:: Jake Lamar - Official Author Website :: author of Rendezvous Eighteenth, Close to the Bone, If Six Were Nine, (Le Caméléon Noir,) Bourgeois Blues, The Last Integrationist.

Norway's domestic terrorist is the most extreme example of Europe's assault on immigrant culture.

Is Multiculturalism Europe's New Taboo?
"'Who in this room is French?' Nourdine Nabili asks a group of 25 eighth-graders in Bondy, one of the concrete working-class suburbs just outside Paris..." read article

Marine Le Pen becomes head of the far-right, anti-immigrant party her father founded. Could she get elected president?

France's Sarah Palin Takes the Spotlight
"She has become the face of the far right in her country. She is a constant, controversial presence in the media, extolling the glorious history of France, warning against the tide of immigration..." read article

Parsing the appropriateness of that explosive term is even more complicated in France:

How Do You Say the N-Word in French?
"The word nègre is being bandied about in the French media in an unusually intense way these days, thanks to the blatherings of the cosmetics tycoon Jean-Paul Guerlain, who said on French television recently..." read article

A chance to see (and buy) the very best in contemporary African art:

Art of the African Diaspora Comes to Paris
"When it comes to African art, the French have always veered toward old-school, artisanal fare. Now, in the largest auction of art from the Diaspora, French art collectors will get a chance..." read article

...review - Scott Joplin's rarely performed opera gets a rousing ovation in the City of Lights:

'Treemonisha' in Paris
"Nearly 100 years after it was composed, nearly 45 years after its first full-scale performance in America, Scott Joplin's opera Treemonisha has arrived in France. Beneath the glittering..." read article

Here on JakeLamar.com, read Jake's essay:

Behind Enemy Lines: Post-War Notes of an American in Paris "'It’s over,' I sighed. Sitting in my Montmartre apartment, watching the ecstatic takedown of Saddam Hussein’s statue in Baghdad, I believed that maybe peace was at hand. Perhaps now, with the fall of Saddam, the threats, the attacks, all the ugliness, could come to an end...." read article

...book review and essay on the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.:

King, Minus Sentimental Goo: A Bold, Dangerous Radical
"Is there any 20th-century American icon who has been more banalized, neutralized and homogenized by mythology than Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.? ..." read article

...reviewing books at Salon.com:

The Role Model Syndrome
"Two new memoirs by talented black women show how hard it is to reconcile good writing and racial politics...." read article

...at the Washington Post:

Small World
Jake Lamar's review of the book The Portable Promised Land: Stories by Touré... the Washington Post charges a fee to read this article

...at the Washington Post:

The Outsider
Jake Lamar's review of the book Richard Wright: The Life and Times by Hazel Rowley... the Washington Post charges a fee to read this article

...at the Washington Post:

Folk Heroine
Jake Lamar's review of the book Wrapped in Rainbows: The Life of Zora Neale Hurston by Valerie Boyd... the Washington Post charges a fee to read this article

...at the Washington Post:

Just Passing Through
Jake Lamar's review of the book Caucasia by Danzy Senna... the Washington Post charges a fee to read this article

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