Black Market Reads

On this episode, a reading and interview with poet, essayist, educator and avid gardener Ross Gay.  Ross Gay is the author of three books of poetry: Against Which; Bringing the Shovel Down; and Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude, which was awarded the 2015 National Book Critics Circle Award and the 2016 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award. The Book of Delights, released earlier this year , is his first collec...

On this episode of Black Market Reads, the acclaimed poet Danez Smith. Smith is the author of two award-winning collections of poetry: 2014's [insert] boy which was awarded the winner of the Kate Tufts Discovery Award and the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry; and their most recent collection, Don't Call Us Dead, published by Graywolf Press in 2017, which was winner of the Forward Prize for Bes...

In this episode we honor the late Ntozake Shange -- poet, author, playwright, artist. Her seminal work, the choreo-poem For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/ When the Rainbow is Enuf inspired generations of black women to see themselves differently and to question structures of power that tried to limit their boundless potential. The episode features excerpts of Shange's 2009 conversation...

On this episode, Lissa talks with poet Julian Randall  about his impressive debut collection Refuse . Julian  is a Living, Queer, Black poet from Chicago. He has received fellowships from Callaloo, BOAAT and the Watering Hole and was the 2015 National College Slam (CUPSI) Best Poet, as well as being the recipient a Pushcart Prize. Julian is the curator of Winter Tangerine Review's Lineage of Mirro...

Education, justice, innocence, and public policy on this very special episode. First, Lissa speaks with civil right activist, and now author, DeRay Mckesson about his new book On the Other Side of Freedom: the Case for Hope . Then we revisit our interviews with Dr. Artika Tyner and Alexs Pate discussing their work toward greater equity and justice in education.   (0:00) DeRay Mckesson became a lea...

On this bonus episode, we're sharing a series of interviews we recorded live from the 2018 Twin Cities Book Festival at the Minnesota State Fair grounds. Interviews with: Archie Givens (The Givens Foundation), Mary Taris (Publisher, Strive Publishing), Donna Gingery (author), LaBelle Nambangi (author), Amber James (author), Lehman Riley (author), Jasmine Brett Stringer (author), A. Raphael Johnson...

In the Season Four Premier Lissa speaks with award-winning poet and spoken word artist Patricia Smith. Smith is the author of eight books of poetry, most recently Incendiary Art which was awarded the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award, Los Angeles Times Book Prize, NAACP image award, and was a finalist for the 2018 Pulitzer Prize. She is a professor of English at the College of Staten Island and in the M...

On this episode, Lissa Jones sits down with author A. Rafael Johnson. He was named a Kimbilio Fellow in African American Fiction in 2014. Last year he published his first novel, The Through, which was a finalist for the Minnesota Book Award in Fiction. Johnson co-owns  TerraLuna Collaborative , a social justice-focused consulting firm based in Minneapolis. He has co-produced Writer's Resist – Twin...

Dr. Artika Tyner, educator, author, speaker and advocate, speaks with host Lissa Jones about what led her to dedicate her career to fighting for justice and empowering others to be leaders in their communities. She shares with us why she decided to focus her efforts on children, writing the book Justice Makes a Difference: The Story of Miss Freedom Fighter, Esquire, and how traveling to Africa has...

In this episode, recorded at a live event at Jefferson Community School in Minneapolis, MN, Lissa Jones hosts a fascinating conversation with Sonya Renee Tayor the activist and author at the center of the global movement The Body Is Not an Apology, which advocates radical self-love as tool for political resistance and social justice. Sonya is an activist, award-wining performance poet, radical exe...

Desiree Cooper, author of the award-winning short fiction collection Know the Mother  talks with host Lissa Jones about the complexities of motherhood and the ways that motherhood interacts, and at times conflicts, with the many other roles that women take on.  Desiree Cooper is a Pulitzer-prize winning journalist, community activist, and a former attorney. She was also a founding board member of...

In this episode, Lissa Jones talks with writer Mary Moore Easter about history, family, poetry, and her newly published poetry collection titled The Body of the World (Mad Hat Press).  Copies of The Body of the World can be purchased here: https://madhat-press.com/collections/our-books/products/the-body-of-the-world-by-mary-moore-easter

On this episode, host Lissa Jones talks with author and educator Alexs Pate. Pate Is the author of five novels, including the New York Times Bestseller Amistad, as well as a collection of poetry, and the non-fiction work In the Heart of the Beat: The Poetry of Rap. He edited the 2015 anthology Blues Vision: African American Writing from Minnesota which highlights Black Minnesota writers of the las...

Michael Starburry is a screenwriter and actor known for the film The Inevitable Defeat of Mister and Pete , which starred Jennifer Hudson and Anthony Mackie, and the animated series Legends of Chamberlain Heights which has run for two seasons on Comedy Central and for which Michael voices one of the characters. In 2014, First Lady Michelle Obama screened The Inevitable Defeat of Mister & Pete at t...

Host Lissa Jones sits down with Dr. Damani Phillips. Dr. Phillips is an active performer, educator and composer. He currently serves as associate professor of jazz Studies and African-American studies at the University of Iowa, where he teaches applied jazz saxophone, directs jazz combos and teaches courses in African-American music, African-American Culture, jazz education and improvisation. In 2...

In this episode, Lissa Jones speaks with Twin Cites based actress, comedian, and educator Joy Dolo of Blackout Improv. Dolo is a founding member of Blackout, Minnesota's first and only all-Black improv ensemble whose performances use sketch comedy, improv, and stand-up to tackle current events, race, and social justice issues.  This podcast is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a Min...

In the season three premier, host Lissa Jones sits down with retired Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Alan Page to discuss his children's books, advocacy work, and optimism. Justice Alan Page is widely recognized for his groundbreaking legal career, as well as for his time in the NFL. Page played for the Minnesota Vikings and the Chicago Bears before his retirement to practice law full time; he was...

Author and Historian Duchess Harris returns to Black Market Reads, this time to speak with host Lissa Jones to discuss her newest book Race and Policing which will be published in September by Abdo Publishing. Duchess and Lissa discuss the complex history of race, policing, and force in america, and Duchess shares exciting news about her upcoming collection from Abdo. This episode also features 'B...

In this episode, host Lissa Jones speaks with Erica Armstrong Dunbar about her recent work, Never Caught: The Washington's Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave Ona Judge.  Dunbar is an author and historian focusing on the experiences of African American women in the context of slavery, racial injustice, and gender inequality. Today, she is a professor of History at Rutgers University.

In this episode, host Lissa Jones talks with author/musician James McBride at Minneapolis' Ivy Hotel. McBride is the author of five books including Miracle at St. Anna, which McBride adapted for the Spike Lee-directed film of the same name released in 2008. His most recent novel, The Good Lord Bird, won the National Book Award in 2013 and inspired 'A talking music book,' combining pieces from the...

A frequent contributor to the opinion pages of both Twin Cities dailies as well as the local Black press, Dr. Mahmoud El-Kati has published dozens of monographs and pamphlets, and has appeared on Minnesota Public Radio, and at a host of community-based conferences and events. From 1970 to 2003, Professor El-Kati taught many generations of Macalester College students in courses such as "The Black E...

In this episode, Host Lissa Jones sits down with Minnesota writers Carolyn Holbrook and David Lawrence Grant to discuss the creative process and how the past informs their work and activism. Holbrook and Grant each contributed an essay to the collection A Good Time for the Truth: Race in Minnesota which was published by Minnesota Historical Society Press in 2016. For more information, and to purch...

In this episode, host Lissa Jones explores what it means to love the skin you're in. First, she speaks with author Sharon G. Flake, whose 1998 novel, The Skin I'm In,  influenced and inspired a generation of young women. Then, Lissa talks with Twin Cities artist Robin Hickman, who created a curriculum inspired by Flake's novel, and curator Hawona Sullivan Janzen about "Doll Power: Black Dolls and...

Duchess Harris's grandmother was one of a small group of black women who worked as human computers for NASA in the 1950s, and who have largely been left out space-race narratives--until now. In this episode, Harris sits down with host Lissa Jones to discuss her research on the subject, as well as her personal connection to it, and the importance of exposing these hidden narratives to mainstream hi...

In this episode we honor the work of playwright and author J. California Cooper with a selection of recordings from her appearance at the 2011 Givens Literary Luncheon sponsored by the Delta Sigma Theta sorority. Our host for this episode is Beverly Cottman, storyteller and teaching artist, who was at the event. Ms. Cooper was born in Berkeley, California in 1931.  She was the author of 17 plays a...