by Tom Dent ; edited by Kalamu Ya Salaam ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 1, 2017
A comprehensive portrait of the influential New Orleans writer whose oeuvre reflects the racial tensions of the times and is...
An expansive collection of essays, interviews, poetry, and fiction by the New Orleans writer.
In the introduction, friend, fellow writer, and former apprentice Salaam (The Magic of Juju: An Appreciation of the Black Arts Movement, 2016, etc.) describes New Orleans writer Tom Dent (1932-1998) as a “griot,” which he defines as “a combined modern day, culturally grounded ethno-cultural anthropologist facing his past, as well as a public intellectual/cultural activist confronting his present.” It is an apt characterization given Dent’s range as a writer—fiction, journalism, poetry, and more—as well as his being a central figure in the Free Southern Theater in New Orleans and the Umbra writers collective in New York City. In every instance, Dent’s work reflects his commitment to black community and social responsibility, using writing as a means of expressing the political issues he was passionate about and the social injustice he fought against. One of the collection’s standouts is the story “Legacy of the Scottish Owner’s Will,” which is set in 1870 and features an elderly emancipated slave who ruminates on the nature of the black struggle for freedom and an impatience for civil equality. This early story was composed during Dent’s brief stint in New York, and it was upon his return to New Orleans that he began using journalism as his preferred medium for tackling issues of racial injustice, black identity, and civil rights. Among the other highlights of this period are “Beyond Rhetoric: Toward a Black Southern Theater,” a 1971 essay that advocates for a socially conscious aesthetic over spectacle; essays on Mardi Gras and New Orleans jazz musicians; and several illuminating interviews. While Dent’s work represents a minor, albeit interesting chapter in the American canon, its resonance is perhaps more deeply felt today.
A comprehensive portrait of the influential New Orleans writer whose oeuvre reflects the racial tensions of the times and is equally relevant today.Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-60801-149-0
Page Count: 484
Publisher: UNO Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2017
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by Tom Dent
by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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developed by Ludwig Bemelmans ; illustrated by Steven Salerno
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by Ludwig Bemelmans ; illustrated by Steven Salerno
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by Charlayne Hunter-Gault ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 1, 1992
From the national correspondent for PBS's MacNeil-Lehrer Newshour: a moving memoir of her youth in the Deep South and her role in desegregating the Univ. of Georgia. The eldest daughter of an army chaplain, Hunter-Gault was born in what she calls the ``first of many places that I would call `my place' ''—the small village of Due West, tucked away in a remote little corner of South Carolina. While her father served in Korea, Hunter-Gault and her mother moved first to Covington, Georgia, and then to Atlanta. In ``L.A.'' (lovely Atlanta), surrounded by her loving family and a close-knit black community, the author enjoyed a happy childhood participating in activities at church and at school, where her intellectual and leadership abilities soon were noticed by both faculty and peers. In high school, Hunter-Gault found herself studying the ``comic-strip character Brenda Starr as I might have studied a journalism textbook, had there been one.'' Determined to be a journalist, she applied to several colleges—all outside of Georgia, for ``to discourage the possibility that a black student would even think of applying to one of those white schools, the state provided money for black students'' to study out of state. Accepted at Michigan's Wayne State, the author was encouraged by local civil-rights leaders to apply, along with another classmate, to the Univ. of Georgia as well. Her application became a test of changing racial attitudes, as well as of the growing strength of the civil-rights movement in the South, and Gault became a national figure as she braved an onslaught of hostilities and harassment to become the first black woman to attend the university. A remarkably generous, fair-minded account of overcoming some of the biggest, and most intractable, obstacles ever deployed by southern racists. (Photographs—not seen.)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1992
ISBN: 0-374-17563-2
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1992
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