The Afropolitan Today — Books

So the head of the Nobel Prize in Literature, Horace Engdahl made the comment that no great writers come from America anymore because they're all pretty much from Europe. Specifically: "Europe still is the center of the literary world." Hmm, well that's great. Except that it ignores the rich history of writers from...ohhh...every other corner of the globe! So I thought I'd do a little post about my fave African writers. Including my mentor and former professor (ok don't mean to name drop, but what the heck!) Ngugi Wa Thiong'o [Kenya] One of my favorite writers. He's an amazing writer...

This is the incredible dissertation story of Columbia Professor and Sociologist Sudhir Venkatesh.  They say doing a PhD is a killer, but this is on another level. Read/listen to the story on NPR Whats incredible about this is the gang leader who he befriended, JT, was a college graduate with a corporate job and left all of that to make 100K selling as the head hancho for a crack operation.  There is the misconception that the guys running gangs are not that bright. They are actually some of the most astute and disciplined people.  What a waste. Not our usual...