Tag: Martin Luther King Jr. Day

MLK Day: A Confession and Some Links to Further Reading

First, the confession.  In the flush of hoping to restart the blog last year, as opposed to this year, I wrote the following:

For the record, I plan to read what you might call primary documents during February, Black History Month. As the Black Lives Matter movement and related issues exploded over the summer I thought it would be interesting to attempt to read in a way that was emotionally removed from this summer but intellectually connected.

Books in this vein I hope to read this year (from my Library of America and Everyman’s collection):

It will not shock you to learn that I didn’t read any of those books last year. In my defense, sort of, I did read On Juneteenth, the novel Juneteenth, and started A Glorious Liberty.

And, inspired by our church service on Sunday, I started reading A Call to Conscience: The Landmark Speeches of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. but haven’t made it past the introduction.

So instead of a nicely topical book review, I offer you a few links to past reviews:

Maybe I can get to those Library of America and Everyman’s volumes this year…

January 17, 2022 Add Comment

Thomas Chatterton Williams: Wrestling with Race and Culture

Part One: Losing My Cool

For once, I thought I might actually offer a holiday/historical themed book review on the actual holiday. Something I have hoped but failed to do many times in the past.

But first, a confession. It might seem counterintuitive to post about Thomas Chatterton Williams on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Or perhaps it might be seen as a typical reactionary thing to do as a “conservative.” I.E. rather than write about racial injustice, what the holiday should be about, post about someone who rejects race and seeks to get beyond it. Fair enough.

For the record, I plan to read what you might call primary documents during February, Black History Month. As the Black Lives Matter movement and related issues exploded over the summer I thought it would be interesting to attempt to read in a way that was emotionally removed from this summer but intellectually connected.

Books in this vein I hope to read this year (from my Library of America and Everyman’s collection):

So with that aside, what to make of the aforementioned Thomas Chatterton Williams?

Thomas Chatterton Williams is the author of Losing My Cool and Self-Portrait in Black and White. He is a contributing writer at the New York Times Magazine, a contributing editor at the American Scholar and a 2019 New America Fellow. His work has appeared in the New Yorker, the London Review of Books, Harper’s and elsewhere, and has been collected in The Best American Essays and The Best American Travel Writing. He has received support from Yaddo, MacDowell and The American Academy in Berlin. He lives in Paris with his wife and children.

I believe I first heard of him via Twitter where I saw links and recommendations to both his essays and his books.

Title:
Losing My Cool
Series:
 
Genre:
Biography & Autobiography
Publisher:
Penguin Press HC
Release Date:
Format:
Kindle
Pages:
225
Source:
Amazon

I was first intrigued by Self-Portrait in Black and White: Unlearning Race and checked it out from the library. But decided to read Losing My Cool: How a Father’s Love and 15,000 Books Beat Hip-hop Culture: Love, Literature, and a Black Man’s Escape from the Crowd first. And I really enjoyed it.

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January 18, 2021 3 Comments

Thomas Chatterton Williams: Wrestling with Race and Culture Part Two

Part Two: Self-Portrait in Black and White

Title:
Self-Portrait in Black and White
Series:
 
Genre:
Biography & Autobiography
Publisher:
W. W. Norton
Release Date:
Format:
Hardback
Pages:
208
Source:
Library

Yesterday, after a somewhat defensive introduction dealing with the Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday and my Black History Month reading, I offered some thoughts on Losing My Cool by Thomas Chatterton Williams.

Now, obviously, the world is a very different place in 2021 than in 2010. And I am not really in a position to engage in the arguments about hip-hop and black culture. But for me, the beauty was the love between a son and a father and the determination of that father to mold his son despite some very powerful countervailing pressures in the wider world.

– Thomas Chatterton Williams and Wrestling with Race and Culture

With this as background, I want to move on to Self-Portrait in Black and White, which is a very different book.

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January 18, 2021 1 Comment

Martin Luther King Jr.: A Life by Marshall Frady

I have long been a fan of the Penguin Lives series. I love history, and enjoy reading about fascinating and impactful people, but simply dont’t have the kind of time I used to have available.  Short interesting biographies allow me to dip into this genre without struggling through large tomes in short bursts over long periods of time.

I have  a number of the volumes in this series and I have often wanted to use the volumes I have as topical blog content for holidays, anniversaries, historical dates, etc.  But for the most part I have failed to get the timing right.

This year I once again determined to change that. So with the approach of Martin Luther King Jr. Day and February being Black History Month I decided to read the Penguin Lives volume Martin Luther King, Jr.: A Life by Michael Frady.

It turned out different than I might have imagined – fascinating and surprisingly balanced but with a writing style that made it slow going at times.

Overall, I found it to be a nice introduction to the life of this towering figure and one that eschews hagiography and acknowledges both the strength and moral courage and the moral weaknesses of Dr. King.

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February 8, 2011 1 Comment