Jervey Tervalon

I met Dean Baquet, who was then the first African-American managing editor of the Los Angeles Times, at a dinner party when he was still new to town. I was puzzled by his appearance — he looked European to me, or maybe Middle Eastern — and I had a vague......

I REMEMBER WHEN SOMEONE mentioned to me that Samuel R. Delany, the author of the award-winning novel Dahlgren, happened to be black. I was as stunned as a young, African-American, science-fiction-loving geek could be. All my close friends were big into science fiction, and not all of us were such......

My 11-year-old daughter Giselle’s reaction to the disaster in New Orleans was a selfish one, but understandable. “So, I’ll never be able to visit again?” I shrugged, and said, “No, you’ll see New Orleans again.”“But when?” she asked.“I don’t know,” I replied with so little conviction she looked me in......

As sprung as I am about New Orleans and all that the city has given me, I can’t deny that it’s a terrible place to be poor. Oddly enough, for some newscasters, encountering this truth was like discovering an amazing secret. The projects in New Orleans are arguably worse than......

Man, have I got some pictures and stories for you. Survival of the fittest. I have toured towns hit so hard throughout Mississippi and Louisiana and Washington Parish that no one has heard about because they don’t even have phone lines. I even have a friend who stood out in......

Worrying and praying for New Orleans feels like being at the sickbed of a relative struggling to stay in this world, but you know that the chances aren’t good, and you need to prepare yourself for the worst. So everything rushes around in your mind, a mishmash of the good......

Illustrations by Erik SandbergWhile we were pondering the Michael Jackson trial and its various tributaries the other day, we happened across this ­resonant passage in the manuscript of Jervey Tervalon’s latest novel, a completely fictional account told in the voice of the personal chef to a pop star who bears......

It’s not hard to see Michael Jackson’s life as a cautionary tale of what money, fame, an abusive father, and a racist and homophobic society can get you: bleached skin, a discolored penis and now an official charge of child molestation. The world awaits Michael’s next move, and as if......

Illustration by Shino Arihara Don’t get me wrong, on the right day, when the weather’s cool and crisp and you can see the mountains and the Hollywood sign, and you’re on the way to make groceries, and you smell jasmine, peaches and lemons, or you’re at the beach and see......