The Language Lane

Over his entire career, poet Quincy Troupe has expressed fascination with the idea of creation and the life cycle. His first volume,...

I have not agreed with John McWhorter on much, particularly regarding his ignorant remarks about the admission policies of specialized...

Colson Whitehead’s The Nickel Boys obviously has much to recommend it. A gripping tale about an African American youth trying to come of...

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 is frequently noted, one person’s freedom fighter is another person’s terrorist. One’s suicide bomber is another’s homicide bomber....

After having the privilege of conversing with Haki Madhubuti and Joanne Gabbin this past Wednesday at the 16th National Black Writers...

Way behind because of personal matters, I wanted to post this last month. These remarks, made when the book first appeared, still ring...

After maneuvering and maneuvering, I finally ran out of shelf space for books at home. Definitely wasn’t going to win that competition...

I have been unsuccessful in my attempts to eulogize Andrew Vachss, my brother, mentor, and biggest supporter for more than 50 years, who...

Seems the Color Purple movie is a quiet staple of holiday-season television. Many see it as an inspirational story of a journey to...

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...

“Wonder how Rittenhouse gon do with the whole Stevie thing?” “Semple, you know I try to understand you the best that I can. But I am...

I never tire of teaching Their Eyes Were Watching God because I’m always interested in characters who emerge from relative voicelessness...

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...

To illustrate the point of textual conversations in American literature, I had students read Toni Morrison’s Playing in the Dark:...

As we know, somebody will always come to your party, eat up as much food as possible, kill all the liquor, and then tell you how you...

Semple hadn’t talked to his good friend in a while. Texting felt too clumsy, so he went old-school and called him on the phone, land line...

I mentioned in the last post that I once commented about the need for a literary movement for Larry Holmes. I thought those remarks, made...

As Manny Pacquiao nears the end of his boxing career, we are hearing the story of his greatness more and more. Hype, after all, is what...

When Leroy Howard Dewer, Jr. hit Senior Lieutenant Richard Maroney with a two-piece in A yard at Attica Penitentiary on the afternoon of...