[applause] my name is justin desmangles. I am the chair of the before Columbus Foundation. About eight years ago i proceeded in that position, our founder, ishmael reed, we are very fortunate to have with us joining the program today. There were some very big shoes to fill. Of course, i want to thank our friends at the San Francisco jazz center who had been so generous in their support of the american book awards for the last several years. Also our friend at cspan who continue to support the Historical Mission of the before Columbus Foundation and american book awards. I will say a few things about our direction that we embarked on recently. Over the past several years we have expanded our programming to include a number of partnerships in the bay area and nationally, including those with the San FranciscoPublic Library who i am very honored to say, one of the representatives, stuart shaw who has been instrumental facilitating the collaboration between the before Columbus Foundation at the San FranciscoPublic Library, has been just this year are presented, and waldman, winner of the Achievement Award and will alexander, the american book award in 2014. We continued those programs at the San FranciscoPublic Library in collaboration with African Americans enter the summer. This program focusing on black hollywood unchained, a collection of films not only focusing on the work of tarantino but the relationship between the hollywood and Television Industries and auxiliary industries in the commercial world and black American History in writing and culture. That included marvin x, myself, as well as jesse allen taylor. Our continuing collaboration with the open book festival was last year featuring a number of panels including one of the premier panels of the festival on multiracial American Literature in the 21st century which included john keene who we honor this afternoon it is present with us today, and one of the great writers in america today, Emily Robinson also featured, presented by before columbus including a panel on the legacy of malcolm x which included michael eric dyson, winner of the american book award as well as myself. It has been a productive and fertile relationship continuing with oakland book festival and we look forward to expanding the programs into yearround programs. Also very excited to share with you, two do members to the board of directors this year. The novelist marvin james and lela waldman. [applause] we will begin the ceremony this afternoon with the book trace, whom we have the pleasure of its author joining us to talk about race, memory, history, race and the American Landscape. She will tell you more about this extraordinary work. But i would like to emphasize too often, certainly the way we articulate our individual identities is restricted to a temporal understanding of history. We are all very sensitive to not just what i am saying and the meaning of these words but also the time and the place in which we exist, what might be described as deep time, the formation of the book itself. This also plays a role in our understanding of ourselves and how we relate to one another and our concepts about what is possible to communicate and what is not. This book, trace, perhaps or than any other contemporary work, brings those elements into play. It is a great pleasure to introduce to you the author of trace, lauret savoy. [applause] thank you. I never imagined this, to be in the company of writers of such power is a great gift. To be chosen and celebrated by the founders and members of the board of before Columbus Foundation is a great gift. I come from a family that was violent and silenced which it was after my fathers death that i learned he was a writer which is novel around racial hatred and passing titled alien land, have been published to some fanfare by ep dutton decades earlier. Dutton canceled his contract. The would be second novel concerned a story about a young negro artist using the language at the time who has been fighting segregation, my fathers home, the possibilities of communism. My father found himself blacklisted. This was 1950s. Many years later, the man i knew, were bitter, angry, he didnt write, sometimes he did not be. Silence was easy to learn. I long wondered how much the deep, unspoken hunger can touch a child and marked the path to follow, trace began in my struggle to reach beyond silence to either answer or come to terms with questions that long hunted me. Each of our lives is an incident like a camera shutter opening and closing, there is no place in the world. For that instant we have. Over time, over generations, what do accumulated instances mean. Personal journeys and historical inquiry across the continent and time, exploring the country unfolding history marked a person, the people and land itself. Twisted terrain to a South Carolina plantation, from an island in Lake Superior to indian territory in oklahoma. From National Parks to burial grounds to the origins the American Land wears, the origins of the names and, from the Us Mexico Border to the capital and the origins of both and in all of these trace tries to grapple with a searing national history, to reveal some of that unvoiced past to present so what i would like to do right now is to read a page and a half the book, and early reflection that came on a journey that brought me back to california and a place called the Devils Punch Bowl and a journey that led to this book. From what do we take our origin . From blood . I am the child of a woman with deep brown skin and dark eyes who married a fair skinned man with bluegray eyes. Yet as a little girl in california, i never knew race. Skin, eye color, hair color, texture, body type and shape varied greatly among relatives. Like the land, we appeared in many forms, some differences felt significant was far beyond me. Instead i devised a self theory, golden light and deep blue sky, the sun filled my body like it seemed to fill dry california hills and sky low in my veins, to a 5yearold colored could only mean single things. On that drive east from the punch bowl, i realized how little i knew of my family as an organic unit held together by shared blood, experience or story. I was born to parents already well into middle age. They had come into the world before moving pictures talked, before teamsters drove only horseless trucks and before the iceman had to find a new profession which they lived with elders who could recall life before the civil r, their memories lived by lantern light. Nearly palpable, their path never spoke to me. Dad died long before i had questions and in response, mama said she could remember and she wondered why i wanted to know. From what do we take our origins . From incised memories . One lori, home as many a workweek night, my father sits in an easy chair, the glass of gin or scotch in one hand, cigar or cigarette in the other. The only light is the inhaling burn. What he sees or thinks i dont know. What i remember, smoke, silence. Another memory, a list in fifth grade social studies, catholic school, washington dc. Our textbook describes the unsuitability of indians who waste away and the preference for africans thrived as slaves and by nature love to serve. I asked my teacher, mrs. Devlin, if and when i might become a slave. Searching for self meaning in such lessons, will i be a slave . The history tossed wasnt the history that made me but i didnt know this. Any language, how land and time touched my family remains elusive. In the 1960s, i learned to understand how race cut our lives, black, negro, came out and hard after the 1968 riots. Words for love spit showed that i could be hated for being colored. And by the age of 8, about i wondered if i should hate in return. The book goes on and many journeys to explore the history. And to reveal so many of the damaging public silences that often go unknowsed such as the link between the siding of the nations capitolling and the economic motive of slavery and what is important to remember is that none of these links is coincidental to feel them appear in public history yet they all touched us. I want to give my heart felt thanks to my family and friends who kept me from throwing away my words yet again. And i give my thanks to my father and to those who struggled to negotiate the indetermined terrain of heritage towards understanding and survival. I give thanks to my editor jack is schumaker and counterpress for taking a chance with me. Of course i give thanks to American Land and to many travel people for which this is homeland. And my deep, deep gratitude goes to the before columbus that finally i am learning how to speak. [applause] that was beautiful. Thank you. This next writer is a poet and a Public School teacher if only Public School teachers would be so brilliant and truthful we would all be in good hands. Shes a lifetime resident of the Pacific Northwest da is enrolled member laura da is enrolled member of the eastern shaunny tribe of oklahoma she lives seattle with her husband and son. Of her work are national photoof the United States juan says tributary of raven have conjure home lanked to conjured home land of name words of removal history of bloodstream and birds and now generations through anthropologist gay, textbook disconnection and beings of deep rivers and night face galaxies. And das happedz painting reimagining. Sash is a sheaing the bore between each line. Breath and duty, the truth pollen dust still mooing. Moving about with her blessing presence with knowledge, and dream and vision insight in full are all Human Systems in harmony. This book abun dangt with body call it a peoples generations. Long time and now a deep strong voice luminous. The book is tributaries. Survey shani history along side personal identity and memory with the eye of a story teller day creates ark that flows from the personal to the universal and back again. In her first book length collection da employees into woven narrative and perpghtive perspective and leaves rich image to create a shifting vision of the past and present. Its my honor to present laura with the american book award. [applause] the work is [inaudible] thank you. Good afternoon. How to tell im so honored by this company all by this award im a little bit overwhelm by how beautiful the words have been and it is just beginning. So of course my deep gratitude to the before Columbus Foundation, i, you know, have is thought about all of my most loved and deerest book on my book shelves to many of them, Award Winners from this particularward so its an amazing feeling to join it shall [inaudible] so thank you. An thanks, of course, to the board and to all of my fellow writers here it is really an honor. I worked on this book for about 15 years so this is a very sweet punctuation mark basically my entire adult life. I want to tick a particular moment it thank my family. My husband is here today. And hes actually the artist who created the cover so i look the book that is family affair. And i also want to just give thanks to my the Tribal Community shani tribe as more importantly as a human, you know as a daughter, child, mother, a sister. So thanks to my tribe certainly. Also thanks to the professors that the institute of American Indian art first people who have encouraged me to write also people who ever put a book in any hands written by a native art if i havent been educated try believing. Im not sure what would happened to me but i knew i wanted to be a writer and i want to give thanks to my stowngt. Identify been Teaching Middle School for last 13 years and i find they are deeply inspooring to me, and theyre very excited about this this award as well. So i for many of us as writers, theres a a creative obsession or spark that kind of propels you forward because sometime running can be a bit of aluminating endeavor and i thought id share just a small story of what i believe has driven me as a writer. Sos a teenager, you hear the first thing i do the very first manager that i meet my students who are middle the skewest 11 to 13. They greet me in their Home Language and then talk about how many languages we have and vast engine that were bringing into the classroom. Ill say how did he do which was informal to say hello to shani and ask them to gses what language did i say hi to you in . And i want to note i have great rpght for my students incredibly intelligent and citizens of the world, however, ill let them guess for ten minutes. Not wonings does it come to north American Continent not once when i guess you see this awakening that they may be maybe didnt think of having land on it or language or culture, and so that share has haunted me for a long time and i think ei feel like that propels some of my creative obsession as a writer particularly the history of the shani people. So my dad was actually born here in california. He was born in wpa liver camp. My grandparents were migrants from overwhelm from the shani reservation. They were i try tolings escape difficulty of the dust bowl and im so gladeful to them because it is easy to lose who you are and lose your indigenous that ties you to you your family is living in poverty your generations and generations so my deep gratitude to them for the sacrifices theyed made as well. Id like to read something i think speaks to that concept america land oask as was so eloquently mentioned were on native indigenous land right now so ill read a poem from this collection. That looks closely at the shani land and how it has changed from generation to generation. So this poem is called american town. Seneca, missouri seeps through cracked window. The map flutters on the dashboard one corner grits soaked. Sparse oh disark wash of to inny green. I heard of buffalo loring in the sad patture. Here is the voyage conjured homeland to conjured homeland. No, not that trajectory of the past but it scrapes just the same. The drive to ohio will take 11 hours and 48 minutes. Cost 195 in gas. In the systemic and name and principle city all Human Systems lives in harmony. Of corn tassel along the byway historic marketers plunge an arm into the they foal how second, about no rock to bend the plow share. What heirloom field of shiny corn hum under the crest, beside carbon of burned counsel house. August we of bad act creek jarred throughout boulders jetting up waste high and drag corn. What is owed grit this corner of the mouth, the plaque on the museums door in zinnia has revolutionary rei war hero the ground on which this con sewel hands stains is unwith so much as pets and brotherly love. Some are school kids around the museum, the teacher introduces the panel of tribal counsel members as remnant of the once great shawnny tribe. Of pencils across paper. In the front room a volunteer curator leans over a story of a revolutionary war red steeple red pant on to sandy ground simulating the american flogging points with the paint brush to next room. Where 50 street levels from 1783 broke her captive trade with the delaware in shani. Of the from blagged or or to the sway of longhand gun. Each one made the promise of whiskey. Leaving zinnia that evening on an old shaunny trade route retrace and concrete. The town blue jackets town, woptomica influence of the pollen upon the forrem of the fruit. Imght my ink to bellow. Where is this ground . Im staying with blood. Thank you very much. [applause] [silence] jesus is awardwinning filmmaker known for his pioneering documentary ares and features fills about the experience. Hes the author of the fabulous sinkhole and other stories the sky scraper that flew at a critically anamed memoir eyewitness the filmmaker memoir of the chicago business. Of this work and his book return toe royal grandi it is private in his prier life jesus made movies and directed television drama. In this work most scenes had to be shot two or three times base theory that repeating seen might lead actors to return in time from the previous scene a time of going and running and coming back from a future they have just created. Elle yoat nailed image in a line in a room the common and the goal. Did all of those years behind the camera tribune to write speck willtive fiction and all stories speck la story. Thought about going and coming of the dreams like we the old people already knew that memory registers time space. Well weve been there, and here time shifting in alternate dimensions appear or disper in to the book but fabulous sinkhole and ska scraper that flew and interesting segue to earlier stories focus on the word return in the title. Of course, the characters can can return because they have already been there. Here and there, a time, space but dont let my wild speculations keep you from reading this most interesting book. The stories that grounded in reality although a reality that shifts depending on what page youre on. Plot goes look this. New characters are young men and women who had left a royal began day to pursue careers but now return hometown from Greedy Developers to videos plot in just the same time, space, and parallel universe in which characters life. Who movers writers hand, god, free will, imagine theation, soul or gravitational wifes arrived in earth when two black holes exploded in disapt distant galaxy two billion years ago and reveal at his desk challenging conception of fiction or a collection of stories just a continue womb to surprise and fulfill or senses of hablty jesus [applause] laura, you forgot [inaudible] [laughter] thank you. Glasses on trying them out. Thank you justin and, of course,