The Atlanta Voice talked to author Lenox Stafford about her new book, I See Posts. The Blackout! Stafford, who has lived all over the country and the world, calls Atlanta home and calls the book, “a fun suspense story for kids between the ages of 8-12.”

With so many digital distractions for middle school-aged students these days, Stafford believes a book aimed at that particular age group is timely.

“Reading will never go out of style. It expands your imagination, vocabulary and exposes you to a world that is larger than the block/neighborhood you grew up in,” she said.

The Atlanta Voice (AV): What or who inspired you to write your book, “I see Posts. The Blackout!”?

Lenox Stafford (LS): To be honest, I have lived away from home for a long time and there were a lot of things, people and places I forgot all about. I felt disconnected because Atlanta has changed so much, but I had also changed too after living in Chicago, NYC and London, England in my adult years. The idea for this book was planted after I started hanging with my sister, who is big on the skate scene here. It was either when I fell on my butt or while I was struggling to learn a few skate moves that I realized there is something in this setting that would make a good story.

AV: Why do you believe the topic will interest young people, especially the teens and tweens that are so locked into their cellphones and iPads these days?

LS: Who wouldn’t want to be the first person to see posts before everyone else? In this book, I meet kids where they are because we live in a time where authors have to compete with tablets and other mobile devices for kids attention. What I love about Kamaui’s journey in this story is that it takes place outside all day and although she needs her phone, she’s not consistently on it because she has a case to solve and a talent show she needs to practice for. The kids will feel all of her emotions and hopefully relate to her. Don’t worry teens, I have something coming down the pipeline for you all that will allow me to push the suspense even further for your age group.

AV: Is the book going to be only available via Kindle or e-editions?

LS: I’m covering all bases. The Kindle version of the book is currently on pre-order, but the official release date for print is April 12, 2023. The audiobook is in post-production and will also be available soon.

AV: What is the message or lesson you hope readers will take away from “I see Posts! The Blackout!” ?

LS: My entire mission is to inspire kids and teens to never play it safe or small. We want them to take everyday risks, honor their cultures and also form friendships with people from different backgrounds.

AV: Where are you from and what got you into writing/becoming an author?

LS: I am from Atlanta and am a proud alum of Booker T. Washington Highschool and Clark Atlanta University. While growing up, my parents frequently took us to the library and bookstores. The irony is although my background is in journalism, I was scared to take a chance on creative writing. I didn’t trust myself to come up with stories on my own because as a journalist, there’s no room for creativity. You stick to the facts and stats. Fortunately, while being lazy one day and tuning in to a Rocky marathon, I was encouraged by the storyline and had a thought based on, “Well, if he could do it, then I could do it, too,” but not boxing though, just writing. Things started aligning in my favor when I made that commitment and religiously began attending all types of writing workshops and conferences around New York City at the time.

AV: What is your favorite book(s) and why?

LS: That’s not fair! You can’t ask an author what are their favorite books! If I had to choose, the book I often visit is The Alchemist by Paulo Cohelo. Whenever I’m about to make a huge move, such as when I moved to NYC with no job and London, England with no family, I visit this book to remind myself of the main theme, which is, when you really want something, the entire Universe will conspire in your favor to help you achieve it.

AV: Lastly, why do you, a published author, believe reading remains so fundamental to a person’s educational growth?

LS: Reading will never go out of style. It expands your imagination, vocabulary and exposes you to a world that is larger than the block/neighborhood you grew up in.

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NEW YORK (AP) — Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson is working on a memoir. Jackson, the first Black woman appointed to the court, is calling the book “Lovely One.”

“Mine has been an unlikely journey,” Jackson said in a statement released Thursday by Random House.

“But the path was paved by courageous women and men in whose footsteps I placed my own, road warriors like my own parents, and also luminaries in the law, whose brilliance and fortitude lit my way. This memoir marries the public record of my life with what is less known. It will be a transparent accounting of what it takes to rise through the ranks of the legal profession, especially as a woman of color with an unusual name and as a mother and a wife striving to reconcile the demands of a high-profile career with the private needs of my loved ones.”

No release date has been set for “Lovely One.” Jackson, 52, was born Ketanji Onyika Brown. The book’s title comes from the English translation of Ketanji Onyika, the name suggested by an aunt who at the time was a Peace Corps worker in West Africa.

Jackson joined the court last year after President Joe Biden named her to succeed the retiring Stephen Breyer. She had previously been a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

“My hope is that the fullness of my journey as a daughter, sister, wife, mother, litigator, and friend will stand as a testament for young women, people of color, and dreamers everywhere,” Jackson added, “especially those who nourish outsized ambitions and believe in the possibility of achieving them.”

“Lovely One” is Jackson’s first book, but not the first by a current member of the Supreme Court. Justices Neil Gorsuch and Sonia Sotomayor are among those who have released books in recent years. Justice Amy Coney Barrett has a deal with the Penguin Random House imprint Sentinel.

Financial terms for “Lovely One” were not disclosed, although interest in her makes it likely her advance is at least comparable to the 7-figure deals negotiated in the past for memoirs by Sotomayor and Justice Clarence Thomas.

In announcing Jackson’s book, Random House called it a story she tells with “refreshing honesty, lively wit, and warmth.”

“Justice Jackson invites readers into her life and world, chronicling the experiences that have shaped her,” the announcement reads in part, “from growing up in Miami with educator parents who broke barriers during the 1960s to honing her voice as an oratory champion to performing improv and participating in pivotal student movements at Harvard to balancing the joys and demands of marriage and motherhood while advancing in Big Law — and, finally, to making history upon joining the nation’s highest court.”

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When Michelle Obama took the stage at the 2016 Democratic National Convention, she had a clear mission: to inject some inspiration into what had been a challenging campaign. The tensions within the Democratic Party, represented by Sen. Bernie Sanders’ unexpectedly strong showing in the primaries, had been roiling the convention since it began, and Hillary Clinton’s team had struggled to find the balance between the inspiring firsts of her nomination and the dark, chaotic energy of Donald Trump’s candidacy.

It was Obama who struck that balance, in a speech full of both urgency and possibility. The most memorable line would become a rallying cry for liberals: “When they go low, we go high.”

From another speaker, such a line might have carried a whiff of liberal smugness, more high-horse than high-ground. But from Obama, someone who had not sought the spotlight and remained torn about her role in politics, it was a reminder not to follow Trump down onto the low road, to model the world in which you wanted to live.

It was also a sign that Obama might someday produce a book like her latest. “The Light We Carry” comes four years after her memoir, “Becoming,” a book that sold 10 million copies in its first months on the market.

But “The Light We Carry” is not a follow-up memoir. It’s a self-help book, one that reflects all the conventions of the genre and shows that Obama understands her appeal: not as a former first lady who has done things few people will ever be able to do, but as a person who has faced familiar challenges despite her unusual circumstances. She has an intuitive sense of how blurred the lines have become between not only the personal and the political, but between influencer and politician. In this book, Obama shows her desire to use that tangle of emotion and power to bring people together, but the ease with which feelings and politics now blend is also a reminder of how easily it that combination could also be used to divide.

“The Light We Carry” grew out of both the “we go high” moment and the book tour around “Becoming.” If “we go high” became a marker of Obama’s role as a moral authority for millions of Americans, “Becoming” became a conduit through which they came to see her as someone who shared and understood their struggles.

In her new book, Obama writes about the tour that followed her memoir’s publication, when she spoke to sold-out stadiums and living-room-sized book groups. “With the space and energy to write a book and for the first time in decades being unharnessed from the political world my husband inhabited, I found myself putting in the left-out parts,” she writes about “Becoming.” “With the book, I showed myself from the inside out, less guarded than I had ever been, and I was surprised to find how quickly others dropped their guards in response.”

The moments where she felt connection were not over the glamorous bits of her life as first lady — “Nobody came up to me at book events desperate to talk about the time they’d worn a ball gown or interacted with a senator or done a White House tour” — or even her many professional accomplishments. Rather, they emerged over shared experiences of a parent living with multiple sclerosis, or an untrainable dog, or a lunch hour spent huddled in a car, the only place where, as parents of young children, they could find quiet and solitude.

That idea that her experiences could not only create connections but could be mined for useful advice became the basis for “The Light We Carry.” Though Obama is famously skeptical of politics, she is still invested in creating change. The way she thinks about change should be familiar: change first starts within, then happens in the home, then spreads to the wider community. “One light feeds another,” she writes. “One strong family lends strength to more. One engaged community can ignite those around it. This is the power of the light we carry.”

Familiar is a good way to describe this new book. Not just because it calls back to pieces of her memoir — Obama assumes you’ve likely already read “Becoming” — but because it follows the conventions of the modern self-help genre. She bolsters her advice not only with personal experiences, but also a mix of scientific studies, anecdotes and stories from both ordinary people and big-name celebrities like Lin-Manuel Miranda and Toni Morrison. The emotions she explores are also central to the genre: vulnerability, anxiety, authenticity.

What makes the book so unusual, and worth reading, is that it is a first lady rather than a life coach reaching into her experiences and emotions to write it. Not because she is the only first lady to have offered advice, but because the way she packages her advice shows how much the genre has changed.

For 20 years, Eleanor Roosevelt wrote an advice column called “If You Ask Me,” which doled out practical advice on political, cultural and even romantic questions. The column ran in Lady’s Home Journal and then McCall’s, two women’s magazines that were popular in mid-century American culture. But it was a product of both its author and its time: practical, thoughtful, but also reserved — Roosevelt did not open up her innermost thoughts and private life to her readers. “There are some things in life which one should be allowed to keep to oneself,” she wrote.

But US culture would become more therapeutic in the years that followed, creating more space for public discussion of emotion and personal struggles. That became clear when First Lady Betty Ford divulged her struggles with addiction and disclosed that she had seen a therapist. It was both a sign of how much things had changed — such personal details about such public figures, especially political ones, had rarely been willingly disclosed in earlier eras — but also how new such sharing was that time. Ford’s disclosures startled Americans, while also helping create a culture that enabled people to talk more openly about their own struggles.

Self-help writing changed along with the culture, though it was not an area first ladies after Ford engaged with. First ladies wrote books that were not memoirs. Barbara Bush wrote a children’s book from the perspective of the first dog, Millie; Hillary Clinton wrote the policy-focused book “It Takes a Village”; Laura Bush wrote children’s books and a book on women in Afghanistan — but none like “The Light We Carry.”

Obama’s decision to write this book speaks both to her unusual position as, for some, a voice of moral uplift and guidance, but also her post-White House career. Through podcasting and documentaries, Obama has developed a particular brand, weightier than a lifestyle brand and more personal than a political brand. That, too, speaks to this particular culture and economic moment, when to stay engaged with people, celebrities must open the doors to their personal and emotional lives.

All of which makes “The Light We Carry” a fascinating read — whether for the reflections of how to deal with anxiety and relationships and the immense uncertainty of our lives today, or for the snapshot of a moment when politics, celebrity, self-help and authenticity became entangled in ways we’re still trying to understand.

Nicole Hemmer is an associate professor of history and director of the Carolyn T. and Robert M. Rogers Center for the Study of the Presidency at Vanderbilt University. She is the author of “Messengers of the Right: Conservative Media and the Transformation of American Politics” and the forthcoming “Partisans: The Conservative Revolutionaries Who Remade American Politics in the 1990s.” She cohosts the history podcasts “Past Present” and “This Day in Esoteric Political History.” The views expressed in this commentary are her own.

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While putting the finishing touches on her soon-to-be opened establishment, The Noir Bookshop, Ymani Wince picked up a weathered paperback from the shelf. It is her personal copy of Terry McMillan’s breakthrough novel “Mama.” “My stepmother gave me this book when I was 14 years old,” Wince said. “And this was her copy when she was at Jackson State University.”

“Mama” created a shift for Wince and her relationship with books and will be among those available at the soft opening of the bookstore – located at 2317 Cherokee. It was her first time reading a novel with authentic Black dialogue. She also fell in love with the layers of the story. “If anyone comes in and asks me to recommend a book, it will be this one.”

The event takes place from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Saturday, April 30. The store will officially open at a to-be-announced date in June, but this weekend she is encouraging the community to come by for a sample of her plans to influence the region by promoting Black culture through books – and fellowship.

The origins of The Noir Bookshop date back to 2018 with Wince’s desire to organize a community book drive. In 2020, the pandemic hit. During the lockdown she noticed on Instagram there was this store called Black Market Vintage in New York. The owners are a couple that traveled around the world to collect Black artifacts.

“I was really intrigued by the books they were able to find,” Wince said. “They had copies of Octavia Butler, Toni Morrison – an original James Baldwin. They had so much vintage literature that I was just obsessed.” Every time she would attempt to buy a book from them, the item would already be sold. She discovered Brittany Bond, a woman who repurposed an old ice cream cart into a portable bookstore she calls Common Books. Bond sells copies of books of women authors at various locations throughout New York City. Wince became one of Bond’s online customers.

“I saw that she had old copies of Zora Neale Hurston, Toni Morrison, Alice Walker and I was really excited, so I started buying books from her just to keep them on the shelf for myself,” Wince said. “Whenever I would get a new book, I would take a picture and post it online.”

The response was overwhelming. Wince kept getting messages inquiring about the books. It made her think that she could do something similar in St. Louis, but with Black authors. The death of designer Virgil Abloh just after Thanksgiving in 2021 lit a fire under her. “I got into a rabbit hole of Black owned bookstores around the country,” said Wince. “I saw so many Black women – my age – who were opening stores and becoming pillars of their community.”

By Christmas, Wince, 28, announced that she was opening a store. She held a pop-up event in February to introduce her concept to the community. Two weeks after Easter, she will present The Noir Bookstore in its new home after signing a lease on her space last month.

Wince shifted gears after working as a journalist, most recently with The Riverfront Times.

“I love to write, and I think that being a storyteller and a journalist will always be part of my life,” Wince said. “But I knew I was done when I got all the stories I wanted to tell out of my head. It took like a year or two, but I felt like I had done all that I wanted to do. I’ve found my next chapter, pun intended.”

A warm, fuzzy family feeling

In addition to selling books, Wince plans to host community events, community service initiatives, lectures and more when The Noir Bookshop becomes fully operational. She credits her family with serving as an inspiration for the experience she seeks to create with The Noir Bookshop.

“My grandmother taught me how to read when I was young. We share a love of books and during the thick of the pandemic – when it was safe to visit her – I would bring her a stack of books and we would trade,” Wince said. “Every time I go to my grandmother’s house, I can’t remember a time where she didn’t have something baked and ready, whether it was a few pieces of a pound cake or a peach cobbler.”

She hopes to recreate that energy for patrons and visitors of The Noir Bookshop.

“I want them to come in and have a snack and just know that that when they walk in my space that they belong there and that they can feel warm and loved, like my grandparents made me feel,” Wince said. “I want to see people’s reaction when they come through the door, because that will let me know if I hit the mark with what type of mood I was trying to set in here.”

A crowdfunding campaign is underway to ensure that The Noir Bookshop is as Wince prepares for the store to open full-time this summer.

“It’s not about me turning a profit,” Wince said. “Of course, the store needs to make a profit, but books are meant to be shared.”

She wants The Noir Bookshop to serve the region through education, inspiration, and community – which are the three pillars that the store is built on.

“I want people to see themselves when they come,” Wince said. “And to know that a space like this is needed – and it exists.”

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When you think about Blacks throughout history, the narrative is usually African kings and queens or slaves in America. 

Vanessa Riley’s new book “Island Queen” shows another narrative of Black wealth during the Georgian and Regency era (1750 – 1830). Riley’s new book is about the life of a Black woman, Dorothy Kirwan Thomas, a free woman who rose from slavery to become a powerful landowner in the colonial West Indies.

Inspired by a sketch cartoon that was originally printed in Rambler Magazine in 1788 of Prince William Henry (future King William IV) and an unidentified Black woman, Riley looks into the story behind this rare and unique photo. After six years of research, Riley was able to tell this story, a story that demonstrates how Thomas defeated all stereotypes, as she was very famous, powerful, and influential during her time. 

Thomas’ will is even archived in the United Kingdom according to Riley.

Riley, and Atlanta native, has a doctorate in mechanical engineering and a master’s in industrial engineering, and wants people to understand Black history, to know that there is a whole world of accomplishments that Blacks have made that people simply just do not know about. Riley has been writing Regency romances for years and hopes that in her 22nd book people will learn about the history that has been missed and stories that have not been told. Growing up as a child, she loved math and writing. 

“I loved to write growing up. My father would tell me stories about Trinidad where he is from,” Riley said. “Dorothy Kirwan Thomas was important, but she is not in the history books. Women in history are not recorded the same way as men. You rarely find documents about Blacks. People should read this book because it’s going to present the history you should know.”

Thomas was born a slave, but she was a self-taught businesswoman who saved money to free herself and her family. It took Thomas 14 years to pay for herself, her mother, and her children’s freedom. During this time, the world was in chaos according to Riley, as everybody was searching for freedom. 

The sugar trade in the West Indies was running the world, according to Riley. Thomas dealt with racism, enslavement, marriage, politics, taxation, and women’s rights. She was a business-minded woman who struggled with functional illiteracy and would go from doing business in the West Indies to mingling with London’s elite.

“Sugar changed the world. People needed a free labor force. People were fighting for freedom, but were denying people like Thomas freedom,” Riley said. “Thomas had the ‘it’ factor. She had people’s attention and she commanded attention. I would love to have her courage and boldness when it came to business. She made it happen by focusing on her dreams. I dedicate this book to every little Black girl who has been told no.”

Riley started as a writer with humble beginnings, as she use to self-publish her books. Today, publishers and even production companies are knocking on her door. 

“Longboat Productions is very interested in this story,” Riley said. “I am currently in talks with the production company for them to do a television series of the book. Adjoa Andoh is set to be the Executive Producer for the TV series.”

Riley is currently touring her book and working on her next book “Sister, Mother, Warrior,” which is due to be released next summer. “Island Queen is available everywhere for purchase. For more information, visit VanessaRiley.com.

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“Surely, with my personal transformation from country girl to who I am today is an amazing journey. God truly blessed me and I am thankful everyday for this grace and these favors. I trust some young women can benefit from my experiences.” — Bunnie Jackson-Ransom 

If you ever have an opportunity to meet Bunnie Jackson-Ransom, you will recognize the light she carries with her into every room she enters. 

She passionately explains that light in her newly released book “Memoirs of a Life Well Lived: The First “First Lady” of the S.W.A.T.S.”. Jackson-Ransom was encouraged and loved by her parents Elizabeth Day Haynes and Burnalla James Hayes and taught to always stand in her truth and light. 

Jackson-Ransom born Brunella Jane Hayes, named after her father, referred to herself as “First Lady” reluctantly at first, however she has come to embrace this moniker on her own terms. Being the first lady of her children, her husband, and her community. 

In her book, she states that we are all first ladies to somebody. She was given the title because she was married to a very important man– the former two-time Mayor of Atlanta Maynard Jackson– and in her position, Jackson-Ransom was to relish in the prestige that comes with that office. And she did through the words in her book. Even after the marriage ended — the friendship remained. 

Growing up in a small town, Louisburg, North Carolina, surrounded by the love of her family, Jackson-Ransom tells us about her childhood home that she admired so much. Mainly, because it was purchased by her mother, and renovated by her father to have the only fully working bathroom in the neighborhood. 

“I come from a family of entrepreneurs,” Jackson-Ransom said. “My father purchased the land on the left and the right of our home. On the left side, he built a country store and planted cotton on one acre of the land behind the store. On the right side, he built a two-room house and rented it out. Behind the house, he planted tobacco on one acre.”

With the upbringing of a small town country girl, Bunnie Jackson still knew she could accomplish anything she set out to do. Graduating first in her class in high school and attending North Carolina College in Durham was just the start for her. 

Marrying Jackson (the first African-American Mayor of the City of Atlanta) was only just another stop on her road to living a well-lived life.

In the introduction of her book, Jackson-Ransom speaks about a college romance leading to a marriage, then divorce. Obtaining her Master’s Degree with Elizabeth, her first-born daughter in tow. Moving to Atlanta and performing her “first lady” role. 

Then working through divorce number two, after being the first lady of Atlanta, creating the Neighborhood Planning Unit (NPU) and working relentlessly at Economic Opportunity Atlanta (EOA) having Brooke and Maynard III, her first son. Opening First Class. Inc. a public relations agency in 1975. Embarking upon one more marriage– having youngest daughter Rae Yvonne at age forty and then another divorce. 

Not stopping, Jackson-Ransom went on to invite us into her life in music management from 1976 to the mid-1980s. She illuminates this time as being “good to her and the most financially lucrative.” Being again the first Black woman to own and operate a full-service public relations agency in Atlanta. 

As well as being the “first” Black woman to head an artist management company with two recording acts — The S.O.S. Band and CAMEO to traveling the world on an assignment of a lifetime working with Road Scholars. 

“This is a love story, an unconditional love story for people close and not so close to Bunnie, those that her contagious laughter, business acumen, fast-witted sense of humor and straight to the point no nonsense words deliver,” Sophie Gibson said. “Bunnie has described in detail a life worthy of a queen despite trials and some very harsh realities, with love found and lost. This is a soul-searching and honest book. Bunnie teaches us ladies to stand tall, to own our brilliance and speak the truth always from the heat.”

In the forty-two chapters, Jackson-Ransom unapologetically tells her truth, in her own words, in her own time. Jackson-Ransom gives out flowers to all of those that have been a part of her eighty years of life. Celebrating her lessons and giving us the manual to living a life as a “First Lady.”

Love God, then yourself, then the man. 

Make sure you are educated. 

Do not take the role too seriously–it will pass. 

Learn how to smile when you want to scream. 

Keep some girlfriends in your corner. 

Strive hard to find your purpose in life. 

Remember you are God’s child. 

Learn the “Serenity Prayer” 

If you can’t say something nice about someone,just shut your mouth (Bunnie’s forever life lesson from her mother Elizabeth Day Hayes affectionately known as “Mama Hayes”)

Bunnie Jackson-Ransom’s “Memoirs of a Life Well Lived-The First “First Lady” from the S.W.A.T.S.” can be found locally at Medu Bookstore and online at Amazon.com. 

The post Book Review: ‘Memoirs of a Life Well Lived’ appeared first on The Atlanta Voice.

Since 1945, Ebony has chronicled Black life and the multitude of contributions of generations of African American icons, trailblazers, changemakers, and the unsung.

As the pandemic continues and keeps some essential milestones off the front pages, Ebony quietly changed ownership while finally receiving overdue recognition for more than 75 years of Black excellence.

“As a child, I can remember vividly the stack of Ebony magazines that adorned our family’s coffee table,” recalled Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas).

“My parents, I believe, strategically placed those magazines there so that anyone who entered that space would be exposed to the powerful messages of Black excellence displayed so wonderfully both on Ebony’s breathtaking covers and within the content of its articles,” the Congresswoman declared.

Jackson Lee’s remarks came during the celebration of the book “Ebony: Covering Black America,” by Lavaille Lavette, the best-selling author and president and publisher of One Street Books and Ebony Magazine’s imprint Ebony Publishing.

Former NBA Star Junior Bridgeman recently purchased Ebony and Ebony.com, a member of the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA), representing the largest contingent of Black owned newspapers and media companies in America.

“Ebony kind of stood for Black excellence, showing people doing positive things that could benefit everyone,” said Bridgeman, who starred with the Milwaukee Bucks and Los Angeles Clippers.

“It just made you feel good.”

Lavette’s expansive book counts as a national treasure, which the publisher said marks not only history but also makes history.

“Growing up in the Midwest, Ebony was considered on par with the nation’s most prestigious magazines of the era, Time and Life magazines, and rightfully so,” said Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) Chair Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio).

“This book, ‘Ebony: Covering Black America,’ brings back so many memories of how we as a people relied upon Ebony to share both our strivings, setbacks, and undying determination to keep moving forward,” Congresswoman Beatty added.  “This book gets people talking both about the past and about the connections between the past and our present moments as a people.”

The CBC and others joined with Lavette on Capitol Hill in April to celebrate the book and the history of Ebony. Tennis superstar Venus Williams, entertainer Common, Kimora Lee Simmons, and retired NBA champion Dwyane Wade and his wife, actress Gabrielle Union count among the contributors to the book. Sean “Diddy” Combs also contributed to the work that features photos of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Diana Ross, Sidney Poitier, President Barack Obama, Muhammad Ali, and many others.

Lavette said she and her staff expect to peruse the market of – particularly African American – authors this summer with an eye toward a banner year of publishing in 2022.  “We are standing on the shoulders of giants that set the standard high, and so I want to be sure that we keep and always are trying to improve and make it even better,” Lavette remarked. “We’re not trying to compromise an author’s experience or the type of product that we put out. It’s going to stand toe-to-toe and above what’s out there.”

Lavette continued: “I am a story hunter. The people I work with are story hunters, and there are several books we can probably announce and put out. But I want to take our time and prepare for next year so that in that process that we are going through, we’re staying steady to the vision and staying true to some of the traditional things Ebony has been known to publish like the Lerone Bennett books that speak to our culture.”

Lavette, who holds a master’s in Education, has worked as a school teacher and administrator. She also served as a special advisor to former U.S. Secretary of Education Dr. Rod Paige.

During the recent Capitol Hill visit, which also included NNPA President Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr., Lavette presented a limited commemorative edition of the book to congressional leaders. Each expressed their delight.

“Growing up in rural Sumter, South Carolina, I cherished as a teenager, devouring the pages of Ebony magazine,” House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-South Carolina) declared.  “I recall memories of sitting in the local barbershop awaiting my turn in the chair. While waiting, my eye was always attracted to those compelling Ebony covers.”

Congressman Clyburn continued: “But more than that, Ebony opened up an entire world of possibilities to my young mind by sharing stories about our people making wonderful social contributions all over the country and the world via an unmatched work-ethic whether in sports, entertainment, or politics. And that’s exactly what ‘Ebony: Covering Black America’ does today.”

Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr., President and CEO of the NNPA, affirmed, “We are so proud that EBONY Magazine and Ebony Publishing are members of the NNPA and we are encourage by the outstanding leadership of Junior Bridgeman and Lavaille Lavette who are taking Ebony and Ebony.com to the next level of the highest personification of what Black Excellence exhibits and engages in America and throughout the world. The next 75 years will be the greatest for sure.”

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A planned book by Sen. Josh Hawley, who objected to President-elect Joe Biden’s win and backed baseless claims that the election was stolen, has been canceled by its publisher in the wake of the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol by a mob of pro-Trump supporters, a decision the Missouri Republican called “Orwellian” and vowed to fight in court.

In a statement Thursday, Simon & Schuster announced that “After witnessing the disturbing, deadly insurrection that took place on Wednesday in Washington, D.C, Simon & Schuster has decided to cancel publication of Senator Josh Hawley’s forthcoming book, ‘The Tyranny of Big Tech.’

“We did not come to this decision lightly,” the publisher added. “As a publisher it will always be our mission to amplify a variety of voices and viewpoints: at the same time we take seriously our larger public responsibility as citizens, and cannot support Senator Hawley after his role in what became a dangerous threat to our democracy and freedom.”

Thousands of Trump supporters had gathered in Washington on Wednesday to protest Congress’ formal certification of Biden’s win and many ended up storming into the Capitol and occupying it for hours, delaying the process into early Thursday morning. A widely seen photo, taken before the occupation, shows Hawley raising a fist in solidarity to the crowd.

Hawley has often been cited as possible future presidential candidate and his book, scheduled to come out in June, was an intended forum for a favorite theme — the undue power of Google, Facebook and other internet giants. Soon after news broke that his book was dropped, Hawley tweeted, and tagged his comments directly to Simon & Schuster, that he was being unfairly censored and punished: “I was representing my constituents, leading a debate on the Senate floor on voter integrity, which they have now decided to redefine as sedition.”

“This could not be more Orwellian… Let me be clear, this is not just a contract dispute. It’s a direct assault on the First Amendment… I will fight this cancel culture with everything I have. We’ll see you in court.”

Simon & Schuster quickly issued another statement: “We are confident that we are acting fully within our contractual rights” to cancel the book.

Simon & Schuster has had numerous clashes with Trump and his supporters over the last few years. It called off a deal with the far-right writer and commentator Milo Yiannopoulos and published several anti-Trump best-sellers, including niece Mary Trump’s “Too Much and Never Enough” and former National Security Advisor John Bolton’s “The Room Where It Happened.”

New York publishers had already expressed wariness about taking on a post-presidential memoir by Trump, whose “Crippled America” was published by a Simon & Schuster imprint in 2015, and this week’s events makes a deal with them far more unlikely. A Simon & Schuster spokesman declined comment on whether the publisher would be interested in a new Trump book. Messages left with Penguin Random House, publisher of Trump’s bestselling “The Art of the Deal,” and HarperCollins Publishers were not immediately returned.

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President Donald Trump’s niece offers a scathing portrayal of her uncle in a new book, blaming a toxic family for raising a narcissistic, damaged man who poses an immediate danger to the public, according to a copy obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press.

Mary L. Trump, a psychologist, writes that Trump’s reelection would be catastrophic and that “lying, playing to the lowest common denominator, cheating, and sowing division are all he knows.”

“By the time this book is published, hundreds of thousands of American lives will have been sacrificed on the altar of Donald’s hubris and willful ignorance. If he is afforded a second term, it would be the end of American Democracy,” she writes in “Too Much and Never Enough, How My Family Created The World’s Most Dangerous Man.”

Mary Trump is the daughter of Trump’s elder brother, Fred Jr., who died after a struggle with alcoholism in 1981 at 42. The book is the second insider account in two months to paint a deeply unflattering portrait of the president, following the release of former national security adviser John Bolton’s bestseller.

In her book, Mary Trump, who is estranged from her uncle, makes several revelations, including alleging that the president paid a friend to take the SATs — a standardized test widely used for college admissions — in his place. She writes that his sister Maryanne Trump did his homework for him but couldn’t take his tests and he worried his grade point average, which put him far from the top of the class, would “scuttle his efforts to get accepted” into the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where he transferred after two years at Fordham University in the Bronx.

“To hedge his bets he enlisted Joe Shapiro, a smart kid with a reputation for being a good test taker, to take his SATs for him,” she writes, adding, “Donald, who never lacked for funds, paid his buddy well.” White House spokesperson Sarah Matthews called the allegation “completely false.”

Mary Trump also writes, in awe, of Trump’s ability to gain the support of prominent Christian leaders and white evangelicals, saying: “The only time Donald went to church was when the cameras were there. It’s mind boggling. He has no principles. None!”

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany slammed the book Tuesday, saying, “It’s ridiculous, absurd accusations that have absolutely no bearing in truth.”

Mary Trump traces much of her pain to the death of her father when she was 16. The president, who rarely admits mistakes, told The Washington Post last year that he regretted the pressure he and his father had put on Fred Jr. to join the family business when his brother wanted to be a pilot instead.

“It was just not his thing. … I think the mistake that we made was we assumed that everybody would like it. That would be the biggest mistake. … There was sort of a double pressure put on him,” Trump told the paper.

Yet as her father lay dying alone, Mary Trump claims, “Donald went to the movies.”

She says that, as a child, Donald Trump hid favorite toys from his younger brother and took juvenile stunts — like Fred Jr. dumping a bowl of mashed potatoes on his then-7-year-old head — so seriously that he harbored resentments even when his eldest sister, Maryanne, brought it up in her toast at his White House birthday dinner in 2017.

She paints Trump, who often called her “Honeybunch,” as a self-centered narcissist who demanded constant adulation — even from his family — and had little regard for family members’ feelings. Trump’s crude rhetoric on the campaign trail, she said, was nothing new, reminding her “of every family meal I’d ever attended during which Donald had talked about all of the women he considered ugly fat slobs or the men, usually more accomplished or powerful, he called losers.”

The book is, at its heart, a lengthy psychoanalysis of the Trump family by a woman trained in the field, who sees the traits of her uncle that critics despise as a natural progression of behaviors developed at the knees of a demanding father. For Donald Trump, she writes, “lying was defensive — not simply a way to circumvent his father’s disapproval or to avoid punishment … but a way to survive.”

Publisher Simon & Schuster announced Monday that it would be publishing the book two weeks early, on July 14, after a New York appellate court cleared the way for the book’s publication following a legal challenge.

Robert Trump, the president’s younger brother, had sued Mary Trump, arguing in legal papers that she was subject to a 20-year-old agreement between family members that no one would publish accounts involving core family members without their approval.

A judge last week left in place a restraint that blocked Mary Trump and any agent of hers from distributing the book, but the court made clear it was not considering Simon & Schuster to be covered by the ruling.

In the book, Mary Trump writes that she didn’t take her uncle’s run for the presidency seriously in 2016 — an opinion apparently shared by Trump’s eldest sister, a retired federal appeals court judge.

“‘He’s a clown,’ my aunt Maryanne said during one of our regular lunches at the time. ‘This will never happen,’” she recalls her saying.

She said she declined an invitation to attend her uncle’s election-night party in New York City four years ago, convinced she “wouldn’t be able to contain my euphoria when (Hillary) Clinton’s victory was announced.”

Instead, she found herself wandering around her house a few hours after Trump’s victory was announced, fearful that voters “had chosen to turn this country into a macro version of my malignantly dysfunctional family.”

Mary Trump wrote that she considered speaking out against her uncle at various times, including the summer of 2016, but was reluctant to do so for fear of being “painted as a disgruntled, disinherited niece looking to cash in or settle a score.”

After the events of the last three years, she writes, “I can no longer remain silent.”

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Michelle Obama has announced the release of a documentary film based on experiences she encountered after writing her memoir, “Becoming.”

“I’m excited to share that on May 6, Netflix will release BECOMING,” Obama tweeted Monday.

I’m excited to share that on May 6, @Netflix will release BECOMING, a documentary directed by Nadia Hallgren that shares the stories of the amazing people I met after the release of my memoir. During this difficult time, I hope you’ll find some inspiration and joy in this film. pic.twitter.com/fqsIbhXYeL

— Michelle Obama (@MichelleObama) April 27, 2020

The documentary is directed by Nadia Hallgren, and will “share the stories of the amazing people I met after the release of my memoir,” Obama wrote in her social media post.

“Becoming,” Obama’s memoir, was released in the fall of 2018 and quickly became the bestselling hardcover book of that year. To date, it has sold more than 10 million copies, according to the book’s publisher Penguin Random House.

In her tweet announcing the documentary, Obama shared a clip from the film, in which she is shown discussing various topics with young women at an event in Philadelphia. One young woman asks the former first lady what her life is like now, post-White House. Obama answers she is still trying to figure out what her path will be.

“So little of who I am happened in those eight years,” Obama says of her time as first lady. “So much more of who I was happened before.”

Obama’s tweet on Monday noted the current state of the country, dealing with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

“During this difficult time, I hope you find some inspiration and joy in this film,” she wrote.

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