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COLSON WHITEHEAD

US Interior secretary approves Cherokee Nation Constitution

U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland approved a new constitution for the Cherokee Nation on Wednesday, ensuring citizenship for descendants of its Freedmen, the Black people once enslaved by tribal citizens. “The Cherokee Nation's actions have brought this longstanding issue to a close and have importantly fulfilled their obligations to the Cherokee Freedmen," Haaland said in a statement. The issue of tribal citizenship for Freedmen has long been the subject of litigation for the Five Tribes, known historically as the Five Civilized Tribes: the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Muscogee and Seminole nations.

news.yahoo.com

American Academy of Arts and Letters expands, diversifies

(AP Photo)NEW YORK – One of the country's oldest cultural instititutions, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, is undergoing some of its biggest changes in more than a century. AdHarjo, the first Native American to be appointed U.S. poet laureate, said she looked forward to having an influence on future academy choices. “There are so many incredible Native visual artists,” she told the AP, while also citing such authors as N. Scott Momaday and Leslie Marmon Silko. But the academy will still call itself an academy, while working to make itself more accessible to artists and to the general public. Besides choosing members, the academy also gives dozens of prizes and grants each year, totalling more than $1 million.

Colson Whitehead explains his own "existential terror" of being descended from slaves and how it shapes his writing

In his two Pulitzer Prize-winning novels, Colson Whitehead sees the historic plight of Black Americans. Writing those books, says Whitehead, "I was thinking about the sort of existential terror of being descended from slaves. This experience relates directly to the police killings that inspired the Black Lives Matter movement, he says. Young Black people being murdered for being in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong skin color. The novelist often considers these injustices the Black Lives movement protests against – it's part of the Black experience.

cbsnews.com

Library association awards Carnegie medals to McBride, Giggs

This combination image shows "Deacon King Kong" by James McBride, left, and "Fathoms: The World in the Whale" by Rebecca Giggs. The American Library Association has announced its winners of the Carnegie medals for literary excellence, awarding McBride in the fiction category and Giggs in nonfiction. (Riverhead Books, left, and Simon & Schuster via AP)NEW YORK – This year's winners of the Carnegie medals for fiction and nonfiction, presented by the American Library Association, have each checked out a few books in their time. But in Philly, you can,” explained McBride, whose novel last year was chosen by Oprah Winfrey for her book club. With a grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the library association established the award in 2012, with winners in each category receiving $5,000.

Barry Jenkins to direct 'Lion King' follow-up

NEW YORK – The Walt Disney Co. will make a follow-up to the 2019 live-action “The Lion King,” with Barry Jenkins, the director of the Oscar-winning “Moonlight” and the James Baldwin adaptation “If Beale Street Could Talk,” set to direct. The new “Lion King” grossed more than $1.6 billion worldwide, so a sequel was perhaps always likely. Less expected was a “Lion King” with Jenkins directing. The film, Disney said, will explore the mythology of “The Lion King,” including Mufasa's origin story. Disney didn't announce any further plot details or casting on the new “Lion King” project, which was first reported by Deadline Hollywood.

Library of Congress to honor author Colson Whitehead

NEW YORK Colson Whitehead keeps winning awards. Already this year's recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction and the Orwell Prize for political fiction, Whitehead is now being honored by the Library of Congress. On Monday, it announced that he had won the Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction. Whitehead, 50, is the youngest winner of the lifetime achievement prize, which the library has previously given to Toni Morrison, Philip Roth and Denis Johnson, among others. He is the first author to win Pulitzers for consecutive works of fiction The Underground Railroad and The Nickel Boys, for which he won in April.

An eventful year for Pulitzer Prize winner Colson Whitehead

NEW YORK Even sheltering in place, Colson Whitehead has had an eventful year. Whitehead became the first fiction writer to win Pulitzers for back to back novels, Underground Railroad and The Nickel Boys, which won the Pulitzer in May and comes out in paperback this week. In Underground Railroad,' I felt I needed a fantastic device to move Cora (the main character) to her freedom. With The Nickel Boys, there was no need for any kind of fantastic flourish. "For The Nickel Boys, I was someone trying to figure out where the country was going.

Novelist Patchett has Nashville bookstore customers swooning

(AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)NASHVILLE, Tenn. The Nashville bookstore that opened and thrived while others were closing their doors is once again defying the odds, thanks, in part, to its famous novelist co-owner. How could pandemic-stressed book purchasers resist a read she describes as a cross between a puppy and a warm bath? In addition to the book-related customer comments, a lot of posts also ask where Patchett gets her dresses. Parnassus opened in 2011, shortly after two large Nashville bookstores the once-independent Davis-Kidd and the chain store Borders shut down in quick succession. Despite the naysayers, Parnassus thrived.

The Ten Best Things to Do in Miami This Weekend

8 p.m. Friday at the Fillmore Miami Beach, 1700 Washington Ave., Miami Beach. 8 p.m. Friday at Miami Hispanic Cultural Arts Center, 111 SW Fifth Ave., Miami; internationalballetfestival.org. 6 to 10 p.m. Saturday at Story Nightclub, 136 Collins Ave., Miami Beach. Noon to 6 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday at Lummus Park, 1130 Ocean Dr., Miami Beach. 6:30 p.m. Sunday at Faena Beach and Theater, 3201 Collins Ave., Miami Beach; daybreaker.com.

miaminewtimes.com

Colson Whitehead's The Nickel Boys Imagines Life Inside Florida's Infamous Dozier School

Elwood Curtis watches the news coming out of Florida from his adopted home of New York City. As articles in Tampa Bay, Miami, and even international newspapers are reporting that dozens of skeletons are being unearthed on the grounds of a boys ostensible reform school, Curtis remembers. He is one of the "Nickel Boys," those who survived inhumane conditions and continued their route to an adulthood haunted by harrowing memories. Curtis is the main character in The Nickel Boys, MacArthur Fellow Colson Whitehead's followup to his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Underground Railroad. The Nickel Boys, by Colson Whitehead.

browardpalmbeach.com