houseboat wrote:And essays by Bobby Seale, Amiri Baraka and others. Really fascinating document.

I stumbled across a web archive of Black Panther Newspaper covers on the Bobby Seale website recently. You can buy them as posters as well as duplicates of the papers.

http://www.bobbyseale.com/cover.htm

The artwork's really interesting.

houseboat wrote:essays by Bobby Seale

If you haven't read it, the book Seize The Time by Bobby Seale is well worth reading.

houseboat wrote:I'm reading Paterson by William Carlos Williams at the moment. And a bunch of stuff about Amiri Baraka and the Revolutionary Black Arts movement. I got a giant coffee table book of Douglas Emory's art the other day in the sales at Waterstone's (which is frankly amazing, given their absolutely shit selection of stock). It has pictures like this:

And essays by Bobby Seale, Amiri Baraka and others. Really fascinating document.

The MOCA in Los Angeles is currently exhibiting Emory Douglas' work.
http://www.moca.org/emorydouglas/

I agree, the Douglas book is great.

Having grown up in Oakland, I collect Black Panther-related materials. Besides the books already mentioned, I'd suggest A Taste of Power by Elaine Brown. The book is the closest thing to the truth, in my opinion, and it conveys all the double-dealing, confusion, wrongheadedness and good they did. She's not ashamed to go into any of the exploits, which is nice. And unlike most of the Panther writings by her male counterparts, her style lacks the bravado often used in writing about the Panthers.

There's an interesting story about how she got a record deal with the Motown subsidiary Black Forum by walking into the A&R's office with a group of Panthers and demanding her music get released.

There are a lot of great Panther-related LPs around as well: Eldridge Cleaver's speech at the Peace & Freedom Party's convention nominating him as their candidate for president; 2 Elaine Brown LPs; H. Rap Brown addressing Long Island University; an Italian compilation of mostly field recordings; a few Stokley Carmichael speeches, including the "Free Huey" rally in Oakland; The Lumpen 45; a docu-drama of the Bobby Seale trial; interviews with Huey Newton in prison; 2 Angela Davis recordings (one on Folkways, the other on Flying Dutchman); and many other related Black Arts recordings (Don Lee/Haki Madhubuti, Amiri Baraka, Stanley Crouch, Marvin X, etc.)

I recently purchased a vintage Emory Douglas poster from a bookstore in Paris. Getting it framed now. It's beautiful and tattered and aged, much like the time it represents.

I used to work for an attorney who represented members of the Black Panther Party, and I've seen his collection of memorabilia/evidence, which is impressive. Even a proto-type of the Eldridge Cleaver codpiece:

I am finishing up Stuart: A Life Backwards by Alexander Masters and I love it. I think I may read it again.
After Stuart, it's "The Films of Jean Luc Godard".

Bambouche wrote:Even a proto-type of the Eldridge Cleaver codpiece:

Please explain.....did people actually wear this in public?

John George Peppers wrote:

Bambouche wrote:Even a proto-type of the Eldridge Cleaver codpiece

Please explain.....did people actually wear this in public?

Only those who wanted to be cock of the walk.

Started Frankenstein today.

Actually I started it about four years ago but got bored and gave up. This morning I went and picked it up off the shelf thinking maybe I'd have more patience this time.

I checked where I'd bookmarked it some years back to find that although I was about 50 pages in I was only on page two of the novel.

This time I bypassed the introduction, the foreword, the notes and the preface and it's going swimmingly.

I just finished Hogg by Samuel R. Delany.

There is no precedent for such a book. There is no preparation for such a book. There is no comparison for such a book.

This book is a real distressing read. I have never once had to put a book down for a moment because of its content. I came really close to walking away from this book forever as I got deeper and deeper into it. For the uninitiated, the book follows an eleven year old boy, known only as "cocksucker," over three days in 1969 as sex slave for a rapist-for-hire called Hogg. The graphic detail is borderline poetic, vivid and disturbing. Imagine a literary assault that TESTS the reader, but not in a confusion/not confusion-type of way. It grinds gears next to the eardrum, pinches the nerves so you can barely turn the pages. Sex depicted with such a lack of any emotion aside from hatred, the reluctance to show anything except for rage. The dedication of "cocksucker" to his keeper, Hogg.

It is amazing. Morality and general human conditioning makes this book impossible for many, if not all, that would or will stumble across it. Through the density there is a very subtle and almost, dare I say, endearing arc that antagonizes but ultimately grants the reader fulfillment. I have never read anything like it. It is easy to detract, to write off as mere sick fantasy, or hardcore porn. It takes place in the underbellies of the underbelly of underbellies. No characters have ever stooped so low, which in itself is almost comedic. I feel bad for anyone who reads this before reading some of Delany's other great works, dHalgren and Times Square Red, Times Square Blue.

Hogg is just THAT...er. Something. It is abusive yet steady, hateful yet endearing, far-fetched yet believable. It may be one of the greatest examples of a character's (or group of characters') duality that I've ever read...and most certainly of the best despicable books I've ever read. I cannot believe this was ever published...and it almost wasn't. Took nearly 20 years for it to come out, a work-in-progress for a very long time. Delany creates such a darkness...blacker than black. There is a story, a good story, punctuated by scenes, good scenes, that are an exercise in depravity. Just when it seems like you can grapple with the incest, there's a man sticking a nail in his cock. Just when you think a rape is over, Jimmy wants to fuck. And when there's a kidnapping, then a murder, then a string of murders, then more rapes, then a shit-eating buffet, there's another murder quickly followed by a rare instance of human kindness.

The imagery sticks. The book holds its ground, unrelenting.

Brilliant. Fucking brilliant.

I will not recommend it, because I don't want that responsibility. I've said what I'll say.

Steve V. wrote:Imagine a literary assault that TESTS the reader, but not in a confusion/not confusion-type of way. It grinds gears next to the eardrum, pinches the nerves so you can barely turn the pages. Sex depicted with such a lack of any emotion aside from hatred, the reluctance to show anything except for rage.

That's how I felt reading "Total Abuse" by Peter Sotos. "The Room" by Hubert Selby Jr. had a similar effect and challenge to reading it.