a person a poet who when i hear him i see the neighborhood and what he's saying and the neighborhood sees him and what he's saying paul's words. their memoria they're memoria they're called song the rhythm all and like all these great poets i mentioned before they remember neighborhood they honor our shared good to us they celebrate us so this this is

overdue to this but i couldn't think of a better organization to honor paul flores with this. so, familia, give it up. the one and only paul flores. i think to take photo she would do the photo the way one over here. this is a good a good brother. i would like. to see what you keep that that's your home. wow. really really grateful to just be okay so you know before columbus foundation was for the most part my true introduction

to the poetry that i to write and honestly to be with ishmael reed and felipe luciano the same room like that to me is is massive i used to want to sound like felipe luciano. i thought that was my inspiration of how i recited when i was in my twenties and thirties. it was like i spent so many times listening to hear about, you know, over and over again. it was it's beautiful, you know, i still a pro ballplayer when i went to uc san diego in 1993 and i walked into quincy troupe's introduction poetry class, about 200 other students, and he gave us the before columbus foundation poetry. i was mentored very closely by quincy troupe. so we talked about your work,

the time i smell that was something we talked mumbo jumbo over and over in that class and. you know, he was a big, you know, admirer of yours. and i became admirer of yours through through his influence and by reading the before columbus poetry anthology, i found i found the voices that spoke me in in in my history, my desire to, connect with my ancestors. i saw that ancestral knowledge that were looking for and writing about, and that was what i wanted to do. and i would later study with very closely with victor hernandez, i was like one of his mentees spent years him. he taught me how to be confident in speaking spanglish and using multiple languages. he's taught me how to improvise poetry. we had to improvise in his

class. he would give us a topic and we all had to stand up and make up a poem. it was very embarrassing, but it was super powerful to prepare me for what i would face when to new york and you know saying how i'm a poet oh yeah prove it. and so i'd have recite right then and there and that something that i learned how to do and that's the the legacy that comes from the foundation for me is to stand up and who you are. use your voice. i found you know one felipe pereira, jimmy santiago, jane cortez. jean cortez, simon ortiz. sonia sanchez. amiri baraka. jessica hagedorn. all those are my those are my heroes. those are the people that i write to. they their words flood through, mean i read all their books, probably got six books by victor nandez cruz. don't know how many i got of jimmy santiago, barca. but all of that brought me to san francisco. i came here 95.

it's 20 to 23 years old and. i think this is what got me to this podium is being in this city, i think san francisco is probably one of my biggest muse. it's it's what i write about. this whole book is about s.f. and who i am, specifically the like, like josiah luis was talking about that's that's what feeds literally feeds my children to is is the work i do in neighborhood i used to walk you know when i came here i didn't know anybody in 95 i didn't know anybody in san francisco. i used to walk these streets figuring out where do i belong here? where do i fit in? know i had to hock my car stereo to eat my first year here. then i had to sell the car entirely. and so i started riding the bus and i took muni around the city and first manuscript was what i saw looking out of the muni bus. right so all the different busses i took in the nineties just trying to get to know the

city. and then i was attending writing classes, san francisco state where i met darren leon and norman zelaya and we started los delgado. right. and those are those were specifically influenced by the last poets. we did poets and a concierto and. we did spanish english dancing music, all of it. and that's that was a huge on us. we were by galeria de la raza, which was evicted from their own space 40 years after they, had been established in the mission. and later they would up, you know, five years later, finally on 24th street. but that's of been like this. that's what that challenge to survive in this city has been kind of like what i've been writing about since 95. right. how this city wants to push out and how we fight. stay right. i met james kass at san francisco and we we got together

just to to start something called. youth speaks because we couldn't stand that there was no funk in the creative writing. i was like, what are we what is going on this? we were doing too much language poetry. i don't you know, i can't sing this. i can't dance. where's the club? i don't it, you know, where's the beats? so we went into the high schools and we talked the kids. we said, hey, we want involved too. we want you to be able to come to the creative writing department one day and change it. and now you look at spoken word throughout the nation. it's mostly people of color performing arts, mostly hip hop influence. i would credit you speaks to that entirely along with saul williams, but i feel like that was a mission that we were on in there in the mid nineties and so it was there. i learned that you speaks how to teach poetry. i teach at usf. i teach spoken word and theater at usf and and i didn't learn to teach at san francisco state.

i mean great as that school is. i learned how to teach people poetry by working with teenagers and i use the same philosophy today as i then, which is there are no wrong answers in poetry and the second thing i tell them is, is the standard is yourself. you don't got to sound like nobody else believe in your own voice. believe in your own story and your own history, and write that. and i teach that at. usf it's the same stuff i was teaching mcateer high, you know, back 98, hung out with piri thomas was another major mentor of mine. roberto vargas, francisco alarcon, jenny lim. those are the people that that punch through my veins when i perform. they amazed me because they engaged. you for over an hour with. rhythm, cadence, music, dance it's, you know, i can just see piri, right, you know, playing

with, you know, the flute behind him or or john santos playing with or greg lando that, that's what i was imagining. these were people who were unafraid share their voice out loud. unafraid to challenge the status quo. unafraid to be loud, to share their experience, you know, to challenge, to speak up. and that's i'm lucky to practice that, to learn that here in san francisco. that's what i came for, though. i didn't really know this is what i came for. this is what i came to learn to be was, to be a poet, an outspoken poet and. i'm lucky to be able to perform in spaces like at sf jazz or i've been here with john jang. we have performed here. i don't know where john is. where are you at, john? john jane was there he is. john james, rising pianist. we've performed here together. i've been here with multiple other artists and i think san francisco is is a is the perfect place for poetry, is the city of poets. and so like medicine for nightmares feed that, you know,

there were so many poets and artists and writers last night and medicine for nightmares for litquake and for paseo artistic also. i'm really grateful. i'm also grateful to the people who love me and believe in me very grateful to my mom. patricia flores. she supported all my ambitions since i was a little kid, you know, from i told her i wanted to be a pro ball player. let's do it. i became a pro ball player. i wanted to be a a novelist. she supported, too. i wanted to be a poet. i want to be a playwright. she's always been behind me on conditional love. thank you, mom. i got to give it up to matt cdo and david romero, co-owners of el monte. you'll press those two brothers are a mission. i have this manuscript for a couple of years. one asked me if i wanted to publish it. and, you know, got an email from matt you wanted you want to do a book and? i was like, yeah, i got something for you. and i think them taking a chance

on a performance poet to to put a to put a book out pretty about san francisco them being from l.a., i think i think that that's that's amazing. you know, and now we're good friends. we work together. so. thank you, guys. thank are marti your press thank you so much. an artist run press poetry press that's what that's what we like people who are doing work in the industry so i to say thank you to everybody keep supporting and keep supporting the before columbus foundation and thank you very much. i know. we got to give the plaque to your mom that. just those are the rules. those are the rules. all the pictures on the wall, the. oh, so i think going to have a

poetry disco party led by paul after words. yeah, i was just wondering, did did did you dance at that poetry disco dance party. sean absolutely. did ishmail dance also carla she was there she goes no. how's everyone doing? good. wonderful. all right, here we go. our next award recipient could not be with us today. aisha abdel gawad. her novel is between two moons. a little controversy surrounds our next awardee. on saturday, september first, news reports surfaced that wilton library's ever writer in residence first ever writer in residence aisha gawad, our award winner, would quote no longer serve in the role. what the sin. what did she do the first ever writer in residence being booted

out. oh no. she refused to take part in a book festival for at ceu cny albany. she expressed concerned to festival organizers quote over the public rhetoric and quote statement that mock anyone who expresses grief over loss of palestinian life or them quote a terror apologist, quote, as an arab muslim writer, i made the private choice to withdraw the panel because it did not feel like a safe forum for me, she said, adding that she was surprised the event was canceled and that she, quote, opposed antisemitism and has dedicated my professional and personal life to fighting antisemitism. racism and hatred of all kinds. well, their loss we at the before columbus foundation of the american book are giving aisha gawad her just flowers for book between two months. her novel, two moons, is set in

an arab immigrant enclave of bay ridge, brooklyn, following twin sisters about to graduate high school. their brother returns from home, from prison, and their arab-american community is under siege. all over course, of one ramadan, our board member, leyla alami, who is also arab-american, pulitzer prize nominated writer alami, has this to say about i should go watch book, quote a sensitive and piercingly observed of a muslim family straining post-9-11 government surveillance. aisha abdel gawad renders with great care the lives of young people in beirut, brooklyn who strive be seen by people, their community as at the same time as they crave the feeling being anonymous, which is to say free between moons is a wonderful debut aisha could not join us, but she sent some words isis words. thank you much. the before columbus foundation for between two moons for this american book award. i'm so sorry i could not be there in person, but i am deeply

honored to be recognized by a group that has long. here's a scary word multicultural literature and elevated voices. not always heard. i have always said my novel between two moons was a love letter to the arab community of bay ridge. so i thank you for amplifying that love and for amplifying the voices of women, which feels even more essential today. give it up to aisha. go out for her novel. aisha, allow me to shameless see promote for c-span. here we go by her novel. and by the way, every single book, book of poetry novel that you've heard today go on an independent bookstore, if possible, purchase books. paul, where can they find your book? all right there you go, madison. for numerous editors right here. there you go. well done. that was like the drummer put him near the assignment. all right, moving on.

we this winner here with us, gregg hecimovich. did i pronounce correctly these ethnic names telling you he has won so many awards, so i hope he accepts this one for the life and of hannah kraft. the true story of the bond woman's narrative, the history of this book about this book. if don't know in 2022, the bond women's narrative was published a wide acclaim. it was a recently, somewhat recently, i would say an early nineties book discovered. it was written originally by a black woman. they say sometimes in the 19th century whose identity that time when the book was published was a mystery that is until this year's american book award winner gregg hecimovich stepped and provided the answer. who wrote this book? greg's book. is it a thriller? is it a mystery? is it a biography with? greg skillful prose. all three and a revelation. henry louis gates has some

remarks for you, greg. and i quote. greg is not only prince of a man, he has inspired me with his heroic and astonishing only devoted pursuit of the truth behind the often, maddeningly opaque veil of history and excavating the figurative bones of the life and work of hot hanako chefs. he has rendered the ultimate service to which a literary historian can aspire. restoring life to those the eyes of time for too long. mist i extremely proud of him and. very fortunate to call him my friend and colleague henry louis gates. give it up for greg heck. hymowitz for the life times of handicrafts, the true story of, the bond woman's narrative. come on, now. for c-span. bring it. yes. all right. how do you want to hear it? what's your good side?

oh, come on. the old. you. thank you much. the book, sir. thank you. it's such an honor and a pleasure to be with this amazing group, this amazing organization and is an honor of my to accept this award to do this work. it was it was about intensive. it was about and it was about love. i spent 20 years working on this book. it was not a it was out of the descendant communities that preserved the life history of the woman who wrote it. her she was born as hannah bond. she was born from rape by a white man with her mother and her mother left her, was forcibly migrated when she was

ten years old. she started writing novel on paper here that she lifted from her enslaver. this is all documented in a very detailed way in the novel. and it is a team of people over years to tell this story. so i cannot say anything about my self. i am part a group of people who cherish preserved carried the story story for forward very essential to that is dorothy porter. wesley the great library howard library who was collecting african-american stories for much of her career on before many people even valued or thought that those should be collected. she this manuscript in 1951 from a book dealer in new york emily driscoll. i was able trace the likely path

where the manuscript went from the author's through her steps son, and into the collection that eventually came to dorothy porter. wesley, dorothy porter. wesley would joke with henry louis gates jr about having this manuscript. dr. gates just purchased the manuscript at auction and then did amazing to identify and call the author as almost certainly formerly enslaved woman. then i spent this time the help of dr. gates and whole host of scholars, but mostly i want to say that descendant communities of people in bertie county and hertford county, north carolina, i'm going to name them here because these are the people who are the heroes for preserving hannah's story. albert bishop, walter cray, marva dixon, lisa hickerson. joanna reid. alvin smallwood. benjamin speller. isabella stewart. wendell white. there's stories behind, these

families, these people where a record of slavery for that community was preserved in a family and nobody even knew it. and one of those family members there the the descendant of her father, was enslaved on the plantation next to the who wrote this novel, hannah bond, as was born. she called herself handcrafts. she wrote down history of her family. everybody in the family, the stories from the oral history. nobody knew. she wrote it down later. she had dementia, and when she that record that notebook was in her house, nobody knew it. vagrants broke into the house discovered notebook left it on a trash outside. and the next day before it rained. descendants claimed to clean the cemetery that was by the trash pile. this is one of, like, five different stories of a history that wouldn't allow itself to be

destroyed, that wouldn't allow to be thrown away. you have this enormous record across history of, all sorts of people of all colors and denominations who channeled this brilliant story and so grateful that this was something that i was able to be a part of. i'll close with also saying no books written in a vacuum and there's extraordinary value what people in the book world do editors publishers, publisher sis there was a 27 year old in well kind of an intern, early editor. i was struggling with the format and how i was writing this book and. her name's norma barksdale. she was only at echo harpercollins for a short time. she took manuscript when i was stuck and moved some chapters around, and that was it. so this this story that is

hannah's story that writes in the first novel written by an african american woman is a story of hope comedy genius and nourishment. so no matter how terrible the world can seem, how cruel all humanity can be. she preserved the stories of other people through an autobiography novel. and i'll close with. hilary mantel, great novelist, reviewed this book and she said autobiographies display triumph of experience. but novels are acts of hope. and that is precisely the epigraph to the book. and hilary mantel wrote it. i didn't even know as i was researching. i discovered that is the story. hannah craft's life. she writing this novel before she escaped the forensic evidence. this she was carrying forward the story of other enslaved

people through this novel. she was not trying to write an abolitionist for an adult white abolitionist, forcing her to stick to some sort of script realism. she was doing what all authors do with so of you do creating of many people's lives. it was the hope but she was writing on paper. she was stealing taking from her enslaver and she was writing a story that. she, in fact was then going to live by escaping with that manuscript. and let me tell you, this novel is amazing. it's called the barn woman's narrative. dr. gates, i have worked together and a new is coming out in this summer to bring forward his research my research and other scholars who are doing this in it's just an honor and this award is is those descendant communities and for hannah bond who split the way to this amazing piece of literature

just am so grateful to be a part of the story. thank you very much. you're all about the book, right? right now. yeah. yeah. i'm going to be that. yeah. if you've noticed, we have awarded novelists. we have award books of poetry. we a memoir. this is a graphic novel. there's no rule that that this is not literature correct. marriage between, words and images. and even though the award recipients are not here, i the pleasure of talking about claire james adapted and illustrated by watts and sakina karam jee seal our james was, a trinidadian

writer, journalist and activist sarah lionel robert james continuing the theme of rediscovery who wrote a three act play? toussaint louverture. the story of the only successful slave revolt in history. it was performed in london, excuse me, at west end in 1936. starred paul robeson. the play was considered lost until a copy was found. 2005. louverture was haitian by way. they're in the news. maybe. and vance should read this in to learn about some history instead of nazi conspiracies. since trump doesn't like words too much, he can actually just read the the pictures too soon or not soon enough. the book the play was rediscovered and our award winners watts and skinner, ramji decided to actually adapt the

play into an illustrated graphic novel. i wish they could be here today, but they weren't. purchase this book. it is. toussaint louverture is the story of the successful slave revolt in history. and if hollywood wants some good story ideas, maybe finally a movie about toussaint louverture, maybe anyone bueller. bueller. all right. our next awardee. let me shamelessly promote a book. yellowface, by r.f. kwong. r.f., like greg, has won many awards. she couldn't be here today, but this by william morrow, r.f. kwong yellowface reads like lightning hour. kwong pens a hugely entertaining funny and timely satire on the commercial exploitation of superficial diy in the publishing industry. scary words. the acclaimed novel wrestles questions of authenticity and me and ownership in storyteller, in

cultural representation versus appropriation and the legacy of whitewashing in the age of social media, clickbait and clout chasing the novel powers through providing no easy solutions in doing so reveals uncomfortable but necessary truths about modern society. the book is yellowface by r.f. quan. pick it up. and let's give it up for justin. thank you. how's it like, justin is feeling good. all right. and good good. so before welcoming philippe to the stage, i would like to take just a couple of minutes for. a brief intermission. i think everyone can feel me on that. yeah. you want to take a couple of minutes? okay. so let's let's. let's let's give it about three

or 4 minutes. and then we'll bring mr. luciano to the stage. don't be late now. also, once again, extend. gratitude to the poetry foundation, which has continued for the third year in support of the american book awards and the minor anderson family foundation for their support of the american book awards these past years. and also the miles ahead fund for their support of the award ceremony year. so i see there's a few people absent. but we're going to go ahead and move forward because that's the

direction to go go. a few moments ago, josiah was speaking with great eloquence about the depth that has been harvested season after season and the extraordinary latino literature of afro-latino literature flourishing out of the mission district now for four decades. i brought this artifact to share with you, which is exemplary of that from 74. this is in fact the last issue of umbra which for those of you who are aware was really one of the most innovative and exciting consortiums of writers in the

history of the united states. one of whose founding members is walking up the aisle right now, ishmael reed, is, like many writers who were based in new york at the time. there was a. quest for a greater freedom, which could be found in west and ishmael was very much the leader in that and very closely following the great david henderson and victor hernandez cruz, members of the umbra workshop who edited this magazine from the mission district. so this was published in the mission district and includes a great writer such as the cuban nick nicholas guillén who in this particular of umbra, of which there were only 500 right,

has poems translate edited by the late alan from gwen. so latin soul was the theme of the issue the last issue of umbra published in the mission gathering together the revolutionary spirit of the afro-latino and latino literature, which paul and josiah spoke of with such eloquence. but one of the driving forces behind this extraordinary work and its development it was a man that we're honoring today. felipe luciano of whose? yes. who who is who is whose very, as paul said, has become something of a of a ritual invocation, of the possibility of real and and

some syncopated, polyrhythmic movement in the word and the dance that comes from it. many of you will that mr. luciano was one of the founding members of the last poets. which continues to ignite the imagination of. so many of us. so without any further ado, please welcome the great philippe luciano to. the stage. of. the receipt of the that's the book for the book. his autobiography.

i am. i am so by this. i never thought that i would be rewarded for being a writer. for being a fighter. yes. for having survived jail, for having survived the revolution of the sixties. yes is that round the lot? there. for, having simply survived? i thought i'd be lauded for that. but come from a family. for whom education was not a goal. understand this. many people just striving to eat

all they want to do is have a decent meal. and puerto ricans in the fifties particularly if they were on welfare, and particularly if the women didn't have men at home, had to survive and they did what they did. my mother thought secular education was sin. it was the work of the devil. she was evangelical, was pentecostal. i know how many of you know what that means, but it means you do not dance. you don't play football. you worship god. in flesh and spirit which is the name of my book? you do not think about sex out of the question. and in east harlem there was nothing else happening. my mother always suspicious.

my intelligence. i never knew that i was smart. my teachers had to me, you know, you're very, very smart. in fact, one teacher in the eighth grade, i'm getting emotional at those chaperons said you're brilliant. i didn't know that. i simply thought i was bright. that's it. that's as far as it went. there were no high school graduates in my family. that was out of the question. and so what i did was learn that my my sense of being had to come from two things as. a black, puerto rican. and i want to make sure we emphasize, underline and italicize black puerto rican because. many of us think puerto ricans are all fair. they're not the majority. them are people of color. so you couldn't tell many of them that they all, you know, to

this in santo domingo, to this day in the dominican republic, they will not say that they are black. they just won't. so i grew up understanding i was black. thank god for my grandmother who told a doctor who was delivering me, who said when they asked my mother the the official certificate and said, we'll put his on it and we'll just say he's white because. in those days, puerto ricans considered honorary whites. and she said, sir, are you colorblind? that's my grandson. he's calling every color elderly. the call that i thank god for my grandmother. so i thought that the only way to achieve prominence was to fighting, because in those days, skill with fists was where it was that. we didn't use guns all the time. use basically fists sometimes. and your --, that's way we grew

up. you have a lot of kids. you have a lot of women. and to this day, i have friends of mine who tell me you've graduated you're different now. but it took me a long time. and i'm telling all of the young out there who still believe that that's the measure of masculinity. there's way, first of all, read it was something was instilled in me by my mother, who only a 10th grade education. my father, who had. not that my father. my mother and ended up loving everything. i mean i fall in love with and i read for whom. the bells tolled and that was it for me. hemingway became my guy, and i was reading hemingway in eighth grade because a woman named ethel shapiro said, we're going to teach you to read and teach you the of language and how it connects you to around the world. i said, can you. what else? hemingway would.

i learned to love hemingway. i learned to love shakespeare. how do you find commonality with bard from england who didn't know what the chaplains were about? the group the that i grew up with who didn't know what it was to be on welfare. how do you do that? and she did it because she she loved it. so much. she was so passionate about. let me tell you something. if your passionate about something, your students will passionate. one of the problems in american education is that the people who teach these children are not passionate and they board hell out of these kids. and in doing so, not delving into the history of this world. these kids know nothing about. they know nothing totalitarianism. they don't understand what happened to japan, 1945. why did they bomb them? britain? why didn't they go on? on it goes. and when i teach in these schools, the teachers get a

little annoyed because i bring up everything. everything. slavery. the spanish, by the way, the first ones to bring the black people into the world, the spanish and portuguese. and can tell you something, they were horrible. i don't know why we will mantises. it was nothing to romanticize. they would take the steel that they had learned to to produce and take one of the taino indians and the steel soot cut them in right down the middle. these people who were five three cut them right down the middle, good tested. the same thing in mexico. and yet they admired the architectural perfectionism of the aztecs who had built a city on a lake and who already were already taking tumors out of the head head. taking cataracts out of the eyes. talking about a people who are much farther, farther advanced than you would think. but somehow we've lost this

story in the same way. lost the story about ghana, mali, the. it's amazing when you begin to read what you feel now what happens once you read and assimilate the beauty of negritude the beauty of being an indigenous person. you know what happens? you either get angry or you commit suicide. i had to be careful. i had to be careful. i wanted to kill as many as i could. let's let's be honest. the history of this country, particularly manifest destiny the trail of tears. the long and all of that. and we must not forget asian-american brothers, because we now have habit of finding the favorite. you know what i mean? black folk, latin. now, all of a sudden. but we forgot what they did to asians on the west coast mean they came here, they were raped, they were hung.

they bullied. that's how they got to east coast. they didn't want to. horrible. i went to china. i went to canton. i went to a village called toi. and when i heard the stories, i, i to shake. we still look at them as inscrutable. we don't know what they're thinking. they are human beings. they have just as much humor as you do. they love to. and they just wonder the hell you are thinking. i am humbled to get this award and. i really believe that that island that i come from, which is 35 miles wide by 100 miles long, will one day be free. i believe in the independence of puerto rico. i've said this before, now it is is a hollow statement because there's no there are some people who are fighting for. 1950. i'd be campos, who's my hero, who's my malcolm x and emeterio

betances fought to get puerto rico free. and i know many of you go there if you have gone there. it's a beautiful island. it's no doubt it. it's an island. it's totally colonized, totally. it can't be free because it does. the united states will cut off the funding and because we don't know how to do for. we continue with this servitude. we have rice, we have beef, we have pork, have chickens. we have you it. we can feed ourselves, but afraid and puerto rico continues to pay more taxes than any other person in the united states. because under the jones act, you can bring ships in. but they have to be if from another nation you pay 30% more. and so that is passed on to the puerto ricans. you here in san francisco. pay more per kilowatt hour than anybody in puerto rico. how they survive, i don't know. and i have to be careful when i

go there. you can't go an island that you never really lived in and tell them they got a fight. they got to revolt. come on. and too many young revolutionaries there with this fervor, you must have compassion. you must understand really happened when i read the stories about what has happened happened on the part of people of color. when i read the story the of coaches and sitting bull and yellow cloud and all the other native american, i am amazed. that we haven't had national nervous breakdown. we're reaching toward it now. let me say now, as i end this thing, those black kids in prison, i was one of them are seething. they are seething. when that bomb explodes, there will be no person is not immune. trust me when i tell you i talk

them all the time. the little murders that you see in the street in san francisco is nothing compared to the black rage went and the latino rage when it comes forth. i'm. because i seen what it can do. it destroys your soul. but you end up having some momentary because you killed this sucker sucker. we have no idea what's happening to our children. all of the stuff that you see happening in this country. and we have great examples of people have done well. all of us. go to the guilt. i do quincy does all us have this pablo? does we have. what do we do? and the only thing we can do is go to them and tell them, here i am, what can i do for you? tell me what your anger is. what is your angst? what are you going through? they don't know how to express it are education system is

deranged. if you are not excited the subject matter get the hell out of system you're killing our kids it all comes down to education i'm not saying that we shouldn't fight. i'm not saying that we shouldn't have sports. by the way, in new york city schools, sport and music have been totally decimated so that the very thing that attracts them, even if it was on a superficial level, the very thing that attracts them, has been cut out. what do you these kids to do at the height of their of their adolescence? testosterone is high in harlem. so i say that i thank you for giving me this award. i hope that this little story of mine i'm talking about my mother, my father, harlem, because still to this day, harlem inspires to this day. i remember reading ishmael when

i was in jail, and i never knew i would meet him. but i remember reading about it, i remember reading amiri baraka when i was in jail. i your mom, toni morrison, on my first book, which i never finished. and she said, you better get together. you better get it. see, i had i had to give the city, the award back the advancement had to give it back because i couldn't finish it. i was so running the streets and getting high. god bless. there are in this person. there are so many influence as black native american, cuban, puerto rican, dominican, jewish, american. there so many influences that i, i almost cry when think about it then there's my mother used to beat the living out of me. i now know how frustrated she must have been.

she never abandoned us. sometimes i wish she she could have because she really went through hell. my father left and she was. it her? do you know that? are women who just love one man? i don't think it was possible, she said. all did was love your father. that's all i wanted to be as husband. i know this is going to sound counter to what the new thing is. women. all i wanted to do is be mom and a wife. that's all i wanted to be. and i ended with you. she would say, aurora. she used to write little on a on a pad and i would read them and they were brilliant that same mommy, why don't you write? i going except them. i said, let's write them to the reader's digest. and she told me, i don't want you. listen, can you tell iboga keep quiet. i dedicate this to her.

may she rest in peace. i dedicated it to jackie onassis, told me you are a writer. so simple as that. you're a writer. i dedicated to arthur shapiro, who saw something in this black puerto rican kid. and i love all of the. i used to come out here all the time some tasaki i used to come up with him to see ishmael, to see. bobby seale, who's in oakland oakland and i love and what was his name? the gentleman. oh, of course. there's victor hernandez cruz, who's my brother, who was one of the people i want to thank. all of you for having suggested i sent the here. i would have never thought it going to happen. what's my sister's name in new

york nancy mercado. yeah. nancy mercado helped. victor hernandez. help and of course, ishmael reed, whose satire still astounds me. folks, i will say this. we will either meet in the internment camps. this country, or in the capitol steps. your decision? i'm going to say this again. this is how serious it is. and i'd like you to go over. the history of germany from the 1930s to 1934. we are the same position geographically and because we're reading, we don't see the similarities. and you know what they say they saying if you don't read, you are doomed. repeat the history. we are in terror terrible shape right now. can you imagine the moronic antics of a clown? and we're taking it. we put them on tv.

i hope that of us. and i know it's difficult because we're so we're so sophisticated. i don't have to go there, beat the pavement. i think we got to i think it's time for us to knock on doors. and tell me, what do you mean you're not going to vote. i go further. you better vote. you vote for kamala. no, i don't. i make it clear. i'm afraid i'm very, very afraid because it is this close. we could blow this beautiful experiment we call representative democracy a minute in a heartbeat. and then what? again, i will close with this. i'll either meet you on the steps of the capitol or in an internment camp. and as the great poet robert frost, you say. and i have miles to go before i sleep and miles to go before i sleep. let's continue to struggle. thank you very much.

felipe luciano. thank you. so we in the last hour and i believe we're actually only about halfway through so at this time i would like to welcome to the stage one of the founders of the before columbus foundation, a man who has dedicated life to integrity of the american award. and he be introducing one of our awards and returning toward the end to a lifetime award as well. but please welcome novelist and

educator founder along with ishmael reed of before columbus shawn wong. thank you. to save some, i just jumped on stage and start walking up the stairs to show you that 75 i can do that. i am here. introduce fae myenne ng who's narrative voice has both the lyrical tone and an uncluttered sense clarity that captures the nostalgia. of 1970s san francisco's chinatown, on the verge of social and the precise cadence of spoken cantonese on the streets of that ethnic. her work, unfailingly informed by knowledge of asian-american

literary history. she knows exactly what stories are missing from something called chinese american literature and american, while at the same time paying homage within novels to earlier canonical works and the generation chinese-american writers who came before her and myself such as sui and far lewis chu and others, as well as understand the importance our own statement and place line the that we are honoring today. orphan bachelors is the third in a trilogy, the first was a novel named. and the second was steered towards rock. the third work, orphan bachelors, a memoir. ng narrates all of the fictional stories she told in the first two books into a personal about her family and their contested

relationship. america during a time of exclusion her father stating it simply as, quote, america didn't have kill any chinese. the exclusion act ensured none of us would be. and from orphan bachelors. ng writes. literature is born out of. the desire to be truthful, not to hide anything. and i'm pleased to introduce you to fang who tells the truth.

hello. thank you, sean. that was amazing. sean has been a brother to me, a supporter for decades. i want to just start by saying briefly that in america we have a tradition of making family and also making a name and that's how we language that's we become americans we break the language so we remake lives and we make up names and call sean big one, big brother also mentioned that bruce lee in his cantonese cause big brother, big wong big man --, which is big boss the gang

leader and that is what and this man all who formed and continue new the legacy of the before columbus foundation do for this country. they're the outlaw publishers the renegade writers and they create both card readers, orphan bachelors, a book about family and about writing. it's also about and is inspired by my time in the some of my students may be here and i want to know that they were and always will be an inspiration sean and you should know that ishmael was my first writing teacher in class. he called me and maybe i can quickly say he called me miss nig and i thought that brilliant and no of explaining the pronunciation of my name as the

verb ending which the officers gave and gee, i should put in, i in the center, because how powerful is i? how powerful is nig. and he also because i was a young quote asian girl cal in a room of artsy kids called them ruling class kids. who's going to talk ishmael would call on me and say miss nig, what do you think. and so that was the lesson. what do i think the lesson was to stand up and to speak up and in that class i wrote a four page short story, and as all young writers do, i saved the truth till the end, till the last paragraph. and ishmael made those remarks.

and i have kept that piece of paper for decades because he taught me in reading that attempt at telling the story was to understand the heartbeat and pulse of all my i have been writing that last paragraph again and again and i hope again it's an lesson you only need one teacher and ishmael is that teacher for me. orphan bachelor is also a book of living history. it's about stories told and not told. exclusion and confession work together to prevent the continuation of the chinese-american as. sean, wonderfully quoted and i will repeat for 61 years the chinese exclusion law prevented

the birth and the continuous action of the chinese-american family and the line that sean read was something father hollered all his life that you didn't have to kill any chinese, just made sure none were born, or very few were born. so to honor those vainglorious men who had nothing, who came from a country that was bleak into an exclusionary america, that was worse. i honor them by saying they had language. many of them never had the privilege of time and thinking, so what before columbus foundation did was create a shop in american leathers and i believe they've created a whole new genre to let the literature exclusion we're all writing about the same thing. we're all going to break those doors. we have in and what i feel the

before columbus foundation maintains and continues to do is to create the sanctuary for all our stories and a tonic for our so i want to thank liz drance of michelle mortimer, elizabeth schmidt and grove bringing the book to life. but i thank the before columbus foundation for giving it continued immortality and i congratulate all the writers as i stand with it's a great honor i thank all the readers the room i everyone for the of true stories thank you very much.

many years ago the poet diane de prima had said to an audience here in san francisco that one of the most important influences on her on her poetry was to the miles davis quintet at the café bohemia in greenwich village during the fifties. and i was very what she meant by that. and so after event, i came up to her. i said, so diane, what do you specifically what do you mean what did you learn from miles? and she said, i learned i don't always have to finish what it is i'm trying to say. and i thought about that. and the resemblance to some of the shapes of the phrases, the unresolved phrases that would play very deeply hewn to the

lessons he had learned from thelonious monk and from lester young and the poetry or poet that can contain mixed emotions and not succumb to the falsity of trying to resolve them, but rather leave them suspended. i believe much closer, much closer to the phenomena of of living, of being than someone who attempts to impose closure. when i first encountered the poetry of roger reeves i was awestruck by his capability to perform and occupy. this all of many emotions conflict with themselves and giving us as the reader the freedom not to rush to any kind of resolution or pretend that

there's something that makes it all okay. that was many, many years ago. and roger reeves has since published quite a bit more poetry. more recently, essays along the late our young, a very close friend of the before columbus foundation, had often made an analogy between poetry prose as the poetry being akin to the piano as, a tool of composition and prose being in its symphonic expression. and with that metaphor in mind, dark days, fugitive essays by roger reeves, i believe is very much his symphony, so please welcome roger reeves to the stage. the winner of the american award for dark fugitive essays.

i grew up in a pentecostal church in the northeast so i always have to out this. it's a way of reminding myself as you know as the minister would get up. he would say, i won't be before you long, which meant we had another 20 minutes easily. but what i want to say, the that came to my mind i'm always because i'm a poet, right? i hear things. i hear sort of snatches of music. right. in snatches of ways of

punctuating a moment and me this moment reminds me of sort of the the that goes on in a pentecostal church, right in partly the way a testimony like there's a form to it. sometimes you just begin right but generally my grandma she would her testimony with sometimes a little song she would say like it's another journey and i'm glad right and so for some reason that song came me it's another day's journey. and i'm glad right. i'm so glad to be here. and the reason that i'm so glad to be is because i feel like these are my people yes, right. and what i mean by that is before columbus. i think about this foundation, i think michael harper i think about the way in which like ishmael reed thought about me in their writing before i was even born, they knew i was coming, right? they knew that there would need to be a place for us to be

critical of this country an unabashedly see what we see. and so there's that moment in dear john, dear coltrane, michael, as harper says, why are you so funky? because i am. why are you so black? because i am. why are you so funky? because am right. and there's a way in which that i am is anticipating me. and so i want to thank before columbus for for this because honestly i said a lot of things in dark days that i knew weren't popular i knew wouldn't be popular. critiquing a 1619 project is not a popular critiquing lin-manuel miranda is not but can critique liberal us is not popular right i want to thank gray wolf press for endeavoring to go there with me. i want to thank my agent, eric siminoff. i want to thank my partner, monica for sometimes listening to me paragraphs over and over

and over. and my daughter naima, who's obviously, you know, the naima reaches far, right. we got coltrane, but it was a name we on because we wanted a name that both her puerto rican my my partner's puerto rican grandparents could say and something that held a bit of like all of us simultaneous. and lastly i want to thank and i want to bring into the room with paul marshall calls the kitchen poets. right but i want to bring into room what i would call my first publisher and editor, my grandmother. all right. i think there's a way in which my grandmother sort of and she used to say, baby, you could sing. i don't know what she was thought about because i can't really sing. but, you know, i hold a note. but what she heard was my desire to sort of to sing or to

express. right. and so i want to tell a quick story and then i'll be out of here. and this is what i mean by her as my first publisher, my first editor. so when i was a kid and grandmother's house where i was raised, ah, for some reason every january, february, it's not for some reason we always listened to. so she had this big player console and we always listen to martin luther king speeches and malcolm x's speeches every february and january. so now can imagine if you're a four year old, five year old, six year old kid living in new jersey right outside philly. right. you that's where my folks is from, right. mount holly, burlington county. right. you start to of that. that gets you. and so would happen is i would take i would i started memorizing the speeches and i

started having my own sort of ideas of what they were saying. and so i to discourse i wanted to give forth ideas so i would often go to the playground at school during recess and climb to the of the slide and yell white folks are the devil. or america is is ain't nothing about killing black folks. right? so got to imagine in 1986, 87, 88, my grandmother was a she cleaned houses and my mother worked full time as well. and what would happen is the school would call my grandmother and they would say you're your. on the top of the slide calling white kids the devil will please come and take them home and this is what's really interesting. i did not know story until i was graduating with my first

master's and i was like 27, 28 and my grandmother came and she said they would call me up to that school roger and i would come and i would see the principal and the principal say, mr. lewis, you know, your grandson calling white kids the devil. and she said something that i think is so important. and i didn't know this until then, and i don't think i would be poet or writer. i am without this. she said, well, are send him back to class. i'm well, you are. i never knew that i would. i was in the principal's office all the time, but i, i would just be sent by the class. it wasn't till i was almost 30 years old that. i learned that my grandmother was the first to sort of publish my work in that way. right. allow my to hit the air. she said, well, your and when i think about the before columbus foundation, you are in that spirit, you are send him back to

class. let that boy go right and as they say. rumble, young man. rumble. thank you so much. i god bless our elders. god bless rogers grandmother speaking of elders, faye eng, who waited a good 30 years to get ishmael reed for that so wherever faye is, where's well done, faye? she goes. i get you, professor read giving up to asians. give it up to shaun's hair. this is 75 years old, as we say in our tradition, martial no evil eye male to protect your hair. i'm 40, 44. i still got some left. we have food compliment, free food and drink for you in 45 minutes. we have ten award winners. a child of immigrants. it gets it done. we're going to get it done. i love our we had felipe luciano

who gave us an amazing, brilliant 25 minute commencement speech and he just said, i'm hungry. when are we going to eat? 45 minutes, sir. there some individuals who could not join today. in the interest of time, give them a round of applause. i'm going to name them valerie wilson wesley, winner of shimmer of red john yo. please wait by the coat room, reconsider race and identity in american art. monica yoon from from published by gray wolf and also for editor publisher award jeff dutch publisher and patricia jones, editor for divine days by leon us an opus 1100 pages published usually 19 early nineties. speaking about rediscovering a good theme republished for the first time after 30 years, it has been compared is called the ulysses of south side chicago dark days give it up to all of them they couldn't join us today. speaking of our elders to introduce john roberts, i'm

going to introduce carla blank carla blank. what has carla blanc not done? if she had a linkedin profile, it would scroll forever. she is a dancer, choreographer author, director, dramaturge, teacher, journalist, jazz, music, musician. she has written or edited five books. she has collaborated with directors and designers or choreographers as robert wilson and sushi anaya. she has directed plays and multimedia performances in the united states in china, in the west bank and the palestine palestinian national theater in jerusalem. her most difficult job is tolerating ishmael reed she has been has his his partner for how many years now. going on 60 years. you could give that applause. her second most difficult job was tolerating me because she was the dramaturge director of my play domestic crusaders, which was inspired by ishmael reed, who was my writing professor at uc in the year 2001. and he said, get out of the

chaucer writing class, you should write a play like what? and said, give me 20 pages all fail you. and that became the start of my writing career. carla blank latest book is a collection of essays. it's called -- in ramallah. the wide ranging collection of essays explores various milestones and landmarks of american music, theater, dance and life. general from elvis presley to kabuki, from dance, destruction, she dissects how culture, society and, politics have intersected sometimes for better not the title essay was written after the events of october 7th and looks back on three month residency in ramallah in 2013. how this insight experience has shaped carla blank to understanding of both art and conflict here present our next award is carla blank and in 45 minutes we will eat complimentary carla blank. hello. most of us travel through environments either built or what we call natural without

realizing how much they have altered over time, or understanding why these changes happened. readers of changing comments. stories about placemaking from oral traditions by. landscape architect john northmoor roberts will away with a new appreciation of the importance of landscape architecture society. they will also more aware of how, since the 1970s movement towards social justice and ecological stewardship have been playing out in our environment. changing in the commons describes 25 sites located in san francisco, alameda, marin napa. sonoma mariposa and humboldt counties. they include park schools libraries, institutional industrial campuses, streetscapes and urban plazas, museums, housing and historic restorations. while some sites are not well

known, robert's designs touched many iconic california places such as your somebody park your woods and your beach. in marin county, fort mason, crissy field and i've been up arboretum in golden gate park in san francisco. his home city of berkeley's popular fourth street, paseo, and the street art district's berkeley walk. now, a national poetry landmark, roberts generally begins to work on a project by paying attention to the history and culture of each place. considering its its functional and the needs of the humans, animals and plants that formerly or already inhabit the space or are projected to be its future habitats, he explains he tries to understand each place unique, physical, sensual, emotional and cultural implications to achieve what roberts calls and underlying all roberts is his

observation that quote entire, civilizations have collapsed by neglecting the underlying ecological support systems for their built environments. and it is often the water systems that fail. it is imperative for our survival and for the health of the planet. that the places we construct nurture the long term sustained logical health of our settings and. water is the key. welcome john roberts. oh. show off. well, i got a few years. oh, very beautiful book.

oh, i must say, this is. totally unexpected. i was i don't know how this submitted for an award. i know nothing about the that you guys go through, but i thrilled right. it's just to be here this group of authors so chitra banerjee divakaruni years ago when. arranged marriage was just being published. you did reading in berkeley and most books and out of nowhere were attacked by this man who said you were you've given your heritage, you are not writing in bengali anymore and and you

stood back and said, i think i'm going to let the audience me answer this question about how to write. we were all there because we were reading what your was and to be here with with you now is. anyway, thank you, ishmael. and thank you carla. this is really something to think. myself as an author is. with you guys. wow. i this book specifically to begin with as a letter to my children, my grandchildren to tell them teach them a little bit about placemaking go around the world enter and we never we often don't think about how they became what they are and the process of making a is is complex. it's laden our cultural values

and things have changed since. there's been a when i went to school graduates in the early seventies, the cuyahoga was burning, lots was burning. the alcatraz was occupied. and life not so great. it was revolutionary fervor. and and it expressed itself, over the next 50 years. in the places in our physical environment. and i wanted to write to my grandchildren and tell them these places that had been involved with with helping to design, but also i realized that i was tracking evolution of these of the way in which we about the places we inhabit, especially the commons public spaces and. so this becomes a book that actually traces the history from

the early seventies up through today where the in the the last story in the book is about the but the north coast redwoods at the redwood national park, the york tribe has been doing the construction, a visitor center and an enormous this restoration of the salmon habitat. but they will take ownership of the property and be given back to the back to the tribe and there'll be a village on, the site. but it's it's a collaboration in a way that was unthinkable 50 years ago. we in that project specifically with all the others as well. there's a community outreach component where listen to people are going to be inhabiting the place is to be using the place, going to be maintaining and becomes their their place to be comfortable in and entering. it becomes an ecological issue

of of protecting and enhancing ecological systems that are there that make the places the special the special places that they are. these unheard of 50 years ago this was did one project when i first started my career. i recommended to the owner to plant some native plants in his in his vast office park and he said weeds you want me to plant weeds here. there's not the the idea of finding a place. define a place by what? what lives are naturally what coexists. and all the various critters that live in these places. so that's what? this is an exercise in a series of stories. i realized that the best teaching comes through storytelling rather than didactic kind of. and so these are stories, individual places, the people who were lying were behind the thinking, the places and the kind of processes that we went

through in order to to recognize the the native inherent ecology. so with that, i thank you very much, is an unusual setting for for me to be in and and for you guys be honoring a book like this. thank you. thank you, mr. roberts well, we in the last half hour and i would like to bring as much focus and attention to those are with us. so with your permission, unless is any objections, i'm going to leap past a few of the folks who

for many different private and professional were unable join us today and move directly to mr. henry threadgill and brant hayes edwards for the autobiography of. mr. threadgill easily slip into another world a life in music. and in the interest of time, i'll say a very. that henry henry threadgill certainly of the most gifted and visionary composers in the music that today we know as jazz has not only the imagination of his listeners but has also staked out a unique territory in what is often described as free jazz that embodies a hum, an

approach, or even a philosophy. one might say that freedom is a choice that you make in every situation, all time. so it's not as if you just day decide you're free and you step over here and that's your thing. no, no, no. it doesn't work that way. it's something that you must present with rigor and a powerfully deciphering attitude and every single that you face. and henry threadgill has really done the lion's share of work when it comes to bringing musical to this principle and not relying or taking for granted what it is that we must desire for ourselves and in achieving this. and so it is truly extraordinary that through the powers of listening and conjure that this man whom we're about to meet in

a moment brent hayes edwards has been able to grasp this in intuitive and apply his passion is towards the understanding bringing those words and that music from threadgill into the form this book and speaking for myself, i'm deeply grateful for the work of this and it is a great pleasure. welcome to the stage, mr. brandt. edwards receiving american book award for easily slip into another world with his coauthor, henry threadgill threadgill.

i am honored and humbled to accept american book award for the book i co-wrote with the composer and multi-instrumentalist henry threadgill easily slip into world, a life and music. henry sends his apologies. i'm sorry that he was not able to come with from new york to join us today. the book is first of all the autobiography of a composer who i consider one of the great american musical of the past half century. but we also tried to shape it consciously as a literary that would somehow be adequate to the radical experimentation the formal unpredictability, the infectious exuberance and the sheer restlessness of henry's music. we knew some of the things the book to contain and ours music some of the dirt under, the

cobblestones, a dash vinegar, a backup parachute, an invitation to the laughing game, the peculiar tinkle of gongs made of hubcaps, the truth a tiger on the prowl more room for the readers ears than for our pre possessions. but the question was how to make it work on the page. so its particularly meaningful to us as writers to have the book selected by other writers for this award in the company of the exceptional works of fiction poetry, nonfiction and scholarship scholarship recognized here today, the title easily slipped into another world, adopted from the of one of the greatest albums of henry's band sextet suggests the way art has been shaped by his willingness to shift sound worlds throughout his career to deploying strikingly different instrumental combinations and timbres in his various bands but

easily slip into another world is also meant to signal that henry's life has been a life spent in motion. the story of a vagabond creator. art has been inspired as much by his extensive travels in the netherlands italy, venezuela, trinidad and india, as by his upbringing in chicago and his long standing prominence on the new york scene. to my mind, in its capacious soundness, its openness to inspiration and from any angle, how henry's as an artist embodies, the panoramic perspective of the foundation with its broad conception of cultural diversity. henry, i are deeply grateful this for this extra honoree recognition of our collaboration. thank you.

for. before welcoming roseanna shaw to the podium to accept award for her book. i did want to honor randall williams who is the extraordinary editor of philippe luciano's out biography flesh and spirit. well and before we bring rosanna shaw shaw. shaw to the stage for this vital necessary very and. almost luxuriously poetic and persuade of book california the

sea visions for vanishing coastline. it's one to emphasize a couple of points and she'll let you know what for. you know the first and only federal agency recognize global warming as a reality is the department of defense. did you know that okay so so so when the epa and the department of the interior and these loud in washington go into committee and debate the department of defense say yeah you go ahead you do that go ahead and debate that we have a plan. how about the absence your water all over the planet earth. you remember the earth was big in the 20th century. the rivers are evaporate raiding everywhere and water. that's the key ingredient in you and me and your food is going

going. going, almost gone. the imperial valley in the southern part of california feeds the western hemisphere the most of the colorado goes there you know what's to the colorado river the department of the interior held emergency meetings in congress two summers ago. they went to the university of colorado to discuss and members of congress and people who are experts in this field said. you know, maybe we better not tell the public happening. it cause a panic. are you yet you should so. i want to urge you to read this book and this very seriously and understand this i make this point very quickly. the department of defense. that's no joke, were the first to organize and recognize warming. and they're still the only federal agency that it is not

debatable. okay. now, the last two cabinet positions, secretary of defense and this administration in the previous one were held are being held by former executive and lobbyist at raytheon which is one of the largest arms dealers in the world. okay. and in both times both situations, congress allowed a waiver so that they could be seated as. the secretary of defense with, a dismissal of the federal statutes that bar lobbyists and executives from the defense industries of controlling the department defense. that's your environment that's our earth. that's right now. so people like mr. roberts trying to tell you and people like roseanne are trying to tell you, this is happening now. this isn't happening later. so with all of that in mind, please welcome rosanna. she rosanna shaw and this extraordinary work california

against the sea visions of our vanishing coastline. and you know thank the lord for people. rosanna that's all i got to say. because my dog eared book. thank you, justin i am really moved by what you just shared and just wow huge. thank you to the foundation for this honor. you know, i am so grateful to recognized alongside so many authors that i admire. i definitely feel some imposter syndrome up and just thank you for just being recognized by such a thoughtful and, brilliant

community that stands for so much good injustice in this world. i initially set out to write this book or any book at all. i always considered myself more of a old school journalist that thinks 1000 word count articles. but martinez actress my incredible editor at heyday books she helped me see the book that really to be written a book could expand and add complexity the way we tell the story of and beyond, you know, a book that would center the voices that are often missing in the way we talk about nature and our relationship to land. and, you know, she helped push a book out of me, a book that could help guide and inspire more people to embrace the nuances of, an issue as existential as climate change and an issue is so interconnected to many aspects of our lives and. the social, economic, political, cultural systems that, you know trap us into the situation we're

here in today. climate change is an easy topic to talk about, and one of the most profound things that has clicked for me since this book came out is just how many people have been to have this conversation but just didn't know where to start or how to start and the momentum on this book has truly blown me away. i just want to shout out all the bookstores, so many bookstores, the universities, the community groups, just all the people who have connected. so deeply to this book and helped me start creating more spaces to really talk about climate change with more compassion and empathy. and just last but not least, i just i have so much gratitude to all the people who talked to me for this book, you know, who trusted me with their stories guided me, helped me understand science and the policy and the social and just really helped me deepen the way we can think about our to the and to this earth.

you know, this book not be possible without all of people who do the hard work day in day out on the ground and people who have committed their lives and careers to helping more people think more thoughtfully about how we move into the. i'll just read the dedication to this book. there was an obvious one for me. you know, this book is dedicated to all the people who cherish and belong to the california past, present and well into the future. so this book is dedicated to all of you. thank you again to the before columbus. it's just truly an honor to be with all of you and to be part of this really beautiful community that you have built for so many years. thank you. very briefly in rabbi michael

lerner, the members of the foundation, unaware that by the time we came around to point of honoring rabbi dedicated session and work that he would have departed, that he would no longer be with us. his very close friend colleague and publisher along with him now and geffen has very generously come join us in this ceremony to accept the editor and publisher award for michael lerner and his efforts with tycoons. she is the publisher of tycoon. and again as i mentioned, a very good friend of the late rabbi before bringing up, i do want to mention very briefly as i said, since we're running out of time

something about, a word that we don't hear much conscience conscience, conscience and there has long been a theological proposition that is the expression the khandu, if you like, of the possibility of the divine aspect of nature moving through us right. and part of the idea is that when you allow yourself to countenance atrocity. your conscience begins to atrophy, you can lose it as martin luther king had mentioned, you know, when a nation spends more on war arms than social, it's risking death.

this is part of that. but rabbi lerner, not only did he believe in conscience, but he believed that he could cultivate and bring about a deeper sensibility that in all of us and respected the natural intelligence in each and every person. and i think that is not just evidence, a great belief in this principle, nature itself, offering its own divinity, but also something very from the culture today. and he his life to cultivation of this in all individuals respected the natural intelligence of each and every person. and so honor that beauty. we honor tycoon, we honor rabbi. and again, i'm very grateful to nan gefen for joining us this afternoon to accept the award.

those were such beautiful and sensitive words that were used in introducing. and you really captured you so, so much. you really captured michael and his life. he had just a fierce, fierce conscious conscience and it was his role in life. he felt very, very strongly to speak the truth as he saw it

when wrong was done and so when he and i started tikkun magazine 40 years ago. he felt and i felt to that this was a place where we really needed to to say the truth about israel and what was in israel with the palestine ians and to say how wrong it was, what was happening. well, i have he died heartsick. he lived heartsick at the same i should say that he i did the magazine together for five years, and i went on other writing and other things. and he just doggedly kept on with tycoon through all those afterwards and the magazine, he did a beautiful job terms of

making it a place for that held both his writing editorials but also held other people's opinions and and what they had say was very nuanced magazine in many ways. and so that's how that was and i'm very moved by this award thank you so so much feel very humble in presence and feel very you know it's just very very hard hard times for all of us in so many ways in this country. for those of us in the jewish, it's just a struggle for the soul. and michael could, speak that language and that language present tikkun through all the years about and again you described it so beautifully how

he could bring into into politics and and help people see the depth so thank you. is miss denise still here? i saw her earlier. oh okay i understand and. so at this. i would like to welcome a man who has come up quite a bit throughout this afternoon and as so often is the case he best speak for himself and so

presenting the walter and lillian lo and fellows award for criticism to brenda green is the founder of the before columbus as foundation ishmael reed. please welcome to the stage. of abbreviated my remarks and respect for the time so you can go eat. you know i was watching her 2 to 2 movies last night. one was about ted. and he's very smart, you he was his own defense attorney and maybe he run for president.

oh. good. distresses there. stand up gunders threads. there would be no before foundation where i gounder and justin and gunders got through the hard years where we are broke. i go down to a shabby office, got in a very nice office. now in preservation park i said google how, are we going to make it a good. i would say blind persist and that's how we did it and goodness knows his family knew how was to be on the domination of some imperial power because they were refugees from where the first revolt against the soviet union began. and it's like the russians right now trying to russian eyes ukrainian children and deprive them of their culture and their heritage which is what done has been done for us for 400 years.

dr. greene said that although there's a rise in the number of published black writers due in part to the rise of book club self-publishing and the increasing number of contemporary writers and scholars who are writing more nonfiction ground on issues such as social, the police and criminalization of black and brown men, women and you, racism, voter suppression, white supremacy, inequity in public housing, health care system. the public education we still face the publishing industry whose power limits the number books that represent the multifaceted multifaceted experience of the blacks will help you america's and english speaking countries represent the african observer and in percival everett's erasure great book, a black writer succeeds only when he writes a book about black dysfunction, which appeals to a readership that has the psychological need for a literature that debases a black,

even when such books are false. we're going to talk about michiko kakutani and how she fell for a fake book and she loves me down i'm just i'm not just saying because she jumped on because everybody says as ishmael reed against settling scores no but she fell into when she honored this book it turned out to be a fake about that was written by girl whose sister exposed her. she wrote a gang memoir with all the kind of stereotypes you see the wire. so if you like the wire, the wire promotes the same kind of stereotypes about black men that are the press promoted about a jewish man in nazi germany. and i did the research so if we're going to talk you talk about it at the reception i did all the research. i thought thought that was ironic. you know, so i mean you get to

this we know each other out here. i was the poet laureate for this sfjazz center as matter of fact, my poems on the wall, on a corner. when i die, i want to go to jazz. all right, guys, are i head of italian? irish. and i'm a american. i, you know, hispanic. that night had all different nights. and this is something i hope you don't take offense to this. so italian night we had one of al capone's relatives and she she wrote a poem about a giant salami attack in new york and know and i said, without the al capone, there be no jazz because he's out there in alcatraz. but he hired more jazz musicians are black jazz musicians and a lot of other people. we all know each other other.

brenda, dr. brenda greene is part of a guerrilla movement and she is a resistor because she's up against this decade in at dying new york literary. which up to now up to our before columbus dominated trends in american writing and their idea of our writing is one at a time. tokenism. and so we want token defies his sponsors the hand that feeds them like james baldwin when he wrote tell me how long the train's been gone, where he satirize his people are paying him and promoting him, they got another token cleaver. so we have broken us up out here. we all know each other, want to come in. the loss and just shawn wong up there in seattle. you know what i mean? jose montoya in sacramento, we know all alejandro makes it all

people you know, she's the lone. she fights back with her center for black literature and the national black writers conference. it not only recognizes as a token divas and diva cause i look that up, but those who write as well, or better yes here or review percival everett novel. he recognized by pinnacle, which are tennessee runs penn oakland before all these fancy awards that he's received he also recognized the late great luis merriweather and dr. brenda greene was of those responsible for the revive of her reputation she wrote the best book written black american about harlem that was a number runner the guys who wrote novels while they went on to fame and fortune.

but toward the end of her, she had a do a go fund me to pay for her illness. and she died last at 100. so that's what brenda greene and her resistors do from brooklyn sort of like, you know, you train ukrainians against the russians from taking on this decadent manhattan establishment. as a matter of fact. the last book reviewer of the book, the new york times book review, which is almost hundred years behind multicultural. science, i don't remember one day they had the union flag. the british flag on the cover. i said, why don't you have some black critics in your new york review of books or and new york times book review? and i said, they're sort of like -- leagues. you remember satchel paige and all of them. and she said, well, you know, she didn't do anything about it. and then i learned that her favorite bookstore was in

england and that darryl pinckney gave it away. he got the aba last year. darryl pinckney. he gave it away. he because dwelt among those people. i use a spy in any country right he said they spent a lot of time working on the english accents, you know you know some guy born saint louis. i say, my dear fellow, a chap, that chap or that bloke. i'll tell you, that's what they were all about. i know he's got himself a royalist here. okay, so he's born in st louis and we published home his that people can understand all about his. so meriwether had to do a go fund and is he offended the literary establishment in new york that we call the family when? she took on one of their stars who did a pop psychological analysis of nat turner. she's a hundred years old. so dr. greene, her colleagues undermined manhattan's one at a

time ism and. she also uses the media not knowing that when she has a her radio program talk about the hitler was a great way. he said hitler was great german or whatever he said, you remind me of those 1940s movies we used to see all these old timers. remember those movies where somebody would have a radio like a secret radio, that they would be communications the british about the nazi movements and sort of like what brenda's doing. she got a radio where she recognized only a great black american writers and those are not known, but those from the diaspora discussing their lives and their creative and their works in general, she is the editor of. the african presence and influence on the cultures of the americas and coeditor a resistance to transform conversation. a black meditations in the sessions. black writers of writing,

redefining black writers in the nineties. rethinking american literature. and she also has written extensive essays, grants, book reviews and presentations english. so we want to welcome to the stage. a true guerrilla literary guerrilla warrior and resistance fighter. dr. brenda greene coming over over. from. well, how do you follow that? ishmael reed i want to. first thank the before the foundation for all the work you've done over the years and

for celebrating diverse city for expanding the narrative, expanding the canon for making sure that we have more that are shared in this place. we america this is honor was really a total surprise you know i've been doing this work on a number of levels for many years, you know, for the last four decades and. i don't think of myself really as a critic, critic, but more as a literary activist, as you say, someone who's finding a way to raise ways to resist. and that's doing it through through writing and through highlighting the accomplish achievements of writers and doing what our forbearers have done. i want to say a special you to ishmael, who's really kind of been behind quietly saying, you

know, you're a critic. he said it, but i didn't believe. and also all the work that you've and in supporting writers he's an extraordinary novelist satirist publisher i remember he told me you know we're, not publishing enough writers throughout african diaspora, we're forgetting about writers. and i as i plan conferences, think about that that we have to sure that we're including writers throughout the diaspora, not only on these shores of the united states, but in the caribbean, in europe and into africa. i also want to acknowledge our press and i did their book for our time press. it's a local newspaper in brooklyn, and they gave me the space share that story. they do local news, but for me it was been really important that we find a way to get people

to read more people who normally don't think of themselves as people, as readers, literary fiction. i had a disturb being incident. well, i guess i'm calling an incident because. i keep thinking about it as a conversation with a colleague who's an educator head of an organization in new york city. and she's written a memoir for young people. and i told her that she should. i said, should come to our conference. the national black writers conference. and she said, but that's not for she's an educator she said that's only for writers. so she didn't see herself as a writer and didn't see herself as worthy of, in her view, being around these literary. so we call it a conference but it's really a gathering. and part of what i do whenever i talk about what we're doing i said we're bringing people

together. i want to pay tribute to john oliver killens, who had the vision to host the national black writers conference and. he started at howard, and when he came to brooklyn as writer in residence, he began hosting it at medgar evers college. and we always pay tribute him and honor him he felt was really important to bring who represent it across a range of people genres together to talk about the trends in and black literature and the state of literature. and we also began to honor writers we've honored ishmael reed with the national black conference award. and i also want to pay tribute to the students and the writers and scholars have given me the to continue to do this work.

and highlight the importance of not only bringing them together and having their books shared with the public, but examining the books and coming up with ways to ensure that everyone engage in it. so that means when i a review for a paper like our time press i'm thinking of the everyday person i said what is the angle? how can i get them to read? i'm thinking our young people, our students who go through high school, who are not reading books, they go through the whole without having read book. i'm thinking about my college students. we to think about new ways we engage people with literature, you know, i say this to educators to teachers. we to we know that they're not reading outside of the classroom. so we have to find out how we get them to read within the classroom. so it might be having to pass the book up in different ways. but if we don't do that, if have

people who are not reading, we will continue to have a situation like we have now where people only listen to soundbites and they don't examine things critically. they don't go beneath the surface, you know, they they it's it's very is very, very distressing. and when percival everett wrote a ratio and i was reading it, i was laughing, but i was intellectually motivated because his book is really a critique on what is happening in our country, what is happening in the publishing industry is a critique. the media talk shows of popular of the reading and viewing habits of all of us. and it's a way in which you see that black writers have been rendered invisible and have not have ability to share their unique perspectives and their stories. and i always say that writers

have multiple ways. no one, multiple of viewpoints, and we have to make sure we are are looking at our writers from multiple ways that people at our conference, they have had their book rejected because it doesn't sound black enough, you know, and they people to change the cover. i mean that this is what writers are facing and so as i said my work and writing and in writing this review and the work i do in analyzing and interrogating the books of writers is to do what remember barbara christian, who was i remember having a conversation, barbara christian and she talked about people are too concerned with theory. we have to move away from theory. so let's really get at what the message of the writer. let's use language that's

understandable. you know, let's not have people writing up here. and i remember that because that's going keep people isolate it. that's not how you engage people. that's not how you you embody the mission of what the bill thomas before the columbus foundation is doing. percival everett did that with erasure. the fact that they turned it into a movie says a lot you know american fiction about the state of black literature and in closing i want say that in one of our conferences hakim i, the founder, third world press, someone else. we also have honored said he believed in a book culture so that's part of my mantra. how do we increase a book culture? how do we develop a book culture? we have to find ways, different

ways of connecting people to literature and to books. and so, again, really thank you. it's amazing to be part of this group, to be honored and. i thank you. i think before columbus foundation and i thank you, ishmael, for your plea for me. so we this is the conclude one of the 45th annual america book awards. and as i mentioned, just across this hallway, we have a reception for all of you. we hope you will continue to celebrate in a much more casual way and before leaving i would like to invite all of the winners and to those in the audience that you have very rare

opportunity this evening at medicine for nightmares the bookstore because philippe luciano will be performing this evening and and seriously let me me stress this if you live in calif this is it man. you need to get your thing together and head to the mission and check it out tonight at seven. is that correct? 7 p.m. m yeah. and we would like to invite everyone who has received award to the stage and i would like to apologize to the many people who were unable to speak with us this afternoon or have their words read from theall right.

all right. well, good morning. well, let's let's try that again. good morning. it's a lot better.