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Path of the Half Moon
Path of the Half Moon Robert Fleming Book Review There has to be a great deal of skill to pull off a literary mashup like this. Imagine a superb paranormal Western novel complete with settlers, cowbo...
13
13 Kam Williams images/13_movieposter.jpg Film Review Remake of French Thriller Revolves around Grisly Game of Russian Roulette 13 Click to Buy via Amazon.com Rated: R Ru...
Get Rich or Die Tryin’
Get Rich or Die Tryin’ Kam Williams get_ri2.jpg Film Review 50 Cent Dies for Our Sins in Disappointing Screen Debut Get Rich or Die Tryin’ Rated R: for full frontal male nudity, topless fe...
Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson Kam Williams Book Review ’I have admired and adored Michael Jackson from the first time I heard his name and listened to his music. I have never been more fasc...
A Dream Deferred
A Dream Deferred Robert Fleming Book Review With the recent death of Jesse Jackson, America has lost one of the most progressive political activists ever to stand on the national stage. CNN anchor Ab...
Ingleside: Based on a True Story
Ingleside: Based on a True Story Robert Fleming Book Review As a former veteran newspaper reporter on the crime beat, I can smell a homicide when it’s authentic and this book is bursting at the...
Corridors of Genius
Corridors of Genius Robert Fleming Book Review So many conflicting words have been written about the King of Pop, Michael Joseph Jackson, (1958-2009). Glenda R. Taylor’s Corridors of Genius tak...
Echoes of a Distant Summer
Echoes of a Distant Summer Thumper Book Review In Standing At The Scratch Line, Guy Johnson created one of the most memorable protagonists in literature with King Tremain. Johnson’s second no...
Granddaddy
Granddaddy Carol Taylor Book Review Granddaddy is a poignant literary novel, told mostly in a stream of conscious narrative, that traces a family’s emotional journey through their memories of t...
Perfect Timing
Perfect Timing Tiffany M. Davis Book Review Brenda Jackson’s second full-length fiction work Perfect Timing, is a novel about losing, finding, and maintaining friendship and love. Mrs. Jackson ...
Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson Kam Williams Book Review "As the ’Bad’ tour moved to St. Louis, a 13 year-old boy named Peter joined the entourage. This kid had been with us in New York and was now...
Blood on the Dance Floor
Blood on the Dance Floor Andrew Byrd Book Review Analyzing the creative process of a legendary performer like Michael Jackson is daunting. Still, Glenda R. Taylor takes the challenge head-on as she d...
Superfly (2018)
Superfly (2018) Kam Williams https://aalbc.com/reviews/images/superfly-2018-movie-poster.jpg Film Review Excellent ★★★★ (out of 4 stars) Trevor Jackson Plays Iconic Titl...
Kevin and His Dad
Kevin and His Dad Kam Williams Book Review ’What could be better for a young boy than to spend a whole day with his father! With mom away on a Saturday, that’s exa...
Why African-Americans Can’t Get Ahead
Why African-Americans Can’t Get Ahead Kam Williams Book Review ’Unemployment rates for African-Americans have historically been twice as high as for white Americans’ and the pligh...
Next Day Air
Next Day Air Kam Williams next_d73.jpg Film Review Laughs Aplenty in Hilarious Homage to Blaxploitation Genre Next Day Air Rated R for violence, drug use, pervasive profanity and brief ...
Be Careful What You Pray For
Be Careful What You Pray For Thumper Book Review It has been a few years since I have read a book by Kimberla Lawson Roby. I decided to break that trend and read her latest novel, Be Careful What You...
Black Like You
Black Like You Kam Williams Book Review ’Listening to Knipp, a white man, impersonating Shirley Q. Liquor, a Black woman, was one thing. Actually seeing a white man in blackface dra...
Masjid Morning
Masjid Morning Alexis E. Jackson Book Review Richard Morris’ Masjid Morning is a dedication to the millennial college student both embracing and learning how to live with religious and racial d...
Wake Up Everybody
Wake Up Everybody Paige Turner Book Review I play the street life cuz there’s no place I can go Street Life - it’s the only life I know Street Life - there’s a thousand parts to pla...
When Minorities Lead in America: A Black Theologian’s Political Journey
When Minorities Lead in America: A Black Theologian’s Political Journey Alexis E. Jackson Book Review A worthwhile read, When Minorities Lead in America by Dr. Herman J. Fountain Jr. is one man&rsquo...
In Spite of the Consequences: Prison Letters on Exoneration, Abolition, and Freedom
In Spite of the Consequences: Prison Letters on Exoneration, Abolition, and Freedom Robert Fleming Book Review If you were politically conscious decades ago, you would have read the prison chronicles...
When Frogs Grow Feet: The Un-Aborted Are Alive and Well
When Frogs Grow Feet: The Un-Aborted Are Alive and Well Robert Fleming Book Review While When Frogs Grow Feet’s blurb links its juicy contents to Henry Miller’s classic wanton tale, Tro...
Hot Johnny (And the Women Who Loved Him)
Hot Johnny (And the Women Who Loved Him) Thumper Book Review “That’s mighty pretty, precious“ The question, "Damn Thumper is using a term of endearment in the heading of a r...
Eve’s Bayou
Eve’s Bayou Sherelle R. Williams images/eve’s.39.jpg Film Review EVE’S BAYOU (1997) MPAA: Rated R for sexuality and language. Runtime: USA 109 minutes ...
The Savion Sequence
The Savion Sequence Connie Bradley Book Review This review is of the 2011 version of The Savion Sequence My interest was recently piqued by a trailer which appeared on the AALBC.com discussion b...
The Queen of Harlem
The Queen of Harlem Brian Egeston Book Review He has managed to fool us all! Because his previous work gave the impression that his was the authentic voice of the next generation of Black male southe...
Sellout
Sellout Robert Fleming Book Review This debut novel, written by James Lewis, deals with the thorny issue of interracial dating from every side, rendered with narrative precision and emotional det...
Things I Should Have Told My Daughter: Lies
Things I Should Have Told My Daughter: Lies Kam Williams Book Review “In addition to being one of the most popular living playwrights in America, Pearl Cleage is a best-selling author with an...
Lighting the Fires of Freedom by Janet Dewart Bell
Lighting the Fires of Freedom by Janet Dewart Bell Brenda M. Greene Book Review In Lighting the Fires of Freedom: African American Women in the Civil Rights Movement (The New Press, 2018), Dr. Janet ...
Blessings
Blessings Thumper Book Review Blessing is the third novel written by the author of Lil Mama Rules and Caught Up In The Rapture, Sheneska Jackson. Blessings is the story of four women who work in a ...
White Coat Fever
White Coat Fever Thumper Book Review Roland S. Jefferson, author of the classic The School on 103rd Street, is back on the scene with his latest novel, White Coat Fever. The title of the novel is...
The Lawyer as Leader: How to Plant People and Grow Justice
The Lawyer as Leader: How to Plant People and Grow Justice Kam Williams Book Review “The social challenges of our time are enormous. About one in seven U.S. residents live in poverty, and t...
A Hand to Guide Me
A Hand to Guide Me Kam Williams Book Review "Every individual you are about to meet in these pages has remained humble, and that’s been my mantra for as long as I can remember’ a...
Jazz Country
Jazz Country Walter Benefield Book Review Studying the writings of writer-intellectual Ralph Ellison, author of the critically acclaimed novel, Invisible Man promises to be rewarding. Horace Porter ...
I Am Debra Lee: A Memoir
I Am Debra Lee: A Memoir Robert Fleming Book Review Blessed with a candor, boldness, and business savvy rarely seen in books of this type, former CEO of Black Entertainment Television network Debra L...
A Person of Interest
A Person of Interest Thumper Book Review I have begun looking forward to reading novels written by Ernest Hills. I became a fan of his work after reading two of his previous novels; ...
Soul Men
Soul Men Kam Williams soul_m4.jpg Film Review Sam Jackson and Bernie Mac Co-Star in Rollicking Road Comedy Soul Men Click to order via Amazon Rated R for nudit...
Blacklash: How Obama and the Left Are Driving Americans to the Government Plantation
Blacklash: How Obama and the Left Are Driving Americans to the Government Plantation Kam Williams Book Review “There is this strange notion that because I am black I should agree with all blac...
This Is the Day: The March on Washington
This Is the Day: The March on Washington Kam Williams Book Review “There have been many marches since, and several before, but no other march to the nation’s capital captured our collec...
Fantasia Life Is Not a Fairy Tale
Fantasia Life Is Not a Fairy Tale Kam Williams Book Review "Faith is a legacy for many women in my family, as are the legacies of teen pregnancy, being single mothers, emotional and physical ...
True You: A Journey to Finding and Loving Yourself
True You: A Journey to Finding and Loving Yourself Kam Williams Book Review "Writing my first book was an adventure [which] comes from my heart with love… This is not an autobiography. It&rs...
The Race Card
The Race Card Kam Williams Book Review ’Almost all Americans agree that racism is wrong’ But a lot of people also worry that the charge of racism can be abused. We can all thi...
Blacktrospective 2006
Blacktrospective 2006 Kam Williams https://aalbc.com/reviews/akeela46sm.jpg Film Review Blacktrospective 2006 ’ Annual Look Back at the Best (and Worst) in Black Cinema by Kam Williams How d...
Big Enough to Be Inconsistent
Big Enough to Be Inconsistent Thumper Book Review There is a great chance that my review of Big Enough to Be Inconsistent: Abraham Lincoln Confronts Slavery and Race by George M. Fredrickso...
Bounce
Bounce Idrissa Uqdah Book Review It’s All About The Trust!Author K.M. Jackson has a real winner in Bounce, a combination contemporary women’s fiction/romance novel that is both ente...
Straight Outta Compton
Straight Outta Compton Kam Williams straight-outta-compton.jpg Film Review Straight Outta Compton (2015) In Theaters: Aug 14, 2015 WideRuntime: 2 hr. 27 min. Rating: violence, drug use, pervasiv...
Dark Girls
Dark Girls Kam Williams Book Review “In today’s society, dark skin has become linked to longer prison time, higher unemployment rates, low self-esteem, lower standards of beauty, a...
Linsanity
Linsanity Kam Williams linsanity.jpg Film Review Linsanity In Theaters: Oct 4, 2013 Limited Rated: PG Running time: 1 hr. 28 min. In English and Mandarin with subtitles Distributor: Ketchup ...
Long Live the Spirit of the Million Man March
Long Live the Spirit of the Million Man March Kam Williams images/longlivemmm.jpg Film Review Long Live the Spirit of the Million Man March Click to Order via Amazon Unrated Running ti...
I Am Not Your Negro
I Am Not Your Negro Kam Williams https://aalbc.com/authors/images/im-not-your-negro.jpg Film Review Oscar-Nominated Documentary Inspired by James Baldwin’s Unfinished Manuscript Excellent (...
Killing Willis: From Different Strokes to the Mean Streets To the Life I Always Wanted
Killing Willis: From Different Strokes to the Mean Streets To the Life I Always Wanted Kam Williams Book Review "AlI I ever wanted as a kid was to be a famous TV star… My dream came true whe...
Shaft
Shaft Kam Williams images/shaft.1.jpg Film Review Shaft Release in: 2000 Director: John Singleton Genre: Action, Crime Toni Collette - Diane Palmieri Dan ...
We Need to Talk
We Need to Talk Kam Williams images/51Icf9mwW+L._SL500_AA300_.jpg Film Review Sisters Make Most of Opportunity to Reflect on Relationships in Latest Documentary from Janks Morton We ...
Shayla Sweet and Her Magical Pen
Shayla Sweet and Her Magical Pen Denolyn Carroll Book Review “…And a little child shall lead them…” (Isaiah 11:6 NKJV). While spending summer break at her grandmother Nani&...
Black Hands White House: Slave Labor and the Making of America
Black Hands White House: Slave Labor and the Making of America Robert Fleming Book Review Renee K. Harrison, an associate professor of African American and US religious history at Howard University, ...
My Hair Can
My Hair Can Shaundale Rénā Book Review Profoundly inspiring, My Hair Can is a picture book full of wit and charm. Each page is vibrant and affirms joy and positivity for little Black boys and girls a...
Goony Goo-Goo and Ga-Ga Too!
Goony Goo-Goo and Ga-Ga Too! Kelly Starling Lyons Book Review Drawing inspiration from her own children, author Kia Morgan Smith has written a fun picture book about the trials and triumphs of ...
Thank You, Omu!
Thank You, Omu! Neoma Nwasike Book Review How important is community to you? Is it at the epicenter of your heart, and do the people who make up your unique and wonderful community, allow you to thri...
Ordinary Girls: A Memoir
Ordinary Girls: A Memoir Brenda M. Greene Book Review Jaquira Diaz, in her memoir Ordinary Girls, crafts a story that illustrates the intersection of race, ethnicity, sexuality, and poverty on the li...
Oil and Water and Other Things That don’t Mix
Oil and Water and Other Things That don’t Mix Robert Fleming Book Review If you take a trip to the once-scenic Gulf Coast, you will see there is more to be done in the restoration and rejuvenation...
Different and the Same
Different and the Same AALBC Staff Writer Book Review In an age where there is a proliferation of emotional and physical Black trauma, that is videotaped and viewed widely online, we should strive to...
Hair Power - Skin Revolution: A Collection of Poems and Personal Essays by Black and Mixed-Race Wome
Hair Power - Skin Revolution: A Collection of Poems and Personal Essays by Black and Mixed-Race Wome Kam Williams Book Review "I can honestly say I have a passion for language… I enjoy writi...
The New Brownies’ Book
The New Brownies’ Book Clarence V. Reynolds Book Review In the November 1910 premier issue of The Crisis, the official journal of the NAACP, historian, scholar, civil rights activist, sociologist, an...
Lion’s Blood
Lion’s Blood Thumper Book Review Steven Barnes, has emerged with one of the best books of 2002, a novel that explores a "what if" question; What if the United States of America had a past w...
And On The Eighth Day She Rested
And On The Eighth Day She Rested Thumper Book Review Lately, I have been in one of my lazy reading moods. I wanted a book that would go easy on my ol’ noggin. As you all know, my normal readi...
Riot and Remembrance
Riot and Remembrance Thumper Book Review Although some say that times and attitudes are changing, I’m rather skeptical. Only now am I aware of events, individuals that I should have been introd...
Perfect Combination: Seven Key Ingredients To Happily Living & Loving Together
Perfect Combination: Seven Key Ingredients To Happily Living & Loving Together Kam Williams Book Review “Jamillah and David Lamb are the dynamic couple behind the successful Off-Broadway play...
God’s Will and Other Lies: Stories
God’s Will and Other Lies: Stories Camille-Yvette Welsch Book Review “[T]here was so much hurt and pain and fear and sorrow … that I needed more than one kind of song to sing,” says...
The Mermaid Princesses
The Mermaid Princesses Judy Allen Dodson Book Review Meet these three charming princess sisters, Anaya, Shante, and Kianna. They invite us into their underwater world with their bright and bold perso...
If My Hair Had a Voice
If My Hair Had a Voice Lisa Y? Wilson Book Review When another comb loses the battle with Kimya’s natural coils, feeling shame she apologizes and asks, “Can’t we just straighten it?...
White Boy/Black Girl
White Boy/Black Girl Eryka Parker Book Review The recently published White Boy/Black Girl: What Our Differences Can Teach Us, One Honest Conversation at a Time by Adaeze and Chad Brinkman is a though...
Moses and the Monster and Miss Anne
Moses and the Monster and Miss Anne Thumper Book Review I admit that the things that form my initial impressions of a book are somewhat shallow. I love a good book cover, whether it is pictures or ...
The Ecstatic
The Ecstatic Thumper Book Review In a landmark volume on cultural stereotypes, Yuval Taylor (Faking It) and Jake Austen, the editor of Roctober Magazine, detail the history of the significance of...
Darkest America: Black Minstrelsy from Slavery to Hip-Hop
Darkest America: Black Minstrelsy from Slavery to Hip-Hop Robert Fleming Book Review In a landmark volume on cultural stereotypes, Yuval Taylor (Faking It) and Jake Austen, the editor of Roctober M...
Louise Thompson Patterson, A Life of Struggle and Justice by Keith Gilyard
Louise Thompson Patterson, A Life of Struggle and Justice by Keith Gilyard Brenda M. Greene Book Review To study her story is to witness the courage, sacrifice, vision and discipline of someone who s...
Turn the Page and You Don’t Stop: Sharing Successful Chapters in Our Lives with Youth
Turn the Page and You Don’t Stop: Sharing Successful Chapters in Our Lives with Youth Kam Williams Book Review “Why read? Reading isn’t just for sissies, or nerds or geeks. Research...
Cowards and Angels
Cowards and Angels Robert Fleming Book Review In this slender novel, Cowards and Angels, Aileen Muhammad tries to do an almost impossible task in African American literature, to recreate a modern...
How To Knock A Bravebird From Her Perch
How To Knock A Bravebird From Her Perch Carol Taylor Book Review Inspired by family and friends who have been victims of abuse, D. Bryant Simmons, an advocate of female empowerment and children&rsq...
Social Crisis and Social Demoralization
Social Crisis and Social Demoralization Kam Williams Book Review ’American race relations are closely tied up with social status. Race relations’ reflect the economic and social force...
My Sisters’ Voices
My Sisters’ Voices Linda Watkins Book Review "And special thanks go to all those individuals who follow me in stores, call me derogatory and offensive names, and keep me from doing and achieving...
Love Unlimited
Love Unlimited Paige Turner Book Review The man is known by many names: The Maestro; The Icon of Love; The First, Last and Everything! In his new autobiography, recording legend Barry White lives up ...
Colored Sugar Water
Colored Sugar Water Thumper Book Review Another moment of truth, I didn't care for Venise Berry’s new novel of the super-natural meets Jesus, Colored Sugar Water, at all. Although Colored S...
Relationships
Relationships Tiffany M. Davis Book Review Leonard Jenkins II’s first book, Relationships (Volume I): Lessons Before Dying, is a tale of love (finding it, losing it, keeping it) set against an ...
No More Sheets
No More Sheets Linda Dominique Grosvenor Book Review No More Sheets by Juanita Bynum is the lay it on the line/tell it like it is approach to sex in the 90’s. In this book Juanita exposes hers...
Between the World and Me
Between the World and Me Kam Williams Book Review “In a profound work that pivots from the biggest questions about american history and ideals to the most intimate concerns of a father for h...
Watch Us Rise
Watch Us Rise Vanessa Vanzie Book Review Oh, to go back in time when life was simpler and filled with of fun, friends and family. Reminiscing on all the highs of your first crush and lows of your fir...
The Origin of Others
The Origin of Others Tony Lindsay Book Review The title of Toni Morrison’s new book, The Source of Self-Regard, propels one to ponder, and the extended thought is due to the dual functions of t...
Black Power, Black Lawyer: My Audacious Quest for Justice
Black Power, Black Lawyer: My Audacious Quest for Justice Carol Taylor Book Review Much more than a memoir, Black Power, Black Lawyer traces not only Nkechi Taifa’s personal life, and her decad...
Toni Morrison’s Spiritual Vision: Faith, Folktales, and Feminism in Her Life and Literature
Toni Morrison’s Spiritual Vision: Faith, Folktales, and Feminism in Her Life and Literature Robert Fleming Book Review When literary icon Toni Morrison died in August, 2019, world literature lost a r...
The Unsettled
The Unsettled Donna Hill Book Review Similar in the bold and empathetic style of her debut novel, The Twelve Tribes of Hattie, author Ayana Mathis’s newest tome, The Unsettled, weaves an intric...
Jesus and the Abolitionists
Jesus and the Abolitionists Shaundale Rénā Book Review At first glance, I was drawn to Jesus and the Abolitionists: How Anarchist Christianity Empowers the People because of its eye-catching cover. I...
On The Edge of a Leaf
On The Edge of a Leaf Clarence V. Reynolds Book Review In his latest children’s picture book, At the Edge of a Leaf, author and poet Vincent L. Johnson draws from his love of gardening, nature,...
Saxophone Colossus
Saxophone Colossus Robert Fleming Book Review In the history and world of jazz, there is a singular group of adventurers, innovators, pioneers, and mavericks. Aidan Levy's mammoth biography of ja...
A Day Late and a Dollar Short
A Day Late and a Dollar Short Paige Turner Book Review The publishing world and the legions of Terry McMillan fans can now officially exhale. McMillan’s long awaited "serious" nov...
Soul Food: The Surprising Story of an an American Cuisine
Soul Food: The Surprising Story of an an American Cuisine Kam Williams Book Review From frontier cabins to plantation houses to the White House, from steamboat galleys and Pullman kitchens to pub...
That Mean Old Yesterday: A Memoir
That Mean Old Yesterday: A Memoir Idrissa Uqdah Book Review Paint a picture of a little brown girl who walks in fear and sadness. Her dark story is told in Stacey Patton’s memoir, Tha...
Well Considered By Richard Morris
Well Considered By Richard Morris Robert Fleming Book Review Some critics have often said white authors cannot capture the soul and passion of African American characters, but that is not the case ...
The Nat Turner Insurrection Trials
The Nat Turner Insurrection Trials Emanuel Carpenter Book Review Was Nat Turner a hero or a savage? After reading the new book from legal scholar Walter L. Gordon III, you may change your mind abou...
Chasing The 400
Chasing The 400 Idrissa Uqdah Book Review The African American Caste System When you think about the caste system you think of the poor in countries like India where there is a division of society ...