(Akiit.com) The Karibu Books chain, based in the Washington, D.C., area and one of the few remaining retailers to specialize in black books, is closing after 15 years.

“We sincerely thank each and every one of you for your patronage and support,” Karibu CEO Simba Sana wrote in an e-mail to customers. “We are optimistic that our mission to empower and educate through a comprehensive selection of books by and about people of African descent will continue to resonate within the communities we proudly served.”

Karibu has five stores, one of which has already closed. All will be shut down by Feb. 10.

Like other specialty retailers, including gay and feminist bookstores, black bookstores have suffered in the past 10 years, partly because of the rise of superstore chains and Internet sales, but also because of the growing popularity of black authors. With superstores and online retailers now offering large selections of black books, at lower prices, black stores have had a hard time competing and many have closed.
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(Akiit.com) Antioch, CA For many people, speaking their mind can be so intimidating that they simply would prefer to bite their tongue in the spirit of getting along. However, holding your true feelings inside is one of the most toxic forms of self-destruction (disease). In fact, those friends that frown upon you for “speaking up” may be contributing to your self-destruction; therefore, they may not be your true friends anyway!

Poems in the Key of Life is for those who are seeking to find the proper words to speak up and articulate their innermost feelings about life’s situations. This book “speaks to” the very core of the heart, soul and spirit. It helps you to find the right words to address the situation you are experiencing. The book is segmented into four categories: Inspiration and Motivation, Spiritual, Love and Relationship, and Life and Drama. It is a collection of poetic verses that addresses all aspects of life based on the authors’ personal experiences, observations, obstacles and triumphs.

It is a book to be enjoyed by everyone. Now You Don’t Have to Think about What You Want to Say…just reach for the book…Poems in the Key of Life.

About the Authors
Despite the exceptional sales, this is a debut for both authors PJ Rhae and Don Jackson, husband and wife dynamic duo, as well as their publishing company, Senoj Publishing. PJ has a MPA in Public Policy. She consults and conducts success seminars with large organizations. Don has a BS Degree in Economics and Finance and consults with small businesses. They both have a successful real estate and mortgage company and reside in Northern California.

Poems in the Key of Life can be found at www.senojpublishing.com or www.amazon.com.
ISBN: 978-0-615-14695-9
$14.95
124 pages

MEDIA CONTACT
PJ
877-33-SENOJ
925.706-7202
connect@senojpublishing.com
www.senojpublishing.com

(Akiit.com) Back to School: The First ‘R’ / Race

Seven members of the monthly reading group Sisters That Are Readers (STARS) gather at the Homewood Library. Clockwise from bottom left, are Nichole Jordan, M. Gayle Moss, Mercedes Taylor, Velma Harris, Denice Coker, Vivian Shelton and Donna Stilo.

When it comes to reading, race can matter.

A young black male has a better chance of getting teased for reading books instead of playing sports. Black children are less likely to have parents who read to them at an early age and expose them to books.

Until recently, black adults were largely ignored by some book publishers who believed black people don’t read books. And many black people had not been reading books because there were fewer books on the market that appealed to them.

“The racial disparity in reading is a reflection of the differences in the kinds of backgrounds that children enjoy,” said Helen Faison, director of the Pittsburgh Teachers Institute at Chatham University.

“We have to surround children early on with reading,” Ms. Faison said. “You have to create an environment where books are everywhere.”

The audience for black readers has grown, but it seems black women represent the larger reading population among blacks.

As an African-American novelist, Brandon Massey is part of a small cadre of writers who earn a livelihood spinning suspense thrillers that appeal to black people who enjoy fiction.

While the main characters in his novels are black men, his audience, for the most part, is black women.
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(Akiit.com) Shocked?! You should be. I know I am. Before any of you say anything, I admit that I am somewhat surprised to be reading T. Styles latest novel, Black and Ugly. I began reading the book with a few preconceived notions, which after reading the novel were not disproved. What caught me unaware was that I actually liked the book…and would publicly say it. While I still have issues with aspects of the novel, I can not deny that I enjoyed Black and Ugly.

Black and Ugly features the friendship of four people who grew up in the same housing project: Parade Knight, Miss Wayne, Sky Taylor and Daffany Stans. Parade, who’s been told by her mother and her best friend Sky that she’s black and ugly, has a major inferiority complex going. Parade is not afraid to go hands up with anyone, mainly because she does not know how attractive she is. Miss Wayne, the circle’s only male member is gay, and could be considered the comedy relief of the novel, sells stolen designer clothes for a living. Daffany is a ho, literally. She’s makes ends meet by turning tricks. Daffany has a secret that could destroy her friends’ lives if it ever got out, because it almost destroyed hers.

Sky is the bitch in the group. Sky is beautiful, catty, and jealous. This skank has no redeeming quality whatsoever. Since Sky believes that she is all that and a bag of chips, she is at her wits ends when she begins to suspect that Parade is sleeping with her boyfriend, Jay Hernandez. Well, how can that be, her fine boyfriend sleeping with Parade, with her black and ugly self? One night Sky’s selfish and catty nature comes out and starts a chain of events that will end in murder.
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(Akiit.com) “African-American history, to be clear, is so much more than a handful of extraordinary individuals or practices like slavery, Jim Crow, and civil rights.

A lot of it is painful, but it’s also inspiring and triumphant… It took the Civil War, the civil rights movement of the 1960s, and a lot of struggle in between to secure African-Americans the basic right to citizenship that white Americans took for granted.

[This book] isn’t a big sermon on the struggle; instead, it’s a straightforward, interesting (I hope!), and honest overview of African-American history from Africa through the transatlantic slave trade, slavery, the Civil War, Reconstruction, Jim Crow, and the 1960s civil rights movement until now. Along the way, that history birthed a culture that includes the black church and education as well as sports, music, literature, television, and film.
—Excerpted from the Introduction

I majored in black studies in college way back when the new field of study was still generally being dismissed as a joke or, at best, as undeserving of being the focus of extensive scholarly research. So, my interest was particularly piqued by the publication of this book for a few of reasons.
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