Facebook Twitter Instagram Archives (1994 to 2024) Search About Litkicks

Category: African-American

A Writer’s Family: Roxana Robinson and Harriet Beecher Stowe

Levi Asher aka Marc Eliot Stein November 14, 2013 1 Comment

(We’ve been talking to novelist Roxana Robinson about her unique family history, which includes two celebrated 19th century Americans, Henry Ward Beecher and Harriet Beecher Stowe. In this conclusion to the two-part interview, we talk about Harriet Beecher Stowe, about religion in fiction, and about Roxana’s own mission as a … Read the rest

Mo’ Meta Blues: The World According to Questlove

Tara Olmsted July 31, 2013 3 Comments

There’s a moment in Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson’s Mo’ Meta Blues: The World According to Questlove when Ben Greenman (the book’s co-writer and the co-manager of Questlove’s the Roots) makes the observation that the Roots is one of the few bands – perhaps the only band – left in hiphop.

Actually, … Read the rest

The Great Lost Blues Memoir: When I Left Home by Buddy Guy

Michael Norris July 17, 2013 4 Comments

I used to buy records in a Chicago shop called the Jazz Record Mart on Grand Avenue. It was run by a guy named Bob Koester, a jazz and blues fanatic. He also had his own record company, Delmark Records, where he recorded a lot of blues artists who’d been … Read the rest

Philosophy Weekend: Humbled at Gettysburg

Levi Asher aka Marc Eliot Stein July 7, 2013 2 Comments

This is the last of five blog posts inspired by the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg. As I struggle to write this one today, I’m forced to admit two things that you’ll very rarely ever hear me say.

First, I feel humbled. Second, I am at a … Read the rest

The Great Lost Jazz Memoir: Lady Sings the Blues by Billie Holiday

Levi Asher aka Marc Eliot Stein June 5, 2013 10 Comments

With all this acting experience behind me, Shelton thought I was ready for a crack at the movies. Not Hollywood, just Astoria, Long Island. He got me a part out there playing mob scenes in a picture with Paul Robeson. From that I got a real part in a short

… Read the rest

The Great Lost Rock Memoir: The Autobiography by Chuck Berry

Levi Asher aka Marc Eliot Stein March 17, 2013 9 Comments

(Since literature and music are two of my biggest passions, I am naturally fascinated by rock memoirs. I find much significance within these books, and in the shadows that surround them. The Great Lost Rock Memoir is a new Literary Kicks series devoted to the art and psychology of the … Read the rest

Philosophy Weekend: What Martin Luther King Endured

Levi Asher aka Marc Eliot Stein August 26, 2011 14 Comments

I had a chance to check out Washington DC’s new Martin Luther King memorial earlier this week. A big opening ceremony featuring President Barack Obama and other significant guests scheduled for this weekend has been postponed for an approaching hurricane, but the memorial is open to visitors, and I found … Read the rest

Roar

Levi Asher aka Marc Eliot Stein February 10, 2011 2 Comments

1. Here’s a newly-found old video of Beat Generation/Summer of Love poet Michael McClure reading poetry to caged lions. The last section of the poem consists of McClure yelling “roar” repeatedly. The video might strike some as precious — Steve Silberman called it “beat kitsch” in a recent … Read the rest

Jay-Z at the New York Public Library

Levi Asher aka Marc Eliot Stein November 16, 2010 9 Comments

Jay-Z puts out one major release every year, most often in November. Usually it’s a record, another installment in the lyrical autobiography that has made up his life’s work. This year it’s a book, Decoded, and Jay showed up at the New York Public Library last night to talk … Read the rest