Wednesday, October 20, 7pm – Non- Fiction
Diane Turner author of My Name is Oney Judge and Feeding the Soul: Black Music, Black Thought
Feeding the Soul: Black Music, Black Thought (25.95 Third World Press) – An Africa-centered framework unifies these essays about misconceptions in standard accounts of the evolution of black music. Topics are cross-disciplinary and include Africa and the African diaspora, American black popular music, black consciousness and art, black message music, and the future of rap. Also included are poems by Nicole Sealey and Sandra Turner-Barnes; personal narratives by gospel music scholar James E. Adams and blues musician Byard Lancaster; and interviews with Katherine DeChavis, Kenny Gamble, Wynton Marsalis, Trudy Pitts, Shirley Scott, Ira Tucker, and McCoy Tyner. Rare archival photographs of musical pioneers complete this collection that leads to a deeper understanding and appreciation of the rich traditions of black music.
My Name is Oney Judge (19.95 Third World Press) – While doing research on a project related to President George Washington’s house in historic Philadelphia, historian Diane Turner stumbled across the story of Oney Judge, a mixed-race slave owned by the Washingtons. Her children’s book (ages 9-11) tells the true story of this young African American woman who was a slave in George Washington’s presidential household. She liberated herself by way of a daring escape and defied his attempts to recapture her. Oney speaks to us from the pages of history: ‘I escaped one night in May 1796 when the President and Miss Martha were eating their dinner’. Author Diane D. Turner gives substance to this woman whose life has been documented in the stories of our nation’s history, but whose narrative very few people know. The book includes a timeline and glossary of terms to help young audiences understand more about this period of American history. It is suitable for children ages 8-12.
Diane Turner is curator of the Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection at Temple University. Turner serves as Course Director for the Bard College Clemente Course in the Humanities, an innovative higher-education program for low-income and minority students sponsored by Rutgers University’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Center for the Humanities. A native of Malvern, Turner holds a BA, MA and PhD from Temple University and she is developing materials for the “Lest We Forget” Museum of African American Slavery in Philadelphia. She is a former professor of black studies at Camden County College and Rowan University.
