Hello Fellow World Travelers,
We are continuing our tribute to Black History Month on The Talk of Chicago 1690 WVON and this Sunday, February 10, 2008 we have a wonderful show planned.
In our first segment we have Carol Shull, Cheif Heritage Education Services, National Park Services on Underground Railroad Sites and Black History Tours in the US. For more information on the National Park Services Heritage Education Services visit their web site www.nps.gov/history/nr/travel.
In the second half of our show we are excited to have actress and author, Denise Nicholas as our special guest. (See Below)
Tune in to 1690 AM this Sunday 4-5pm or listen on line http://www.wvon.com/
Call in to participate in the conversation 773-591-1690 and receive a special gift (limited supplies)
A Message From Denise Nicholas
Dear Reader,Many readers have contacted me, fully aware of my acting career, but not aware of my writing career. After reading my first novel, Freshwater Road, they wanted to know the catalyst behind me writing a novel of this nature. I want to share my response with each of you.My time in the Deep South in the 1960’s gave me a deep and resonant understanding of American history, the history that’s barely taught in our schools. What began to disturb me most was that far too many people didn’t really know what had happened. Slavery really did happen, the Civil War really was fought because of slavery and though the South lost that war, the south did not lose the peace. The civil rights movement haunted me for years, like a shadow always playing at the back edges of my mind. I could not forget the power of those days, the beauty of that moment in American history.The years since those grave days right through to the modern civil rights movement form a continuum. There is cause and effect. I find the struggle of any people for human and civil rights the most noble of struggles. Implicit is a dignity and force for right that is unmistakable. Freshwater Road is a tribute to that time and place, the political times, the social and the personal. Freshwater Road is also a homage to the beauty of the South.I encourage you to read Freshwater Road. Enjoy!Denise Nicholas
Freshwater Road is on sale now at Target, Kmart, Walmart and Meijer stores!
About the BookFreshwater Road is the story of a nineteen-year-old woman’s role in the Civil Rights movement and her journey towards self-discovery.In the summer of 1964, University of Michigan sophomore Celeste Tyree leaves the comforts of her middle class life to travel to Mississippi and volunteer her efforts in Freedom Summer. She ends up helping voters register in the small town of Pineyville, a place best known for a notorious lynching that occurred only a few years earlier. As the long, hot summer unfolds, Celeste befriends several members of the community who watch her develop into a powerful, strong young woman.Yet there are those who are threatened by Celeste and fear the change she represents. Through her work, she finds inner strength as she helps lift the veil of oppression and learns, valuable lessons about race, social change, and violence. All the while, she struggles with loneliness, a worried father in Detroit, and her burgeoning feelings for Ed Jolivette, a young man also in Mississippi for the summer.Sensitively written and refreshingly honest, Denise Nicholas is a brave new voice in fiction. The Washington Post called Freshwater Road surely the best work of fiction about the Civil Rights movement since Earnest J. Gaine’s The Autobiograhy Of Miss Jane Pitman.
Denise Nicholas is an award-winning actress and writer who have appeared in numerous films and television shows–including Room 222 (for which she earned two Golden Globe nominations) and In the Heat of the Night, for which she wrote six episodes. She received two Emmy Awards for the PBS special Voices of Our People: In Celebration of African American Poetry as well as four NAACP Image awards for her work over the years. Freshwater Road is her first novel.
Denise Nicholas signs her novel in Chicago at Walmart at 95th & Western on Monday,
Feb. 11 at 6:30 p.m. and will be at Kmart in Homewood
(175th & Halsted) onTuesday, Feb. 12 at 6:30 p.m.