Black Market Reads

How special education used disability labels to marginalize Black students in public schools

The Unteachables examines the overrepresentation of Black students in special education over the course of the twentieth century. Excavating the deep-seated racism embedded in both the public school system and public policy, it explores the discriminatory labeling of Black students, and how it indelibly contributed to special education disproportionality, to student discipline and push-out practices, and to the school-to-prison pipeline effect.

Keith A. Mayes is associate professor of African American & African Studies and faculty affiliate in sociocultural studies in education at the University of Minnesota. He is author of Kwanzaa: Black Power and the Making of the African American Holiday Tradition.

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More About Seph Rodney

Seph Rodney, PhD was born in Jamaica, and came of age in the Bronx, New York. He has an English degree from Long Island University, Brooklyn; a studio art MFA from the University of California, Irvine; and a PhD in museum studies from Birkbeck College, University of London. While in London, he created, produced, and hosted a radio show called The Thread.

Seph Rodney, PhD, is a former senior critic and opinion editor for Hyperallergic. He has written for the New York Times, CNN, MSNBC, and other publications. He is featured on the podcast The American Age. 

His book, The Personalization of the Museum Visit, was published by Routledge in 2019. In 2020 he won the Rabkin Arts Journalism Prize. In 2022 he won the Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant.

THANKS TO:

Walker Art Center

iDream.TV

Platform Arts

From cell phone footage of police killing unarmed Black people to leaked racist messages and even comments from friends and family on social media, online communication exposes how racism operates in a world that pretends to be colorblind. In When the Hood Comes Off, Rob Eschmann blends rigorous research and engaging personal narrative to examine the effects of online racism on communities of color and society, and the unexpected ways that digital technologies enable innovative everyday tools of antiracist resistance.

In this episode Lissa talks with Dr. Rob Eschmann about When the Hood Comes Off: Racism and Resistance in the Digital Age (University of California Press, 2023), his book exploring racism in the digital age. Rob Eschmann is a writer, scholar, filmmaker, and educator from Chicago. He is Associate Professor of Social Work and a member of the Data Science Institute at Columbia University, as well as Faculty Associate at Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society.

Two-time Sue Grafton Memorial Award-winner Tracy Clark introduces readers to FALL (Thomas & Mercer), a hard-boiled, page-turning thriller featuring Chicago Police Detective Harriet Foster, a Black woman in a male-dominated department who, with a new female partner, must stop a killer targeting Chicago aldermen.

Rising to accept a prestigious award, Jody Lulich wondered what to say. Explain how he’d been attracted to veterinary medicine? Describe how caring for helpless, voiceless animals in his own shame and pain provided a lifeline, a chance to heal himself as well? Lulich tells his story in In the Company of Grace, a memoir about finding courage in compassion and strength in healing—and power in finally confronting the darkness of his youth.

In this episode, presented with a live audience in partnership with Magers & Quinn Booksellers, Lissa talks with Minnesota Attorney General and author, Keith Ellison, about his latest book detailing the trial of Police Officer Derek Chauvin in the murder of George Floyd exploring why this book is a vital contribution not just to the literature of the Floyd trial, but to that of police reform generally. 

In this episode, Lissa talks with author Sherrie Fernandez-Williams about her latest book, Goddess of the Whole Self, inspirations and origin stories. Go Deeper at www.BlackMarketReads.com

In this episode Lissa sits down with Davu Underwood Seru, the newly appointed Curator of the Archie Givens Sr. Collection of African American Literature and Life at the University of Minnesota. This Collection includes novels, poetry, plays, short stories, essays, literary criticism, periodicals, and biographies that span nearly 250 years of American culture -with particular strength in the areas of the Harlem Renaissance and the Black Arts Movement.

With tens of thousands of archival and manuscript materials that document the history of black literature and culture, the Givens Collection is an invaluable community and scholarly resource. In this episode we explore the collection and meet Davu Seru, musician, composer, author and recently named Curator of the Givens Collection.

In this previously unpublished episode, Lissa talks with author Rachel Howzell Hall during her visit to the Loft's inaugural Wordplay Festival, exploring issues of crime and passion in her 2019 novel They All Fall Down (Forge Books).

Rachel Howzell Hall is a noteworthy author from Los Angeles, The United States, who is famous for writing thriller, mystery, literature & fiction, and crime fiction novels. She has written 7 critically acclaimed novels in her career, which include the books of the Detective Elouise Norton novel series. The 3rd book of this series was the receiver of the coveted Kirkus Star. One more book from the same series was included in the list of the Los Angeles Times’ top books to read in the summer. The New York Times has praised the chief protagonist of the series, Elousie Norton, by describing her as a formidable fighter and a person that everyone would want to have by their side. In addition to writing this popular book series, author Hall has collaborated with James Patterson for writing the novel, The Good Sister. Hall is known to be a featured writer on the acclaimed series of the NPR. Author Hall has also served in AWP’s Writers’ Program in the role of a mentor. Currently, she is serving on the panel of the board of directors of the MWA.  Author Hall was born in Los Angeles, California. During her childhood days, she used to always keep a pen with her and used to write everywhere, especially the places she felt like writing on. Hall used to fill her notebooks, loose leaf papers, her brother’s yearbook, and in church bulletins. She never used to write on freeway overpasses, buildings, or walls as she used to consider it as graffiti. For a period of 4 years, author Hall has lived in Santa Cruz.

The episode also includes a brief conversation with founding director Steph Opitz, about the origins of the 1st Wordplay Festival.

In this episode Lissa talks with Santi Elijah Holley about his book An Amerikan Family: The Shakurs and the Nation They Created.

An enlightening history of the rise and lasting impact of Black liberation groups in America, as seen through the Shakurs, one of the movement’s most prominent and fiercely creative families, home to Tupac and Assata, and a powerful incubator for today’s activism, scholarship, and artistry.

They have been celebrated, glorified, and mythologized. They have been hailed as heroes, liberators, and freedom fighters. They have been condemned, pursued, imprisoned, exiled, and killed. But the true and complete story of the Shakur family—one of the most famous names in contemporary Black American history—has never been told.

SANTI ELIJAH HOLLEY has reported for more than a decade on the intersec­tion of culture, music, race, religion, and politics. His work has appeared in numerous national and inter­national outlets, including The Atlantic, The New Re­public, the Economist, the Guardian, the Los Angeles Times, and the Washington Post. Holley is the recipient of grants from PEN America and the Robert B. Silvers Foundation, and he was awarded an Oregon Literary Fellowship for nonfiction. He lives in Los Angeles.

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Charlayne Hunter-Gault is an American civil rights activist, journalist and former foreign correspondent for National Public Radio, CNN, and the Public Broadcasting Service. Charlayne Hunter and Hamilton Holmes were the first African-American students to attend the University of Georgia. In this episode she and Lissa discuss her life's work, her philosophy, and her latest book -My People: Five Decades Writing About Black Lives

In this episode Lissa talks with Dr. Shaun M. Anderson, about his debut publication The Black Athlete Revolt: The Sport Justice Movement in the Age of #Black Lives Matter (Rowman and Littlefield, 2023).

The Black Athlete Revolt is the first book to take a historical and contemporary look at how Black athletes have used their influence to move beyond protests and create substantial change for Black Americans. Spanning from the civil rights movement to today, this book reveals the ever evolving and important role of Black athlete activism. Specifically, The Black Athlete Revolt explores the influence of black athletes since the late 19th century, through the Civil Rights Movement, and into today’s #BlackLivesMatter movement. As society fights to go from protest to policy reform, the revitalization of athlete activism in recent years has sparked a new platform: The Sport Justice Movement. This book details the ascension of this movement, where it is presently, and what’s next.

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In this episode Lissa talks with playwright and author Pearl Cleage about Blues for an Alabama Sky, her current work and references to inspirations and influencers including Langston Hughes, Stacey Abrams, Ntozake Shange, Viola Davis, audience development and more.

Blues for an Alabama Sky is playing on the Wurtele Thrust stage at the Guthrie through March 12, 2023 Tickets: https://www.guthrietheater.org/shows-and-tickets/performance-calendar/

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In celebration of Black History Month, Lissa was invited by Books and Books to interview Dr. Clarence Lusane about his recent work. Twenty Dollars and Change: Harriet Tubman and the Ongoing Fight for Racial Justice and Democracy, (City Lights 2023). Join us for this in depth conversation.

Link to purchase the book: https://shop.booksandbooks.com/book/9780872868854

Reminiscent of the works of Margaret Atwood, Shirley Jackson, and Octavia Butler, a biting social commentary from the acclaimed author of Lakewood that speaks to our times—a piercing dystopian novel about the unbreakable bond between a young woman and her mysterious mother, set in a world in which witches are real and single women are closely monitored.

In this episode Lynn Nottage speaks with BMR Host, Lissa Jones during the run of her play Sweat, performed at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis.

Lynn Nottage is a playwright and a screenwriter. She is the first, and remains the only, woman to have won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama twice. Her plays have been produced widely in the United States and throughout the world.

Most recently, Nottage premiered MJ the Musical, directed by Christopher Wheeldon and featuring the music of Michael Jackson, more … http://www.lynnnottage.com/about.html

Kristin Henning is a nationally recognized legal scholar and activist in juvenile justice reform. As the Blume Professor of Law and Director of the Juvenile Justice Clinic and Initiative at Georgetown, she advocates for reform in the juvenile and criminal legal systems to fight the criminalization of Black adolescence. Henning explores the devastating long-term consequences of racial bias and over-policing youth within communities of color and addresses how to change racial disparities within the legal system.

Andrea Jenkins is the first Black transgender woman to be elected to public office in the United States. She was elected to the Minneapolis City Council with 73% of the vote. She is a poet, and an artist as well as a public official.

Andrea is the author of the poetry collection The T is Not Silent, New and Selected Poems, and contributor to the acclaimed anthologies, Queer Voices, Poetry, Prose, and Pride. A Good Time for the Truth: Race in Minnesota, and Blues Vision: African American writing from Minnesota. Jenkins is also an oral historian for the Transgender Oral History Project at the University of Minnesota Libraries documenting the lived experiences of transgender and gender non-conforming people in the upper Midwest and in the United States.