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Percival Everett wins the National Book Award for his Huckleberry Finn-inspired epic “James.”

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NEW YORK (AP) – Percival Everett’s “James,” a daring reworking of “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” won the National Book Award for fiction. The winner in the nonfiction category was “Soldiers and Kings: Survival and Hope in the World of Human Smuggling” by Jason De León, while the finalists included Salman Rushdie’s memoir about his brutal stabbing in 2022, “The Knife.”

The youth literature prize was awarded Wednesday night to Shifa Saltaga Safadi’s coming-of-age story “Kareem Between,” and the poetry prize was awarded to Lena Khalaf Tuffah’s “Something About Living.” In the translation category, the winner was “Taiwan Travel Diary” by Yáng Shuāng-zǐ, translated from Mandarin Chinese by Lin King.

Evaluation panels composed of writers, critics, booksellers and other representatives of the literary community chosen from lots of of submitted entries, and publishers nominated a complete of over 1,900 books. Each of the winners of the five competitive categories received $10,000.

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Everett’s victory continues his remarkable development over the past few years. Little known to readers for many years, the 67-year-old was a finalist for the Booker and Pulitzer Prizes for such novels as “Trees” and “Dr. No” and the novel “Erasure” was adapted into the Oscar-nominated “American Fiction”.

Continuing Mark Twain’s classic about the wayward Southern boy, Huck, and the enslaved Jim, Everett tells the story from the latter’s perspective and highlights how in another way Jim acts and even speaks when whites usually are not around. The novel was a finalist for the Booker and won the Kirkus Prize for Fiction last month.

“James was well received,” Everett noted during his speech.

Demon Copperhead novelist Barbara Kingsolver and Black Classic Press publisher W. Paul Coates received Lifetime Achievement Medals from the National Book Foundation, which awards the awards.

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Speakers praised diversity, disruption and autonomy, whether it was Taiwanese independence or immigrant rights in the US. The two winners, Safadi and Tuffaha, condemned the years-long war in Gaza and U.S. military support for Israel. Neither mentioned Israel by name, but each called the conflict “genocide” and were met with cheers – and more subdued reactions – after calling for support for the Palestinians.

Tuffaha, who’s Palestinian-American, dedicated her award partly to “all the incredibly beautiful Palestinians this world has lost, and all the wonderful ones who survive, waiting for us, waiting for us to wake up.”

Last yr, publisher Zibby Owens withdrew support for the awards after learning that the finalists planned to sentence the war in Gaza. This yr, the World Jewish Congress was amongst critics of Coates’ award, citing partly his reissue of the essay “The Jewish Onslaught,” which was called anti-Semitic.

National Book Foundation executive director Ruth Dickey said in a recent statement that Coates was being honored for his body of labor, not for any single book, and added that while the foundation condemns anti-Semitism and other types of bigotry, it also believes in free speech.

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“Anyone who looks at the work of any publisher over the course of almost fifty years will find individual works or opinions with which they disagree or find offensive,” she added.

The National Book Awards took place way back in mid-November, shortly after the election, and supply an early glimpse of the book world’s response: hopeful in the wake of Barack Obama’s 2008 victory, when publisher and honorary winner Barney Rosset predicted a “new and uplifting program.” ; grim but determined in 2016, after Donald Trump’s first victory, when fiction winner Colson Whitehead urged viewers to “be kind to everyone, make art and fight power.”

Keke Palmer Recalls the Key Advice Will Smith Gave Her as a Child:

This yr, as lots of gathered for a dinner ceremony at Cipriani Wall Street in downtown Manhattan to have a good time the seventy fifth anniversary of the awards, the mood was certainly one of sobriety, determination and goodwill.

Host Kate McKinnon joked that she was hired because the National Book Foundation wanted “something fun and light to distract from the fact that the world is a bonfire.” Musical guest Jon Batiste led the crowd in a round of “When the Saints Go Marching In” and sang a couple of lines from “Hallelujah,” the Leonard Cohen standard that McKinnon somberly performed at the starting of the first “Saturday Night Live” after the 2016 election.

Kingsolver admitted that she feels “depressed at the moment”, but added that she has faced despair before. She compared truth and like to natural forces equivalent to gravity and the sun, that are at all times present whether you may see them or not. The screenwriter’s job is to assume “a better ending than the one we were given,” she said.

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During Tuesday evening’s reading by the award finalists, some spoke of community and support. Everett began his turn by confessing that he really “needed this kind of inspiration after the last few weeks. In a way, we need each other. After warning that “hope just isn’t a technique,” he paused and said, “Never has a situation seemed so absurd, surreal and ridiculous.”

It took him a moment to understand that he wasn’t discussing current events, but fairly was reading James.

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This article was originally published on : thegrio.com

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Celebrating Stevie Wonder’s 75th birthday with his greatest hits

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On May 13, 1950, the star was born in Saginaw, Michigan and it was no person aside from Stevland Hardaway Judkins, often called Stevie Wonder. Stevie is a music genius that delighted tens of millions of individuals with his incredibly beautiful catalog of songs. Black company He selected 13 from Stevie’s crucial songs to have a good time the sound of an actual master and motown sound. Stevie Wonder is a legend.

Happy birthday to the true one.

He throws me off my feet

“Knocking Me Off My Feet” fell in 1976 to the legendary album Stevie, is a jazz love song, which is perfectly useful that he feels someone, looks like someone.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cb0_yu4g6y

Golden Lady

“Golden Lady” appeared on the stage in 1973 on the album Stevie. This song is a smooth romantic number that flies under the radar. This is certainly one of Stevie’s most sleeping love songs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxctjamr3ea

If you actually love me

“If you really love me” appeared in 1971 on the album Stevie ,. It defines a key moment in his profession, through which Stevie’s sound becomes a function. The song strikes in another way whenever you realize that he finds the voice.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nepncukqte

Part -time lover

So “Lover part -time” appeared in 1985 on the album Stevie. This is a really perfect mixture of classic Motown Vibrations with the shiny production of the 80s synthesizer. “A lover of part -time employed” has a melody that lives in your head for a lot of days.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPDM6YGSB20

Lately

“Recently” fell in 1980 as a part of the Stevie Wonder album. It is such a harsh, painful ballad that somebody you’re keen on slowly drains away. Stevie really pours his heart and vocal to this. It is so boomed you could feel any ounce of pain in his voice.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bybqheygs

This time in my life

“For For Fer My Life” fell in 1968 on an album of the identical title. This is a sincere love anthem through which someone finally finds his person. It is performed with harsh emotions and soul and may easily give listeners goose bumps.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3qi3e40awe

Signed, sealed, delivered (I’m yours)

“Signed, sealed, delivered (I’m Yours)” fell in 1970 on the album Stevie “SIGNTED, Sealed & Delived”. This song is value adding to your playlist. He is energetic and catchy. Stevie co -produced the song.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6To0FVX_WFA

Master Blaster (Jammin)

“Master Blaster (Jammin ‘)” debuted in 1980 on the album Stevie Wonder. “This is a superb tribute to Bob Marley with this unique Stevie Wonder Groove Ombudn.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1yieti3ubw

Superstition

Stevie abandoned “Superstition” in 1972. Stevie doesn’t stop and offers funk and soul without effort.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGQV1MTOS6A

Is she not wonderful

“Not She She Lovely” dropped in 1976 as a part of the masterful album Stevie Wonder The Song Is Dedicated to his daughter Aisha And he’s entwined with a spiritual, characteristic game of Stevie harmonica. Stevie balances technical brilliance with harsh emotional honesty. This is unquestionably certainly one of those timeless gems.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YGC6Rmoyf8

Don’t worry about something

“Don’t You Carth” Bout a Think “fell on the album in 1973. It has a Latin jazz atmosphere that makes you must move, in addition to these funny lyrics that may make you smile in your face. The whole song is largely a musical hug. It’s like a small pocket of the sun from the 70s, which never gets old.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxsbc5p-dpu

You did nothing

Oh wounds, “You Doted Nothin” “got here to the stage in 1974. He was hidden in Stevie Wonder’s absolutely good album. Why would you switch it? Well, this can be a splendidly funny political statement that Stevie directed straight to the Nixon administration during your entire Watergate mess. Cherry upstairs? He led Jackson 5 to borrow them harmonies in spare vocals. This is Vintage 70. Protest music from Groove, which still appears to be current.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0senglelxc

Happy birthday

Stevie abandoned “Happy Birthday” in 1981 on his album. He wrote it to press MLK on his birthday to change into a national holiday. Stevie is clever in how he mixed the climate with social activism, carrying a serious message about equality. MLK Day finally became official in 1983.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfnbnj10SLW

(Tagstranslate) Celebrity Birthdays

This article was originally published on : www.blackenterprise.com
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Why do the demographic boom stay in their homes vs. Auxiliary life

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reports that the housing crisis can To be Brewing as a demographic boom Collect their houses and refuse MOVEW financially bored residential facilities.

Meredith Whitney, a financial analyst, said that the generation of the boom of demographic houses maintains hard -earned houses, because moving to residential assistance is equally expensive. During the interview, Whitney emphasized that some older Americans are attached to money and borrowing towards their homes. Forty -four percent of home equity loans are charged by seniors, which they call “contradictory”. “It’s crazy, right?” She preserved.

Whitney’s points of view are significantly different from the standard narrative that the majority of the demographic boom is financially secure and sits on money flaws. This shall be true because seniors constitute 42% of all houses buyers in comparison with generations who constitute 29%. “I divide it into various cohorts,” said Whitney.

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“So a senior who everyone thinks that” demographic booms have all this money ” – this is a small part. Seniors live withdrawals for payment. ”

The generation collectively has 75 trillion usd wealth. However, Whitney, also sometimes called “Oracle of Wall Street”, which provided for a incredible financial crisis, estimated that only one in 10 seniors can afford to assist in maintaining help, forcing many to stay in their homes with a mortgage surplus.

As a result, the rates created the “block” effect, described as when the owners of the house who got to the market at low rates, hesitate to purchase recent houses, bearing in mind today’s increased loan costs. “This is one of the problems with housing inventory,” said Whitney during the interview. “They stop longer in their homes because they can’t afford to move out.”

The weight is just not only on the demographic boom. Their thousand -year -old and generation X got stuck in an inaccessible long -term address aging parents. Because the elders not have funds for long -term care, in response to subsequent generations they typically leave work or work less to supply care. Social insurance experts Name it “victim” which could potentially hurt them Financially at present and in the future. “The bigger problem is that you can create almost a series of poverty,” said professor Gerontology at the University of Massachusetts Boston, Marc Cohen.

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“This is not something that simply sticks to one generation. The costs are socially incurred.”

The Harvard Center for Housing Studies 2023 report confirmed that private long -term care, like helpful communities and healthcare, is beyond the reach of the average middle class citizen. Less than 15% of Americans 75 and older people living alone in the primary American cities could afford to pay for help in the field of help or healthcare without immersing in their savings. The federal government may not have much help, because Trump’s administration focuses on Medicare, a government medical insurance program for the elderly.

Medicare also doesn’t include most long -term healthcare.

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(Tagstranslat) demographic boom house

This article was originally published on : www.blackenterprise.com
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Will the southern accent repair disappear in some parts of the south of the USA?

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Growing up in Atlanta in the Forties and Fifties, Susan Levine’s visits to relatives in New York embraced the star of improvised news: her cousin invited friends and accused 25 cents for pop to be conscious of Levine’s southern accent.

Although furthermore they grew up in Atlanta, two sons Levine, born over 1 / 4 of a century after her, never talked to an accent, which could thoroughly be the most famous regional dialect in the United States, with elongated vowels and soft sounds “R”.

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“My accent does not exist,” said Ira Levine, her eldest son. “The people I work with and even at school, people did not believe that I was from Atlanta.”

The southern accent, which has many sorts, disappears in some areas of the South, when people migrate to the region from other parts of the USA and around the world. A series of research articles published in December documented a discount in a regional accent amongst black residents of the Atlanta area, white people from the working class in the region of New Orleans and other individuals who grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Has over 5.8 million people He moved to the south of the USA Until now, in the Nineteen Twenties, the sum of three other regions of the country is larger than 4 times. Linguists don’t imagine that mass media have played an infinite role in changing the language, which normally begins in urban areas and radiate to more rural places.

At the end of the twentieth century, the increase in migration affects the accents

The classic white southern accent in the Atlanta region and other parts of the urban south reached the peak of demographic growth born in 1946–1964 Gen Xers Born in 1965–1980 and subsequent generations, largely because of the huge migration of people in the second half of the twentieth century.

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He was replaced amongst the youngest speakers in the twenty first century of the dialect, which was first noticed in California in the late Eighties, in accordance with the last studies of the Linguists from the University of Georgia, Georgia Tech and Brigham Young University. This dialect, which was also detected in Canada, became a regional accent since it spread to other parts of the US, including Boston, New York and Michigan, contributing to reducing their regional accents.

In Raleigh, North Carolina, the trigger point in the fall of the southern accent was the opening in 1959 of the research park, an infinite complex of research and technology corporations that attracted tens of 1000’s of highly educated employees from outside the South. White residents born after 1979, the generation after establishing a research triangle, normally don’t confer with the southern accent, the linguist Sean Lundergan wrote in an article published in December.

Often, external people wrongly associate the southern accent with an absence of education, and some younger people can try to distance themselves from this stereotype.

“Today’s young people, especially educated young people, do not want to sound too much, as if they came from a specific city,” said Linguist Georgia Tech, Lelia Glass, who co-author of the study in Atlanta. “They want to sound more mobile, unlocal and geographically.”

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The accents change in younger people

Southern Dialect amongst blacks in Atlanta has fallen in recent an prolonged time mainly because of the influx of African Americans from northern cities, including “Reverse great migration.”

During great migration, from around 1910 to 1970, African Americans from the South moved to cities in the north like New York, Detroit and Chicago. Their grandchildren and great -grandchildren moved back south in large places to such places corresponding to Atlanta at the turn of the twentieth and early twenty first century and shall be more often educated in college.

Scientists found southern accents amongst African Americans who were dropped Gen Z.or people born in 1997–2012, in accordance with the study published in December. The same researchers had previously studied southern accents amongst white people in Atlanta.

Michelle and Richard Beck, General Xers living in the Atlanta region, have southern accents, but she lacks in their two sons born in 1998 and 2001.

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“I think they speak more clearly than me,” said Richard Beck about his sons, a law enforcement officer. “They don’t sound like a country like me when it comes to the southern draw.”

The “Yat” accent of the recent Orleans has decreased

Unlike other accents which have modified because of the influx of recent residents, the characteristic, white accent “YAT” of the working class in New Hurricane Katrina In 2005, the accent differs from other regional accents in the south and sometimes described as they sound like Brooklynes and southern.

Hurricane was a “catastrophic” event of a language change for New Orleans, because he resettled only a number of quarter of 1,000,000 inhabitants in the first 12 months after a storm and brought tens of 1000’s of people from outside in the next decade.

Reducing the “Yat” accent is most noticeable in millennia, who were teenagers when Katrina hit because they were exposed to other ways of speaking at a key moment of language development, said Katie Carmichael Virginia Tech, Katie Carmichael.

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Cheryl Wilson Lanier, a 64-year-old who grew up in Chalmette, Louisiana, one of the suburbs of New Orleans, where the accent was the most widespread, worries that part of the uniqueness of the region shall be lost if the accent disappears.

“It’s a bit like we are losing our separate personality,” she said.

Kerry Washington debuts in action as a mother ride on

Changing the southern identity

Although it decreases in many urban areas, the southern accent is unlikely to disappear completely, because “accents are an extremely simple way to show something to other people about ourselves,” said Linguist at the University of Georgia Margaret Renwick, one of the authors of research in Atlanta.

Instead, it’d reflect a change in how younger speakers perceive southern identity, with a regional accent not so closely related to what’s considered southern as in previous generations, and language boundaries less obligatory than other elements.

“So young people in the Atlanta or Raleigh area have a different vision of what life in the south is,” said Renwick. “And it’s not the same as the one with which their parents or grandparents grew up.”

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This article was originally published on : thegrio.com
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