on the shelf.

As an "African American" identity becomes more deeply woven into the fabric of our existence, blackness has taken on an increasingly radical connotation (again). In some parts of the world, anyone who's not white is called black. Recently I spoke with a friend about the strides that could be made in the eradication of white supremacy if; even for one day, every person of color publicly identified themselves as black But black like whom? Like me? Sure, I'm black on both sides--like I prefer my toast--but my African American mother's history and expression of blackness couldn't be more different from--and oftentimes completely antithetical to--my Somali father's.

At the start of the 21st century, race relations have taken on more shades of gray than the us/them, black/white dichotomies previous thinking has allowed. For this, our 2nd Anniversary issue, I have chosen to feature a number of books which highlight these issues from the works of burgeoning black Canadian writers, to multi-ethnic black writers from across the country and the diaspora to new works from emerging African writers.

Nigerian writer Okey Ndibe joins the deep pool of African expression with his beautifully lyrical Arrows of Rain. We also hear from celebrated Caribbean writer Rafael Confiant with his first English translation, Mamzelle Dragonfly. Canadian writer Rinaldo Walcott tackles the question we posed to our readers this issue in his collection of cultural and literary criticism, Black Like Who? Rebecca Walker addresses the topic on a more personal note with her memoir of growing up biracial. In The Greatest Taboo, Delroy Constantine-Simms has brought together scholars and thinkers from across black America to look at controversial opinions on the issue of homosexuality in black communities.

From the celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s January birthday, through Black History Month in February, this a time of year when black folks in America look at where we've come from as a people, and where we're going--a perfect time to take another look at two powerful contributors to modern black history who happened to be husband and wife. Race Woman, A Biography of Shirley Graham Du Bois, and David Levering Lewis' new biography, W.E.B. Du Bois: The Fight For Equality And The American Century, both look at the place these towering figures had in shaping today's black America. Lawrence Ross Jr. gives a thorough history of black sororities and fraternities in The Divine Nine. On our fiction shelves you'll also find The Future Has a Past, the exceptional J. California Cooper's latest collection of short stories, in which characters find love in unusual places; and Donna Hill, Kristin Lattany and Heather Neff take readers through enticing stories of female friendship.

You may notice that there are more reviews running with our departments in this issue than ever before. We are addressing the issue of blackness not only in literature, but in books that deal with specific areas of interest. Note the review of Yankee shortstop Derek Jeter's memoir in ARENA and In Their Own Voices in PARENTING, which looks at transracial adoption from an often ignored viewpoint--that of adoptees. Our poetry section features reviews of esteemed poet Lucille Clifton's new and selected works, Blessing the Boats, and Canadian poet Lillian Allen's collection, Psychic Unrest, offers yet another perspective on the fluid definitions of blackness.

SAMIYA A. BASHIR BIBR Senior Editor

bibr recommends

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston (w/ Foreword by Edwidge Danticat) HarperCollins Perennial, October 2000, $22.00 ISBN 0-060-19949-0

Danticat has added a thoughtful new foreword to the beautifully rendered new commemorative hard cover edition of Hurston's great classic.

Step Into a World: A Global Anthology of the New Black Literature edited by Kevin Powell Wiley, October 2000, $29.95, ISBN 0-471-38060-1

Powell's attempt to put together a retrospective of black writers from across the globe, while not as international as one might hope, is certainly successful in putting together some of the best work being done by young black writers today.

Where We Stand: Class Matters by bell hooks Routledge Press, November 2000, $16.95 ISBN 0-415-92913-X

hooks' delves into the deep divisions of class, socio-economics and race that are too often lightly stepped around and avoided and brings them out, lays them on the table and helps us rustle bravely through the pieces and make sense of them.

Rude: Contemporary Black Canadian Cultural Criticism edited by Rinaldo Walcott Insomniac Press, September 2000, $15.99 ISBN 1-895-83774-X

This volume is heavy with fresh voices deconstructing the stereotypical Great White North with fierce black cultural criticism. Literary essays by Richard Almonte, and work by Tess Chakkalakal, David Sealy and Awad El Karim M. Ibrahim stands out and breaks down the sociopolitical construction of blackness with precision.

Color & Culture: Black Writers and the Making of the Modern Intellectual by Ross Posnock Harvard University Press, September 2000 $17.95, ISBN 0-674-00379

In this solidly academic volume, Posnock presents the black intellectual from an historical viewpoint, addressing them as a social group unto themselves. Looking back over a century "from Frederick Douglass to Patricia Williams," he addresses the myriad causes for which "high culture" blacks have fought, stretching still wider the discussion of black history in America.