African American issues

Jazz composer/clarinetist John Carter. He has just completed a five part music series chronicling the black migration experience from Africa to America: "Roots and Folklore: Episodes in the Development of American Folk Music. The final program in the series, "Shadows on A Wall," premiered recently as part of the New Wave Festival at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. The festival celebrates performers working on the edge of classical, rock, and jazz styles. Carter's performances are also out on disc.

Writer Marita Golden. Her new novel, "Long Distance Life," examines half a century in the life of a black middle-class family in the other Washington, D.C., the one not filled with shiny buildings and corridors of power. Previously, Golden published a widely acclaimed memoir, "Migrations of the Heart."

Poet and essayist June Jordan. In her poems and political essays, she addresses issues of racism, oppression and dispossession. She was born in Harlem and grew up in the Bedford-Stuyvesant area of Brooklyn. She currently teaches English at the University of California at Berkeley.

Author Terry McMillan. She's a black writer whose first novel was "Mama." Her new novel, "Disappearing Acts," is set in Brooklyn in 1982 and takes a look at what makes a relationship work. It's about an educated black man who falls in love with an uneducated black woman.

Actor AVERY BROOKS. He reached stardom with his TV portrayal of "Hawk," the strong, almost silent partner in the detective series "Spenser for Hire." He took that character into its own series last season. Brooks brings to his TV work the same concern for African-American culture that has marked his stage career and his life. He won acclaim for his reinterpretation of the Harriet Beecher-Stowe character "Uncle Tom" in a production on the Showtime cable channel, and for his stage portrayal of Paul Robeson.

Spike Lee's new movie, about a neighborhood's response to the murder of a black man, climaxes in a violent ending that many believe sends an ambiguous message about race relations in the U.S. Lee disagrees, and tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross that the movie's intent is clear.

Winfield won an Academy Award for his role in Sounders, and is a featured actor in the television show Wiseguy. He joins Fresh Air to talk about his career to date, and his involvement with black arts and civil rights movements.

Playwright and novelist Ntzoake Shange, best known for her play For Colored Girls, joins Fresh Air to talk about the diversity of the black experience, her childhood and early education, and the criticism she sometimes gets from black male authors and playwrights. Her new play is called Betsey Brown.

Martin Bauml Duberman was personally selected by Robeson's son to write about the legendary African American actor and activist. Duberman says he brought to bear own experiences in the theater and as a gay man while working on the book. He joins Fresh Air to discuss his research, as well Robeson's political activity and the effect government surveillance had on his mental health.

Al Young was a singer and guitar player before he became writer. His books incorporate his jazz and film influences, as well as his experiences growing up outside white, mainstream culture. His new book, about a black actress, is called Seduction by Light.