Monday morning links

This week is full of running around to rehearsals (with one of my children), prepping for the holidays (for our family, Christmas and Kwanzaa) and hopefully a few minutes here and there to read.

I also hope to make my gift list for friends and family and begin shopping. My goal is to give books to some folks in order to share some of my favorites from this year. And I want to do some local/independent shopping for other gifts. I'll be giving some wine as well, as that's one of my other passions.

Sometime this week I'll post about our Dec. 19 #blacklitchat on Twitter. We'll discuss our favorite books from 2010. Post your favorites in comments. And if you're a blogger and will have a top 10 list of books, let me know and I'll post it here. Especially if your list includes Black authors.

Now for some links.

The Blogging While Brown conference sessions are up - and this year you can vote on sessions you'd like to see. Heidi Durrow, author of The Girl Who Fell From the Sky, is on the list as well as book blogger Notorious Spinks. Several of the women I met at Blogalicious are on here as well.

There's a new movie, Night Catches Us, that is getting buzz by the people I follow or friend online. It's about former Black Panther party members and how they deal with the aftermath of that legacy in the mid-1970s. Kerry Washington is one of the stars. It's not playing widely, but it is available via iTunes or onDemand cable. I think that is so cool and I hope that many people download it and watch it. I'd like to see this indie movie, helmed by a black woman director, get a lot of buzz and make money. Read the NYTimes review.

After reading Jevon Bolden's post on reaching African American audiences, I went back to Bernice McFadden's essay on how books by Black authors are marketed. Bernice gives an important analysis about why books by Black authors are often ghettoized, while books by other authors featuring Black characters can be pushed to become crossover bestsellers.

The schedule is up for the annual Zora Neale Hurston festival in Eatonville, FL (Orlando -area). I go every year and am very excited that Tara Betts will be one of the featured artists. Come to her event Wednesday, Jan. 26. If you'll be at her event, or any Zora events, post something in the comments to let me know. I'd love to do a Tweetup at the festival if there's interest.