Chicago Literature

Ronald Fair: Griot of Chicago Tales

1932— Ronald Fair is perhaps best known as a teller of crisp, satirical, and unsentimental Chicago Tales: inner city stories of struggle, morality, and overcoming (not unlike his own Chicago story). Born in Chicago on October 27, 1932, Fair attended public school. He was inspired as a young man by fellow Chicagoan Richard Wright to begin writing.…

September 10, 2009

ayanacontreras

Arts & Culture, Books, Chicago Cultural History, Cult Movie of the Week, Film and Television, Jive Culture, Printed Matters

BAM, Black Arts Movement, Black Literature, Blaxploitation, books, Chicago Black Literature, Chicago Literature, Cornbread Earl and Me, film, Hog Butcher, Many Thousand Gone, Printed Matters, Ronald Fair, We Can’t Breathe
Hey, White Girl! Susan Gregory’s Chicago Story

The intersection of race and class. In Chicago. In the late 1960s. That’s the backdrop of a memoir (rather cheekily) titled “Hey, White Girl!” written by Susan Gregory (Norton, 1970). In the book, teenage Susan transfers from well-heeled, suburban New Trier High School to attend infamous-even-then Marshall High School on Chicago’s West Side for her senior year.…

August 27, 2009

ayanacontreras

Book Reviews, Books, Chicago Cultural History, Commentary, Printed Matters, Reviews, the Goodness

Black Slang, books, Chicago Literature, Class, Hey White Girl, Marshall High School, New Trier High School, Race, sixties, Susan Gregory, west side, WVON