Celebrating the Legacy of Black Literature
Black Authors Network Radio with Ella Curry
We are discussing literature, love of community and our literary legacy! This is a community discussion and we want to hear from YOU.
In honor of Thanksgivings, the Sankofa Literary Society (SLS) will host a empowering discussion panel on the legacy our books will leave future generations. This phenomenal online experience will highlight African-Americans in the literary world including radio hosts, educators, authors and publishing leaders. We invite you to call into the show and share your opinions of "The State of African American Literature" and the legacy we are leaving.
Are you proud of the books that we are producing today?
Are the books published today creating a impact on the readers or merely entertaining the masses? Join us and speak up and out!
Black Pearls Literary Legacy Panel Discussion
FEATURED SPEAKERS:
Mocha Ochoa
Facebook: Facebook/inthecafewithmocha
In the Café with Mocha Literary Talk Show
Mocha Ochoa is the CEO of The Oracle Group, a nationally recognized agency that specializes in producing literary, educational and outreach campaign development. Connecting authors with events that engage and uplift the local, national and global community. The Oracle Group specializes in producing A-List Author Launch Events, National and Community Book Fairs, Educator Appreciation Series and Literary Campaign Development.
Mocha, host of the In the Café with Mocha Literary Talk Show co-founded the NAACP Author Pavilion at their Annual Convention and has also organized book events for Barnes & Noble, The National Book Festival, The National Press Club and the National Council of Negro Women. She the founding member and implementing partner of the Reading Across Continents initiative, an interactive cross-cultural literary exchange project connecting students, teachers and authors via technology. Participating countries include Ghana, Nigeria and the United State.
Judine Slaughter
Books: Clear Skinned and Do-It-Yourself Publishing
Exective Director United Black Writers Association
Judine Slaughter is the Executive Director of the United Black Writers Association. She has previously been the editor of several newsletters, taught three online classes on publishing/marketing and has presented writing workshops. Ms. Slaughter supports the nurturing of literary talent, because everyone has a story.
Go On Girl! Book Club
Website:
http://www.goongirl.org/
Lynda M. Johnson - Co-Founder, Go On Girl! Book Club
Willette Hill - Corresponding Secretary
Evalyn Rose Hamilton - Historian
Tracey Y. Smith - Nat'l Media & Author Relations, Founder More Than Words
Go On Girl! Celebrating the Legacy of Black Literature® -- With more than 30 chapters in 12 states, The Go On Girl! Book Club is the largest African-American women's book club in the country. Founded in 1991, members meet in their homes in their respective cities to discuss the club's reading selection of the month. Feedback on each selection is shared with the authors and publishers. The chapters come together annually to honor authors and celebrate the legacy of Black literature. Through the years, literary luminaries such as Gloria Naylor, Bebe Moore Campbell, Jill Nelson and Pearl Cleage have come in person to receive their Go On Girl! Author of the Year award.
Shalema McGhee
Blogger, Authors In Color
http://authorsincolor.blogspot.com/
Shalema K. McGhee is founder and blogger of Authors In Color. Her main goal is to promote and support books by authors of the African diaspora. She is also a member of Go On Girl! Book Club, where she currently serves as facilitator of the founding chapter.
Cora Coleman-Dunham
Musician, Mentor and Author
Book: G.A.G.U. - Gathering a Greater Understanding: The Ultimate Life Guide for Youth
Cora C. Dunham, is the Vice-President and CEO of The Vivo Club. Drummer, writer, photographer, director, clinician, mentor and designer, Cora received her Bachelor of Music degree in 2004 from Howard University (Washington, DC). Cora has performed with Pink, Lalah Hathaway, Goapele, Richard Smallwood, Il Divo, Elton John, Frank McComb and is currently the drummer for Pop artist, Prince.
Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond
Book: Powder Necklace: A Novel
Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond has written for AOL, Parenting Magazine, the Village Voice, Metro and Trace Magazine. Her short story "Bush Girl" was published in the May 2008 issues of African Writing and her poem, "The Whinings of a Seven Sister Cum Laude Graduate Working Board as an Assistant," was published in 2006's Growing up Girl Anthology.
A cum laude graduate of Vassar College, she attended secondary school in Ghana. Powder Necklace is loosely based on the experience. POWDER NECKLACE chronicles the seminal years in the life of a teenage girl as she is shuttled both physically and emotionally from London to Ghana to London again, and finally Long Island.
Karen F. Brundage-Johnson, Ph.D.
Book: Beyond the Body! Developing Inner Beauty
Karen Brundage-Johnson, PhD is President of Your Image Matters, a consulting and training organization. As a business leader, Karen has overseen training &development for thousands of employees implementing programs in professional development, empowerment, and diversity.
Karen is co-author of “Beyond the Body! Developing Inner Beauty”, a book for women focused on emotional, mental & spiritual wellness.
In 2004, she founded the Readers Journey Book Club Network bringing book clubs together in Atlantic County New Jersey to fellowship and experience author discussions and in 2008 featured in Essence Magazine with author Gloria Naylor.
Karen also writes jazz performance reviews that accompany the jazz photos taken by her husband, noted jazz photographer Ben Johnson for Jazz Time Magazine online.
Tina McElroy Ansa
Book: Taking After Mudear
Novelist, Publisher, Filmmaker and Journalist
Websites:
http://www.tinamcelroyansa.com/ and
http://www.downsouthpress.com/
Tina McElroy Ansa is a novelist, publisher, filmmaker, teacher and journalist. But above all, she is a storyteller. She calls herself “part of a long and honored writing tradition, one of those little Southern girls who always knew she wanted to be a writer.” She grew up in Middle Georgia in the 1950s hearing her grandfather’s stories on the porch of her family home and strangers’ stories downtown in her father’s juke joint, which have inspired Mulberry, Georgia, the mythical world of her four novels, Baby of the Family, Ugly Ways, The Hand I Fan With and You Know Better.
In March 2007, Mrs. Ansa launched an independent publishing company, DownSouth Press, with its focus on African-American literature -- fiction and nonfiction. Her fifth novel, Taking After Mudear, a sequel to her bestselling Ugly Ways, will be the lead title on DownSouth Press’s first list in the fall of 2007. DownSouth Press will publish established as well as emerging literary voices.
She and her husband, AFI (American Film Institute) Fellow filmmaker Joneé Ansa are currently adapting Baby of the Family for the screen in a feature film starring Alfre Woodard, Loretta Devine, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Vanessa Williams, Todd Bridges, Pam Grier, and Tonea Stewart. The author is collaborating with her husband on the screenplay for Baby of the Family, which he will direct and shoot in her hometown of Macon, Georgia. Mrs. Ansa is executive producer.
She and her husband, Joneé Ansa, have lived on St. Simons Island, Georgia since 1984. Together they produced and directed the 1989 Georgia Sea Island Festival, a 30-year-old grassroots festival that seeks to preserve the crafts, music, slave chants, games, food and spirit of the African-American people who lived and worked as slaves on the rice and cotton plantations along the Georgia coast. Ms. Ansa is an avid birder, amateur naturalist, and gardener. She always has collard greens growing in her garden among the black-eyed Susans and moonflowers.
Ella Curry, EDC Creations
Ella Curry is the president and CEO of EDC Creations Media Group. She brings more than 20 years of PR and marketing experience to clients in film, music, publishing and corporate event planning. Her expertise as well as her love for all things literary, dynamic contacts, and collaborative approach with clients have earned her a reputation as a respected leader in the publishing industry. Ella has enjoyed an extensive tenure in media promotions and book publicity. She started out as a corporate event planner and website developer; later becoming a buyer for the legendary Karibu Book Store chain. Her career now includes services such as blog tour coordinator, book coach, video journalist and literary publicist.
She has interviewed community leaders and celebrities such as: The View's Emmy® award-winning co-host, comedienne/actress Sherri Shepherd, Byron Pitts Emmy® award-winning journalist for 60 Minutes and chief national correspondent for CBS Evening News, American film director of Secret Life of Bees, Gina Prince-Bythewood, literary legends Dr. Maya Angelou and Sonia Sanchez, along with award-winning actors and actresses such as Hill Harper, Queen Latifah, Jennifer Hudson, Dakota Fanning, Tristan Wilds, and International motivational speaker Lisa Nichols of the Secret DVD and author of No Matter What.
Ella Curry is the host and producer of the Black Authors Network Radio Show, sponsored by EDC Creations Media Group. Ella has interviewed MochaMoms® and other community leaders along with bestselling authors Terrie M. Williams, Sue Monk Kidd, Farrah Gray, Breena Clarke, Carleen Brice, Nathan McCall, Mary B. Morrison, Francis Ray, Walter Mosley, John Kremer, Lutishia Lovely and Donna Hill.
Ella Curry is the publisher of Black Pearls Magazine, a professional blogger and literary reporter on www.blackpearlsmagazine.com where she publishes her popular Intimate Conversation Interviews with today's hottest authors, business owners and community leaders. In the Spring of 2011, Ella will release her first book on how to effectively market and promote your book with social media while on a budget.
