BPM: Give us a little history on your organization, ReadPeriod. How often do you meet?
We are a book club located in the Dallas-Ft Worth, Texas area. The name of our "club" is ReadPeriod. We started in 2007 with four members and we've grown to 12 enthusiastic members, who enjoy the fellowship as much as we enjoy the critique. We meet once a month, rotating the meeting locations. Our President is Milledge Caldwell. Some members are related which adds to frank and honest discussions.
We sometimes see a movie that is our book of the month. We have also traveled to San Antonio, Texas to participate in Black Book Club seminar that featured Black Authors. On occasion we go out socially, i.e dinner, drinks and good wholesome fun.
BPM: How are you celebrating the holidays? Will your club have a group party?
ReadPeriod, President Milledge Caldwell -- As president I will be spending the Holidays with family. I'm originally from the Mid-West as are five other members, so we often have extended family visiting during that time. One of our members gives a annual Christmas Party for our members (just the ladies, LOL).
BPM: What genre of books do you select for book-of-the-month discussions? Why?
We choose to read Black Authors for ten months during the year, because we want to support African American authors financially and because we can relate to the works and understand the point of view that the authors are writing from. We also feel that African American literary works ensure lively discussions! We do however, read other authors twice, during the year.
BPM: Do you feel as if African American couples and families are represented in a good light in today's film, music, media and books?
We find that many of the Black Authors have the common theme of misogyny and unfaithfulness, which can be disappointing because of the negative characterizations.
BPM: Do you think our authors are leaving the same legacy as authors from other generations?
I feel that because of the commercialism of today many black authors won't live up to the standards of writers in the past whom wrote from real hardships and were trying to paint black people in a more positive light i.e Ralph Ellison, Richard Wright, John Hope Franklin, Frederick Douglas etc. It seems that some of the largest African American book sellers are not the best writers but are instead the writer with the largest publicity budget.
Submitted by:
Nikki Coe and Deborah Sanders
ReadPeriod, President Milledge Caldwell
