KIMBERLY FAIN
Author, Historian, Attorney
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“As much a very necessary and crucial read as it is thoroughly enjoyable. Fain painstakingly offers us the most authoritative and approachable volume to date on the hardened history of the Black man’s image in film. She’s created a primer for an important conversation. In Black Hollywood, however, it is about more than just image. We are reminded that film, particularly when it is unfairly textualized by race and racism, is at the epicenter of a much larger struggle to command our cultural, social, political, economic, and spiritual agency. It is a rough and very complicated business that Fain captures with a firm, but refreshingly balanced pen.” — Charles D. Ellison, Contributing Editor, TheRoot.com; Washington Correspondent, The Philadelphia Tribune
“Black Hollywood is a must read for those seeking current impressions of how African Americans are portrayed on the silver screen. The book is a real treasure for insights into black actors and actresses, from the Jim Crow era to the era of Barack Obama. The writing is crisp and detailed, chronicling many well-known and overlooked names in film history. This is a one-of-a kind jewel for both reading enjoyment and research opportunities.” — Dr. Michael D. Sollars, Editor, World Literary Review, Texas Southern University
This thought-provoking work examines the dehumanizing depictions of black males in the movies since 1910, analyzing images that were once imposed on black men and are now appropriated and manipulated by them. Bing Crosby, Fred Astaire, and Judy Garland all performed in blackface in film. Moving through cinematic history decade by decade since 1910, this important volume explores the appropriation, exploitation, and agency of black performers in Hollywood by looking at the black actors, directors, and producers who have shaped the image of African American males in film. To determine how these archetypes differentiate African American males in the public's subconscious, the book asks probing questions—for example, whether these images are a reflection of society's fears or realistic depictions of a pluralistic America.
Publisher: Praeger (June 30, 2015)
Available: Everywhere
Forms: Hardcover, Kindle, and Nook
ISBN-10: 1440831904 ISBN-13: 978-1440831904
To purchase:
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Colson Whitehead: The Postracial Voice of Contemporary Literature.
Kimberly Fain explores the work of this literary trailblazer, discussing how his novels reconstruct the American identity to be inclusive rather than exclusive and thus broaden the scope of who is considered an American. Whitehead attempts this feat by including African Americans among the class of people who may achieve the American Dream, assuming they are educated and economically mobile. While the conflicts faced by his characters are symptoms of the universal human condition, they assimilate at the expense of cultural alienation and emotional emptiness.
In addition to The Intuitionist, Fain also examines John Henry Days, Apex Hides the Hurt, The Colossus of New York, Sag Harbor, and Zone One, demonstrating how they bend genre tropes and approach literary motifs from a postracial perspective. Comparing the author to his African American and American literary forebears, as well as examining his literary ambivalence between post-blackness & postracialism, Colson Whitehead offers readers a unique insight to one of the most important authors of the twenty-first century. As such, this book will be of interest to scholars of African American literature, American literature, African American studies, American studies, multicultural studies, gender studies, and literary theory.
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield (May 7, 2015)
Available: Everywhere
Forms: Hardcover, Kindle, and Nook
ISBN-13: 978-1442250130 ISBN-10: 1442250135
To purchase:
R&L
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Kimberly Fain's First Fiction Novel.
Under the pseudonym ROXY K. DEAN, Fain ask what happens when teachers confront issues of war on two fronts-The War on Terror in Iraq and The War on Violence in schools? Will Novel Alexander focus on her calling as an English high school teacher? Or will she escape into her personal world filled with forbidden love and romance? Chaos rules as secrets and hidden lives mount suspicions between teachers and complicate both Novel’s work world and love life! If you enjoyed the series Boston Public produced by David E. Kelley or the movie Higher Learning directed by John Singleton, you will love the fast-paced novel BEDLAM REIGNS!
Forms: Paperback (August 2009)
ISBN : 1439207704
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KIM's WORK
A collection of Kim's publications
PUBLICATIONS
Book/Movie Reviews
“Modernist Futures: Innovation and Inheritance in the Contemporary Novel by David James (review).” Modern Fiction Studies 60.4 (Winter 2014): 864-866.
“The Past Is Not Dead: Essays from the Southern Quarterly.” Southern Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal of the South 21.1 (Spring/Summer 2014): 105-109.
“Upheaval in Charleston: Earthquake and Murder on the Eve of Jim Crow.” Southern Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal of the South 19.2 (Fall/Winter 2012): 51-54.
Chapters
“Spike Lee: Rise, Success, and Doin’ the Right Thing.” Star Power: On the Impact of Branded Celebrity, ed. by Aaron Barlow (Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 2014): 205-231.
“Bradbury’s Mars: Pathway to Reinvention and Redemption.” Orbiting Ray Bradbury's Mars: Biographical, Anthropological, Literary, Scientific and Other Perspectives, ed. by Gloria McMillan (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2013): 117-132.
“Colson Whitehead’s Zone One: Postapocalyptic Zombies Take Over Manhattan in the Age of Nostalgia, Despair, and Consumption.” Street Lit: Representing The Urban Landscape, ed. by Keenan Norris (New York: Scarecrow Press, 2013): 173-187.
Creative Writing
“The Key Suspect”. Appendix. Playwriting: Crafting and Adapting Plays for School-Aged Children, ed. Dr. Elizabeth Brown-Guillory. Volume 1 (2007):102-104.
Essays/Literary Articles
"What Native American Depictions in Television and Film Express About American Culture ." Pop Culture Universe: Icons, Idols, Ideas. ABC-CLIO, 2015. Web. 28 May 2015.
“Metaphors and Themes in Modernism: Individualism, Independence and Rebellion.” Modernism's Metaphors, Images, and Symbols, ed. by Dr. Michael Sollars. Word Literary Review. Volume 2, 2013.
“What It Means to Be an American: Assimilation, Dual-Identity, Freedom and the Survival Spirit Present in Multi-ethnic Literature.” What Does It Mean To Be An American? Multi-Ethnic Literatures of the United States, ed. Dr. Elizabeth Brown-Guillory. 1 (2008): 50-67.
“Breathing Life into Literature: A Teacher’s Guide to Playwriting in the Classroom.” Playwriting: Crafting and Adapting Plays for School-Aged Children, ed. Dr. Elizabeth Brown-Guillory. Volume 1 (2007): 89-101.
Legal Article
“Socio-Economic Status and Legal Factors Affecting African American Fathers.” Buffalo Journal of Gender, Law, & Social Policy. Volume 21, 2012-2013: 1-44.
Interview
“The Definition of Street Lit With Omar Tyree & Keenan Norris,” Interview with Omar Tyree and Keenan Norris, Huffington Post Blog, ed. Matthew Lynch, November 11, 2013.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/matthew-lynch-edd/the-definition-of-street_b_4254546.html
Fain: “Colson Whitehead’s Zone One: Postapocalyptic Zombies Take Over Manhattan in the Age of Nostalgia, Despair, and Consumption.” Street Lit: Representing The Urban Landscape, edited by Keenan Norris (New York: Scarecrow Press, 2013): 173-187.
Socio-Economic Status and Legal Factors Affecting African American Fathers.” Buffalo Journal of Gender, Law, & Social Policy. Volume 21, 2012-2013. pps. 1-41
Fain : “Spike Lee: Rise, Success, and Doin’ the Right Thing.” Star Power: On the Impact of Branded Celebrity, edited by Aaron Barlow (Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 2014): 205-231.
Fain: Associate Editor and Contributor:
“Metaphors and Themes in Modernism: Individualism, Independence and Rebellion.” Word Literary Review. Volume 2, 2013: 7-17.
Fain: “Ray Bradbury’s Mars is the Pathway to Reinvention and Redemption.” Mars is the New West (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2013): 117-132.
Fain: “Modernist Futures: Innovation and Inheritance in the Contemporary Novel by David James (review).” Modern Fiction Studies 60.4 (Winter 2014): 864-866.