Monday, October 31, 2016

Photos: American Book Awards

Here a few photos from the 2016 American Book Awards ceremony, which was held at the San Francisco Jazz Center. The highlight of the event for me was meeting all of the other honorees--congratulations to ALL of them, those present and those unable to be there--and hearing the extraordinary, often deeply moving speeches. Thanks once again to the Before Columbus Foundation and its board, Justin Desmangles, Ishmael Reed, and everyone who makes the foundation, the awards, the event, and all the important work BCF does in the world possible! (All photos are by C (thank you!).)

With THE Beefeater,
in front of the Sir Francis Drake
Hotel, Union Square
C & I before the event 
Chatting with my Rutgers-Newark
colleague Lyra Monteiro 
Meeting ABA winner Jesús Salvador Treviño,
author of Return to Arroyo Grande 
The façade of jazz greats across the
street from SFJazz Center 
Justin Desmangles, radio host, writer,
and MC for American Book Awards 
ABA winner Lauret Savoy, author of Trace:
Memory, History, Race, and the American Landscape
Poet Laura Da', author
of Tributaries and ABA winner
Jesús Salvador Treviño 
ABA winner Susan Muaddi Darraj, author
of Curious Land: Stories from Home 
ABA winner Deepa Iyer, author
of We Too Sing America:
South Asian, Arab, Muslim, and Sikh Immigrants
Shape Our Multiracial Future
Before Columbus Foundation and American
Book Awards founder Ishmael Reed,
introducing the Lowenfels Award for
Criticism, which went to Lyra Monteiro
and Nancy Isenberg
Lyra Monteiro, accepting her award
Washington University professor Bill Maxwell,
speaking after receiving his American Book
Award for his study F. B. Eyes: How J. Edgar Hoover's
Ghostreaders Framed African American Literature
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, accepting ABAs for
Ned Sublette and Constance Sublette,
authors of The American Slave Coast: A History
of the Slave-Breeding Industry
The mother and sister of college student
Chiitaanibah Johnson, who received the
Andrew Hope Award for her activism
Lyra speaking and breaking it down
Yours truly, giving my speech
A group photo
Lyra and I





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