tiffany haddish – She Lit

L.L. McKinney, the author behind A Blade So Black, A Dream So Dark, and the upcoming third novel in the series A Crown So Cursed, has organized the Juneteenth Book Fest for today starting at 10 a.m. EST.

The videos will be recorded and uploaded to YouTube. Fresh off creating the #PublishingPaidMe hashtag earlier this month asking for White authors to reveal the amount of their advances on Twitter to show discrepancies between advances of Black authors, L.L. is leading the way on promoting and supporting Black authors during the age of #BlackStoriesMatter.

Juneteenth, the June 19 holiday celebrating the end of slavery, has reached a popularity peak as several name-brand companies this year committed to giving their employees the day off to reflect on racial injustice. The holiday, which is recognized in 46 states and the District of Columbia, has mostly been celebrated in the African American community since 1865. With the latest civil unrest sparking the conversation on racism in general and in the book industry, a Juneteenth book event helps push awareness about the significance of the holiday and Black authors’ works in today’s environment.

The featured bookpeople and panels are:

We Need a Hero: Black Superheroes in Comics

Panelists: L.L. McKinney and Mikki Kendall

Moderator: Karama Horne, The Blerd Gurl

Queer and Black On and Off the Page

Panelists: Julian Winters, Claire Kann, Roya Marsh, Candice Iloh, and Ashley Woodfolk

Moderator: Leah Johnson

Light It Up!: FIYAH Magazine and Black Short Stories

Panelists: The FIYAH Magazine team

It’s a Different World: Black Secondary Worlds in Fantasy

Panelists: Dhonielle Clayton and Kwame Mbalia

Moderator: L.L McKinney

Black Love: Writing Black Romance

Panelists: Farrah Rochon, Beverly Jenkins, and Rebekah Weatherspoon

Moderator: Alyssa Cole

Our Truth: Being Black in Publishing

Panelists: Zakiya Jamal, Ashley Woodfolk, and Nivia Evans

Moderator: Saraciea J. Fennell, event co-organizer

All of Me: Black Memoirs

Panelists: Mikki Kendall, Keah Brown, and Nichole Perkins

Moderator: L.L. McKinney

Black Stories Are Not Niche

Panelists: Lamar Giles, Leah Johnson, Justin A. Reynolds, and Kim Johnson

Moderator: Tiffany D. Jackson

My Mythology: Reclaiming Stories of Old

Panelists: Tracy Deonn, L.L McKinney, Bethany C. Morrow, and Kalynn Bayron

Moderator: Patrice Caldwell

Capturing the Moments: What It Means to Write Black Stories Right Now

Panelists: Tiffany D. Jackson, Angie Thomas, Bethany C. Morrow, L.L. McKinney

Moderator: Julian Winters

The Kids Are Alright: Writing for Black Kids with Middle Grade

Panelists: Kwame Mbalia, Karen Strong, and Alicia D. Williams

Moderator: Nic Stone

One Cause: Many Voices – Editing and Contributing to Black Anthologies

Panelists: Bethany C. Morrow and Patrice Caldwell

Moderator: L.L. McKinney

The Last Black Unicorn by Tiffany Haddish
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

“The Last Black Unicorn” by Tiffany Haddish is the rising comedienne’s memoir that she tells in her playful tone on audiobook, but the simplicity in the writing and the lack of a sequence slightly diminish the lessons she wants the reader to take away from her story.

Growing up in South LA, Tiffany is the oldest of several siblings (they’re not really present in this memoir) and bounces between her grandmother’s home and foster homes after her mother suffers a traumatic brain injury that leads to mental illness. She doesn’t know where her father is most of her life until an ex-cop helps her find him. She eventually marries that ex-cop, who in her words becomes abusive and controlling with trying to take her away from her budding comedy career. She realizes that she felt safer dating an ex-cop because she never trusted her stepfather. When she was a teenager, Tiffany alleges her stepfather implied he was responsible for her mother’s brain injury that derailed Tiffany’s life and the lives of her siblings. Once she breaks ties with her ex-husband to stop the history of bad relationships, her career flourishes with her starring role in “Girls Trip” that carries her to stardom.

The chapters feel disorganized. The summary above seems more of a fleshed-out sequence than her book. There are rough periods in her life that readers can learn from, but they’re told in her comedic voice without the strong vocabulary, grammar, and sentence structure. The words didn’t hold as much strength as they could have. But it was interesting to see her comedic journey from being the class clown in school to copy other students’ work because she was illiterate until age 15 to becoming a nationally known bar mitzvah hype woman to performing in SoCal casinos and comedy clubs. She definitely highlights the ups and downs in the competitive world of entertainment and how she had found her calling at a young age (she attended comedy camp in high school where she met Richard Pryor) but strayed from the path due to toxic relationships. Again, these are the lessons that are glowing from the book, but they’re in pieces weaved into different chapters.

Overall, it’s nice that Tiffany voiced her own story on audiobook, but the writing and editing could’ve been better. It’s a memoir told in a very conversational tone, and some people like that and some like me don’t care for it.

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