Repost: Chat with Bernice McFadden for National Women & Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day

It's hard to believe that it's been five years since we sat down with Bernice McFadden and discussed her ebook, Keeper of the Keys, a moving short story of a young woman who considers suicide when she learns she has AIDS.  Ms. McFadden brings home the powerful message of AIDS and its effect on the African American community, particularly women.  In honor of National Women & Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, I'm reposting the transcript of that conversation.

#BookReview: Faceless - Amma Darko #BP2W (Ghana)

If I've learned nothing else in the first few months of this challenge, it's that women and girls around the world live difficult lives.  That's not to say that I didn't know that before, but it was never more obvious to me than when reading Amma Darko's Faceless.

Fourteen year old Fofo is a street child.  Like many children who live in an area referred to as Sodom and Gomorrah in Accra, Ghana, she's estranged from her family.  Unlike some of the children that have been put out on the streets to work, she voluntarily left home before she could be forced to.  Whether she left by force or her own volition is moot, because it's likely that the outcome would have been the same.

Growing up, Fofo saw her older brothers leave, and with them, most of the household income, and her older sister.  While her brothers left to pursue their own careers, Fofo's older sister, Baby T, left under cloudier circumstances.  And when Baby T is found murdered, Fofo is determined to help her new found friends find out what happened to her sister.

Amma Darko uses Faceless to touch on quite a few issues. The character Fofo deals with abandonment, while Baby T deals with molestation and prostitution.  Their mother, Maa Tsuru, the product of a single parent home seeks love and attention from men who use her.  With the character Kabria, the middle class agency worker who tries to assist Fofo, Darko highlights the difficulties in balancing the role of mother, wife and employee in a chauvinistic society.

The one thing that threw me was the way Darko interjected the AIDS conversation into the story line.  There was a missed opportunity for Kabria to have a conversation with her oldest daughter about AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases that was not fleshed out.  It was obvious that she wanted to get the message out, and I applaud her for that, but the ways in which she did it did not flow well with the story and instead of being well integrated, they read as commercial-like PSAs in the middle of a skit. 

236pp
Published: January 1996

Formed from the merger of the British colony of the Gold Coast and the Togoland trust territory, Ghana in 1957 became the first sub-Saharan country in colonial Africa to gain its independence.  Ghana's economy has been strengthened by a quarter century of relatively sound management, a competitive business environment, and sustained reductions in poverty levels.

Location: Western Africa, bordering the Gulf of Guinea, between Cote d'Ivoire and Togo
Size: 238,533 sq km; slightly smaller than Oregon
Population: 24,652,402 
Ethnic groups: Akan 47.5%, Mole-Dagbon 16.6%, Ewe 13.9%, Ga-Dangme 7.4%, Gurma 5.7%, Guan 3.7%, Grusi 2.5%, Mande-Busanga 1.1%, other 1.6%
Languages: Asante 14.8%, Ewe 12.7%, Fante 9.9%, Boron (Brong) 4.6%, Dagomba 4.3%, Dangme 4.3%, Dagarte (Dagaba) 3.7%, Akyem 3.4%, Ga 3.4%, Akuapem 2.9%, other (includes English (official)) 36.1%

 

Anthem: God Bless Our Homeland Ghana

#BookReview: The Other Sister - Cheri Paris Edwards

Running away from problems in California lands Sanita back in quiet Urbana, Illinois.  Her family thought she was in school, but Sanita, or Jazz as she was known on the west coast, was leading a life that finally caught up with her.  Safely back in the embrace of her family, she's prepared to put that life behind her and create a new beginning.

With a good ten years on her sister, Sanita, Carla was raised at a time when her parents didn't have much.  So while Sanita had everything handed to her on a silver spoon, Carla has worked hard to get where she is.  As the new principal of a charter school, Carla loves her job.  She's won the respect of her students and most of the faculty, but there are a few teachers that would love to witness her downfall.

Bishop James Jefferson loves the Lord, the church and his family.  If there were any way to remove the pesky Marcella Lewiston from the church, he'd love it even more.  But Marcella was raised in Faith Community Church of Christ as a preacher's kid and she has no intention of leaving the church that her father helped steer for years.  Marcella goes out of her way to keep Bishop Jefferson in his place and with this latest gossip she heard about his youngest daughter, she's sure that she has him just where she wants him.

What did you like about this book?
It was a fairly predictable read, which was fine for a lazy holiday weekend. 


What didn't you like about this book?
I was slightly thrown because I wasn't sure if this was supposed to be Christian lit, but there was a liberal dosage of Bible verses thrown in, so I suppose it is.  Yes, I know there was a pastor in the story, but does that necessarily qualify a book as Christian lit?  At any rate, it felt very much like a Tyler Perry play on paper.  If Tyler Perry is your thing, then this is the book for you.

What could the author do to improve this book?
I felt like the book really focused on Sanita, which was unfair to Carla.  I thought, well maybe there was another book that focused on Carla and so the title The Other Sister was appropriate because we were now focusing on Sanita.

Due to her introverted ways, Carla was often the overlooked sister.  On the flip side, Sanita was the black sheep in a family of "good, churchgoing people."  I would say that since either sister could have been "the other sister," the focus should have been 50/50.

294pp
Published November 2010
Disclosure: ARC received from the author




Theme: Lay Your Troubles Down by Angela Winbush featuring Ronald Isley

Reminder: Join us March 10 to Discuss Bernice McFadden's Keeper of the Keys & National Women & Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day

In recognition of National Women & Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, I'm pleased to announce that author Bernice McFadden will join us on Wednesday, March 10, for an online discussion of her e-book, Keeper of the Keys.

This moving short story of a young woman who considers suicide when she learns she has AIDS is only available through Amazon.com and only in e-format for the low price of $ 1.99. If you don't own a Kindle, you can still join in by reading on your iPhone, on your Blackberry or on your computer, using Amazon's new Kindle for PC app. Both apps are free.

Please don't miss out on this opportunity to discuss such an important topic in our community. Happy reading and we'll chat next Wednesday, March 10 at 8 pm EST/7 pm CST right here.

Join us for a Special Event in Honor of National Women & Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day

Pulled from The Red Pump Project -

As National Women & Girls HIV/AIDS approach, we want people to realize that women are a big part of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and we ought to know how the disease is affecting us directly and indirectly. There are many reasons why it's important for women to know the facts when it comes to HIV. Biologically, we're more susceptible to infection during sex. We're also more likely to get infected through heterosexual sex.

Statistics used are from the Center for Disease Control's website. Although these stats are only taking the United States into account, globally, HIV/AIDS is no less of a problem, especially for women.

HIV/AIDS & Minority Women
------------------------------------------
HIV/AIDS disproportionately affects minority women in the United States. According to the 2005 census, Black and Latina women represent 24% of all US women combined, but account for 82% of the estimated total of AIDS diagnoses for women in 2005.

HIV is the:

• Leading cause of death for Black women (including African American women) aged 25–34 years.

• 3rd leading cause of death for Black women aged 35–44 years.

• 4th leading cause of death for Black women aged 45–54 years.

• 4th leading cause of death for Latina women aged 35–44 years.

• The only diseases causing more deaths of women are cancer and heart disease

• The rate of AIDS diagnosis for Black women was approximately 23 times the rate for white women and 4 times the rate for Latina women

• In 2006, teen girls represented 39% of AIDS cases reported among 13–19 year-olds. Black teens represented 69% of cases reported among 13–19 year-olds; Latino teens represented 19%.

In recognition of National Women & Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, I'm pleased to announce that author Bernice McFadden will join us on Wednesday, March 10, for an online discussion of her e-book, Keeper of the Keys.

This moving story of a young woman who considers suicide when she learns she has AIDS is only available through Amazon.com and only in e-format for the low price of $ 1.99. If you don't own a Kindle, you can still join in by reading on your iPhone or on your computer, using Amazon's new Kindle for PC app. Both apps are free.

Please don't miss out on this opportunity to discuss such an important topic in our community. Happy reading and we'll chat Wednesday, March 10 at 8 pm EST/7 pm CST right here.