Fall for the Book Festival, George Mason University

It's a beautiful fall day, cool enough to walk without overheating, but warm enough so that you don't need a jacket.

Last night I helped to introduce Chinua Achebe along with the mayor of Fairfax, Virginia at the Fall for the Book Festival. I have to thank my friend of 16 years, Pier Penic, for this honor. Achebe read from a collection of his poetry and from Things Fall Apart. I realized when Achebe was reading one of his poems in Ibo that the poem is recited in the PBS series, "Africans in America, Part I, The Terrible Transformation," for last Wednesday I was viewing the film with my students, and two of my Nigerian students got real excited. When I asked them what was the commotion about, they told me that they were familiar with the poem, and one of the students started translating it for me. But neither student told me that it was a poem by Achebe. So I am indebted to my students for always broadening my understanding of the work that I do. I learn so much from them.

Check out the Fall for the Book Festival at George Mason University. Here is the URL so that you can gleam information: http://www.fallforthebook.org/. My good friend and mentor, James Miller, will be speaking about Richard Wright on Wednesday, September 24, 2008, at 11:00 a.m. He is the Director of American Studies at the George Washington University and president of the Richard Wright Society.

Nothing to report. Everything is eerily calm with my son in college. I'm busy, and it feels good. My students are performing better, which means that I have become a better teacher. The panel discussion on Barack Obama is solid and ready to go at 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday, September 30, 2008, at the Rennie Forum in the Student Center Building at Prince George's Community College. If you are available, please join us for what I think will be a wonderful discussion. There are some absolutely brilliant scholars and writers on the panel.

I'm rereading Richard Wright's Black Power because I am joining James Miller in a discussion on Wright at Howard University on Thursday, September 25, 2008, at 4:00 p.m. I know that Miller knows his stuff, so the good student that I am, I'm going to be prepared.

The Congressional Black Caucus starts tomorrow. If you are in DC, give me a call.

Nothing to post except that years ago my astute mother and aunt encouraged me to buy gold. I didn't. Now I regret not listening to them. One day, I will pay attention to my elders.