Duke University Press Log

Happy Birthday, Randy Weston

On Wednesday, April 6, jazz pianist Randy Weston celebrated his 85th birthday with a concert at Baltimore's Walters Art Gallery. Baltimore Magazine reviewer John Lewis said, it "was one of the most life-affirming, musically dazzling shows I’ve ever seen." Weston continues the celebration with a gala performance at the Kennedy Center on Saturday, April 9. Geoffrey Himes profiles Weston in today's Washington Post. DC area fans have plenty of chances today and tomorrow to catch Weston talking about his recent autobiography, African Rhythms, which he wrote with jazz journalist Willard Jenkins. Before the concert, he'll appear at UDC tonight at 7 p.m., at the Rockville, Maryland public library tomorrow at noon, and at DC's Sankofa bookstore at 5:30 tomorrow afternoon. Check out our events page for full info. And join us in wishing Randy a very happy birthday!

Miller and Litvak Win MLA Prizes

The Modern Language Association announced its 2010 book prize winners today and we were thrilled to see two Duke authors on the list. Monica L. Miller's Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity has won the William Sanders Scarborough Prize for an outstanding scholarly study of African American literature or culture. We might add that this is the third Duke University Press book to win that prize in five years! We also congratulate Joseph J. Litvak,  whose The Un-Americans: Jews, the Blacklist, and Stoolpigeon Culture was an honorable mention for the very prestigious James Russell Lowell prize. We look forward to celebrating with our authors at the MLA convention in January in Los Angeles!

Presidential Commission to Study Human Subjects Protection

Last week President Obama issued a memo calling for calling for the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues to "conduct, beginning in January 2011, a thorough review of human subjects protection to determine if Federal regulations and international standards adequately guard the health and well-being of participants in scientific studies supported by the Federal Government." The call was prompted by revelations earlier this fall that the U.S. Public Health Service conducted STD research on unsuspecting Guatemalans in the 1940s. But, as work by Duke authors attests, that was not an isolated incident.

In his recent book The Professional Guinea Pig, Roberto Abadie details how the pharmaceutical research industry uses human test subjects in sometimes ethically suspect ways. Abadie sees the commission as a positive development. He says, "The Presidential commission on ethics is an important step in understanding the role of the US government in this scandal but also in devising ways to protect current research subjects domestically and also abroad where most research will be conducted in the following years. It is important that the commission moves beyond abstract ethical principles and invocations and towards effective policy recommendations that recognize the changing landscape of human research protection. One important deficit the commission should address, for example, is the lack of a registry of research subjects' participation in clinical trials research covering all phases in clinical trials research both domestically and internationally. Without this instrument we are not able to tell how many trials a research subject has volunteered for, or if he or she is doing more than one trial at the same time, compromising thus, not only their well being but also the validity of the whole trial."

Karla FC Holloway is also working on issues of ethics in medical research. Her book Private Bodies, Public Texts will be out next March. She is also hopeful about the commission, saying  "It's both appropriate and just that the president will convene a particular panel for this discussion. Bioethicists have identified certain subjects as 'vulnerable' for scores of years. But we have been less willing to acknowledge  that that vulnerability is directly tied to social judgments about the quality of personhood, the value of certain lives, and the competition of scientific and research objectives—especially when it is centered on bodies that have less social capital. It's important to tie vulnerability to its source in order to make sure we don't allow our stereotypes to follow us into clinical research paradigms."

 

Authors on the Air

Need some smart conversation? We've got some author interviews for you. First check out Amitava Kumar, author of A Foreigner Carrying in the Crook of His Arm a Tiny Bomb and Nobody Does the Right Thing, discussing Islamophobia on The Nation's podcast and the politics of terror on Al-Jazeera's Riz Khan Show. Then, for something completely different, listen to jazz pianist Randy Weston on NPR's Talk of the Nation. He talks about his new autobiography, African Rhythms, and about the fiftieth anniversary of his landmark album Uhuru Afrika. He'll be celebrating the anniversary with a concert at the Tribeca Performing Arts Center on November 13. Hope you enjoy hearing from these fascinating authors.

Duke Authors at the ASALH Annual Meeting

This last weekend, we attended the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) 95th Annual Convention in Raleigh, NC. A few of our authors had booksignings during the conference, and we were able to get photos of a few of them.

Karla FC Holloway, author of Passed On: African American Mourning Stories, A Memorial, stopped by to sign copies of her book.

 

 

 

 

Sonia Sanchez, author of "I'm Black When I'm Singing, I'm Blue When I Ain't" and Other Plays, took a quick break from her booksigning to pose for a picture with Jacqueline Wood. Wood edited the book and provided an introduction.

Thanks to our Exhibits Manager, Helena Knox, for taking these photos!

Celebrating Grant Farred’s Tenure at the South Atlantic Quarterly

Grant Farred, editor of the South Atlantic Quarterly, will step down this summer; he will be replaced by Michael Hardt. In the video below, Farred and Hardt discuss the journal’s past:

Over the course of his eight-year tenure, Farred has widened the journal’s theoretical and geographic scope while keeping it rooted in its long history of political engagement. (When it was founded in 1901, the journal was at the center of the Bassett Affair, a milestone for academic freedom in the United States.)

Farred describes his work on SAQ as “the most important political thing I have done in this country in the twenty-one years I’ve been here.”  With the publication of such groundbreaking issues as “Palestine America,” “Racial Americana,” and "Ambushed: A Critique of Machtpolitik,” during his tenure Farred worked to expand SAQ’s reputation as a space for timely, political thought.

Book Trailer for Randy Weston's African Rhythms

Check out this wonderful video previewing jazz great Randy Weston's forthcoming autobiography, African Rhythms. It features some of Randy's music and an interview with collaborator Willard Jenkins, a jazz journalist who proposed the book to Randy and wrote it with him. The video was produced by Bret Primack.

Ken Gonzales-Day Featured in LA Billboard Exhibit

This spring Los Angeles residents may have noticed a number of beautiful and mysterious billboards appearing all around their city. The MAK Center for Art and Architecture sponsored the public art exhibit, called How Many Billboards, which features 21 newly commissioned works by leading contemporary artists. Last month the catalog of the exhbiti was published in book form. Artists featured in the installation include Yvonne Rainer, Allan Sekula, and Kenneth Anger and a Duke Press author, Ken Gonzales-Day, who wrote Lynching in the West: 1850–1935 (2006). Gonzales-Day's billboard, featuring the busts of a black man and a white man gazing at each other, is located on Olympic Boulevard, west of Gramercy Place. The MAK Center's website features a video of Gonzales-Day talking about his photography, some of which is included in his first book. Gonzales-Day hopes that his art will help us look at the physical legacies of difficult histories or racism. He sees his billboard as an advertisement for racial equality.

Miriam Jiménez Román and Juan Flores Interviewed on Jordan Journal

Miriam Jiménez Román and Juan Flores, co-editors of the new book, The Afro-Latin@ Reader: History and Culture in the United States, were interviewed on WBAI 99.5 FM's "The Jordan Journal" last Friday. The show aired at 5pm on Friday, July 2nd, and a clip from the show can be found here. According to the announcement on The Jordan Journal website, the book "is a must-read for those seeking to understand the dynamics of race and culture in the Americas."

Authors on the Radio

For your listening pleasure, check out these three Duke authors on various radio shows. First up, Randy Weston on NPR's Piano Jazz with Marian McPartland. Weston plays several pieces on the show, including a tribute to Thelonious Monk. McPartland plays her own tribute to Weston. Weston's autobiography, African Rhythms, is out in October. Then you can listen to an Frank Wilderson discuss his new book Red, White & Black: Cinema and the Structure of U.S. Antagonisms on KDVS's New Day Jazz. Wilderson's book is a provocative theoretical critique of representations of race in socially engaged films made since the 1960s. Then tonight tune into KPFT's Nuestra Palabra at 7:30 CT to hear AnaLouise Keating  talk about the late great feminist activist and writer Gloria Anzaldúa. Keating is the editor of The Gloria Anzaldúa Reader. Enjoy all these great interviews!