Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. It is an honor to welcome everyone to the 71st National Book awards. I am Jason Reynolds coming to you live from washington dc go this is overnight but there is so much going on in the world this is our night and it is a big deal. It is so much of a big deal i woke up this morning anxious and nervous as usual. I always, mother and i am anxious. It is 7 00 oclock in the morning and she says oh no i said i am feeling anxious about tonight have to hope the National Book awards am calling you to see if you have advice for your child go she said that she always has been to make the call. Let me ask you something, son. What did i make you say every single night before you got into bed when you were little boy . I said i dont want to do this right now she said no dont know what did i. C. E. Make you say every night when you got into bed . I said you made me say i can do anything. Exactly you can do anything. You tell me this all the time on. But i never asked
[applause] my name is justin desmangles. I am the chair of the before Columbus Foundation. About eight years ago i proceeded in that position, our founder, ishmael reed, we are very fortunate to have with us joining the program today. There were some very big shoes to fill. Of course, i want to thank our friends at the San Francisco jazz center who had been so generous in their support of the american book awards for the last several years. Also our friend at cspan who continue to support the Historical Mission of the before Columbus Foundation and american book awards. I will say a few things about our direction that we embarked on recently. Over the past several years we have expanded our programming to include a number of partnerships in the bay area and nationally, including those with the San Francisco Public Library who i am very honored to say, one of the representatives, stuart shaw who has been instrumental facilitating the collaboration between the before Columbus Foundation
We begin tonight alert out of new york city where an explosion in the chelsea neighborhood there has sent more than twodozen people to the hospital. Witnesses from blocks away say they could hear and fetal explosion. 29 people were hurt, 24 of them transported to the hospital, one of them with serious injuries. Few hours, saying that the explosion was intentional but they dont believe it was a terror attack at this point in their investigation, but they have also ruled out a natural gas explosion. I want to be clear. Whatever the cause, whatever the intention here, new yorkers will not be intimidated. We are not going to let anyone change who we are or how we go about our lives, and we have the best police force in the country. Officials say there is no connection to a pipe bomb in new jersey from police are investigating a second site in new york where an officer on patrol found what may be another device. Fbi and Homeland Security officials are on the scene. Airplane . It is, it is.
Suffering badly from burns, but he is going to be okay. Now we are still in front of the scene here. Firefighters are still working hard to put this out. But neighbors say that this was just an incredible, unbelievable sight, seeing what almost looked like a fireball coming out of the sky. We have had some incredible footage of this happening, and it was just really bizarre for them, because, as you would imagine, they have no idea whats happening here. People just thought it was this big plane coming down in the middle of their neighborhood they said it was absolutely shocking when they heard that their neighbors, a couple, were inside watching tv. It was just incredible that they were not hurt. Now, we still have firefighters out here. The fire is out. They are working on some hot spots right now. But coming up, we are going to hear from some of those neighbors and is also gilbert fire captain who says he is just very happy that nobody was hurt in this. So coming up at 10 00, we have
Deutsche welle sarah im sarah kelly. Thank you for joining us. Hundreds of Israeli Soldiers have set up roadblocks around a neighborhood following a string of attacks, two of them taking place in the past few hours. Palestinian officials have condemned the measures, but israel says they are a necessary response. The edge of joplin and kabbalah, and East Jerusalem neighborhood. It is a lockdown on several neighborhoods in the part of the city that the International Community considers to be distracted and asked by israel. Most of the it de facto annexed by israel. Most of the attacks have happened here. They are subject to roadblocks and security checks after being able to move freely. It is because of the israeli government. It is one only one of the security measures in an effort to crack down on the attacks. Hundreds of soldiers have been deployed to help local police step up security. Situation is not easy. It is stressful. We are free to overcome, we are afraid to overcome somehow.