EU's Media forum (Nov. 17-30) 
By Ron Wynn
     Author Tony Morrison made literary history 10 years ago when she became the first African-American female to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. She joined Nigerian playwright, poet and novelist Wole Soyinka (1986) and Caribbean-born poet Derek Walcott as the only black winners of this award. However, Morrison's also the first American writer to be honored this way since John Steinbeck in 1962. Though now 72 years old, Morrison shows no signs of slowing down or resting on her past triumphs. 
    She's the subject of cover stories this month in two vastly different publications, Black Issues Book Review< Book, the house magazine for Barnes and Noble Booksellers. Her new novel Love< has gotten generally good reviews, though it got a lukewarm endorsement in Entertainment Weekly. But whether you've read the new novel or not, both interviews are highly engrossing and entertaining. She's more forceful and specific in the Black Issues piece, mainly because interviewer Susan McHenry asks her more pertinent, less generic questions. But she does have some very interesting things to say in   Book about the civil rights movement, commenting on the price that was paid in terms of black achievement and advancement within our own communities. 
    Both those who love her and those who consider her an untalented abomination will have plenty to say about Halle Berry's provocative pose on the cover of this month's  Savoy magazine. Let's just say its more suitable for the cover of Playboy or  Penthouse , and will certainly trigger some angry letters to the magazine from mothers whose teenage sons buy it in a grocery story. There's also some discussion about Berry's new film  Gothika< , which is tentatively set to open Nov. 21. There's also an interesting, if somewhat less than detailed interview with Vivica A. Fox that covers her role in Quentin Taratino's  Kill Bill, Vol. 1  and her current involvement with rap superstar 50 Cent. Fox adopts a maybe yes, maybe no posture when asked how serious her relationship is with the high visibility performer. Unfortunately, she has zero information regarding his feud with Ja Rule. 
    Perhaps the most intriguing piece in the magazine concerns one time Nation of Islam minister now turned Baptist preacher Conrad Tillard. During the Œ90s, he was Conrad Muhammad, one of the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan's top representatives and the leader of Mosque No. 7 in New York, the one formerly led by Malcolm X. Then Muhammad broke with the Nation, and became known as the "Hip-Hop Minister." He launched the organization A Movement for CHANGE-Conscious Hip Hop Activism Necessary for Global Empowerment. But today, he's a conventional Baptist minister, and Tillard explains his transition in a freewheeling interview with Brian Palmer. 
    The New Yorker is not particularly known for its penetrating coverage of international affairs, particularly Africa. But the November 3 issue traces the link between hip-hop culture, rap music and the current war raging on the Ivory Coast. George Packer, a former Peace Corps worker in Togo during the Œ80s, returned there to chronicle the civil war that began last year, when rebel soldiers from the Northern part mutinied against the government. It's a lengthy, sometimes sad and often bitter portrait in which neither side emerges looking very heroic. That same issue includes a typically acerbic Anthony Lane film review about  The Human Stain  which, like so many others viewing this movie, missed the really great performance while spending far too much time saying Anthony Hopkins and Nicole Kidman are miscast (which they are). The point of both Philip Roth's novel and Robert Benton's film revolves around the emotional and psychological price that main character Coleman Silk pays for living a lie his entire life. Out of fairness to those who haven't seen it, I won't disclose the secret, but I will say that Wentworth Miller should be getting far more attention for what he does do in the movie than what Hopkins and Kidman couldn't do by nature of their past background and training. 
    Everyone should read Rev. Al Sharpton's interview in the November 27th issue of  Rolling Stone. Anyone willing to dismiss him as little more than a fancy hairdo and expensive suit should immediately change their mind because he's speaking with more clarity and forcefulness about what's necessary to challenge the Bush administration than anyone else among the Democratic candidates. He clearly has no chance of getting the nomination, yet he's offering a much clearer, more precise and inclusive vision than Howard Dean, John Edwards or anyone else. The interview also includes a great story about James Brown taking Rev. Sharpton to the White House in 1981 to confront Ronald Reagan, only to see Sharpton stumble and lose his poise. Rev. Sharpton credits that incident with giving him the impetus to realize his potential as a leader and public speaker, even though he says Brown still kids him about it today. 
Ron Wynn is editor of Everything Underground