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Books by Devorah Major
Where River Meets Ocean /
Open Weave: A Novel /
The Other Side of the Postcard /
Secrets Put Inside my Soul
Street Smarts /
Who Has Looked in Your Mirror An Anthology /
With More Than Tongue
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Brown Glass Windows
a novel by devorah major
Brown Glass Windows
is the
story of the Evermans, an African-American family in the Filmore
District of San Francisco and the tragic history of their son,
Ranger, who returns scarred from his experiences in Vietnam and
struggles with drug addiction. Ironically, when he finally
conquers his drug habit, he is killed meaninglessly in a
drive-by shooting. Ranger’s death causes the family, with its
suppressed recriminations and accumulated resentments, to pass
through the crisis and come out on the other side of grief
stronger and more united.
Brown Glass Windows
is a
beautifully structured book employing techniques of magical
realism—a grittily realistic narrative framed by the spirit
world. The novel is narrated by a spirit of a woman 200 years
old, who watches over her elderly Black friend, Victoria.
Victoria, a wonderfully eccentric character who paints herself
white, striving to be invisible, plays an important role in the
healing of the Everman family.
The novel is also a kind of elegy to the old
Filmore District. As Ranger says, they’ve redeveloped the
neighborhood “into a little doorway to hell,” a comment that
will resonate deeply with readers not only in San Francisco, but
in Hartford, L.A. and other urban centers throughout the
country, where people have lost their once closely-knit
neighborhoods either through urban decay or gentrification, or
both.—Publisher (Curbstone Press)
Here is a novel for people who continue to
walk in the light. Major's voice 'tags' the changes that have
taken place in the African American community over the last
several years. In this book a young artist must learn to sketch
life if he is to understand how to live.
Brown Glass Windows
is a book filled with many colors. The shadows of war and
inner-city violence brings its own hue. devorah major writes the
way Billie Holiday sings. There are blues behind those brown
glass windows. Just ask the spirits that keep reminding us to
listen.—E. Ethelbert Miller, Director of the African
American Resource Center, Howard University
Major has crafted a fine story that
illuminates the hard jagged-edged hostility, sticky sweet love
and powerful weightlessness of the dreams, wishes and regrets of
family... I couldn’t help but be moved.
Brown Glass Windows
is a damn good novel.—Thumper, African American Literary Book Club
Not since Maya
Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings or April
Sinclair’s
Coffee Will Make You Black have I read such
a fluid, relaxed interpretation of African-American community.
Major has painted an exquisit picture of the truths we’ve all
known, without intentionally exploiting the ugliness of their
realities.—San Francisco Weekly
This
unusual urban tale from poet, essayist and novelist Major (An
Open Weave) centers on an African-American family in San
Francisco's rapidly changing Fillmore District. Administering a
heavy dose of magical realism, the narration alternates between
the voice of a 300-year-old ghost of an African slave and a more
traditional third-person viewpoint (although the two often seem
to merge).
The
extended Everman family includes Ranger, a Vietnam vet haunted
by incidents during the war and plagued by drug addiction; his
son, Jamal, known familiarly as Sketch for his artistic talents,
which run deeper than the graffiti he tags on the streets; and
Ranger's pregnant sister, Dawa, who recalls the ever-shifting
history of their neighborhood. When a random act of violence
strikes, their fractured past must be addressed head-on. Young
Jamal, in particular, finds a way to better understand his
father's place in the world, and thus gains a better sense of
himself. Serving as a help line is eccentric neighbor Victoria,
an old woman who paints herself white and communes with the
spirit-narrator.
Some
readers will resist the otherworldly narration and symbolism,
which can feel disjointed and heavy-handed; others will be
intrigued by the depth and history it lends to modern-day San
Francisco, the realities of racial prejudice and, above all, the
many-layered truths of families.—Publisher’s Weekly
This
is Major's second novel after An Open Weave, which was
awarded the Black Caucus of the American Library Association
First Novelist Award. Major has also published two books of
poetry and has just been named San Francisco's poet laureate.
Highly recommended for all libraries.—Mary
Margaret Benson, Library Journal
The
walking wounded are at the heart of devorah major's second
novel. Although the story encompasses a large and colorful
African American family, the focus is on Sketch, a young
graffiti artist, and his Vietnam vet father, Ranger, one of
"those who were killed in battle but did not die until
years later." The Everman family struggles to cope with
Ranger's drug problem and Sketch's frustrated acting out.
Setting
her tale in San Francisco's Fillmore district, major employs
conventional narrative, poetry, and magical realism--some scenes
are narrated by a 300-year-old spirit--to touch on themes of war
and violence, racism, and gentrification. Her prose is lyrical
and vivid, her point-of-view sometimes flitting from character
to character like the camera does in an Altman film.
If
some dialogue is too expository, it's a minor matter, as the
author creates characters we understand and care about. As
Sketch struggles toward manhood and reconciliation with his
father, major builds the youth's graffiti paintings into a
powerful symbol of strength, remembrance, and healing.—Keir
Graff, BookList
Source:
Brown
Glass Windows
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thoughts on freedom
By devorah major
to not want
some say
that is where freedom lies
to be always in the moment
some say that is where freedom lies
there is no freedom some say
some say our world is defined
by one creator who has
determined the rules and
regulations that confine our fate
and only inside those boundaries
and under those laws
can the skeleton of freedom be found
some say freedom has no borders
some say freedom has no form
to be fully alive is freedom some
say
only in death lies freedom some say
death is an eternal reward or
punishment
there is no freedom some say
only a choice of good or evil
freedom some say is the wind
some say freedom is a dream
only those who have never
known freedom
doubt its existence
all others keep trying to know
it again and again
to not want some say
that is where freedom lies
to be always in the moment
some say that is where freedom lies
there is no freedom some say
some say our world is defined
by one creator who has
determined the rules and
regulations that confine our fate
and only inside those boundaries
and under those laws
can the skeleton of freedom be found
some say freedom has no borders
some say freedom has no form
to be fully alive is freedom some
say
only in death lies freedom some say
death is an eternal reward or
punishment
there is no freedom some say
only a choice of good or evil
freedom some say is the wind
some say freedom is a dream
only those who have never
known freedom
doubt its existence
all others keep trying to know
it again and again
Source:
Pambazuka
Tunisian Fire
For Mohammed Bouaz,
the vegetable seller who set
himself on fire
December 17, 2010 in
the Tunisian city of SidiBouZid.
By devorah major
he
wanted
to sell his
just harvested greens
to earn money
buy bread
eat
live
and love
with a humble
but not humbled
dignity
because he could not
find another way
he made of himself
a blazing fire
the scent
of his burning flesh
braids through the winds
of our days
as more and more
people gather
on blocks
and squares
in cities
across nations
seas and continents
women, no less than men
join with children and elders
veiled stand with loose haired
schooled with peasant
strident with quiet
togetherface
armored sentries
horses and tanks
guns and muzzles
gassesand whips
some are wounded
others are killed
but most
stand
climb and reach
push forward
Mohammed’s flames reach
beyond his cooled ashes
each time
the people continue
to gather
and raise our voices
riskour lives
to rage
to rise
together
to have
bread, freedom
dignity
Source:
Pambazuka |
devorah
major is a poet, novelist, and essayist from
San Francisco, where she works as an editor and arts
administrator. Her first poetry publication, traveling women,
a two-poet anthology with Opal Palmer Adisa, was published by
Juke Box Press in 1989. Her work has been published in several
anthologies and magazines, including The Single Mother’s
Companion, Practicing Angels, River Styx, Calalloo and Zyzzyva.
Her book of poetry, street smarts, was published by
Curbstone Press in 1996 and received a PEN Oakland/Josephine
Miles Award. Her first novel, An Open Weave, was
published by Seal Press and was awarded the First Novelist Award
from the American Library Association’s Black Caucus. Her
novel An Open Weave (Seal Press, 1995) sold out (4000
copies). Brown Glass Windows is her second novel.The
Bay Guardian called her fierce/love audio cassette
(with Opal Palmer Adisa) "both passionate and
powerful."
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 |
Super Rich: A Guide to Having it All
By Russell Simmons
Russell Simmons knows firsthand that
wealth is rooted in much more than the
stock
market. True wealth has more to do with
what's in your heart than what's in your
wallet. Using this knowledge, Simmons
became one of America's shrewdest
entrepreneurs, achieving a level of
success that most investors only dream
about. No matter how much material gain
he accumulated, he never stopped lending
a hand to those less fortunate. In
Super Rich, Simmons uses his rare
blend of spiritual savvy and
street-smart wisdom to offer a new
definition of wealth-and share timeless
principles for developing an unshakable
sense of self that can weather any
financial storm. As Simmons says, "Happy
can make you money, but money can't make
you happy." |
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The New Jim Crow
Mass Incarceration in the Age of
Colorblindness
By Michele Alexander
Contrary to the
rosy picture of race embodied in Barack
Obama's political success and Oprah
Winfrey's financial success, legal
scholar Alexander argues vigorously and
persuasively that [w]e have not ended
racial caste in America; we have merely
redesigned it. Jim Crow and legal racial
segregation has been replaced by mass
incarceration as a system of social
control (More African Americans are
under correctional control today... than
were enslaved in 1850). Alexander
reviews American racial history from the
colonies to the Clinton administration,
delineating its transformation into the
war on drugs. She offers an acute
analysis of the effect of this mass
incarceration upon former inmates who
will be discriminated against, legally,
for the rest of their lives, denied
employment, housing, education, and
public benefits. Most provocatively, she
reveals how both the move toward
colorblindness and affirmative action
may blur our vision of injustice: most
Americans know and don't know the truth
about mass incarceration—but her
carefully researched, deeply engaging,
and thoroughly readable book should
change that.—Publishers
Weekly |
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The White Masters of the
World
From
The World and Africa, 1965
By W. E. B. Du Bois
W. E. B. Du Bois’
Arraignment and Indictment of White Civilization
(Fletcher)
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Ancient African Nations
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Negro Digest /
Black World
Browse all issues
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Enjoy!
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The Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan
/
The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
/
Only a Pawn in Their Game
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Thanks America for
Slavery /
George Jackson /
Hurricane Carter
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The Journal of Negro History issues at Project Gutenberg
The
Haitian Declaration of Independence 1804
/
January 1, 1804 -- The Founding of
Haiti
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update 22 December 2011
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