The Language Lane

“I have not seen you in a few days, Semple.” “Been holed up at my nephew’s apartment,” replied Semple as he slid into a familiar seat at the bar. He had me on the Internet.“ “What?” “Yeah, man. You can get a lot and get it quick. I’m trying to catch up with that fancy education you got.” “It is readily apparent to me, Semple, that you do not have much catching up to do, if any.” “Oh, but I do,” Semple responded authoritatively, as he ordered his favorite rye and cola. “See, y

On the anniversary of the beginning of Kristallnacht, the anti-Jewish rampage in the Third Reich from November 9-10, 1938, which left hundreds of Jewish institutions destroyed and approximately 30,000 Jewish males on the way to concentration camps, I listened to a highly respected Jewish Studies scholar discuss the history of anti-Semitism. Although hatred of Jews had transpired for centuries, the term “anti-Semite” was popularized by Wilhelm Marr in 1879 as the name for the

America’s favorite word echoed throughout the hallowed Ethel Barrymore Theatre this past weekend during the performance of August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson. Or was it Wilson’s? About halfway through the show, directed by LaTanya Richardson Jackson, I asked a fellow attendee and colleague if Wilson had that many “niggers” in his script. I’m not prudish about the word “nigger” and employ it myself, sometimes in published writing. I am even desensitized to the word (almost) when

We are not ones to hold grudges. We have always sided with Antigone on such matters. In that spirit, we inaugurate the Ashli Babbit Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Understanding of the Power of Persuasive Language. As you may recall, Babbit, an Air Force veteran and former supporter of Barack Obama, was shot and killed by a police officer on January 6, 2021, as she helped to lay siege to the United States Capitol building when she and other Donald Trump supporters a

Supreme Team, the limited series directed by Nas and Peter Scalettar for Showtime, is mostly a strange effort. Fascination with the infamous crew persists among many---and count me in that number. I get why Nas would don a director’s hat and tell a story, no matter how much it has been recycled, that was formative for him. But he proves to be as lackluster a director as he was as the character Sincere in Belly. All-time great rapper. However, you don’t get dynamism or depth o

On the seventy-seventh anniversary of his birth, I recall the stunning epic poem, Jazz in Jail, by Louis Reyes Rivera. Robin Kelley called it “one of this century’s great works of art.” In tribute, I post the foreword I wrote for the poem’s publication in 2016, four years after Rivera’s passing. Find the poem!! Steeped in discipline and touched by genius, Louis Reyes Rivera has given us an African-Amerindian lyrical and visionary epic, Jazz in Jail. He was, as he would term i

Over his entire career, poet Quincy Troupe has expressed fascination with the idea of creation and the life cycle. His first volume, after all, is titled Embryo and reflects his preoccupation with real and symbolic birth waters, the blood of existence, the passage of time, the bones of death (you could always read one of his books in a cemetery and feel right at home), spirits, souls. In the title poem, he writes, “germinating embryo/sprung African shades of ancestors/flung f

I have not agreed with John McWhorter on much, particularly regarding his ignorant remarks about the admission policies of specialized high schools in New York City (discussion for another day). But he raises valid issues in “Don’t Sleep: Linguistically, Black Americans Can Walk and Chew Gum at the Same Time,” his New York Times editorial of May 3. Well, what McWhorter’s title announces that we can accomplish, we, of course, can. This brings us to his objection regarding a pa

Colson Whitehead’s The Nickel Boys obviously has much to recommend it. A gripping tale about an African American youth trying to come of age amid the southern, early-1960s-version of American white supremacy, it represents a powerful addition to Whitehead’s oeuvre and to African American literature and American literature overall. Told in a sparse style, the novel is nonetheless richly allusive and artfully introduces you to its family. As in almost any novel by Morrison or R

Fred Foss probably won’t get a birthday tribute on radio as do many other jazz musicians. But he deserves a tribute from us. See, Freddy, as we called him, was from the block in Corona, Queens. He always seemed to say something you could use and by some accounts was the best lefthanded stickball player in history. He was introduced to the music through a record collection held by a friend’s father. I didn’t know that side of him back then. He told me the story after we reconn

As is frequently noted, one person’s freedom fighter is another person’s terrorist. One’s suicide bomber is another’s homicide bomber. Such is the entanglement of ideology, language, and battles, a dynamic perhaps best summarized in the Guardian during the First Gulf War thirty-one years ago. For example, one side has a military, the other a war machine. One side has reporting guidelines, the other censorship. One side has press briefings, the other propaganda. The missiles o

After having the privilege of conversing with Haki Madhubuti and Joanne Gabbin this past Wednesday at the 16th National Black Writers Conference, I have decided to post the closing paragraphs of an unpublished essay about the trajectory of Madhubuti’s nonfiction work. In 2016, Haki Madhubuti published his most sweeping political statement, Taking Bullets: Terrorism and Black Life in Twenty-First Century America Confronting White Nationalism, Supremacy, Privilege, Plutocracy a

Way behind because of personal matters, I wanted to post this last month. These remarks, made when the book first appeared, still ring true for me. Review May We Forever Stand: A History of the Black National Anthem is a thoroughly engrossing read. Imani Perry’s exploration of the origin, evolution, and resonance of this fabled song by James Weldon Johnson and Rosamond Johnson contributes mightily to our understanding of Black cultural and political development from the early

After maneuvering and maneuvering, I finally ran out of shelf space for books at home. Definitely wasn’t going to win that competition with the library. So to clear space for any new works, I figured I had to donate some of the old. Or so it seemed. The very first shelf was a problem. I couldn’t let go of anything written by Du Bois. Some sort of third consciousness would have to kick in for that to happen. Besides, he has so much that I still need to consult. Neither is Chin

I have been unsuccessful in my attempts to eulogize Andrew Vachss, my brother, mentor, and biggest supporter for more than 50 years, who passed away December 27. Fortunately, voluminous words in public spaces indicate his phenomenal achievements, though he was mainly about the work and not much about garnering praise. Andrew would say just be sure to make your ripple in the pond, and the rest will sort itself out. I think the poet Vallejo wrote something to the effect that “t

Seems the Color Purple movie is a quiet staple of holiday-season television. Many see it as an inspirational story of a journey to selfhood. The frenzied controversy of bygone years, especially in the immediate aftermath of the holiday-season release in movie theaters in 1985, is hardly known to new generations of viewers. They must dig in the archives to discover the hot takes on the Phil Donahue Show, in the New Republic, in scores of newspapers, and at literary sessions su

While Coop and I were talking about my recent post on the Class of 1953, we mentioned several New York City backcourt men we admired back in the day, namely, Dean Meminger, Tiny Archibald, and Charlie Scott, all born in 1948, all playground legends, all members of NBA championship teams, all actors in each other’s stories. So I’m thinking that these facts are the core of another documentary. Dean Meminger (5/13/1948--8/23/2013) Although a native of South Carolina, Dean “The D

I never tire of teaching Their Eyes Were Watching God because I’m always interested in characters who emerge from relative voicelessness to become powerful language users. This is the trajectory of Janie, who has little say as her grandmother pushes her toward the well-to-do Logan Killicks and into a marriage of (in)convenience. She escapes that marriage, while still a teenager, by running off with husband number two, who appears to be kinder than the man who demanded her hum

I start by apologizing to my good friends Glenn Cooper and the late Leroy Charles. Both were born in 1953 and were very good high school basketball players in New York City. But when I think of their age peers---and my idea for an ESPN 30 for 30---I don’t consider them. I think of the intersecting narratives of Mel Utley, Fly Williams, Larry Fogle, Phil Sellers, and World B. Free. You could have found numerous scouts to claim that each of these players possessed the most pote

To illustrate the point of textual conversations in American literature, I had students read Toni Morrison’s Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination. In addition, I had them read some of the novels that Morrison writes at length about, namely, Willa Cather’s Sapphira and the Slave Girl, Edgar Allan Poe’s The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, and Ernest Hemingway’s To Have and Have Not. They understood Morrison’s idea about an Africanist presence