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Ballasts for the Mind
Book recommendations for your mind and soul.
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Review: Meditations by Marcus Aurelius The Annotated Edition, translated by Robin Waterfield
Review: Meditations by Marcus Aurelius The Annotated Edition, translated by Robin Waterfield
I have read Meditations by Marcus Aurelius three times. I read the Gregory Hays translation published in 2002 twice and then I recently…
Raymond Williams, PhD
Mar 7, 2021
Review: The Love Songs of W. E. B. Du Bois by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers
Review: The Love Songs of W. E. B. Du Bois by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers
The Love Songs of W. E. B. Du Bois is a powerful intergenerational, feminist, and womanist novel. Honorée Jeffers tells the racial and…
Raymond Williams, PhD
Aug 21, 2021
Review: Down Along With That Devil’s Bones by Connor O’Neill
Review: Down Along With That Devil’s Bones by Connor O’Neill
Down Along With That Devil’s Bones: A Reckoning with Monuments, Memory, and the Legacy of White Supremacy by Connor O’Neill is a book…
Raymond Williams, PhD
Sep 4, 2020
Review: Three Biographies on Zora Neale Hurston
Review: Three Biographies on Zora Neale Hurston
Zora Neale Hurston: A Literary Biography; Wrapped in Rainbows: The Life of Zora Neale Hurston; and Zora and Langston: A Story of Friendship…
Raymond Williams, PhD
Aug 19
Review: Mules and Men by Zora Neale Hurston
Review: Mules and Men by Zora Neale Hurston
“Folklore, Hurston said, is the art people create before they find out there is such a thing as art.” -Robert E. Hemenway, Zora Neale…
Raymond Williams, PhD
Aug 17
When Pauli Met James
When Pauli Met James
The relationship of two Black icons.
Raymond Williams, PhD
Apr 7
History says Oppenheimer is likely to win Best Picture at the 2024 Oscars
History says Oppenheimer is likely to win Best Picture at the 2024 Oscars
A statistical analysis of historical data
Raymond Williams, PhD
Mar 8
My Monthly Blurb, TinyLetter Archive (2017–2023)
My Monthly Blurb, TinyLetter Archive (2017–2023)
Across five years, from 2017 to 2020 and 2023, I wrote and maintained a TinyLetter blog called My Monthly Blurb for 20 subscribers. The…
Raymond Williams, PhD
Feb 20
29 Days of Wisdom for Black History Month 2024
29 Days of Wisdom for Black History Month 2024
Below you will find one piece of wisdom for you to reflect on each day in February from a notable person of African descent. This…
Raymond Williams, PhD
Jan 31
My Years Reading Zora Neale Hurston
My Years Reading Zora Neale Hurston
A reflection
Raymond Williams, PhD
Jan 7
My 13 Favorite Zora Neale Hurston Quotes
The following 13 quotes by Zora Neale Hurston resonated with me at some point over the last seven years that I wrote them in my commonplace…
Raymond Williams, PhD
Jan 7
Back In Their World
Back In Their World
After Howard Ashman & Alan Menken’s “Part of Your World”; Inspired by Zora Neale Hurston’s Mules and Men (1935)
Raymond Williams, PhD
Oct 8, 2023
What I Learned from Reading Zora Neale Hurston’s Obituaries
What I Learned from Reading Zora Neale Hurston’s Obituaries
Zora Neale Hurston died penniless and in obscurity in a county welfare home in Fort Pierce, FL from hypertensive heart disease on January…
Raymond Williams, PhD
Aug 31, 2023
The Zora Challenge Syllabus
The Zora Challenge Syllabus
A collection of books, articles, films, podcasts, and more by and about Zora Neale Hurston
Raymond Williams, PhD
Mar 26, 2023
Why the film Everything Everywhere All at Once should win Best Picture at the 2023 Oscars
Why the film Everything Everywhere All at Once should win Best Picture at the 2023 Oscars
A statistical analysis of historical data
Raymond Williams, PhD
Mar 11, 2023
28 Days of Wisdom for Black History Month 2023
28 Days of Wisdom for Black History Month 2023
Below you will find one piece of wisdom for you to reflect on each day in the month of February from a notable person of African descent…
Raymond Williams, PhD
Feb 10, 2023
Favorite Books from November & December 2022
Favorite Books from November & December 2022
Reviews of Take My Hand, The Count of Monte Cristo, and Black Roses: Odes Celebrating Powerful Black Women
Raymond Williams, PhD
Jan 31, 2023
Favorite Books from October 2022
Favorite Books from October 2022
Reviews of Soul Culture and Isn’t Her Grace Amazing!
Raymond Williams, PhD
Nov 9, 2022
Favorite Books from September 2022
Favorite Books from September 2022
Reviews of Handkerchief, The Street, and A Man of Iron
Raymond Williams, PhD
Oct 13, 2022
The 100 Best Books by Black Authors
The 100 Best Books by Black Authors
Introducing the Black Book Canon from the Black Readers Conference
Raymond Williams, PhD
Oct 7, 2022
Favorite Books from August 2022
Favorite Books from August 2022
Reviews of Mule Bone, Marriage Be Hard, and South to America
Raymond Williams, PhD
Sep 1, 2022
Favorite Books from July 2022
Favorite Books from July 2022
Reviews of Native Son and Dust Tracks on a Road
Raymond Williams, PhD
Aug 2, 2022
Favorite Books from June 2022
Favorite Books from June 2022
Reviews of George Henry White and By Executive Order.
Raymond Williams, PhD
Jul 20, 2022
Favorite Books from May 2022
Favorite Books from May 2022
Reviews of Southern Horrors, A Red Record, Undelivered, and Seen Heard & Paid.
Raymond Williams, PhD
Jun 12, 2022
Favorite Books from April 2022
Favorite Books from April 2022
Reviews of The Office of Historical Corrections, Reading While Black, The Trees, Yellow Wife, and Black Faces, White Spaces.
Raymond Williams, PhD
May 17, 2022
Favorite Books from March 2022
Favorite Books from March 2022
Reviews of Their Eyes Were Watching God and You Don’t Know Us Negroes by Zora Neale Hurston
Raymond Williams, PhD
Apr 3, 2022
Why the film CODA should win Best Picture in the 2022 Oscars
Why the film CODA should win Best Picture in the 2022 Oscars
A statistical analysis of historical data
Raymond Williams, PhD
Mar 26, 2022
Favorite Books from February 2022
Favorite Books from February 2022
Reviews of Recitatif, The Will to Change, and Allow Me To Retort
Raymond Williams, PhD
Mar 3, 2022
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