Quote of the Week

The price of hating other human beings is loving oneself less.

DC's Poetry Corner

by D. C. Cowan

Reach out your hand;
Reach out your hand;
Try to understand.
Can't you see somebody needs you;
You'll never know when you'll need someone too.

Reach out your hand,
Reach out your hand.
Try not to reprimand
Look beneath the body, the mind;
Search the soul and see what you'll find.

#poetry

DC's Poetry Corner

What's important to you?
by D. C. Cowan

What's important to you
As you live day by day?
I ask you,
What's important to you,
As you go on your merry way?
I wonder,
What matters to you?
What could be on your mind?
I wonder,
What lesson did you learn?
What truth did you find?

http://dccowanauthors.blogspot.com/

#poem, #author

Africana History Fact

Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola

(1937-1998) Nigerian businessman, presidential candidate, and political prisoner.

On June 12, 1993, the popular businessman Abiola won a long-awaited presidential election in Nigeria, only to have the country's military leader, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, annul the election results.  When Abiola declared himself the country's legitimate leader a year later, Babingida's successor Gen. Sani Abacha, jailed him for treason.  As a political prisoner, Abiola became the rallying symbol for Nigerians' democratic aspirations.

Source: Africana, The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience
http://dccowanauthors.blogspot.com/
#African #history

DC's Poetry Corner

I Had a Dream

I had a dream last night
Of how to live right.
It gave me a brand new start,
Now i know there's a God.
Deep in my heart I know,
My Jesus loves me so
As long as I live the life;
He'll ease the pain, sorrow and strife.

Poem by D. C. Cowan

African American Book Review

 

Dark Genesis (The Darkling Trilogy)

Synopsis: Life for a female slave is one of hardship and unspeakable sorrow, something Luna knows only too well. But not even she could have foreseen the terror that would befall her one sultry Mississippi evening in the summer of 1807.  On her way back from a visit to see the African woman, a witch who has the herbs Luna needs to rid her of her abusive master’s child, she attracts the attention of a deadly being that lusts for blood. Forcibly removed from everything she knows by this tormented otherworldly creature, she is sure she will be dead by sunrise. Dark Genesis is a love story set against the savage world of slavery in which a young woman who has been dehumanised by its horrors finds the courage to love, and in doing so, reclaims her humanity.

5 out of 5 Stars WOW, May 9, 2013, By Romance Novels in Color (USA) 

I never have been a big fan of historicals or period pieces and usually I find life before the electronic era less than appealing to my mental palate. (I can't even imagine using a chamber pot, an outhouse, or having to draw baths. No microwaves, indoor plumbing or TV?) But when I finished Dark Genesis the only word I could come up with to describe it was...WOW.  Is this story worth reading? The only answer to that is a resounding yes. I sat in front of my laptop and refused to close the lid of my PC until this story was finished. Honestly, I'm a Nook girl and the fact that I had to use my computer was of no consequence, even when I was forced to chain myself to the wall to charge in the middle of the story. This is the first in a trilogy and I will be reading the other two as soon as I can get my hands on them.

-Reviewed by: Jennifer

3 out of 5 Stars DIFFERENT, March 23, 2013,By Rosa L. Ferguson (Olive Branch, MS) 

A slave and a vampire love story...I hadn't expected that when I first started reading this book. And it actually worked. I enjoyed the story line. However, after all of the action, drama and excitement on the plantation, the relationship between Avery and Luna became a little mundane. It went on for far too long without much to keep my attention. I continued reading because I kept expecting something to happen. By the time the relationship took a physical turn, I had grown quite bored with the two of them. When the action finally picked up again I was ready for the book to be over. The ending seemed a little rushed and a little discombobulated. I was also bothered by the writing of Luna's journal...it was written so eloquently by someone who at first couldn't read or write...once she learned to do both why didn't her speaking change to match the level of her writing? I would read the other two books in this trilogy just to see what happens but I hope when I do they stay action packed.

Source: Amazon.com

Africana History Fact

 

Ralph David Abernathy

(1926-1990), American minister and civil rights leader who organized nonviolent resistance to segregation and succeeded Martin Luther King, Jr. as president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC).

Ralph Abernathy was born on March 11, 1926, in Linden Alabama, to William and Louivery Abernathy.  He earned a B. S. from Alabama Stage College and was ordained a Baptist minister in 1948.  In 1951, he received an M.A. in sociology and became pastor of First Baptist church in Montgomery, Alabama.  He and Martin Luther King, Jr. led the successful boycott of the Montgomery bus system in 1955, protesting segregated public transportation.

In 1957 Abernathy helped King found the Southern Christian Leadership Council (SCLC) to coordinate nonviolent resistance to segregation.  After King's assassination in 1968, Abernathy served as SCLC president until he resigned in 1977.


Source: Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience, (1999)  Edited by, Appiah, Kwame Anthony, & Gates, Henry Louis.