Diverse Voices Book Review host Hopeton Hay interviewed Marie Arana, author of LatinoLand.  LatinoLand is an all-encompassing overview of Hispanic America based on personal interviews, deep research, and Marie Arana’s life experience as a Latina. At present, Latinos comprise 20 percent of the US population, a number that is growing. By 2050, census reports project that one in every three Americans will claim Latino heritage.  Marie Arana draws on her own experience as the daughter of an American mother and Peruvian father who came to the US at age nine, straddling two worlds, as many ..read more

Diverse Voices Book Review host Hopeton Hay interviewed Ayana Mathis, author of the novel The Unsettled.  "The Unsettled is a spellbinding portrait of two fierce women reckoning with the steep cost of resistance: What legacy will we leave our children? Where can we be free? Learn more about the novel at The Unsettled — Ayana Mathis. Diverse Voices Book Review Social Media: Facebook - @diversevoicesbookreview Instagram - @diverse_voices_book_review Twitter - @diversebookshay Email: hbh@diversevoicesbookreview.com Web site: https://diversevoicesbookreview.wordpress.com/  ..read more

In celebration of Women's History Month, we're featuring an interview conducted by Teens Choice Book Show host Maya Hay in January of 2021 with Daina Ramey Berry and Kali Nicole Gross, authors of A Black Women's History of the United States.  The book is described as "an empowering and intersectional history that centers the stories of African American women across 400+ years, showing how they are—and have always been—instrumental in shaping our country." At the time of the interview, Dr. Berry was the Oliver H. Radkey Regents Professor of History and associate dean of the Graduate Schoo ..read more

In 2020 Diverse Voices Book Review host Hopeton Hay interviewed Koritha Mitchell, author of FROM SLAVE CABINS TO THE WHITE HOUSE.  As part of our continuing recognition of Black authors for Black History this year, I'm reposting this interview that was originally posted on the podcast site on October of 2020.  In the book Dr. Mitchell argues that it is Black success that is most likely to draw the ire of white mobs. Using characters in literature by black female writers from Zora Neale Hurston to Lorraine Hansberry, and the role in the White House of former first lady Michelle Obama ..read more

Diverse Voices Book Review host Hopeton Hay interviewed Lisa B. Thompson, author of Underground, Monroe, and the Mamalogues: Three Plays. She was interviewed in August of 2020.  In these plays, the black feminist playwright and scholar thoughtfully explores themes such as the black family, motherhood, migration, racial violence, and trauma and its effect on black people from the early twentieth century to the present. The works showcase Thompson’s subversive humor and engagement with black history and culture through the lens of the black middle class. In addition to being an award-winnin ..read more

Diverse Voices Book Review host Hopeton Hay interviewed Peniel E. Joseph, author of THE THIRD RECONSTRUCTION.  In THE THIRD RECONSTRUCTION Joseph weaves in his personal experiences growing up in segregated neighborhood of New York City with three critical periods in history in American history he describes as reconstruction periods: 1865-1898, 1954-1968, and 2008 to the present. In the book he writes, “There is the America that we might call reconstructionist, home to champions of racial democracy, and there is the America that we might call redemptionist, a country that papers over racia ..read more

Diverse Voices Book Review contributor Amanda Moore interviewed Melissa Rivero, author of the novel Flores and Miss Paula.  Flora and Miss Paula explores the relationship between a mother and her daughter as they attempt to navigate their daily lives while coping with the loss of a loved one. Melissa Rivero is the author of the award-winning book, The Affairs of the Falcons, and she is a graduate of NYU and Brooklyn Law School.  You can learn more about Melissa at www.melissa-rivero.com. Diverse Voices Book Review Social Media: Facebook - @diversevoicesbookreview Instagram - @divers ..read more

Diverse Voices Book Review host Hopeton Hay interviewed Karin Cecile Davidson, author of the short stories collection THE GEOGRAPHY OF FIRST KISSES.  "The fourteen ethereal stories are tethered to the bays and backwaters of southern Louisiana, the fields of Iowa and Oklahoma, the pine woods of Florida, places where girls and women seek love and belonging, and instead discover relationships as complicated, bewildering, even sorrowful."  Learn more about Karin and her books at the Karin Cecile Davidson web site. Diverse Voices Book Review Social Media: Facebook - @diversevoicesbookrev ..read more

In July of 2019 host Hopeton Hay interviewed Randal Maurice Jelks, author of Faith and Struggle in the Lives of Four African Americans: Ethel Waters, Mary Lou Williams, and Eldridge Cleaver and Muhammad Ali.  In the book Dr. Jelks examined their autobiographical writings, interviews, speeches, letters, and memorable performances to understand how each of these figures used religious faith publicly to reconcile deep personal struggles, voice their concerns for human dignity, and reinvent their public image. Randal Maurice Jelks is an award-winning author, documentary film producer, and pr ..read more

Back on December 1, 2019, Diverse Voices Book Review host Hopeton Hay interviewed actor Tembi Locke who had just published her memoir, FROM SCRATCH:A Memoir of Love, Sicily, and Finding Home. The daughter of Black student activists in Houston, Locke penned a courageous story of love, family, and healing through the story of the romance between her and her Sicilian husband Saro, and his untimely death. In our interview we discussed how she met her husband while in Italy on a semester abroad from college, his family’s opposition to their marriage, and how her Sicilian mother-in-law’s love after ..read more