Detail from artwork for Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's film On the Shoulders of Giants . (courtesy of Union Productions and Iconomy) The celebration of major historic milestones is a favorite pastime in pretty much every culture. This year, 2011, in the United States many are commemorating the 150th Anniversary of the American Civil War. That means four years from now numerous festivities will take place to observe the same anniversary for Jubilee Day, or the liberation of America’s slaves. In addition, countries around the world are currently honoring the first United Nations-declared International Year for People of African Descent. Flip the calendar forward by almost a decade and we find ourselves approaching another major milestone: the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the Harlem Renaissance. To read this article by Aberjhani in full please click the following link : The Approaching 100th Anniversary of the Harlem Renaissance

Cover the NUL's annual State of the Black Union publication . Please click here for the complete story: Countdown of 10 great moments in 2010 (part 7): Barack Obama and The NUL - National African-American Art | Examiner.com

The late great jazz composer and actress Abbey Lincoln . For the full story please click the link: Countdown of 10 great moments in 2010 (part 6): The new ancestors - National African-American Art | Examiner.com

Celebrated playwright Ntozake Shange (photo by Stephen Lovekin) For complete story please click the link: Countdown of 10 Great Moments in 2010 (part 4): Cultured Ladies, Political Gents - National African-American Art | Examiner.com

The Wisdom of W.E.B. Du Bois (Kensington Books) Countdown of 10 great moments in African-American history 2010 starts today - National African-American Art | Examiner.com

(photo of Susan L. Taylor by Marc Brasz) When the NAACP in 2006 presented author and social activist Susan L. Taylor with its President’s Award, the organization publicly acknowledged what readers of Essence® Magazine had been experiencing for nearly four decades. Namely, that Ms. Taylor is among the most effective, dynamic, and beloved human resources on the planet. In All About Love (Urban Books) a rich of harvest of writings from Taylor ’s “In the Spirit” column, it’s easy to see why. A collection of more than 80 empowering editorials and three bonus dialogues, All About Love is all about life as we know, live, dread, treasure, and live it. Unlike too many book collections of short essays or creative nonfiction, this is not one aimed at demonstrating the intellectual profundity or virtuosity of the author. These are the observations, emotions, realizations and affirmations by which generations of women––and sometimes men––have mapped out the course of their daily lives and es

Savannah, Ga., USA––The young adult novel, Blood Kin A Savannah Story , written by Robert T.S. Mickles and featuring a foreword by Aberjhani, debuted at number four on ESSENCE Magazine’s Best Seller Book List for paperback fiction in the March 2008 “Hollywood Issue” of the publication. A taxi driver and native of Savannah , Georgia , Mickles said his surprise best-selling novel is based on stories passed down to him by, “My grandmother, Beulah Tremble. She was born not too long after slavery ended in the United States and her parents had actually been slaves. She lived to be 100 years old and at the time when she passed on to me the stories that had been passed on to her, I really had no idea what a powerful legacy they would turn out to be.” The novel takes place during the Civil War and tells the story of two best friends, one black and one white, who d

“All this life and love and strife and failure––is it the twilight of nightfall or the flush of some faint-dawning day?” –– The Wisdom of WEB Du Bois The first half of the twentieth century in the United States and much of the world was an era when racial and ethnic differences determined even the most uncontrived actions. Stepping into a restaurant, boarding a train, engaging in sexual relationships, or running or voting for a public office were all ruled by notions of differences between groups. Race remained an element that tempted society in general and historians in particular to half-truths, shortsightedness, and outright falsifications. However, as W.E.B. Du Bois noted in his many observations on the nature of history, it was important to realize that the record of human interaction was much more than an account of entanglements between people with varying shades of skin color. It was also the log of humankind’s ability or inability to rise above age-old phobi

Savannah, Ga.––The Jepson Center for the Arts in Savannah, Georgia, will feature one ground-breaking artist from the present and another from the past when it presents simultaneous exhibits of art by Luther E. Vann and photographs, taken by the late Nickolas Muray, of legendary Mexican painter Frida Kahlo. The one-man show of Vann’s work, titled “Elemental,” will be the first by the artist at the Jepson Center and will run from April 16 to August 17, 2008 . The Kahlo exhibit is titled “Through the Lens of Nickolas Muray,” and will run from April 16 to June 15, 2008 . “Kahlo’s imagination and the freedom she allowed herself to express it is what I admire most about her work,” said Vann. “I also appreciate the energy of surrealism that you find in some of her images. The fact that my art is hanging at the same time as Muray’s photographs of her make me feel like I’m in good company and I hope she feels the same way [smiles].” Many of the paintings scheduled to hang in Vann’s “E