AALBC.com eNewsletter - March 2nd, 2004

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A Woman's Worth by Tracy Price-Thompson
http://reviews.aalbc.com/awomansworth.htm

A Woman's Worth is an awesome novel! I loved it! LOVED IT! A Woman�s Worth is the type of book that, as I was reading it, if the phone rang, or if I had to use the bathroom, I got ticked off. The novel moves like it stole something and is packed with emotion, suspense, and humanity wrapped inside a compelling story of redemption and respect. A Woman's Worth is so smooth, cool, and creamy; I could have sucked it through a straw. �Reviewed by Thumper

The Black Dancing Body: A Geography from Coon to Cool by Brenda Dixon Gottschild
http://www.aalbc.com/reviews/theblackdancingbody.htm

The Black Dancing Body: A geography from coon to cool, celebrates the perceived strength of bodies forged by the hard work of our ancestors. The ethnic characteristics of �so called� Black bodies are lauded as the paragons of physical beauty today. Gottschild�s work in examining this subject is reminiscent of the writings of Joel Augustus Rogers (1883-1966) author of From Superman to Man. She has done a commendable job on a subject very difficult to define. This book will be appreciated far beyond the dance community. I strongly recommend it to anyone interested the deconstruction of racial mythology and physical stereotypes. �Reviewed by Rondall Brasher

Dive by Lisa Teasley
http://reviews.aalbc.com/dive.htm

Dive is the debut novel by Lisa Teasley. Dive, a novel that revolves around an interracial couple, is an examination of human nature and all of the emotions that come with it. Through the two main characters, Teasley reached into the often feared, rarely tread recess of the heart, expressing it with an intricate prose that shines and shimmers in moonlight. If I could give Dive a standing ovation, I would in a heartbeat. It is, without a doubt, one of the best books of the year. �Reviewed by Thumper

Memoir: Delaware County Prison by Reginald L. Hall
http://reviews.aalbc.com/memoir.htm

Memoir: Delaware County Prison by Reginald L. Hall is a non-fiction account of the eight months Hall, an openly gay man, spent in prison for credit card fraud. Sound interesting enough, right? *eyebrow raised* It�s not. I will try to keep this review short since there is a good possibility that this review could be longer than the book. Memoir is problematic to say the least. It is loose, not long enough and completely dull. If Mother Nature had not already taken the hair on the top of my head; after reading Memoir, I would have pulled every strand out. Instead, when I reached up there, all I felt was air, skin and memories. Good thing the Memoir only took me a minute or two to read. �Reviewed by Thumper

Barbershop 2: Back in Business  (PG-13)
http://www.aalbc.com/reviews/barbershop_2.htm

"...this sequel works: a warm sense of heart, and this return visit to Calvin's Barbershop...What doesn't fit into the bigger picture, however, is Queen Latifah's cameo role as Gina, an ex-flame of Calvin's and a sharp-tongued stylist at the beauty shop next door. While there is an undeniably amusing argument scene between Gina and Eddie, Sullivan and writer Don D. Scott can't quite disguise that Latifah's fairly fleeting presence serves no purpose other than to set up what in sitcom land is called a planted spinoff" �Reviewed by Michael Dequina

You Got Served (PG-13)
http://www.aalbc.com/reviews/yougotserved.htm

 It's too bad Stokes didn't just make a non-narrative film about the street dancing culture; I'm sure even traditionally documentary-leery young audiences wouldn't have minded, particularly considering the self-important, melodramatic tedium they have to endure to get to the too-few worthwhile bits that are served. �Reviewed by Michael Dequina

Hortense J. Spillers

"Literary critic Hortense Spillers, who presently [2004] teaches in the English Department at Cornell University, has, over the past twenty years, enormously enriched African diasporic literary and cultural criticism. Spillers' present work at the intersection of psychoanalysis and Black feminist criticism is, like all her writing, inflected with a generous spirit and mordant wit." �http://www.blackculturalstudies.org

Dieudonn� Mayi

Author of The Selling of Joseph: A Healing Message from History

The main message of Mayi's The Selling of Joseph is recognition of the undeniable fact that continental Africans played a key role in selling their fellow Africans to slavery. The book pleads for forgiveness from an African perspective. The biblical story of the selling of Joseph to slavery by his own brothers was used to look at black slavery in the Americas, a similar historical injustice which occurred in the modern era of human history. I am trying to extract from this tragedy something that has not been addressed much before: a healing message of hope for forgiveness. Not only the message urges sincere admission of wrongdoing and forgiveness on the part of the transgressors, but it also calls for the due recognition of the accomplishments of black slaves and their descendants in the Americas, Europe, and Africa. Finally, I am introducing a concept of moral reparations as a first step to achieve everlasting healing for historical injustices, like black slavery, which oppose groups of people�not merely one group and a government. 

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