October’s a busy time of year for conferences! At the New England Independent Bookseller’s Association conference, they had a panel on Selling Color in a White World. Our own Stacy Whitman of Tu Books participated—though, due to subway flooding, she joined the discussion via phone. Author Mitali Perkins and bookseller Elizabeth Bluemle shared their experiences from the panel.
Publicity Associate Hannah also participated on a panel, at the A is for Anansi Conference on Literature for Children of African Descent—if you missed it, she talked about it right here on The Open Book.
Meanwhile, speculation runs rampant on the casting of the upcoming Hunger Games movie, which raises the question, is the main character, described in the book as black-haired and olive-skinned, going to be whitewashed?
Lastly, we’ve all seen African written and spoken about as if it was one monolithic culture with one set of issues. Thoughts of a Calabar Boy is combating that with this demonstration of the true size of Africa:
And with that, we’re off for the weekend—hope you are, too!
