HAPPY GRANDPARENTS' DAY

Dear Friend, ?

For teaching me how to cook—and when to stir the pots . . .?With fond remembrance, boundless love, and indescribable gratitude for my grandparents . .

Harry and Blanche Adams William and Myra Landsmark

Here’s wishing the same to you and yours. ? To all the grandparents—and all the grandchildren who give this day its greatest rewards―Happy Grandparents Day! ?

50 BOOKS THAT CHANGED?THE STORY OF AFRICAN AMERICA: a recommended reading list

BOOK #21: Their Eyes Were Watching God?(1937) Zora Neale Hurston

From the 1930s, just beyond the Harlem Renaissance, resurging from the depths of the Great Depression, came voices too young to have known slavery or the hope of post-war Reconstruction first-hand.? Raised in the margins, their “lash” was segregation.? In form and in tone, they wrote in prose what Bessie Smith put to music, the Blues. ?

Among these storyteller-documentarians, Zora Neale Hurston was a unique spirit come-of-age in the all-Black town of Eatonville, Florida.? Encouraged by her mother to “jump at de sun,” Hurston rode a wave of White fascination with the “New Negro” of the Harlem Renaissance to study anthropology at Barnard College.? ?

An avid collector of folklore, Hurston traveled to Haiti in 1937 and there, in seven inspired weeks, wrote Their Eyes Were Watching God, a milestone in African-American and, later, feminist literature.? In 1960 she died destitute and forgotten.? Then, in the 1970s a literary daughter – Alice Walker – resurrected both the book and its author. The time had come for the world to know what Hurston had seen in her main character, Janey: a woman in her full possession of herself; in love with life.? ?

And, how, exactly did Hurston actually “change” the story of African America.? It’s more than the anthropologist’s ear that she brings to the page, the Black feminist experience that she awakens, or even her influence on subsequent generations.?

Quite simply, who else writes like this? ?

“Oh to be a pear tree – any tree in bloom!? With kissing bees singing of the beginning of the world!? She was sixteen.? She had glossy leaves and bursting buds and she wanted to struggle with life but it seemed to elude her.? Where were the singing bees for her?? Nothing on the place nor in her grandma’s house answered her.” ?

Or this:

“So Janie waited a bloom time, and a green time and an orange time.? But when the pollen again gilded the sun and sifted down on the world she began to stand around the gate and expect things.? What things?? She didn’t know exactly.? Her breath was gutsy and short.? She knew things that nobody had ever told her.? For instance, the words of the trees and the wind.” ?

And, especially, not like this: ?

“Love is lak de sea.? It’s uh movin’ thing, but still and all, it takes its shape from de shore it meets, and it’s different with every shore.”

? ?? ? ?? ? ?*?Pictured: Zora Neale Hurston c. 1935-1938; first edition cover of Their Eyes Were Watching God, 1937.? Publisher: J. B. Lippincott ?

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ON THE SHOW

SPEECH SPEAKS OUT: Let Your Voice Be Heard

12 Shows THEY Don’t Want You to Hear About 12 Stories THEY Don’t Want You to Know continues with SPEECH SPEAKS OUT: Let Your Voice be Heard. ? A tribute to HipHop@50, this weekend we join Vice President Kamala Harris in celebrating the 50th anniversary of HipHop: as art form, as burst of self-expression of voices suppressed, as descendant of the Black Arts Movement and ancestral streams, as a new wave of cultural iconography. ? In art as in life as in White Houses, African Americans know a thing or two about muting the naysayers and turning up the volume on #BlackJoy as a form of resistance. ? My guest is SPEECH, rapper and producer Todd Thomas―cofounder of Arrested Development with turntablist Timothy Barnwell (“Headliner”). ?Challenging gangsta-dominated images of Hip Hop with defiant lyrics of hope, Arrest Development took to the stage.? Breaking down walls and raising expectations, the Grammy Award-winning group produced a string of rousing hits.? With the success of their chart-topping single, “Mr. Wendal,” Arrested Development not only took the issue of homelessness to audiences worldwide; they donated half of their royalties to the National Coalition for the Homeless. ? Recorded in 2017, on matters HipHop, let’s just call this episode: “The Education of Janus.” Visit the show page?here. Download the podcast on Apple?here. THE JANUS ADAMS SHOW airs and streams live Saturdays at 11:00 AM (ET) on WJFF Radio Catskill. Click 'LISTEN LIVE' on the home page. ?

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AND ONE MORE THING . . .

There is a school that has been demanding excellence of itself in service to our children for 46 years: Jubilee School in Philadelphia. ? With imagination and pragmatic rigor, the school has gifted generations of children the wherewithal to define, express, and develop their own best selves.? Under the direction of Jubilee founder Karen Falcon,?the children have launched their own publishing company, Jubilee Voices Publishing House, with four books that should be in every elementary-schooler’s home library:?

From the introduction to Journey to The Core of the Twentienth Century::

History is like the earth: it has many layers.? This textbook will peel back the layers so you can wee what is really inside.? It will go into the core of history.? We won’tonl tell you the great parts of the twentieth century, but also the brutal events.

Our textbook is not delicate; it will tell you devastating and inspiring stories...from the tragedies and nightmares to the victories and heroes who risked their lives and fought for our freedom.

And YES, the student editorial team—a group of 4th through 6th-graders—wrote this book themselves!? What better way to inform, inspire, and empower the children in your life than with these books written for them by their peers?

To BUY A BOOK or MAKE A DONATION, visit JubileeSchool.net.

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Harambee! Janus * Harambee is a Ki-Swahili term popularized by the Kenyan Independence Movement meaning "let's all pull together!"