The Best African-American Books of 2009

By Sidik Fofana--Seeingblack.com Literature Editor

This year, I gleaned and digested tons of books. Oh how many worlds I traveled! I traversed the motherland, sampling the best of contemporary African writing. We kicked sand on a Sag Harbor beach with Colson Whitehead's pubescent protagonist, Benji. We even scoured the mucked-up mind of legendary Wu-Tang producer, RZA, for precious bullions of Eastern philosophy. In the end, some journeys were more memorable than others, and so I salute those journeys with a cozy place on my list of the year's most notable books.


The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Knopf, $24.95)
Adichie shows what happens when the everyday dysfunction of
family and relationships intersects with external political turmoil in this penetrating collection of short stories. The narratives, many of which have published individually in major literary magazines, take place in Nigeria and in the United States, often catching their protagonists in the middle of their diasporic to and fros. This collection serves as a fine follow-up to her Orange Prize winning novel Half of a Yellow Sun.




Confessions of a Ex-Doofus-ItchyFooted Mutha by Melvin Van Peebles (Akashic Books, $17.95)
Riotous, defiant, and edgy, this graphic novel chronicles the solitary life of a young man trying to make good in the Big Apple. Of course, no piece of art from Melvin Van Peebles is authentic without its share of risque vernacular and snappy wit of which this comic never runs dry. It makes a supplementary companion to the film of the same name.







God is Not an American by Jessica Care Moore (Moore Black Press, $20.00)
Translating resonant verbal performances into valuable written poetry has almost always boggled the spoken word artist. Since 1996, Jessica Care Moore has made a living by making her verses sing on paper as loud they do on stage. In this collection of poems, she aims her political ammo on the Western machine.







Open Letters to America: Essays by Kevin Powell (Soft Skull, $13.95)
This collection of open letters reads more like a post-Bush good riddance speech, but is all the more powerful because of its political optimism. Open Letters to America finds Powell stepping away from the fiery indictments of imperial power that connote his work of late. In these essays, Powell envisions a world where Barack Obama's multicultural coalition of young freedom fighters brings equality and belonging to the undermined populations of America.







The Tao of Wu by The RZA (Riverhead, $24.95)
Anyone who has paid attention to a Wu-Tang rap verse knows the intimacy of the legendary Hip-Hop's crew relationship with martial arts, Eastern philosophy, and the Five Percent Nation of Islam. The RZA, the group's producer and chief intermediary, weaves these loose threads into a complete manifesto on the Wu lifestyle.








Stormy Weather: The Life of Lena Horne by James Gavin (Atria, $27.00)
James Gavin's comprehensive biography on the storied Jazz vocalist went relatively overlooked this year. Still, Gavin paints a real portrait of a fragmented star who embodied the very twill of racial entanglement that haunted her career. The book spares pleasantries, tackling both Horne's triumphs and demons.

Ghostface's New Comic Book

...and I reviewed it just to get an advance copy. Plus when I was reading it, my heart was going ba-bump, ba bump. Boy what a storyline, what illustrations! Here's my take on it fresh from allhiphop.com

By Sidik Fofana

Cell Block Z
Ghosface Killah with Chris Walker – Shauna Garr – Marlon Chapman

It just seems natural. These Shaolin students over in Staten Island have always been obsessed with the martial arts and the kicks and throws of Eastern combat training. Meth broke the ice with Method Man plowing new frontiers in the field of Hip-Hop graphic novels. Now it’s Ghost’s turn to play disciple with Cell Block Z, a fist-pumping comic book assisted by illustrator, Chris Walker (Marvel Comics, Virgin Records, Bad Boy Entertainment) and screenwriters, Shauna Garr and Marlon Chapman.
Cell Block Z tells the story of Cole Dennis (which also happens to be Ghostface’s government reversed), a heavyweight contender falsely imprisoned for armed robbery and murder. After a prison official discovers his fighting background, Cole Dennis is convinced to train with the hopes that a few match victories will grant him entrance into Cell Block Z, a more comfortable detention unit. The black and white illustrations may not give the novel the classic look it’s intending, but they do give it an artsy sketchbook quality. Meanwhile, Carr and Chapman equip the book’s storyline with the necessary hidden plots and faithfully reveal a conspiracy behind Cell Block Z, a conspiracy that Cole Dennis and, his main advocate, Officer Johnston spend the rest of graphic novel trying to unravel.
Surprisingly enough, besides the actual style of fighting, Cell Block Z is a not a martial arts comic. Instead of the ancient texts, senseis, and codes of discipline that one would expect from Shaolin students, the book relies more on brute hand-to-hand combat. In this regard, Cell Block Z is more like Fight Club with the prisoners forming an underground battle zone of sorts. Then again, Cole Dennis , who later becomes Ghostface Killah, does direct his rage toward his own imprisonment, an abstract, more honorable opponent compatible to the martial arts philosophy. In a place where his peers are pummeling each other just for the sheer destruction, Ghostface Killah, in an eastern sense, emerges as a hero.
If not for entertainment value, Cell Block Z, like the Jackson Five cartoon show on ABC or the Beatles’ Yellow Submarine Lunchbox is a valuable relic. It serves as another product in the era of Wu supremacy and swiftly takes advantage of a untapped outlet.