“Parents should conduct their arguments in quiet, respectful tones, but in a foreign language. You’d be surprised what an inducement that is to the education of children.”
Excerpted from: Sherrin, Ned, ed. The Oxford Dictionary of Humorous Quotations. New York: Oxford University Press. 1996.
“Alice Childress: (1916-1994) U.S. playwright, novelist, and actress. She grew up in Harlem and studied drama with the American Negro Theater, where she wrote, directed, and starred in her first play, Florence (produced 1949). Her other plays, some featuring music, include Trouble in Mind (produced 1955), String (1969), The African Garden (1971), and Gullah (1984). She was also a successful writer of children’s books, including A Hero Ain’t Nothing But a Sandwich (1973).”
Excerpted from: Stevens, Mark A., Ed. Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Encyclopedia. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, 2000.
“Audre (Geraldine) Lorde: (1934-1992) U.S. poet and essayist. Born in New York City to West Indian parents, she worked as a librarian until 1968, when he began to write full-time. She is best known for her passionate writing on lesbian feminism and racial issues, including Cables to Rage (1970), New York Head Shop and Museum (1974), and The Black Unicorn (1978), often called her finest work. Her battle with cancer inspired The Cancer Journals (1980) and A Burst of Light (1988, National Book Award).”
Excerpted from: Stevens, Mark A., Ed. Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Encyclopedia. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, 2000.
“When I search for Man in the technique and the style of Europe, I see only a succession of negations of man, and an avalanche of murders.”
The Wretched of the Earth “Concerning Violence” (1961) (translation by Constance Farrington)
Excerpted from: Schapiro, Fred, ed. The Yale Book of Quotations. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.
Posted in Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences
Tagged black history, philosophy/religion, professional development
“Brown Girl, Brownstones: (1959) A novel by Paule Marshall, The title refers to the rows of Victorian brownstone houses that abound in Fulton Park, Brooklyn, where Selina Boyce, the main character, lives. Selina is the daughter of Barbadian immigrants who moved to the U.S. twenty years earlier. After two decades of labor, mostly as domestics and factory workers, they, along with other Barbadians, have moved out of a cockroach-infested nieghborhood to better environs, with dreams of owning their own house. The Boyces attempt to acquire one of the brownstones and rise in the eyes of other middle-class Barbadians, However, Selina’s father, Deighton, has a vision of a perfect house he would consider living in, the kind of house in which whites would want to live. The money to acquire a house is obtained through inheritance, but because the house he wants is not available, Deighton decides to spend every bit of the money on a shopping spree on Fifth Avenue. The dream of the house is abandoned as the area is picked by inner-city developers for a major project.
Meanwhile, Selina has spiritually grown away from her family. She goes to college and copes with racism, temporarily transcending it through the medium of dance. However, the effect is short-lived: at a party following her stage performance, hosted by a rich white family on the Upper East Side, she begins to feel the pressure of racism again, through the unconsciously racist comments that are passed socially. But Selina emerges at the end of the novel as a much stronger person, having discovered herself through art.”
Excerpted from: Murphy, Bruce, ed. Benet’s Reader’s Encyclopedia, Fourth Edition. New York: Harper Collins, 1996.
“Ralph Waldo Ellison: (1914-1993) American novelist, essayist, short-story writer, and critic. Ellison was recognized as one of the most influential and accomplished American authors of the twentieth century. He is best-known for his highly acclaimed first novel, Invisible Man, the story of a young African-American man’s painful efforts to find identity and recognition in a society that sees only his superficial racial characteristics. Recipient of the National Book Award for fiction, Invisible Man is regarded as a masterpiece for its complex treatment of racial repression and betrayal.
Ellison’s first collection of essays, Shadow and Act (1964), covers over two decades of reviews, criticism, and interviews concerning such subjects as literature, music, art, and race. Going to the Territory (1986) echoes many of these concerns. Ellison’s short stories, written in the 1940s and 1950s, are often anthologized. He taught and lectured widely in both America and Europe and was Albert Schweitzer Professor of Humanities at New York University (1970-79). Ellison was at work on another novel, which had once already been destroyed by a fire at his home, at the time of his death.”
Excerpted from: Murphy, Bruce, ed. Benet’s Reader’s Encyclopedia, Fourth Edition. New York: Harper Collins, 1996.
“[Of slave songs:] Every tone was a testimony against slavery, and a prayer to God for deliverance from chains.”
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass ch. 2 (1845)
Excerpted from: Schapiro, Fred, ed. The Yale Book of Quotations. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.
Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference
Tagged black history, music, united states history
“Wayne Shorter: (1933-2023) U.S. saxophonist and composer. Born in Newark, New Jersey, he studied at New York University, He played with Art Blakey’s group 1959-64, acting as its musical director, then joined Miles Davis’s remarkable mid-1960s group, including Herbie Hancock, bassist Ron Carter, and drummer Tony Williams. In 1970, he and Joe Zawinul formed Weather Report, the most significant jazz-rock ‘fusion’ band of the 1970s, with bassist Jaco Pastorius. He has written many distinctive jazz standards.”
Excerpted from: Stevens, Mark A., Ed. Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Encyclopedia. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, 2000.
“Alice (Malsenior) Walker: (b.1944) U.S. writer. Born in Eatonton, Georgia, Walker moved to Mississippi after attending Spelman and Sarah Lawrence colleges and became involved with the civil-rights movement. Her works are noted for their insightful treatment of African-American culture. Her third and most popular novel, The Color Purple (1982; Pulitzer Prize; film, 1985), depicts a black woman’s struggle for racial and sexual equality. Her later novels include The Temple of My Familiar (1989) and Possessing the Secret of Joy (1992). She has also written essays, some collected in In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens (1983); several books of poetry; short stories; and children’s books.
Excerpted from: Stevens, Mark A., Ed. Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Encyclopedia. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, 2000.
[Addendum: The Color Purple was filmed a second time, in 2023; this second film adaptation was based on the Broadway musical of The Color Purple.]
Sometime not long after I returned to New York in 2021, I attended a lecture a the New York Public Library (the main on 5th Avenue and 42nd Street, with the lions Patience and Fortitude at the front) on Arturo Schomburg. When I lived in Harlem, I walked by his namesake, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, every morning on my way to work. I also regularly stopped in to view exhibits there as well.
Therefore, Arturo Schomburg has been something of a presence in my intellectual life since 2004.
There are two biographies of Arturo Schomburg: Diasporic Blackness: The Life and Times of Arturo Schomburg, by Vanessa Valdes or Arturo Schomburg: Black Bibliophile and Collector by Elinor Des Verney Sinette. I read the latter
One thing that I did pick up on at the lecture and in Ms Sinette’s book, however, was the existence of this article from the man himself. This is a PDF of an article “Arthur” (one thing I learned about Schomburg is that very little is known about him, including which given version of his given name he was using at any time) Schomburg wrote on Black History, “The Negro Digs Up His History.” Nota bene, please, that I have only posted the reading; next year at this time (I already have the basic structure assembled) you’ll find a fully realized lesson plan to accompany this article.
If you find typos in these documents, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.
 | A Measurement Conver… on An Elegantly Simple Cooking Co… |
| A Measurement Conver… on The Weekly Text, October 25, 2… |
 | markstextterminal on Cree |
 | panzer046a139293db on Cree |
| markstextterminal on Cree |
Mark's Text Terminal 
You must be logged in to post a comment.