You can't write about black people in Russia without mentioning Yelena Khanga. Yelena Khanga is one of Russia’s best-known black citizens. The popular host of a top-rated 1990s chat show about sex – “Pro Eto,” (About That), became one of the few black faces regularly seen on Russian television. Read her story at www.rferl.org
She also wrote the book 'Soul to Soul: Story of a Black Russian American Family, 1869-1992'.
Yelena Khanga is also the daughter of Lily Golden, the prominent social activist who passed away last year.
In an interview with a Moscow State University journalism student Yelena Khanga talks about Barack Obama and journalism. Read the transcript of the video interview here (Russian)
Very interesting. I just found out about her the other day. Thanks for posting this.
ReplyDeleteYelena's biography, "Soul to Soul", is fascinating! It's so full of rich and colorful anecdotes I thought I was reading a novel.
ReplyDeleteAfter she published her book she immigrated to the US for awhile and even hosted a cable talk show in New York, geared to the Russian community. I was hoping that she would become the "Russian-American Oprah".
Sad to hear that her mom, the activist, Lily Golden, passed away in 2010. Her strong personality and presence take on a life of their own throughout the book; I could see her apartment with its thousands of books scattered all over the place and hear her voice rising (Yelena says that her mother had a strong temper) as I turned each page.:-)
Anyway, thanks for spreading the word about Yelena Khanga and her mother, Lily Golden!
Yes, I was also saddened to hear that Lily Golden had passed away. I had planned to contact her for an interview back in 2009, but I postponed it. When I wanted to contact her in 2011 I heard she had passed away just a few months ago.
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