Opening Doors To Being Free
"Black College Girls Prefer VIRGINS"
This article was written by KEVIN JOHNSON originally for
"Black Star News." Portions of this article were published in
"Campus News."
Reprinted by Permission:
Thanks to Kola Boof
http://theblacklistpub.ning.com/profile/KolaBoof
As controversy swirls before the book is even released, black college girls who’ve already read "VIRGINS IN THE BEEHIVE" are coming to the defense of its controversial author, Kola Boof.
won a Statewide University Debating contest by acting out chapters from Kola Boof’s memoir "Diary of a Lost Girl."
"There has been an actual movement to suppress Kola Boof’s writings and to keep her
from being published" says Garland Moriarity, an Italian-Black arts major in Los Angeles.
"Kola has a real strong underground cult following with black women and college students,
but the mainstream acts like she’s some weirdo radical. She’s not radical though. She’s real and it scares people because her books challenge the mainstream thinking and give us a blacker black woman’s voice. She’s the most exciting black writer in America. She is like Alice Walker, Madonna, Sister Souljah and Audre Lorde all rolled up in one
Desiree Robinson says: "If you set Kola Boof’s fiction books aside, there is the Bin Laden scandal (Kola Boof was Osama Bin Laden’s mistress, against her will, in 1996) and that bothers people because they don’t realize that she was a womanist writer, they just saw her on the news as Bin Laden’s mistress or they read the lies people post on the internet about her, but they never read "Flesh and the Devil" or "Long Train to the Redeeming Sin"...and then there is the ’activist Kola’ who is fighting for the South Sudanese--she is Pro-Israel, which turns off a lot of African Americans, but why would a woman fighting to stop genocide in Darfur not be Pro-Israel? The Arabs countries are supporting what’s going on in Sudan and Israel gives food and medicine to Kola’s people.
Sister Souljah was real controversial when she first came out and she became mainstream, so I don’t see why Kola Boof can’t be the same way. In fact, she reminds me of Sister Souljah with the books she writes. There’s always a strong message."
Desiree says: "Then take it a step further, she’s fighting against skin bleaching in Africa and she speaks out very loudly about colorism in American black society, louder than anyone has ever spoken out about light skin-dark skin. That’s why you have all these stupid people who are afraid of her message. And I do believe the Arabs and Muslims, those types, have done a good job spreading untrue propoganda about her. Look at the reporter who was Pacifica radio and said he was offered money to lie on Kola Boof."
Amanda Foster says: "Black girls rock and Kola Boof is the very epitome of that.
The reason we love her books is because there’s an uncensored I don’t give a f**k
attitude and she exposes everything. She’s like an exhibitionist. She was voted most admired female writer by the Black Student Union at Howard University twice!
When Adria Tinnin came across excerpts of Kola Boof’s Diary of a Lost Girl, about the Sudanese woman’s unwilling affair with Osama bin Laden, she knew she had found the perfect piece of literature for her presentation. It was controversial and engaging, requiring Tinnin to work hard to understand the character and portray this woman’s story. When the Sacramento City College student performed her interpretation of the piece at an October speech-and-debate competition in Santa Rosa, she advanced to the finals.
"That’s because the material is so strong and Kola Boof is such a powerful writer."
Indeed, despite the internet smear campaigns and political adversaries promoting lies
about the Sudanese-born American-raised author, Kola Boof is an award-winning
novelist and poet. Her books so far have all been literary fiction.
GOING COMMERCIAL FICTION ON US
But how will these girls who’ve loved the gritty Toni Morrison-Alice Walker remix writing
that Boof is known for feel about "VIRGINS IN THE BEEHIVE", her first ever attempt at
a mainstream Hip Hop novel?
"It’s different" says Kola Boof herself. "But it’s still a Kola Boof book. It still has the
themes and the passion of all my work and what I’m about. Best of all, it really is
about something and carries a very strong message. I love the character in the book
that everyone thinks is based on Missy Elliott. Destiny Matthews is my favorite
character and no matter how campy and steamy the story gets, that character
reminds you that you’re reading a Kola Boof novel."
(See a review of the book here: http://www.nathanielturner.com/whoiskolaboof. htm )
Derrick Bell, a Professor at New York University as well as bestselling author and a legendary civil rights icon has said about Boof’s writing: “Kola Boof is a writer of courage, principle and loads of courageous perseverance.”
The New York Times has called Kola Boof "The African Garbo."
In 2007, Kola Boof won the Gavinna til Gavinna Writer’s Pen from Sweden for her
essay in a feminist magazine, "I Am My Own Daughter."
Still, others are worried about Boof’s foray into commercial fiction.
Nafisa Goma used to be Boof’s editor at Door of Kush Books, the small black-owned
label that was brave enough to publish and promote Kola Boof, but wasn’t large enough
to meet distribution needs for the author’s growing fan base.
Goma says that there is already controversy brewing around the book. Some are uncomfortable with Jesus Christ making an appearance in the steamy novel. He rescues one of the characters, but it’s also implied that he makes love to the young virgin. Kola Boof insists that this is a necessary part of the story--but the controversy doesn’t stop there. Try adding suicide rock icon Kurt Cobain to the mix.
"My characters feel that Kurt Cobain did not committ suicide, that he was murdered" says
Kola Boof.
The investigator of Cobain’s death from the beginning has been a man named Tom Grant.
Tom has evidence that Cobain was murdered and I feel in my guts that he’s right.
I really love the group HOLE and I love Courtney Love. I’m not trying to indict anyone.
I’m just saying that I do think Kurt Cobain was murdered, and my
book is set in the music business, so the book takes a position on a lot of things.
Kurt Cobain being murdered is just one.
Others insist that the book is a blatant riff on the life of Whitney Houston.
But Kola Boof says: "The lead character JennaSet is a completely original
character and she was inspired by over a hundred people.
Those people could be Mariah Carey, Courtney Love, Amy Winehouse, Janis Joplin
Billie Holiday, Whitney Houston.
But this book is not about Whitney Houston’s life, it’s a fictional book about a
troubled young beautiful singer who becomes a symbol of hope and power. In
that way, she’s like Whitney, but she’s still not Whitney.
I really love Whitney by the way and she’s one of my all-time favorite singers.
Anyone who’s read my autobiography knows that I really love Whitney Houston.
A Columinist in NY insists, however: "If that book isn’t about Whitney Houston
and Alicia Keys then I don’t know what is. The fat girl in the book is based on Kola.
Regardless of who is who in the book (Boof does admit that the leading man Steven Frame
was inspired by film legend Spike Lee), Boof’s literary manager, the super agent and film
producer Ken Atchity seems confident that "Virgins In the Beehive" will establish Kola Boof as a presence on the Bestseller charts. Backing him up are some very strong blurbs from such hitmakers as Mary B. Morrison, Noire (Candylicker) and rap superstar Kanye West.
One N.Y. underground Beats producer, House Horse, says the book is scandalous and
"hot." He claims: "I liked it because it goes deep with issues like plastic surgery and fake
booty chicks like Koko sluts like Joss Stone. It made me think twice about them
Kardashian Kim ’nem golddiggers. It had a strong message about life in general but it’s hot because it made me think of Whitney Houston, Ciara, Beyonce, Alicia Keys, of course Missy Elliott who ol girl Destiny is based on and all those big divas. It’s a book about divas written by a diva who is a writer. They said it’s Hip Hop street but I say it’s Hollywood, a black Hollywood novel like ’Hollywood Wives’ but all black. It has nasty sex in it I tell you that. But good nasty sex. It was real good."
Kola Boof says the book pays homage to one of the all-time camp classics, Jacqueline
Susann’s "Valley of the Dolls" which has sold 30 million copies since 1966.
"Jacqueline Susann is not considered a literary writer" says Kola Boof. "People consider her books to be escapist trash, but ’Valley of the Dolls’ was the very first book that I ever read when I was fourteen, so I wanted to write a black version in a way. There
are little shout-outs to Jacqueline Susann all through the book. She was great!
’Virgins In the Beehive’ could be considered the black, hip hop remix of Jacqueline’s
book. JennaSet Jones (Whitney?) Destiny Matthews (Missy Elliott?) and Darling Nikki
(Alicia Keys?) are really iconic in this book. I love them.
But What about the CONTROVERSIES over KOLA BOOF?
WILL THAT STOP HER from breaking out in the mainstream?
Desiree Robinson says: "The bookstores are overflowing with writers who follow the status Quo. We have Zane and her formula, we have the sister-girl can’t get a man books and we we have the books where every heroine is biracial. What we don’t have is someone magical and gutsy like Kola Boof. Someone who speaks honestly to black women’s issues. Can’t we have just one Kola Boof?"
"Black Star News." Portions of this article were published in
"Campus News."
Reprinted by Permission:
Thanks to Kola Boof
http://theblacklistpub.ning.com/profile/KolaBoof
As controversy swirls before the book is even released, black college girls who’ve already read "VIRGINS IN THE BEEHIVE" are coming to the defense of its controversial author, Kola Boof.
won a Statewide University Debating contest by acting out chapters from Kola Boof’s memoir "Diary of a Lost Girl."
"There has been an actual movement to suppress Kola Boof’s writings and to keep her
from being published" says Garland Moriarity, an Italian-Black arts major in Los Angeles.
"Kola has a real strong underground cult following with black women and college students,
but the mainstream acts like she’s some weirdo radical. She’s not radical though. She’s real and it scares people because her books challenge the mainstream thinking and give us a blacker black woman’s voice. She’s the most exciting black writer in America. She is like Alice Walker, Madonna, Sister Souljah and Audre Lorde all rolled up in one
Desiree Robinson says: "If you set Kola Boof’s fiction books aside, there is the Bin Laden scandal (Kola Boof was Osama Bin Laden’s mistress, against her will, in 1996) and that bothers people because they don’t realize that she was a womanist writer, they just saw her on the news as Bin Laden’s mistress or they read the lies people post on the internet about her, but they never read "Flesh and the Devil" or "Long Train to the Redeeming Sin"...and then there is the ’activist Kola’ who is fighting for the South Sudanese--she is Pro-Israel, which turns off a lot of African Americans, but why would a woman fighting to stop genocide in Darfur not be Pro-Israel? The Arabs countries are supporting what’s going on in Sudan and Israel gives food and medicine to Kola’s people.
Sister Souljah was real controversial when she first came out and she became mainstream, so I don’t see why Kola Boof can’t be the same way. In fact, she reminds me of Sister Souljah with the books she writes. There’s always a strong message."
Desiree says: "Then take it a step further, she’s fighting against skin bleaching in Africa and she speaks out very loudly about colorism in American black society, louder than anyone has ever spoken out about light skin-dark skin. That’s why you have all these stupid people who are afraid of her message. And I do believe the Arabs and Muslims, those types, have done a good job spreading untrue propoganda about her. Look at the reporter who was Pacifica radio and said he was offered money to lie on Kola Boof."
Amanda Foster says: "Black girls rock and Kola Boof is the very epitome of that.
The reason we love her books is because there’s an uncensored I don’t give a f**k
attitude and she exposes everything. She’s like an exhibitionist. She was voted most admired female writer by the Black Student Union at Howard University twice!
When Adria Tinnin came across excerpts of Kola Boof’s Diary of a Lost Girl, about the Sudanese woman’s unwilling affair with Osama bin Laden, she knew she had found the perfect piece of literature for her presentation. It was controversial and engaging, requiring Tinnin to work hard to understand the character and portray this woman’s story. When the Sacramento City College student performed her interpretation of the piece at an October speech-and-debate competition in Santa Rosa, she advanced to the finals.
"That’s because the material is so strong and Kola Boof is such a powerful writer."
Indeed, despite the internet smear campaigns and political adversaries promoting lies
about the Sudanese-born American-raised author, Kola Boof is an award-winning
novelist and poet. Her books so far have all been literary fiction.
GOING COMMERCIAL FICTION ON US
But how will these girls who’ve loved the gritty Toni Morrison-Alice Walker remix writing
that Boof is known for feel about "VIRGINS IN THE BEEHIVE", her first ever attempt at
a mainstream Hip Hop novel?
"It’s different" says Kola Boof herself. "But it’s still a Kola Boof book. It still has the
themes and the passion of all my work and what I’m about. Best of all, it really is
about something and carries a very strong message. I love the character in the book
that everyone thinks is based on Missy Elliott. Destiny Matthews is my favorite
character and no matter how campy and steamy the story gets, that character
reminds you that you’re reading a Kola Boof novel."
(See a review of the book here: http://www.nathanielturner.com/whoiskolaboof. htm )
Derrick Bell, a Professor at New York University as well as bestselling author and a legendary civil rights icon has said about Boof’s writing: “Kola Boof is a writer of courage, principle and loads of courageous perseverance.”
The New York Times has called Kola Boof "The African Garbo."
In 2007, Kola Boof won the Gavinna til Gavinna Writer’s Pen from Sweden for her
essay in a feminist magazine, "I Am My Own Daughter."
Still, others are worried about Boof’s foray into commercial fiction.
Nafisa Goma used to be Boof’s editor at Door of Kush Books, the small black-owned
label that was brave enough to publish and promote Kola Boof, but wasn’t large enough
to meet distribution needs for the author’s growing fan base.
Goma says that there is already controversy brewing around the book. Some are uncomfortable with Jesus Christ making an appearance in the steamy novel. He rescues one of the characters, but it’s also implied that he makes love to the young virgin. Kola Boof insists that this is a necessary part of the story--but the controversy doesn’t stop there. Try adding suicide rock icon Kurt Cobain to the mix.
"My characters feel that Kurt Cobain did not committ suicide, that he was murdered" says
Kola Boof.
The investigator of Cobain’s death from the beginning has been a man named Tom Grant.
Tom has evidence that Cobain was murdered and I feel in my guts that he’s right.
I really love the group HOLE and I love Courtney Love. I’m not trying to indict anyone.
I’m just saying that I do think Kurt Cobain was murdered, and my
book is set in the music business, so the book takes a position on a lot of things.
Kurt Cobain being murdered is just one.
Others insist that the book is a blatant riff on the life of Whitney Houston.
But Kola Boof says: "The lead character JennaSet is a completely original
character and she was inspired by over a hundred people.
Those people could be Mariah Carey, Courtney Love, Amy Winehouse, Janis Joplin
Billie Holiday, Whitney Houston.
But this book is not about Whitney Houston’s life, it’s a fictional book about a
troubled young beautiful singer who becomes a symbol of hope and power. In
that way, she’s like Whitney, but she’s still not Whitney.
I really love Whitney by the way and she’s one of my all-time favorite singers.
Anyone who’s read my autobiography knows that I really love Whitney Houston.
A Columinist in NY insists, however: "If that book isn’t about Whitney Houston
and Alicia Keys then I don’t know what is. The fat girl in the book is based on Kola.
Regardless of who is who in the book (Boof does admit that the leading man Steven Frame
was inspired by film legend Spike Lee), Boof’s literary manager, the super agent and film
producer Ken Atchity seems confident that "Virgins In the Beehive" will establish Kola Boof as a presence on the Bestseller charts. Backing him up are some very strong blurbs from such hitmakers as Mary B. Morrison, Noire (Candylicker) and rap superstar Kanye West.
One N.Y. underground Beats producer, House Horse, says the book is scandalous and
"hot." He claims: "I liked it because it goes deep with issues like plastic surgery and fake
booty chicks like Koko sluts like Joss Stone. It made me think twice about them
Kardashian Kim ’nem golddiggers. It had a strong message about life in general but it’s hot because it made me think of Whitney Houston, Ciara, Beyonce, Alicia Keys, of course Missy Elliott who ol girl Destiny is based on and all those big divas. It’s a book about divas written by a diva who is a writer. They said it’s Hip Hop street but I say it’s Hollywood, a black Hollywood novel like ’Hollywood Wives’ but all black. It has nasty sex in it I tell you that. But good nasty sex. It was real good."
Kola Boof says the book pays homage to one of the all-time camp classics, Jacqueline
Susann’s "Valley of the Dolls" which has sold 30 million copies since 1966.
"Jacqueline Susann is not considered a literary writer" says Kola Boof. "People consider her books to be escapist trash, but ’Valley of the Dolls’ was the very first book that I ever read when I was fourteen, so I wanted to write a black version in a way. There
are little shout-outs to Jacqueline Susann all through the book. She was great!
’Virgins In the Beehive’ could be considered the black, hip hop remix of Jacqueline’s
book. JennaSet Jones (Whitney?) Destiny Matthews (Missy Elliott?) and Darling Nikki
(Alicia Keys?) are really iconic in this book. I love them.
But What about the CONTROVERSIES over KOLA BOOF?
WILL THAT STOP HER from breaking out in the mainstream?
Desiree Robinson says: "The bookstores are overflowing with writers who follow the status Quo. We have Zane and her formula, we have the sister-girl can’t get a man books and we we have the books where every heroine is biracial. What we don’t have is someone magical and gutsy like Kola Boof. Someone who speaks honestly to black women’s issues. Can’t we have just one Kola Boof?"
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