Jabari Asim
Encyclopedia
Jabari Asim is an associate professor of writing, literature and publishing at Emerson College
in Boston
, Massachusetts
., and since August 2007, has been the Editor-in-Chief
of The Crisis
magazine, a journal of politics
, ideas and culture published by the NAACP
and founded by historian and social activist W.E.B. Du Bois
in 1910.
In welcoming Asim to The Crisis in August 2007, then publisher Roger Wilkins
said, “Mr. Asim is a seasoned editor, a fine writer and author of a new best selling book. He is a gentleman devoted to the cause of racial justice, is excited about his new role with the NAACP and we are energized by his joining our ranks.”
In April 2009, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation
awarded Jabari Asim a fellowship in nonfiction, one of 180 fellowships awarded to artists, scientists and scholars in 2009 selected from a group of almost 3,000 applicants.
Asim spent eleven years (1996–2007) at the Washington Post
, where he served as deputy editor of the book review section, children's book editor, poetry editor, and editor of the Washington Post's Education Review. For three years he also wrote a Washington Post Writers Group syndicated column on political and social issues for the Post. Asim is a former vice president of the National Book Critics Circle
.
From 2008 to 2010, Asim was Scholar-in-Residence in African-American Studies and in the Department of Journalism at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Jabari Asim divides his time between Massachusetts and Maryland with his wife, Liana, and their five children.
Harcourt; ISBN 978-0618197170.)
He is a frequent public speaker and commentator who has appeared on The Today Show, The Colbert Report, Hannity & Colmes
, the Tavis Smiley Show
, the Diane Rehm show
and countless other programs. He has lectured at many of the nation’s finest universities, including University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
, Northwestern University
, Syracuse University
and the University of Florida
.
Asim's reviews and cultural criticism also have been published in The New York Times
, the International Herald Tribune
, The Wall Street Journal
, the Phoenix Gazette
, Los Angeles Times
Book Review, Salon.com
, the Detroit News
, The Village Voice
, Hungry Mind Review, XXL, Code, Emerge, Essence, Africana.com and BlackElectorate.com.
He is editor of Not Guilty: Twelve Black Men Speak Out on the Law, Justice and Life, published in November 2001.
Go On Girl! Book Club selected A Taste of Honey for its 2011 Reading List for May.
In January 2011, A Taste of Honey was nominated for Outstanding Literary Work - Fiction, 42nd NAACP Image Awards
His other children’s books include Whose Toes Are Those, Whose Knees Are These, and Daddy Goes to Work. Girl of Mine and Boy of Mine were published in spring 2010 by Little Brown.
, were published in the "Soulfires: Young Black Men on Love and Violence" anthology compiled by Rohan Preston and Daniel Wideman.
His critical essay, "What Is This New Thing?" appears in The Furious Flowering of African-American Poetry, and an essay appeared in Step Into A World: A Global Anthology of The New Black Literature.
Poetry by Asim was published in African American Writers: A Literary Reader. His poetry was also published in the anthologies Role Call: A Generational Anthology of Social & Political Black Literature & Art, Beyond The Frontier: African-American Poetry for the 21st Century, and appeared most recently in The Harlem Reader: A Celebration of New York’s Most Famous Neighborhood from the Renaissance Years to the 21st Century; and in From The Black Arts Movement to Furious Flower: A Collection of Contemporary African American Poetry.
Emerson College
Emerson College is a private coeducational university located in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1880 by Charles Wesley Emerson as a "school of oratory," Emerson is "the only comprehensive college or university in America dedicated exclusively to communication and the arts in a liberal arts...
in Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
., and since August 2007, has been the Editor-in-Chief
Editing
Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, visual, audible, and film media used to convey information through the processes of correction, condensation, organization, and other modifications performed with an intention of producing a correct, consistent, accurate, and complete...
of The Crisis
The Crisis
The Crisis is the official magazine of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People , and was founded in 1910 by W. E. B. Du Bois , Oswald Garrison Villard, J. Max Barber, Charles Edward Russell, Kelly Miller, W.S. Braithwaite, M. D. Maclean.The original title of the journal was...
magazine, a journal of politics
Journal of Politics
The Journal of Politics is a peer-reviewed academic journal of political science established in 1939 and published quarterly by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Southern Political Science Association....
, ideas and culture published by the NAACP
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, usually abbreviated as NAACP, is an African-American civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909. Its mission is "to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to...
and founded by historian and social activist W.E.B. Du Bois
W.E.B. Du Bois
William Edward Burghardt Du Bois was an American sociologist, historian, civil rights activist, Pan-Africanist, author, and editor. Born in Massachusetts, Du Bois attended Harvard, where he was the first African American to earn a doctorate...
in 1910.
In welcoming Asim to The Crisis in August 2007, then publisher Roger Wilkins
Roger Wilkins
Roger Wilkins is an African American civil rights leader, professor of history, and journalist.-Biography:Wilkins was born in Kansas City, Missouri, and grew up in Michigan...
said, “Mr. Asim is a seasoned editor, a fine writer and author of a new best selling book. He is a gentleman devoted to the cause of racial justice, is excited about his new role with the NAACP and we are energized by his joining our ranks.”
In April 2009, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation
John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation
The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation was founded in 1925 by Mr. and Mrs. Simon Guggenheim in memory of their son, who died April 26, 1922...
awarded Jabari Asim a fellowship in nonfiction, one of 180 fellowships awarded to artists, scientists and scholars in 2009 selected from a group of almost 3,000 applicants.
Asim spent eleven years (1996–2007) at the Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
, where he served as deputy editor of the book review section, children's book editor, poetry editor, and editor of the Washington Post's Education Review. For three years he also wrote a Washington Post Writers Group syndicated column on political and social issues for the Post. Asim is a former vice president of the National Book Critics Circle
National Book Critics Circle
The National Book Critics Circle is an American tax-exempt organization for active book reviewers. Its flagship is the National Book Critics Circle Award....
.
From 2008 to 2010, Asim was Scholar-in-Residence in African-American Studies and in the Department of Journalism at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Jabari Asim divides his time between Massachusetts and Maryland with his wife, Liana, and their five children.
Nonfiction
Asim is the acclaimed author of What Obama Means, (William Morrow, January 20, 2009; ISBN 978-0061711336) as well as the author of the highly praised and controversial The N Word: Who Can Say It, Who Shouldn’t, And Why (Houghton MifflinHoughton Mifflin
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt is an educational and trade publisher in the United States. Headquartered in Boston's Back Bay, it publishes textbooks, instructional technology materials, assessments, reference works, and fiction and non-fiction for both young readers and adults.-History:The company was...
Harcourt; ISBN 978-0618197170.)
He is a frequent public speaker and commentator who has appeared on The Today Show, The Colbert Report, Hannity & Colmes
Hannity & Colmes
Hannity & Colmes was a live television show on Fox News Channel in the United States, hosted by Sean Hannity and Alan Colmes, who respectively presented a conservative and liberal perspective. The series premiered on October 6, 1996, and the final episode aired on January 9, 2009. It was the...
, the Tavis Smiley Show
The Tavis Smiley Show
The Tavis Smiley Show is an American public broadcasting radio talk show. A television show, simply titled Tavis Smiley, is a late night television program on Public Broadcasting Service . Both shows feature Tavis Smiley as host....
, the Diane Rehm show
The Diane Rehm Show
The Diane Rehm Show is a National Public Radio call-in show based in the United States. In October, 2007, The Diane Rehm Show was named to Audience Research Analysis’ list of the top ten most powerful national programs in public radio – the only talk show on the list...
and countless other programs. He has lectured at many of the nation’s finest universities, including University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign is a large public research-intensive university in the state of Illinois, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Illinois system...
, Northwestern University
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, USA. Northwestern has eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools offering 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees....
, Syracuse University
Syracuse University
Syracuse University is a private research university located in Syracuse, New York, United States. Its roots can be traced back to Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, founded by the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1832, which also later founded Genesee College...
and the University of Florida
University of Florida
The University of Florida is an American public land-grant, sea-grant, and space-grant research university located on a campus in Gainesville, Florida. The university traces its historical origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its present Gainesville campus since September 1906...
.
Asim's reviews and cultural criticism also have been published in The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, the International Herald Tribune
International Herald Tribune
The International Herald Tribune is a widely read English language international newspaper. It combines the resources of its own correspondents with those of The New York Times and is printed at 38 sites throughout the world, for sale in more than 160 countries and territories...
, The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal is an American English-language international daily newspaper. It is published in New York City by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, along with the Asian and European editions of the Journal....
, the Phoenix Gazette
The Arizona Republic
The Arizona Republic is a daily newspaper published in Phoenix. Circulated throughout Arizona, it is the state's largest newspaper. Since 2000, it has been owned by the Gannett newspaper chain. It was ranked tenth in US daily newspapers by circulation in 2007.-Early years:The newspaper was founded...
, Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
Book Review, Salon.com
Salon.com
Salon.com, part of Salon Media Group , often just called Salon, is an online liberal magazine, with content updated each weekday. Salon was founded by David Talbot and launched on November 20, 1995. It was the internet's first online-only commercial publication. The magazine focuses on U.S...
, the Detroit News
The Detroit News
The Detroit News is one of the two major newspapers in the U.S. city of Detroit, Michigan. The paper began in 1873, when it rented space in the rival Free Press's building. The News absorbed the Detroit Tribune on February 1, 1919, the Detroit Journal on July 21, 1922, and on November 7, 1960,...
, The Village Voice
The Village Voice
The Village Voice is a free weekly newspaper and news and features website in New York City that features investigative articles, analysis of current affairs and culture, arts and music coverage, and events listings for New York City...
, Hungry Mind Review, XXL, Code, Emerge, Essence, Africana.com and BlackElectorate.com.
He is editor of Not Guilty: Twelve Black Men Speak Out on the Law, Justice and Life, published in November 2001.
Fiction
Asim’s debut work of fiction, A Taste of Honey, is a collection of sixteen connected stories told from multiple perspectives which take place in a fictional Midwestern town called Gateway in 1968, published by Broadway Books in March 2010. It was featured in the March 2010 issue of Essence magazine.Go On Girl! Book Club selected A Taste of Honey for its 2011 Reading List for May.
In January 2011, A Taste of Honey was nominated for Outstanding Literary Work - Fiction, 42nd NAACP Image Awards
Children's books
The Road To Freedom, his first novel for young readers, was published in 2000.His other children’s books include Whose Toes Are Those, Whose Knees Are These, and Daddy Goes to Work. Girl of Mine and Boy of Mine were published in spring 2010 by Little Brown.
Poetry
A poet, playwright and fiction writer, Asim has published work in a number of anthologies and literary magazines. He was the only writer to have both poetry and fiction included in "In The Tradition: An Anthology of Young Black Writers"; his short story "Two Fools" appeared in "Brotherman: The Odyssey of Black Men in America" (Ballantine); and his poems, along with "Peace, Dog," a one-act playOne act play
A one-act play is a play that has only one act, as distinct from plays that occur over several acts. One-act plays may consist of one or more scenes. In recent years the 10-minute play known as "flash drama" has emerged as a popular sub-genre of the one-act play, especially in writing competitions...
, were published in the "Soulfires: Young Black Men on Love and Violence" anthology compiled by Rohan Preston and Daniel Wideman.
His critical essay, "What Is This New Thing?" appears in The Furious Flowering of African-American Poetry, and an essay appeared in Step Into A World: A Global Anthology of The New Black Literature.
Poetry by Asim was published in African American Writers: A Literary Reader. His poetry was also published in the anthologies Role Call: A Generational Anthology of Social & Political Black Literature & Art, Beyond The Frontier: African-American Poetry for the 21st Century, and appeared most recently in The Harlem Reader: A Celebration of New York’s Most Famous Neighborhood from the Renaissance Years to the 21st Century; and in From The Black Arts Movement to Furious Flower: A Collection of Contemporary African American Poetry.
Non-Fiction
- What Obama Means: ...For Our Culture, Our Politics, Our Future (William Morrow, January 20, 2009)
- The N Word: Who Can Say It, Who Shouldn't, and Why (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, March 26, 2007)
- Not Guilty: Twelve Black Men Speak Out on the Law, Justice and Life (editor) (HarperCollins, November 2001)
Children's
- Girl of Mine (Little Brown Kids, Spring, 2009)
- Boy of Mine (Little Brown Kids, Spring, 2009)
- Whose Toes Are Those? (Little Brown Kids, March 2006)
- Whose Knees Are These? (LittleBrown Kids, March 2006)
- Daddy Goes to Work (Little Brown, 2006)
- Road to Freedom: A Story of the Reconstruction (Jamestown, 2000)
Book reviews by Jabari Asim
- Review of "Blonde Faith" by Walter Mosley, by Jabari Asim, New York Times, November 18, 2007
- Review of "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" by Junot Diaz, by Jabari Asim, September 30, 2007
- Jabari Asim reviews poetry for children by Marilyn Singer, Gary Soto, Calef Brown, Charlotte Pomerantz, and a collection in The Washington Post (May 14, 2006)
- The Washington Post's children's book editor Jabari Asim discusses "The Watsons Go to Birmingham" by Christopher Paul Curtis. washingtonpost.com, December 20, 2000
- Review of "Suder" by Percival Everett, by Jabari Asim, The Washington Post Book World, November 7, 1999
- "Sexual Healing," review of Trey Ellis's novel "Right Here, Right Now," by Jabari Asim, Village Voice, February 2, 1999
The Washington Post Book Club online chats with Jabari Asim
- Jabari Asim hosts discussion of Edward P. Jones' first book "Lost in the City," The Washington Post Book Club, December 21, 2004
- "Schools and Kids," Guest: Jabari Asim, The Washington Post's Children's Book Editor answers questions about children's books, The Washington Post Live Online, April 12, 2000
- Jabari Asim hosts discussion of Percival Everett's "Suder," The Washington Post Book Club, November 29, 1999
Commentary links
- Laura Schlessinger and the N-Word’s Long, Painful Trek Through History," by Jabari Asim, WallStreetJournal.com, August 20, 2010
- National Book Critics Circle at AWP: Jabari Asim on the Black Critical Tradition, February 7, 2008
- "The Last Poets Still Rhyme," by Jabari Asim, The Washington Post, January 8, 2007
- "The Sting of Slurs," by Jabari Asim, The Washington Post, November 6, 2006
- "Curating and Reclaiming Black History," by Jabari Asim, The Washington Post, February 7, 2005
- "Wealth and Racism," by Jabari Asim, The Washington Post, February 16, 2004
Audio links
- Cyrus Webb interviews Jabari Asim and Christopher Rice, Conversations LIVE with Cyrus Webb, BlogTalkRadio, April 8, 2010
- http://www.wbez.org/episode-segments/rap-sessions-america-really-post-racialRap Sessions: Is America Really Post-Racial?, presented by Ellen Stone Belic Institute for the Study of Women and Gender in the Arts and Media, Columbia College, Chicago & Rap Sessions, Moderator: Bakari Kitwana, Panelists: Jabari Asim, Lisa Fager Bediako, Timuel Black, Invincible, Dr. Tricia Rose, Jane M. Saks, April 16, 2009]
- NPR's Morning Edition: "Obama And Film's 'Magic Negroes,'" Jabari Asim hosted by Steve Inskeep, January 19, 2009
- Oprah Radio hosts Holly Robinson Peete and Rodney Peete interview with Jabari Asim about The N Word, August 19, 2008
- "Conversations with David Lewis: Jabari Asim - The N Word" Parts 1 & 2 of radio interview on AM 1690 The Voice of the Arts in Atlanta, May 31, 2007
- "Jabari Asim 'The N Word,' interview on Bill Thompson's Eye on Books, May 4, 2007
- Tavis Smiley, PBS, interviews Jabari Asim about The N Word, April 18, 2007
- Podcast: NPR's Diane Rehm interviews Jabari Asim about The N Word, April 4, 2007
Video links
- Jabari Asim reads from A Taste of Honey at Howard County Library, Columbia, Maryland, January 19, 2011
- NAACP Crisis Magazine presents A Hip Hop State of Mind with Jabari Asim and Erin O. Patton, Busboys & Poets, Washington, DC (September 10, 2010) (Part 2)
- NAACP Crisis Magazine presents A Hip Hop State of Mind with Jabari Asim and Erin O. Patton, Busboys & Poets, Washington, DC (September 10, 2010) (Part 1)
- Jabari Asim on Colbert Report, January 20, 2009
- Interview with Jabari Asim about The N Word on This is America with Dennis Wholey (Show 1142, 2007-2008 Season)
- "After Words with Jabari Asim," Bakari Kitwana interviews Jabari Asim about his book The N Word, C-SPAN Book TV, April 20, 2007
- Jabari Asim on Colbert Report, March 28, 2007
- Author Interview: Jabari Asim talks about his children's book "Daddy Goes to Work," Authors Pavillion, Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, Annual Legislative Conference, C-Span2 Book TV, September 8, 2006