The 40th annual american book awards. I say it is very appropriate that we are holding this ceremony on the day of the dead. In San Francisco. And in california, and at the end of the west. Not just geographically mind you, you go any further west, you are in the east. Far east. So just this last month, afghanistan turned 18. I say its you say is going to vote . Congressional budget for every 24 hours the war cost hundred and 74 million. So in a city named for st. Francis, who city fathers and mothers now treated citizens as if they were merely detritus of capitalism, is trying these big two. And if state named for a black lesbian amazon clean of the islamic faith took up on that, but these are just the names that we know right now. Because there are monday names for this place became long before any of us were here and there will be monday names to come. In fact the origin of those names came from a group of people who arrived from youre up are increasingly starting to up here within
The book, those words together. This is nonprofit, funded exclusively through donations. One of the ways to help us through this kind of programming is through the friends of fall for the book. To learn more, please visit that web site again. We ask that you, please, remember to silence your cell phone. And thank you in advance for filling out a survey which will help fall for the book improve the festival in the future. Thank you to our main sponsor, african and africanamerican studies. So were pleased to have here Mary Louise Patterson and Jeffrey Stewart, two writers who examine key figures of the harlem renaissance, Langston Hughes and alain locke respectively. Dr. Mary Louise Patterson explores the relationship that her family but particularly her mother had with Langston Hughes, and in the new negro, the life of alain locke, Jeffrey Stewart chronicles the education and career of this central figure in the harlem renaissance. Its important to Say Something about the subjects that
Manifest. And it was called soap operas because Soap Companies sponsored the shows. So thats how the soap opera title came about. Yeah. Durham, he also wrote for the chicago defender. Thats an interesting story, particularly his firing and how they had i dont know if they were the first also, when you talked about the black Insurance Company that couldnt get it couldnt get funding to there was a show that he did, and the script basically was about this Insurance Company in, i believe it was in philadelphia. Im not sure. But the bottom line was, when this gentleman went to get money to refinance the building this was during the depression they assessed the building that this Insurance Company was in. And this was one of the Major Insurance Companies for africanamericans at the time. And he thought he could get maybe a 50,000 loan to tide him over through the depression. And they assessed the building for like 5,000. 5,000. And it was like okay, never mind. Ill figure out something else.
And managed to rise to such great heights and be an inspiration to all americans. He was a writer, he wrote every form of the language and wrote it well. He was the speaker, he was the first person in his family born in freedom. Both of his parents weres slaves. He became a voice for his people. He did so by writing about human dignity. He actually were wrote most of his work, focused on the dignity of all people, and in particular the humanity of the black man in america. Deegan has always been important to Paul Laurence dunbar and Paul Laurence dunbar has always been a beautiful adjunct to the possibilities in vegan because paul lived in eight locations, he managed to travel and was like a sponge. He learned very early in life to absorb from his environment, to absorb from his contact, to learn and grow. This is the Paul Laurence dunbar melting hole. This is something he learned when he was in england. When he returned from england he situated his study in a similar fashion that he c
Carter g. Woodson library in chicago. We thank you for being here today. Its such a joy to have this project between book covers now. You know, its been so long. And, you know, weve been talking with michael, you know, and eventually going get this project done. Each step of the way he keeps saying, you know, one day were going have that big event at the library. Here we are. Its finally here. So im happy to have all of you here with me today. And thank you for coming out on a saturday afternoon. Today i want to begin by talking about how i found this project. Sort of how it found me. Tell some of the background how the negro in illinois was conceived. The individuals who carried it out, then read some passages from the book. My wife and i moved to town to 2004 to urbana champagne, it didnt take me too long to find the Harsh Research Collection. It was straight up the interstate. I came here pretty promptly. I was interested in a fascinating figure. He had been a harlem renaissance poe