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Issue 25
Interviews
Thomas Glave by Vincent F.A. Golphin
Lawrence Hill by Maranda Moses
Excerpt
Someone Knows My Name by Lawrence Hill
Mosaic Lesson Plans
New lesson plans for secondary-school educators
(click
here to download)
Designed by Eisa Nefertari Ulen
Reviews
City Kid by Nelson George
Gods and Soldiers: The Penguin Anthology of Contemporary
African Writing Edited by Rob Spillman
Gospel by Samiya Bashir
Home: Social Essays by LeRoi Jones (Amiri Baraka)
Midnight, A Gangster Love Story by Sister Souljah
More Than Just Race: Being Black And Poor In The Inner
City by William Julius Wilson
The Other Side of Paradise by Staceyann Chin
The Torturer’s Wife by Thomas Glave
The World in Half by Cristina Henríquez |
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Issue 24
The New Black
Memoir
An Interview with Ta-Nehisi Coates by Abdul Ali
When Ta-Nehisi Coates sat down to write The Beautiful Struggle,
he broke new ground for young memoirists whose work challenge
what a black story can be in this contemporary moment where a
black male can conceivably top the New York Times bestselling
list and be President of the United States at the same time.
Excerpt
The Beautiful Struggle by Ta-Nehisi Coayes
A New ‘Toon
Robert Truillo on graphic artist Dawud Anyabwile
I discovered Dawud Anyabwile’s work about two years ago while
researching illustrations that were representative of African
Americans and Latinos in contemporary comics and graphic novels.
Every Woman
An Interview with Goretti Kyomuhendo by Beatrice Lamwaka
Ugandan writer Goretti Kyomuhendo is one of the founding members
of FEMRITE, the Ugandan Women Writers’ Association and
Publishing House where she worked as the programme coordinator
for ten years (1997-2007). FEMRITE was created out of a belief
that gender-defined support is essential to developing new
voices.
Excerpt
Waiting: A Novel of Uganda at War by Goretti Kyomuhendo
Junot’s Oscar
An Interview with Junot Diaz by Alison Isaac
When Junot Díaz published his first book, Drown, it was
met with critical acclaim from countless media sources.
Described as “mesmerizingly honest,” “powerful” and
“convincing,” Díaz’s work has been published in The New
Yorker, GQ, The Paris Review and African
Voices (among others). |
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Issue 23
The
Holistic Writer
An Interview with Kalisha Buckhanon
by Tara Betts
The Darker Mask
Allegory for a New Literature
by Christopher Chambers
Healing Words
an Interview with Opal Palmer Adisa
by D. Scot Miller
Excerpt
Conception by Kalisha Buckhanon
Poems by Opal Palmer Adisa
Breaking Point I
Breaking Point IV
Book Reviews
Conduit: Poems
by Khadijah Queen
Gentleman Jigger, A Novel of the Harlem
Renaissance
By Richard Bruce Nugent
Gomer’s Song
By Kwame Dawes
Kinky Gazpacho
By Lori L. Tharps
Say You’re One Of Them
By Uwem Akpan
Slumberland
By Paul Beatty
Somebody Scream!: Rap Music’s Rise to
Prominence in the Aftershock of Black Power
By Marcus Reeves
When the Black Girl Sings
By Bil Wright |
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Issue 22 08/2008
The
Transitional Voice of Walter Dean Myers
by Ozioma Egwuonwu
Excerpt
Sunrise Over Falluja by Walter Dean Myers
Nikki Giovanni: Personal Politics
by Nicole Sealey
Poems by Nikki Giovanni
Beautiful Black Men
My First Memory (of Librarians)
Editorial: A Friend I Did Know
Phebus Etienne (1964-2007)
Emerging From Silence
by Randal Horton
Reviews
Ida: A Sword Among Lions Paula J.
Giddings
Reviewed by Nicole Sealey
Conception By Kalisha Buckhanon
Reviewed by Danielle Y. Hatchett
Belly of the Atlantic by Fatou Diome
English translation by Lulu Norman and Ros Schwartz
Reviewed by Danielle A. Jackson
The Pirate’s Daughter by Margaret Cezair-Thompson
Reviewed by Maranda Moses
Oracular Rumblings and Stiltwalking by
Lamont Steptoe
Reviewed by Truth Thomas
Poems
by Phebus Etienne
Long Walk Home
Pimp
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Issue 21 04/2008
Reggae, Writing and Redemption:
An Interview with Kwame Dawes
by Ozioma Egwuonwu
Excerpt
She’s Gone by Kwame
Dawes
Frank X. Walker:
Affrilachian, Historian, and Poetic Pioneer
by Stacia L. Brown
In Control: A Talk with Tina Mcelroy Ansa
by Nicole Sealey
Excerpt
Taking After Mudear
by Tina McElroy Ansa
Reading in the Dark
by Pittershawn
Palmer
Poems
She Flies
by Galen Leonhardy
Common Ground
by Frank X. Walker
A New York
by Frank X. Walker
Reviews
A Gathering
of Matter/A Matter of Gathering by Dawn Lundy Martin
Review by Nicole Sealey
Next On The
Mic: The Lizard Lounge Poetry Jam by Poetry Jam Collective
Review by William Ashanti
Hobbs
Waiting
’Til the Midnight Hour: A Narrative History of Black Power in
America by Peniel E. Joseph
Review by Nicole Sealey
The Water
Cure by Percival Everett
Review by William Ashanti
Hobbs
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Issue 20 10/07
Errata: In the table of contents of issue #20,
The Water Cure by Percival Everett is listed, in error, as
reviewed. The review will appear in issue #21. Earth's Water
by Nicole Blades was reviewed in issue #20 but not credited.
Apologies for the error --too much water.Embracing
Traditions:
An interview with Tayari Jones
Deemed one of the best writers of our generation, Tayari
Jones discusses writing, the South, and her novels The Untelling
and Leaving Atlanta.
by Nicole Sealey
Excerpt
The Untelling by Tayari Jones
Bits
of Wisdom:
A Conversation with J. California Cooper
Beloved by readers
throughout the world, J. California Cooper tells us how she
feels about creativity, accolades, and the acceptance of her
work
by Kimberly Collins
A Writer’s
Life: William Demby
At the tender age of 84, William Demby is finally
receiving praise as an important voice in African-American
writing.
by Steve Kemme
Poems
Frisson:
Remembering Jamaica
by Kamilah Aisha Moon
Last Words
Ruby Carter Winfrey Hamer 1917-2002
by Jarvis DeBerry
Reviews
Earth's
Water by Nicole Blades
Reviewed by Regina Zamor
Erzulie’s
Skirt by Ana-Maurine Lara
Reviewed by Tara Betts
The Girl
with the Golden Shoes by Colin Channer
Reviewed by Maranda Moses
She’s Gone
by Kwame Dawes
Reviewed by Mireille A. L.
Djenno
The Story
of the Cannibal Woman by Maryse Conde
Reviewed by Mireille A. L.
Djenno
The Sweet
Scent of Death by Guillermo Arriaga
Reviewed by Ozioma Egwuonwu
That Mean
Old Yesterday by Stacey Patton
Reviewed by Dr. Tameka Bradley
Hobbs
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ISSUE NINETEEN 7.07
TRIBUTE ISSUE TO GWENDOLYN BROOKS
As we celebrate the 90th anniversary of the birth of Gwendolyn
Brooks the nineteenth issue of Mosaic pays tribute through
poetry, essays, and recollections on the first African American
to be awarded the Pulitzer Prize.
ESSAYS
The Way of All Bridges, In Memory of
Gwendolyn Brooks
by Afaa Michael Weaver
How I Fell So Deeply In Love With Us
by Kalamu ya Salaam
Parents: From Report From Part One
by Gwendolyn Brooks
Gwendolyn’s Gatekeeper: An Interview with
Nichole Shields
by Tara Betts
The Poet in the House on Evans Ave.
by S. Brandi Barnes
Indispensable Maud Martha
by Asali Solomon
Giant Steps: First-person Observation of
Ms. Brooks’ Guiding Hand by Quraysh Ali Lansana
POEMS
when you have forgotten Sunday:
the love story
by Gwendolyn Brooks
Jane Addams
by Gwendolyn Brooks
No Ordinary Waterfall (for Gwen
Brooks)
by Kalamu ya Salaam
Eighty-three is a Wise Number by Haki R.
Madhubuti
The Other by Gwendolyn A.
Mitchell
20/20 For Ms. Gwendolyn Brooks,
1917-2000 by Joy Gonsalves
Three Kinds of Edges for P.S.
by Christian Campbell
She Real Cool: Woman With the
Golden Pen
by Nagueyalti Warren
We Real Cool by Gwendolyn
Brooks
Click here to listen to Gwendolyn Brooks reading "We Real
Cool"
A Life in Art and Service An
Interview with Danny Simmons
by DuEwa M. Frazier
Reviews
The New Moon’s Arm by Nalo
Hopkinson
Reviewed by Stacia L. Brown
To the Break of Dawn: A Freestyle
on the Hip Hop Aesthetic
by William Jelani Cobb
Reviewed by Danielle A. Jackson
African Psycho: Killer in Training
by Alain Mabanckou
Reviewed by Ozioma Egwuonwu
Ace of Spades by David
Matthew
Reviewed by Kim Rose
Click here to read contributor bios
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ISSUE
#18 4.07
Eisa Nefertari Ulen
Laylah Amatullah Barrayn sat down with Eisa Nefertari Ulen to
discuss Eisa’s novel Crystelle Mourning, Brooklyn
bohemia, and her inspiration for becoming a writer.
Patricia Smith
Fresh off the success of a critically received new book of
poetry Teahouse of the Almighty, Patricia Smith met with
Nicole Sealey to discuss her work and life.
Walter
Mosley’s Sexcapade
The prodigious one, Walter Mosley took a break from writing
novels, sci-fi, nonfiction, et. al. just long enough for D. Scot
Miller to talk about Mosley’s “sextential” Killing Johnny Fry.
Excerpts
Crystelle Mourning by Eisa Nefertari Ulen
Killing Johnny Fry by Walter Mosley
Reviews
Free Burning
by Bayo Ojikutu; Gravity, U.S.A. by Jacqueline Jones
Lamon; Tales of the Out & the Gone by Amiri Baraka;
Unburnable by Marie-Elena John; When Angels Speak of Love
by bell hooks
Poetry
"Charming
Gentleman/fever broken" by Patricia Spears Jones
"The Hand That Rules the World for Condoleezza Rice" by Dante
Micheaux
Your PayPal.com transaction will be credited to the "Literary Freedom Project."
Click here to read contributor bios
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ISSUE #17 1.07
The
Healing World of Lucille Clifton
With Hurricane Katrina still heavy
on her heart, poet Lucille Clifton sat down with Jacqueline
Jones LaMon to discuss life, death, and poetry.
Marlon James
First-time novelist Marlon
James chats with Felicia Pride about his novel, John Crow’s
Devil, and the influence Jamaica has had on his work.
Let There Be Peace, Let There Be Life
Nigerian-writer
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie reflects on her award-winning novel
Purple Hibiscus and discusses future literary work with A.
Naomi Jackson.
A Diva Supreme
Poet and activist
Suheir Hammad met with poet (and former student) John Rodriguez
to talk about politics, and her new book of poetry Zaatar
Diva.
Reviews
Bearing Witness:
Not So Crazy in Alabama by Carla Thompson
Becoming Abigail by Chris Abani, The Last Friend
by Tahar Ben Jelloun,
Paradise Travel by Jorge Franco
Excerpt
John Crow’s Devil
by Marlon James
Poetry
"Watching Mary Walk
Through The Front Door" by Toni Asante Lightfoot
"laveau’s sojourn" by LaTasha N. Nevada Diggs
Click here to read contributor bios
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Winter 2006 #16
Thomas Sayers
Ellis
A poet, educator, and self-proclaimed "genuine negro hero"
to the heart, Thomas Sayers Ellis did the QandA thing with
Penny Dickerson.
Total Life Is What We Want
Poet Sharan Strange
reflects on the history and lasting influence of the Dark Room
Collective.
Linton Kwesi Johnson
Nancy Rawlinson finds the legendary Jamaican dub poet has no
interest in mellowing with age.
Reviews
After Mecca: Women Poets and the Black Arts Movement by Cheryl
Clarke
Is Bill Cosby Right? Or Has the Black Middle Class Lost Its
Mind? by Michael Eric Dyson
The Language of Saxophones: Selected Poems of Kamau Daáood
Let the Lion East Straw by Ellease Southerland
Limbo by Sean Keith Henry
Why White Kids Love Hip-Hop: Wankstas, Wiggers, Wannabes, and
the New Reality of Race in America by Bakari Kitwana
Zorro by Isabel Allende
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Summer
2005 #15
Issue fifteen
brings it to the roots. For all of its seven years
Mosaic has called the Bronx home. In this issue we focus
on poets who were born here or, as in the case of James
Baldwin, spent formative years in the borough of hills.
Poet and educator Dr. Tony Medina talks with Cave
Canem fellow Jacqueline Johnson about the current state
of poetry. + James Baldwin’s friend and editor
Sol Stein talks of their early days at DeWitt Clinton
High School in the Bronx, NY. + E. Ethelbert Miller
slowed down just long enough to discuss poetry,
scholarship, and Howard University. + Boogie Down
Productions > Five Bronx poets featured in the book,
Shout Out + more.
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Winter
2004 #14
Interviews: Bakari Kitwana "The Hip Hop Generation:
Young Blacks and the Crisis in African American Culture;
Raquel Rivera, "New York Ricans From the Hip Hop Zone",
breaks down the culture in Black and Brown; Dr. Todd
Boyd, The New H.N.I.C: The Death of Civil Rights and the
Reign of Hip Hop; and actress Camille Yarbrough talks
about her life and prolific career.
Love and War Three literary stallwarts revisit America’s
battle-fatiqued history. Essays by Haki Madhubuti and
Yusef Komunyakaa. Dialogue between Amiri Baraka and Bill
O’Reilly.
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Spring 2002 #13
Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon,
Nelly Rosario, the Black Arts Movement, Break Any Woman
Down by Dana Bryant, Envy of the World: On Being a Black
Man in America by Ellis Cose, Ghost of a Flea by James
Sallis, Glow in the Dark by Lisa Teasley, Harlemworld:
Doing Race and Class in Contemporary Black America by
John Johnson, The Red Moon by Kuwana Haulsey, This
Bitter Earth by Bernice Mcfadden, Song of the Water
Saints by Nelly Rosario
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Winter 2002 #12
Interview: James Earl Hardy
Article: Gwendolyn Brooks Writers' Conference
Article: Anthologies
Interview: Joyce Palmer Greenwichtown
Excerpt: Greenwichtown
Reviews Approaching the
Center by Myronn Hardy; Bird At My Window by Rosa Guy;
Chester Himes: A Life by James Sallis; Erasure by
Percival Everett, The Fire of the Origins by Emmanuel
Dongala; Here’s To You, Jesusa by Elena Poniatowska;
Juice by Renee Gladman; Living with Music: Ralph
Ellison’s Jazz Writings by Ralph Ellison; My
Grandmother's Erotic Folktales by Robert Antoni; A Negro
Explorer At the North Pole by Matthew Henson Nigger: The
Strange Career of a Troublesome Word by Randall Kennedy;
Not Guilty: Twelve Black Men Speak Out on Law, Justice,
and Life by Jabari Asim; Soledad by Angie Cruz; Turning
South Again: Re-Thinking Modernism/Re-Thinking Booker
T. by Houston Baker |
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Fall 2001
#11
Poet Nikky Finney
Chester Himes
Profile: The Autobiography of Assata Shakur
Reviews: A Fool ’s Paradise by Nancy Flowers Wilson,
Bloodroot by Aaron Roy Even, The Day Eazy-E Died by
James Earl Hardy, Desirada by Maryse Conde, Further to
Fly: Black Women and the Politics of Empowerment by
Shelia Radford-Hill, Honky by Dalton Conley
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Summer 2001 #10
Interviews: Mat Johnson, Major
Jackson, Sharrif Simmons
Features: New Bookstores, Independent publishing
Profile: Robert Fleming
Reviews: The Big Mango by Norman Kelley, Slapboxing with
Jesus by Victor LaVelle, Kin by Crystal Williams,
Popular by Thierry LeGoues |
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The Souls of Black Folk: we profiled nine
writers who will make a difference in what we
read for years to come: asha bandele, Brian
Keith Jackson, Glenville Lovell, Shay
Youngblood, Natasha Tarpley, Philippe Wamba,
Joan Morgan-Murray, Farai Chideya, and
Nikky
Finney.
Interview: Marci Blackman "Po Man's
Child" by Akilah Monifa. Excerpt: Po Man's
Child. black literary rebirth
Reviews: The Debt: What America
Owes To Blacks by Randall Robinson, Michael
Jordan and the New Global Capitalism by Walter LaFeber, Understanding the Tin Man: Why So Many
Men Avoid Intimacy by William July, Spoken Soul:
The Story of Black English by John Russell
Rickford & Russell John Rickford, Walking the
Dog by Walter Mosley
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FALL/WINTER 1999 #7
Breena Clarke
Willie Perdomo
Roger Bonair-Agard
Reggie Gibson
Kevin Powell.
Profile: Third World Press by Nichole Shields
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SUMMER 1999
#6
Grace
Edwards,
Eleanor Taylor Bland
The NAACP's Crisis Magazine
Colin Channer
Poet Stacyann
Chin
Elizabeth Nunez
Loida Maritza Perez
R.M. Johnson
The Myth of
Solitude: No Writer Is An Island by Kalamu ya
Salaam
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#5
E. Lynn Harris
bell hooks
Guy
Johnson
Lee Meadows
Latino literature by Evangeline Blanco
three writers who, throughout this century, have
spoken to their generation:
James Baldwin by
Kalamu ya Salaam,
Zora Neale Hurston by Leah
Mullen,
Farai Chideya by Cynthia Ray.
Excerpts:
Abide With Me by E. Lynn Harris and Standing at
the Scratch Line by Guy Johnson.
Poetry: Loving
You is Church by Tara Betts, Among Women by
Nicole C. Kearney
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WINTER 1998 #4
Sonya Sanchez
Kimberla
Lawson Roby
Camika Spenser
Mars Hill
Profiles of Ann Petry and Nkiru Books,
The Writing Business by Pat Houser, Speak Dis!
by Tony Medina, The Struggle for Visibility of
African American Women's Literature by Dorothy
Harris. Excerpt of The Moaners' Bench by Mars
Hill. reviews of
Assault on Paradise by Latiana
Lobo,
Blue As the Lake by Robert Stepto,
Blue
Light by Walter Mosley,
Don't Explain by Jewell
Gomez,
The Farming of Bones by Edwidge Dandicat,
and more |
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SUMMER
1998 #2
Content
Sheneska Jackson by Pat Houser
Jessica Care
Moore by Lynne d. Johnson
Telling Our Stories Ourselves by Dorothy Harris
Why I Write by Kathleen Morris
The Literary Life: Write On by Mo Fleming
Lorraine Hansberry by Lynne d. Johnson
Reviews
Pride by Lorene
Cary
In Another Place, Not Here by Dionne Brand
Ella Baker by Joanne Grant
If God Can Cook You Know I Can by Ntozake Shange
Nothing But the Rent by Sharon Mitchell
The Healing by Gayl Jones
Roberts vs. Texaco by Bari-Ellen
Roberts
The Men of Brewster Place by Gloria Naylor
Blanche Cleans Up by Barbara Neely
The Itch by Benilde
Little
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