E. Lynn Harris Died From Heart Attack!

The Atlanta Journal Constitution reports that author E. Lynn Harris died from a heart attack last week while on a business trip in Los Angeles. The coroner's office reports that Harris suffered from “hypertensive ateriosclerotic cardio-vascular disease,” and had a history of diabetes. Harris was famous for his books about gay African American Men and at the time of his death was negotiating television rights for his books. Prayers go out to the family.

The "Street Lit" Book Craze

I admit that sometimes I'm slow to the game, but now I know the name of the genre of books that celebrate the degradation of the urban culture. It's called "Street Lit" according to an article from the Philadelphia Inquirer.

The article profiles, Khalil Robinson, the self described, "Philly Man", who peddles the books in downtown Philadelphia. The books, whose covers typically display scantily clad women, veer to the core of the hip hop culture in content. The genre, also has become a very lucrative profession for black authors who choose to go the self publishing route, and become their own distributors of the books. According to Robinson, "It's become a million dollar business".

Philly native, Teri Woods, reportedly sold more than a million of her "Street Lit" themed books before signing a multi-book deal with Warner Books, and this weeks her new release "True To The Game III" debuted at number 14 on the New York Times best seller list.

The genre has come under attack recently, by none other than one of it's godfathers, Omar Tyree. Tyree laments the audiences acceptance of "denigration over progression".

I really hate to knock any author's hustle. If there is an audience for these books, which there obviously is, more power to them for having an outlet for their creativity. If record labels and hip hop artists can become rich from music that often denigrates, why can't book authors? There's no need to choose what forms of denigration are acceptable.

Read From Source...

The Beautiful Struggle

Tavis Smiley's PBS talk show is one of the better talk shows on television. Yesterday he interviewed Paul Coates and Ta-Nehisi Coates. Paul Coates is the father who is a Vietnam Vet, and started his own publishing company from his basement. He also worked at Howard University where he was able to send 5 of his 7 kids to school for free because he worked at the school. Ta-Nehisi is the son, and author of the book, "The Beautiful Struggle" he talked openly on the show about navigating through the streets of Baltimore during the initial stages of Crack and the fact that he made it through with the guidance of a forceful father who stressed education. This is not a book review, but I plan to purchase the book, and offer a review later. The link at the top is to Ta-Nehisi's blog on Amazon.