What Am I Reading?

Unfortunately, Google is still working on updating and revamping their news archive, so I'm still unable to continue That's Old News! (much to my chagrin), but as long as the archive is still under construction, I will continue putting together some interesting things for the last Monday of every month.

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I've got this great story idea for a television drama series and--in my humble opinion--it's just too good and too important a story for me to throw the towel in on (as I usually do when things get tough). With that said, I've checked out a couple of library books to assist me in the historical and overall accuracy of my writing and planning:

Bulldaggers, Pansies, and Chocolate Babies: Performance, Race, and Sexuality in the Harlem Renaissance by James F. Wilson. It is currently available on Amazon.

Florence Mills: Harlem Jazz Queen by Bill Egan. This book is also available on Amazon. I've begun reading this biography on "The Queen of Happiness" and am loving every bit of it so far. 

Here's an excerpt:

"If her mother gave her the gift of song, it was her father, before his untimely death, who gave her the gift of theater. Through his friendship with the manager of the Bijou Theatre, she discovered the stage, which she later wrote "instead of the street, was my playground." Florence's aptitude for dancing matched, even excelled, her singing ability. Describing her early love of dance, a relative recalled "Florence loved to dance, to spread joy and happiness. Why, her eyes would light like ship flares when she heard music.

...She would throw out her little limbs, and her arms would go waving, swaying, and flying. It didn't seem to us children as if she touched the sidewalk. We would all stop play to watch Florence when she broke into a dance." [Chapter One: "Young Florence" - page 3]

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Also, although not related to the arts, I'd like to recommend one last book to you that I'm actually reading for a Communications class. It's called The 5 Love Languages: The Secrets to Love That Lasts by Gary D. Chapman. I'm only a couple of chapters in (reading it on Amazon Kindle) and already set to apply what I'm reading to my relationship with my non-existent spouse. 

Don't listen to me! You can apply what you learn from this book to any relationship and I look forward to actually doing so with any of my loved ones. 

Amazon Link