June 8th, 2009

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Dreams of My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance, Barack Obama (Three Rivers Press)

Empire Theatres lobby — New Minas, NS

Black woman, young 30s, hair pulled tight into bun, wearing dark grey short-sleeved blouse shot through with silver threads, comfortable worn jeans, and no-nonsense shoes.

Dreams of My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance, Barack Obama (Three Rivers Press)

Pg. 377:

I looked at Granny, and she nodded at me, and I knew then that at some point the joy I was feeling would pass and that that, too, was part of the circle: the fact that my life was neither tidy nor static, and that even after this trip, hard choices would always remain.

This new Uhura had better be right. She’d seen the actress in an interview on the Space channel-the young, pretty girl was explaining that she’d never watched any of the original episodes of Star Trek. Didn’t she know that Nichelle Nichols was Uhura? When Nichols had thought of quitting the show, Dr. King had told her to keep on with it. Nichols had been reading the book, Black Uhuru at the casting call. Mr. Roddenberry had noticed. Nichols got the part and her character was given a new name. In Swahili, uhuru means “freedom.”

- Ami McKay

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