presence and persistence and devotion to this very worthy and necessary and urgent, and i would say even medicinal, organization. at the beginning of this year, in january, united states lost one of its most innovative and exciting writers, baracka. twice winner of the american book award, who is a strong supporter of the before columbus foundation. in fact, his last appearance here in san francisco was at a fundraiser at yossi s, not far from here to raise money for the before columbus foundation. so, in our embrace, of the arc and an panorama of american art and history i want to dedicate my portion of the program to the memory of a poet and writer, ameri baraka. we have quite a harvest this afternoon. and we re honored by the presence of many of the most fertile writers. who offer illumination and insight, and as i mentioned, a few moments ago, some very strong medicine, and some very ill times. so, before we get into that, i d like to start with a gentleman, good friend
[applause] good afternoon. the telling of history is consequential and recognition is consequential also. i am deeply honored and appreciated to receive the american book award today. i am also very honored to share it with the other recipients today who have presented such rot and real engagements for social life. not the least it is also quite an honor to share the award with previous recipients, some of the people who shaped my intellectual development. kerry snyder, edwards i eat, and very baraka. i want to thank first of all waldo martin column aye author. we spent many years together working on this vote. i want to thank my friends and family in the audience in my many comrades and colleagues who helped make this poker reality along the way. there are too many to thank individually. you know who you are and i never could have dreamed of getting here without you. thank you. the recognition is nice, or writing the history of the black interparty let alone the 12 ye
is dennis johnson was the co-publisher of melville house. melba house is publishing the senate intelligence committee report on torture. mr. johnson can what s the purpose of publishing something that s in the public domain? well, for one thing it s not readily available as a printed book, and we felt that that was an important format or to the end so that it could just circulate more widely, be more accessible to more people the more affordable to most people. we also felt that the addition of it that was issued by the government, which is a very low resolution pdf format was very difficult to read. it s not laid out and probably formatted like the book. it s just like a huge collection of manuscript pages. it is very difficult to read because it s so low resolution but it s difficult to search. it s almost impossible to search in fact. and so we wanted to make a better addition of that so that i do people really want to read that addition of the way would read a book, but
go to booktv.org. the before columbus foundation presents the winners of the american book awards in san francisco, calif.. i am the chairman of the board of directors and i want to thank our friends for their sponsorship for this afternoon s awards and my colleagues on the board of directors for their presence and persistence and devotion to this very worthy and necessary and urgent and i would say even medicinal organization. at the beginning of this year january, the united states lost one of its most innovative and exciting writers, mary barracca twice winner of the american book award a strong supporter of the before columbus foundation. his last appearance in san francisco was a fund-raiser not far from here to raise money for the before columbus foundation. still in our embrace of the panorama of american literature and history of this afternoon unlike to dedicate my portion of the program to the memory of appellates and writer, amory bar barracca barracca. we have