Local Author Reads from 'Sugaree Rising' at Temescal Library Saturday

Local newsman, political commentator and culture critic J. Douglas Allen-Taylor will read from his new novel, Sugaree Rising, and lead a discussion in May's monthly installment of Saturday afternoon salons at the Temescal Branch Library, according to library branch manager Steven Lavoie.

The event takes place Saturday, May 25, at 2:30 p.m. at the library, 5205 Telegraph Ave.

"Sugaree Rising, published by the San Francisco-based small press Freedom Voices, tells the story of African Americans on the coastal lowlands of South Carolina, known as Gullahs, who rise up against a forced relocation by federal authorities to make way for a Depression-era hydroelectric project," Lavoie's announcement said.

"The novel is a glimpse into a unique culture that developed among the coastal wetlands of the Carolinas that preserved many of the spiritual and social components of life in Africa...and recalls the stubborn struggle of African Americans in the south for cultural recognition and equality under brutal segregation in the years before the historic Civil Rights Movement following World War II."

Allen-Taylor has written for the East Bay Express, San Jose Metro, Berkeley Daily Planet and other local papers and to the journals Color Lines and Race, Poverty & the Environment.