Yanique Dawkins, Author at Blerds

November 25, 2014November 25, 2014

The Reality: Fantasy Fiction Novels with People of Color Are Difficult to Find in the Local Library

In fourth grade, I was introduced to fantasy fiction through “The Harry Potter” series. I became a fan of the series when the fourth book was the latest book released. There was something irresistible about Harry’s world that I couldn’t explain. When I read the first three books, everything I read vividly appeared in my mind in bright colors. Once things got darker with the fourth books, the colors shone like stars in new characters and gave me hope for those I already knew.

I loved how Harry’s world painted my imagination with its characters and creatures. As I waited for the newest book in the series to be released, I decided to maintain that feeling by reading other fantasy series such as “Percy Jackson and The Olympians” and certain “Dragonlance” trilogies. Together with the “Harry Potter” series, these books painted my imagination into a lovely kaleidoscope and also sparked an interest in mythology and folklore.

For a while, race wasn’t an issue for me when it came to characters. I related to things that went beyond skin color, like Hermione’s brain and her being put down because of it. In high school, I realized I couldn’t find any characters of color I could relate to in contemporary teen fiction. Due to the lack of diversity in diverse characters, I looked to white characters even more.

After Harry’s adventures ended in my junior year of high school, I found one or two other series that I enjoyed. Then, I started to get bored with fantasy fiction. I was tired of the same old strong female characters and books with vampires, fairies and demons. After a while, even fantasy series I loved to reread also became boring.

I wanted something new, but wasn’t sure what it was. Then last year, I watched the animated series “W.I.T.C.H.” on YouTube and found myself relating to Taranee Cook, a Black female main character who could control fire. That’s when I realized that I wanted to read fantasy fiction with people of color.

On Goodreads, I requested fantasy fiction books written by African-American authors and ended up reading “Sister Mine” by Nalo Hopkinson. While it took me a few chapters to get into the book, I found myself experiencing the same thrill I got from reading the “Harry Potter” books. However, the lack of fantasy fiction by Black authors at my local libraries and my picky reading taste prevented me from finding more books.

Read More from Latonya Pennington: blackgirlnerds.com

November 24, 2014November 24, 2014

Project Focuses on Delivering Digital Books to Underserved African Communities

The invention of the printing press in 1436 increased access to books and facilitated the spread of knowledge unlike anything before it in human history. Today, however, many useful books sit idly on shelves largely out of reach of the world’s poor. In rural Africa, the problem is particularly severe. Great distances make the transport of heavy books expensive. The storage of large quantities of books becomes problematic when enclosed spaces are better used for housing or as classrooms. The harsh climate means that, over time, many books eventually become delicate and unusable. The Nzega Digital Library Initiative (NDLI), however, is seeking to change this using technology. The NDLI is being carried out in the town of Nzega in Tanzania where there are few schools and even fewer teachers. The largest libraries there contain less than a hundred books.

The NDLI has its roots in the Books for Nzega Project started in 2004 by Dr. Hamisi Kigwangalla, a local medical doctor turned politician. The original Books for Nzega Project focused on delivering donated physical books to local schools. However, the transportation and storage of these books proved to be costly for donors and recipients. The NDLI, by contrast, will focus on distributing books in digital formats, which can be done at minimal cost. With the increasing ubiquity of inexpensive smartphones and tablet-like devices in Tanzania, the opportunity exists to exploit these tools for book distribution.

Read more at: www.blacksintechnology.net

November 24, 2014November 25, 2014

Love Supernatural Stories? ‘Daughter of Gods and Shadows’ is for You

Eden Moore is the protagonist in the first series of the trilogy (“Daughter of Gods and Shadows”) written by J.D. Mason as Jayde Brooks. Eden is a lost soul looking for her purpose in life, a shy and awkward 24-year-old individual who discovers that her destiny has been set in motion thousands of years before her existence in another realm.

I felt like I was reading a collection of miniseries biographies, as the first half of the book gave me a history lesson on Eden, the gods, demons, their powers and their purpose. A much-needed necessity as the second part of the trilogy will be titled “City of Dark Creatures.”

The book reads like Season 6 of HBO True Blood and I say that because literally anything can happen. Set in modern times, but entwined with unpredictable supernatural concurrency. It tends to flip back and forth, from reality to fantasy, then all mixed in at times.

“Eden would finally finish what the redeemer had been called to do, and Eden would succeed where Mkombozi had failed. She had no choice.”

A romantic at heart, I truly enjoyed the love story between Eden and her Guardian from the time he came into her life and the effect he had on it.

The second book should be more engaging and easy to follow for the readers, now that the first book has explained the characters and their intent. Note to audience: You should pay attention to details and be good at taking notes.

Source: Christina Angela Jeter at blackgirlnerds.com

November 21, 2014November 21, 2014

7 Naruto Characters We’ll Remember Forever

Courtesy of Darrell, Blerdsonline.com

Sakura Haruno

Here’s a spoiler, I didn’t include Naruto or Sasuke in this list, but I included Sakura. That’s crazy right? Wrong. Sakura may seem like she doesn’t have any character development because she’s madly in love with Sasuke throughout the series. She may not be as strong as Hinata, but I still put her in the list. Kakashi told her she’ll never be as strong as Naruto or Sasuke so she compensates in other ways. She’s the best medic in the series now. She healed the whole army. Nobody else could do that. Give that woman her respect or get a headbutt of doom. In the first half of the series, she was reluctant to fight at times. In the second half of the series, she basically says “I don’t know who this Sasori guy is, but we’re gonna go in here and kill him. Don’t look at me crazy, Naruto, I said we’re killing him.” She’s secretly a cold-blooded killer like Sasuke. That’s why they go well together.

Zabuza Momochi

I know what you’re saying. “He was the first real villain, he’s weak.” No, he’s not. Did you see him in the war putting in work? You’re forgetting that during his appearance he was trying to protect Haku, complete his mission, got screwed over and fought Kakashi. Odds were stacked against him. He’s also one of the legendary swordsmen, and you don’t get that by being subpar. Zabuza also showed that the villains weren’t going to be heartless monsters. At the end of the day, Zabuza was just doing his mission and trying to protect Haku. Don’t give me that lovers crap either, Zabuza took in Haku as a son. After killing everyone in his class, Haku was the first person he cared about and felt that saving him would be redemption. That explains why he temporarily lost his will to fight after Haku died. Even so, Zabuza took out a ton of people with him

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November 21, 2014November 21, 2014

A Classic Fairy tale With A Delightful Twist – Princeless: Vol 1 & 2 Review

Vol 1 Princeless

Ah Fairy Tales! To many women they were a staple of our girlhood, the source of many of our romantic dreams and expectations. There is still something intrinsically attractive in them for young girls. Lucky for me my mother was partial to the Brothers Grimm as opposed to the Disney versions in my bedtime reading. So my Princesses were a bit craftier, and used smarts as well as quick thinking to outwit those pesky evil step mothers and villainous henchman.

With Princeless, we get all the wonderful essences of a classic fairytale with a delightful twist. Princess Adrienne has heard the stories a million times: beautiful princess, tall, foreboding tower guarded by a fearsome dragon, a parade of young princes risking their lives for a chance to rescue and romance the lovely princess.

However she can’t blindly accept this situation. She questions the whole process and yet upon her 16th birthday she finds herself in the same predicament. Adrienne however is not content to wait idly by for a rescuer. Finding a sword in her tower room she convinces her guardian Dragon Sparky to join her on a noble quest: rescue other Princesses trapped in similar towers starting with her sisters!

I really loved this issue. The story moves at a great pace showing us Adrienne’s formative years and her wonderful questing nature to her choice to break out of the stereotypical Princess role. Goodwin, Belton and Kim did such a wonderful job on the art. It is crisp and colorful. I was overjoyed to discover Adrienne was a racially diverse character.

Read more from Kai Charles: blackgirlnerds.com

November 20, 2014November 20, 2014

Lack of Minorities at Tech Conferences Spurs Action

I love tech conferences. The knowledge to be gained from attending talks, the schwag you receive from technology vendors trying to push their latest and greatest product, the incredible networking with other professionals in the tech space, and, most importantly, the exposure to the newest and latest trends in tech makes attending technology conferences well worth my while. I’ve attended conferences about Linux, FOSS, Nagios, Information Security, virtualization and quite a few others during my career in the technology field.

What I don’t love about most tech conferences is the lack of minority representation on both the attendee and speaker side. It still alarms me that I have “virtually” met tons of people of color that work in the tech field but still fail to see these numbers translate into tech conference attendance/speakers.

I think this post deserves a bit more of a set up so maybe you’ll begin to understand it more. I began attending technology conferences early in my career. Ohio Linux Fest was my first one. I went because that’s where the “geeks” were going to be and I wanted to soak up as much knowledge as possible. The experience of being around other Linux geeks was amazing. The camaraderie, the networking, the knowledge-sharing was something that really stuck with me. The absence of people of color at these conferences all stuck with me and was my main reason for starting BIT.

Read more from Greg Greenlee at blacksintechnology.net

November 20, 2014November 20, 2014

Is It Important for Women of Color to See Ourselves on the TV Screen? Absolutely!

As a Black woman who consumes a substantial amount of television, it is invaluable to see images of women and people of color on the small screen.

My flat screen invites my favorite fandoms into my living room and provides an experience that I hope can be both entertaining and fulfilling. However, when it comes to diversity, I have noticed that slowly women and people of color are taking on protagonist roles that we haven’t quite seen before. As a TV viewer, I wouldn’t exactly say that my diversity appetite is fully satiated. In fact, I still hunger for more women who look like me on television. But there are shows that are slowly coming into the fold that are creating characters who look like the people I see walking around my neighborhood every day. Characters who look like people I see at a shopping mall, waiting for my flight at the airport, or riding a NYC subway train.

Racial diversity on television within the last several years has been sparse or relatively nonexistent, depending on which network you elect to watch. Seeing more white faces than faces of color is sadly becoming the status quo. In fact it seems since the ‘80s and 90’s TV shows are actually getting whiter. The monolith of whiteness is both discouraging and dismissive to many non-white fans who want to see images of characters who look like them.

Read more from Jamie Broadnax: blackgirlnerds.com

November 19, 2014November 19, 2014

CODE2040: Helping Minority Coders Find Their Way to Silicon Valley

Blacks in Technology recently sat down with Laura Weidman Powers (founding executive director of CODE2040) for a one-on-one interview about the CODE2040 program.

In case you aren’t aware, CODE2040 is an organization that matches high-performing Black and Latino undergraduate and graduate coders and software engineering students with Silicon Valley startups for summer internships, and also provides them with the insight, networks and support to ensure their successful participation in the high-tech innovation economy

When was the organization founded?
CODE2040 was founded in February 2012. We’re a startup, too!

Who is CODE2040 (employees and roles)?

Tristan Walker is the founder and chair of the board of CODE2040 and I (Laura Weidman Powers) am the organization’s founding executive director.
Amy Schapiro is CODE2040’s program manager, running point on all recruiting and summer programming.
Jonathan Brack leads program evaluation and alumni programming, ensuring we’re maximizing our effectiveness and supporting our alums.
Jocelyn Jarrett manages accounting and HR operations, using her expertise in helping set up nonprofits to ensure we’re making efficient use of our resources.
The rest of the board (beyond Tristan) is Ben Horowitz, Amber Saloner Tennant, Marc Hedlund and Bea Perez, and we’re fortunate to have an awesome group of advisers and volunteers as well.

What is the goal of CODE2040?

The latest census projections show that people of color will be the majority in the United States in the year 2040. And yet there is no indication that the substantial minority achievement gap will be closed by that same year. We launched CODE2040 to make a direct impact on the achievement gap by increasing the numbers of underrepresented minorities participating in the high-value innovation economy – an economy centered in Silicon Valley.

How many students participate in the program?

We ran a pilot of the program with five students at five startups the first summer, 2012, and we’ll have around 20 students participating this coming summer. We’ll be continuing to scale from there!

In talking with the students, what seems to be the biggest thing they take away from the program?

My favorite thing is something one fellow said to me: Before participating in CODE2040 and hearing from all the speakers and meeting with her executive coach, she thought there was a mythical “entrepreneur” personality type that meant that you were destined to be a founder. After hearing firsthand from dozens of entrepreneurs, she realized that they were ordinary people with great ideas, great passion and great work ethic, and she could be a founder, too.

From Greek Mythology to Life in Washington State, Author Michael G. Munz Sits Down for a Q&A

“It takes place in modern day and features a geeky male, a strong-willed kick-ass female who gains kudos for being a pro at deflecting unwanted male attention (read harassment), the Greek gods (of course) and a whole lot of trouble.”

Synopsis: The gods are back. Did you myth them?

Black Girl Nerds: What inspired the book?

Michael G. Munz: Inspiration for “Zeus Is Dead” has come in chunks ever since the mid-1990s.
I’ve been into Greek mythology since I was a kid, and I took a couple of classics courses in college that reminded me how varied and interesting the members of the Greek pantheon are. I wanted to write a new myth (set in ancient Greece) with such characters, but I wanted to develop my abilities for a while in order to do it justice. In 2002, when I first wrote the short story “Playing With Hubris” — in which a modern man meets two people in a café claiming to be Apollo and Thalia — I realized the potential that lay in putting mythological characters into our modern world. I played with the concept in a couple more short stories until — trying to decide what to write after finishing “A Memory in the Black” (my second sci-fi novel) a number of years ago — I decided it was time to use the concept as novel fodder.

BGN: Because you have used a mythological tone, yet set in a modern time, is this book your revelation of how you see today’s world?

Michael G. Munz: Only in a sense. My primary goal in writing “Zeus Is Dead” was to create something that would make people laugh, but a fair bit of satire did creep into the novel as it developed. I often found myself using the gods (and their massive egos) to make observations about the real world, our celebrities and our leaders.

BGN: What do you want the readers to take away after reading your novel?

Michael G. Munz: Muscle aches from smiling and laughing, a heightened interest in the characters of Greek mythology, and maybe even the idea that, once in a while, people can surprise us.

BGN: In the book, Thalia is a scatterbrained muse of comedy and science fiction. Why did you pick those two genres as her purview?

Michael G. Munz: Oh, now “scatterbrained” might be just a bit unfair. Granted, if she had a spirit animal it would be a caffeinated hummingbird, but she IS a muse. Inspiration flows through her veins due to her very nature, and she likes to think out loud. But to answer your question, I figured that if I was going to write a comedy that included a muse as a character, I’d do well to make it the muse of comedy. (Thalia is named as the muse of comedy in the original mythology.) But I also figured that the nine muses would have to take on new duties when the modern genres came into being. As a sci-fi geek, I thought it would be fun to give her that responsibility as well. Douglas Adams got his ideas from somewhere, after al l…

BGN: “Apollo, a compulsive overachiever with a bursting portfolio of godly duties, risks his very godhood to help sarcastic TV producer Tracy Wallace and a gamer-geek named Leif — two mortals who hold the key to Zeus’s resurrection.” Is this conflict a subliminal history of your personal experiences with life?

Michael G. Munz: Oh, I certainly hope not! I try my best to AVOID responsibility as much as possible. (That’s why I’m a writer and not a doctor or an air traffic controller.) Apollo has always been my favorite of the Greek pantheon, though. He seems to be one of the more decent gods, at least in most cases. But he’s also got so many responsibilities in the traditional mythology: He’s the god of the sun, healing, archery, truth, light, prophecy, music, literature, etc. (He’s also picked up gelatin desserts at the start of “Zeus Is Dead.”) It seemed like he’d be a pretty busy guy, especially if the entire world was looking to him for favors in all of those categories, which could swiftly lead to some massive internal conflict for the poor guy.

BGN: In your bio, it states you were born in Pennsylvania but moved to Washington state in 1977 at the age of 3. Unable to escape the state’s gravity, you spent most of your time studying writing. What was the state’s gravity?

Michael G. Munz: Oh, 9.8 meters per second squared same as anywhere else on Earth. But, really, that line in my bio is just me being figurative and trying to say — in what some generous individuals might consider to be a clever way — that I like it here and haven’t found cause to leave. Western Washington is a nice mix of forests, oceans, mountains and sky, with some pretty interesting cities scattered about. Having friends and family here helps keep me around, too.