We host Harry Belafonte at Live Talks Los Angeles on November 28.  His memoir, My Song, comes out Oct 11.  USA Today had a feature on him today. Here’s an excerpt:

But when this octogenarian sits down to discuss his new projects — a memoir titled My Song (Knopf, $30.50), out Tuesday, and the related documentary Sing Your Song, premiering on HBO Oct. 17 at 10 p.m. ET/PT — he acquires an unmistakable vigor. His diction crisp, his language articulate and urgent — and playful, on occasion — Belafonte explains why he was compelled to capture his multifaceted, still-unfinished journey for posterity.

“For a long time, people had told me that I should write a book,” he says. “But celebrity books are usually buried in self-serving narcissism. So I resisted the idea.”

Then in 2004, Marlon Brando, Belafonte’s pal and fellow social crusader, died. “And he took with him stories of all the remarkable things he had done. That upset me. So I decided to take a camera and see how many others were left from my generation.” That paved the way forSing Your Song, which includes archival footage and additional interviews. (A companion CD, with the same title, was released Tuesday.)

“After I’d done all that research,” Belafonte says, “the book,” written with author and Vanity Fair contributing editor Michael Shnayerson, “just fell into place.”