The Vanishing Present

Song Yuanwen（宋源文 Chinese, b.1933）

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Maybe you know Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie from when Beyoncé sampled her TEDx talk, “We should all be feminists,” or maybe you’ve been following her emergence as one of the most prominent voices of African literature over the last two decades. Her latest novel, Americanah, was selected by The New York Times as one of the 10 Best Books of 2013.

Edna Lewis

Edna Lewis had a hell of a career. She worked her way up as a seamstress, eventually fashioning a dress for Marilyn Monroe. Then she became the first African-American celebrity chef. Then she broke her leg, so she wrote a cookbook. The Taste of Country Cooking was interspersed with personal stories of growing up in a freed-slave settled town in Virginia, and redefined what many thought of Southern food.  

Roxane Gay

Roxane Gay (@roxanegay), famed author of Bad Feminist, is a Tumblr favorite, and not just because you can follow her. She writes about what it means to be a woman of color. She’s the first Black woman to write for Marvel, and she’s writing queer WOC into their storylines. She pulled her unreleased book from publishers Simon & Schuster after their deal with Milo Yiannopoulos was announced. It’s easy to admire her actions as much as her writing. 

Follow these too:

Afro Editions (@afroeditions) posts and reblogs all things Black lit, including this bell hooks Valentine’s Day card and these suggestions for Black sci-fi.

The Center for African-American Poetry and Poetics (@caapoetryandpoetics) highlights exactly what you think it will.

Bonus: We highlighted it last year, but Black Children’s Books and Authors (@blackchildrensbooksandauthors) deserves a spotlight on it again. 

Don’t miss our upcoming BHM Answer Times. This week and next week, we have:

2/21—Angelica Ross (@missrosscreative), transgender rights advocate.

2/22—Actress Amandla Stenberg (@amandla)

2/23—Comedian and actor Andrew Bachelor, better known as King Bach (@kingbach).

My bank account:

Tim Gunn on Plus Size Clothing

Newman, David M. Sociology: Exploring the Architecture of Everyday Life, Brief Edition. 4th ed. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications, 2015. Print.

Chapter 10: The Architecture of Stratification: Social Class and Inequality

It took George almost two years of therapy before he had the strength to re open Weasleys’ Wizard Wheezes. He designed a new line of products for the reopening, Trigger Charms that would temporarily block out your senses when a trigger was detected, No Nightmare Nougat, Lethargy Lollipops, etc. Eventually Ron decided that being an auror was too stressful for him, and George offered him a job. It got easier to run once he had a brother with him.

Life slowly got easier, George’s business was booming, his family didn’t have to worry about money as much. Nieces and nephews started cropping up. George reconnected with Angelina and after a few years of dating they wound up getting married. It was harder picking a best man with Fred gone, but George managed. When Angelina gave birth his son, it was all too easy to pick a name.

One day George was sitting at the table explaining to Fred II how fainting fancies worked, Fred looked up and asked,

“Dad, when is your birthday?”

“Oh, in about a week,” George replied glancing at the calendar.

“Are you going to have a party?”

“No, a don’t really do birthday parties.”

“Aw, c’mon! You have to have a party!”

“Okay, I’ll have one on one condition, you have to help me blow out the candles.”