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Something Torn and New
Something Torn and New Kam Williams Book Review ’Linguicide is the linguistic equivalent of genocide. Genocide involves conscious acts of physical massacre; linguicide, conscious ac...
Dave Chappelle’s Block Party
Dave Chappelle’s Block Party Kam Williams block_2.jpg Film Review Conscious-Raising Concert Flick Combines Comedy and Hip-Hop Dave Chappelle’s Block Party Excellent (4 stars) Unrated ...
Creating Black Americans
Creating Black Americans Kam Williams Book Review ’Over the course of more than two centuries, black American artists have represented their history- scrupulously, meaningfully, and brilliantl...
Hip-Hop: A Cultural Odyssey
Hip-Hop: A Cultural Odyssey Troy Johnson Book Review Hip-Hop Culture’s first OFFICIAL luxury, large format coffee table book will inspire, entertain and educate all generations of readers wit...
The Meaning of Michelle
The Meaning of Michelle Kam Williams Book Review “Michelle Obama is unlike any other First Lady in American History. From her first moment on the public stage, she has challenged traditional Am...
The Juju Girl
The Juju Girl Robert Fleming Book Review Awarded by the 2022 Black Caucus of the American Library Association Self Published ebook in fiction by an African American author, Nikki Marsh’s The Ju...
After the Dance: My Life with Marvin Gaye
After the Dance: My Life with Marvin Gaye Kam Williams Book Review “After her 17th birthday in 1973, Janis Hunter met Marvin Gaye—the soulful prince of Motown with the seductive liquid...
The Roots of Rap
The Roots of Rap Neoma Nwasike Book Review Hip-Hop is a culture that has spanned generations and has become worldwide. It found its humble beginnings in some of the roughest trenches, deep in the Bro...
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...
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...
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...
All About the Beat: Why Hip-Hop Can’t Save Black America
All About the Beat: Why Hip-Hop Can’t Save Black America Kam Williams Book Review ’There is apparently something about hip-hop that distracts people into, in some part of their br...
Harlem Crossroads
Harlem Crossroads Kam Williams Book Review ’The story I tell begins with an introductory account of how photography came to Harlem- that is, how Harlem became, after the Renaissance and at...
Seduced
Seduced Sheree Renée Thomas Book Review As a rule, I don’t kiss and tell, but sometimes, sometimes you get a hold to something that is just too good to keep to yourself. Well, I have to admit i...
Bitch Is the New Black: A Memoir
Bitch Is the New Black: A Memoir Kam Williams Book Review "I’m such a badass. I am literally the baddest bitch on the planet. If there was a bitch contest between me and every other he...
Who’s Your Caddy?
Who’s Your Caddy? Kam Williams whos_y27.jpg Film Review Ghetto Goes Golfing in Crass Color-Conscious Comedy Who’s Your Caddy? Rated PG-13 for sexuality, nudity, profanity, ethnic ...
Hairspray
Hairspray Kam Williams hairsp27.jpg Film Review Hairspray Click to order via Amazon Rated PG for teen smoking, mild epithets andsuggestive content. Running time: 107 minutes Studio: New Li...
Pimps Up
Pimps Up Kam Williams Book Review ’I believe we have reached a fascinating, and predictably retrogressive, moment in American pop culture regarding class, gender, and race. As a member of...
Sankofa University: Studying African-Centered History and Culture
Sankofa University: Studying African-Centered History and Culture Robert Fleming Book Review Dr. Burnett Kwadwo Gallman’s Sankofa University: Studying African-Centered History And Culture, is a...
Everything But The Burden
Everything But The Burden Rondall Brasher Book Review "Of all of our studies, history is best qualified to reward ourresearch." —El Hajj Malik El Shabazz (Malcolm X) This quo...
The Fall of Rome
The Fall of Rome Thumper Book Review The Fall of Rome is the first adult novel by Coretta Scott King winner Martha Southgate. Southgate through the narrative of three people told a story that strip...
When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost: My Life as a Hip-Hop Feminist
When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost: My Life as a Hip-Hop Feminist Lynne d. Johnson Book Review Hip-hop has intrinsically woven itself into the fabric of Americana. The culture, music, icons, and p...
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Kam Williams Book Review "Henrietta died in 1951 from a vicious case of cervical cancer… But before she died, a surgeon took samples of her tumor and put...
Culture Worrier: Selected Columns 1984—2014: Reflections on Race
Culture Worrier: Selected Columns 1984—2014: Reflections on Race Kam Williams Book Review “These pages represent some of the valuable lessons I’ve learned about people and media over t...
Pornified
Pornified Kam Williams Book Review ’One need not oppose pornography on religious or political grounds to be nonetheless troubled by the pornified culture. Pornography not only damages relatio...
Digging
Digging Robert Fleming Book Review The literary legacy of award-winning writer and poet Amiri Baraka continues to thrive as he releases another new book, Digging: The Afro-American Soul Of ...
Standing in the Need of Prayer
Standing in the Need of Prayer Rondall Brasher Book Review Standing in the Need of Prayer is a book dedicated the diverse and powerful subject of Black prayer. The photographs and other anthropologi...
Low Road
Low Road Thumper Book Review Donald Goines has become, decades after his death, one of the most influential African American authors in the African-American literary canon. The realism, the violenc...
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...
White Guilt
White Guilt Kam Williams Book Review ’Clearly a mission of the current Bush presidency has been to destigmatize contemporary conservatism. Bush has accepted that he operates in the ...
Thru My Eyes
Thru My Eyes Kam Williams Book Review ’Growing up in Iran, I had often heard of dervishes, people who possess a dynamic, heightened sense of awareness. Much like the shaman or the prophet, th...
Dark Girls (Preview)
Dark Girls (Preview) Kam Williams dark-girls-movie-poster.jpg Film Review Dark Girls: Real Women, Real Stories Click to order via Amazon This documentary exploresd the deep-seated biases ...
Examined Life
Examined Life Kam Williams examin9.jpg Film Review Cornel West & Company Weigh-In on the State of American Culture Examined Life Click to order via Amazon Unrated Runn...
America I AM Pass It Down Cookbook: Over 130 Soul-Filled Recipes
America I AM Pass It Down Cookbook: Over 130 Soul-Filled Recipes Kam Williams Book Review "The Pass It Down Cookbook is filled with recipes that reflect the generations-long need to document and sh...
Dr. No
Dr. No Robert Fleming Book Review “…a hilarious, fantastic satire of our times and culture.” —Robert Fleming Bestselling author Percival Everett is a literary alchemist wi...
Moonlight
Moonlight Kam Williams https://aalbc.com/reviews/images/moonlight.jpg Film Review Excellent (4 of 4 stars) Rated R for sexuality, drug use, pervasive profanity, ethnic slurs and graphic violence ...
black misery
black misery Troy Johnson Book Review Misery is when you heardon the radio that the neighborhoodyou live in is a slum butyou always thought it was home” black misery is a pictur...
Racial Innocence: Performing American Childhood from Slavery to Civil Rights
Racial Innocence: Performing American Childhood from Slavery to Civil Rights Kam Williams Book Review “Whiteness… derives power from its status as an unmarked category… [It] nev...
The Hiptionary
The Hiptionary Kam Williams Book Review ’Throughout the cultural evolution of the United States, Black people have consistently contributed a huge stock of colorful words, phr...
The Roux in the Gumbo
The Roux in the Gumbo Idrissa Uqdah Book Review A Black Family’s Odyssey in America Kim Robinson has written a remarkable account of her family’s history gathered from stories she was ...
The Black Church: Where Women Pray and Men Prey
The Black Church: Where Women Pray and Men Prey Kam Williams Book Review “If you are a single black woman regularly attending church and tithing, or you are a woman with children that accomp...
The Stork Market
The Stork Market Kam Williams Book Review ’Adoption pits woman against woman, rich against poor, making it painfully difficult to look at and admit. Adoption is racist and classist and of...
The Black-Print
The Black-Print Emanuel Carpenter Book Review Malik Green is passionate and somewhat angry about the status of the descendants of African slaves living in America. In his debut, ’The ...
The Rise: Creativity
The Rise: Creativity Kam Williams Book Review “This book is about the advantages that come from the improbable ground of creative endeavor. Brilliant inventions and human feats that have co...
Inspiration: Profiles of Black Women Changing our World
Inspiration: Profiles of Black Women Changing our World Kam Williams Book Review “Inspiration allows 30 exceptional people to tell their unique stories. Each of these women takes us on her li...
Iconic: Decoding Images of the Revolutionary Black Woman
Iconic: Decoding Images of the Revolutionary Black Woman Kam Williams Book Review “This book asks what it means to represent black womanhood and explores how these representations are connect...
Kabu Kabu
Kabu Kabu Robert Fleming Book Review American-Nigerian author Nnedi Okorakor’s first short fiction collection, Kabu Kabu, takes the reader by surprise, with its heady mix of fantasy, scien...
Outliers
Outliers Kam Williams Book Review ’This is a book about outliers, men and women who do things that are out of the ordinary. I’m going to introduce you to one kind of out...
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 ...
African American History for Dummies
African American History for Dummies Kam Williams Book Review ’African-American history, to be clear, is so much more than a handful of extraordinary individuals or practices like slaver...
America I AM: A Journal
America I AM: A Journal Kam Williams Book Review "’Would America have been America without her Negro people?’ The question posed by W.E.B. Du Bois serves as the underlying theme for ...
Between Good and Ghetto
Between Good and Ghetto Kam Williams Book Review ’The lives of the inner-city girls and young women profiled in this book are deeply influenced by violence of various kinds. ...
Black Faces in White Places
Black Faces in White Places Kam Williams Book Review "What do we mean by Black Faces in White Places? It is more than just a numbers game and being the only person of color in a predominantly wh...
The Brand Within: The Power of Branding from Birth to the Boardroom
The Brand Within: The Power of Branding from Birth to the Boardroom Kam Williams Book Review "What I hope to do with this book is reach out to anyone who wants to get a leg up on their own careers&...
Decoding the Dragon’s Mindset
Decoding the Dragon’s Mindset Kam Williams Book Review ’This book provides some fascinating and intriguing insights of the Chinese mindset that to most readers in the West ar...
Deconstructing Tyrone
Deconstructing Tyrone Kam Williams Book Review ’Hip-hop, whose entire aesthetic, at least as promulgated on cable and Radio, seems to be based on the world’s oldest profession; all me...
Do You Speak American?
Do You Speak American? Kam Williams Book Review "It is one of the paradoxes of American life that white America both is fascinated by black culture and disapproves of it, embracing it and bad-...
Enough
Enough Kam Williams Book Review "Reparations sends a message to Americans of every other race that blacks are wards of the state because they are a broken people. Social ills in the black com...
Getting It Wrong
Getting It Wrong Kam Williams Book Review "The latest twist in the history of stereotyping is that the black middle and upper classes are now the loudest voices. Bill Cosby and other...
How Could My Husband Be Gay?
How Could My Husband Be Gay? Kam Williams Book Review Have you ever ignored any red flags regarding your mate? "How Could My Husband Be Gay?" may cause you to never make that mistake agai...
Hung
Hung Kam Williams Book Review ’The place: Providence, Rhode Island. The time, Spring 1986, my sophomore year in college’ I’m a little new to this, this meeting a strange girl ...
Joan Myers Brown & the Audacious Hope of the Black Ballerina
Joan Myers Brown & the Audacious Hope of the Black Ballerina Kam Williams Book Review “Blacks in the segregationist United States of America of the 30s and 40s fought back with inherent toug...
Keepin’ It Real
Keepin’ It Real Kam Williams Book Review ’Why are so many African-American and Latino students performing less well than their Asian and white peers in classes and on exams. Why are f...
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...
Rhythm for Sale
Rhythm for Sale Kam Williams Book Review “I went into the Countee Cullen library… and saw a book titled: The Harlem Renaissance: A Historical Dictionary for the Era… I peeked i...
More than Just Race
More than Just Race Kam Williams Book Review ’This book will likely generate controversy because I dare to take culture seriously as one of the explanatory variables in the st...
Souls for Sale
Souls for Sale Kam Williams Book Review “Between Black television shows and white-owned and controlled urban formatted radio that have little regard for Black cultural dignity and ethnic ...
Sucka Free Love
Sucka Free Love Kam Williams Book Review ’The goal of this book is to demonstrate with real life examples the many ways we shoot ourselves in the foot in our quest for love’ We al...
Real Eyez: Race
Real Eyez: Race Kam Williams Book Review “America’s oldest dilemmas are rooted in race realities that it, as a nation and as a society, refuses to confront. Is race the dilemma of t...
Conversations With Octavia Butler
Conversations With Octavia Butler Robert Fleming Book Review As the sole major black female author of science fiction throughout her career, Octavia Butler reshaped the fictional world of fantasy ...
Going Home In Chains: Stories
Going Home In Chains: Stories Robert Fleming Book Review Glenville Lovell, one of the foremost Caribbean writers, has written several novels, including the acclaimed Fire in the Canes, Too Beautifu...
Dona Julia
Dona Julia Rondall Brasher Book Review Do’a Julia and Other Selected Poems" by Alberto O. Cappas is written with tremendous amount of pride. It is a book that comes from the heart of a man...
9780764344879
9780764344879 Kam Williams Book Review “With a population of nearly half a million people, Harlem is America’s most celebrated African-American neighborhood. Its rich past and historic...
The Cross of Redemption: Uncollected Writings
The Cross of Redemption: Uncollected Writings Thumper Book Review It has not been said for a long time. I’m glad to be able to say, James Baldwin has a new book out! The new collection of es...
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 ...
A Kosher Christmas: ’Tis The Season To Be Jewish
A Kosher Christmas: ’Tis The Season To Be Jewish Kam Williams Book Review “Why does Christmas evoke strong feelings among Jews in the United States? Of all the national holidays, only Christ...
Where Did Our Love Go: Love and Relationships in the African-American Community
Where Did Our Love Go: Love and Relationships in the African-American Community Kam Williams Book Review “SBF. Single Black Female. Walk through any major city in the U.S. on a Friday or Sa...
To Funk and Die in L.A.
To Funk and Die in L.A. Tony Lindsay Book Review Nelson George’s To Funk and Die in LA, offers the reader multiple mysteries to solve. The protagonist, D Hunter (a New Yorker), is immediately w...
A Fortune for Your Disaster
A Fortune for Your Disaster Brianna-Christine Alicea Book Review A Fortune for Your Disaster is a powerful, resonant poetry collection about forgiveness and grappling with physical and emotional viol...
Panorama: The Missing Chapter: From the Memoir Views from the Cockpit
Panorama: The Missing Chapter: From the Memoir Views from the Cockpit Robert Fleming Book Review With Panorama – The Missing Chapter From The Memoir Views From The Cockpit: The Journey Of A Son...
Badass Black Girl: Questions, Quotes, and Affirmations for Teens
Badass Black Girl: Questions, Quotes, and Affirmations for Teens Carol Taylor Book Review Dear Badass Black Girl, You are a true warrior who inherited the strength, courage, wisdom, love, and di...
Sweet Sorrel Stand
Sweet Sorrel Stand Pamela Shivdyal Book Review Teaching kids about money from an early age can help them learn healthy financial habits that will last a lifetime. Yolanda T. Marshall, shares her Cari...
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...
Salmon Croquettes
Salmon Croquettes Tony Lindsay Book Review Salmon Croquettes is a debut novel rich in prose. The book is loaded with purposeful dialogue and heartwarming descriptive scenes. The novel’s authent...
The Pursuit of Porsha
The Pursuit of Porsha Robert Fleming Book Review Those people who follow television and podcasts will recognize Porsha Williams, one of the stars of the popular reality show, The Real Housewives of...
The New Age of Empire: How Racism and Colonialism Still Rule the World
The New Age of Empire: How Racism and Colonialism Still Rule the World Robert Fleming Book Review It’s always beneficial to understand how learned minds, from abroad, view our current world wit...
Blue in Green
Blue in Green Robert Fleming Book Review On August 25, 1959, jazz trumpeter Miles Davis escorts a white girl to a cab, lights a cigarette outside Birdland, and a city policeman harasses the black man...
Flipflopi
Flipflopi Judy Allen Dodson Book Review Have you ever wondered where all the trash in the ocean goes? Or, how plastics in the ocean are cleaned up and recycled? Well, this is the book for you. Fli...
I Love My People
I Love My People Robert Fleming Book Review Lovingly crafted with an eye for substance and content, scholar Kim Singleton was determined with her new book, I Love My People. As a “race woman,&r...
Burial Ground
Burial Ground Eryka Parker Book Review I recently spent time diving into the pages of Burial Ground, a collection of poetry by Glenda R. Taylor. The ethereal cover and enticing description sucked me ...
Jelani’s Key
Jelani’s Key Mel Hopkins Book Review Pain into Promise An immeasurable loss leads to a journey of cultural enlightenment, friendship, and self-discovery for 11-year-old protagonists Jelani and Bak...
Dancing the Afrofuture: Hula, Hip-Hop, and the Dunham Legacy
Dancing the Afrofuture: Hula, Hip-Hop, and the Dunham Legacy Karen Brown Book Review I had just recently attended the 2024 International Conference and Festival of Blacks in Dance in Memphis, Tenness...
Psalms of My People
Psalms of My People April R. Silver Book Review In the book Psalms of My People, author Lenny Duncan opens this work by stating: “I start this book in perhaps the most hopeless place I have eve...
When It All Falls Down
When It All Falls Down Ahmad Wright Book Review Remember when Colin Kaepernick knelt during the national anthem in 2016? When HBO’s Insecure, created and produced by Issa Rae in 2016, was must-...
Remembering Roots: How an American Classic Transformed the World
Remembering Roots: How an American Classic Transformed the World Robert Fleming Book Review Unfortunately, there were efforts to demean the late Alex Haley’s Roots: The Saga of an American Family whe...
Black Boys, I See You
Black Boys, I See You Kirkus Book Review STARRED REVIEW Written from a place of love and deeply attuned to the emotional needs of Black boys. A kid lit giant extends a mighty message of love. ...
The Vixen Diaries
The Vixen Diaries Kam Williams Book Review "From the night we met in April 2005, I knew he was the one for me and that I would love him all the remaining days of my life. Our relationshi...
I Want You to Shut the F#ck Up: How the Audacity of Dopes Is Ruining America
I Want You to Shut the F#ck Up: How the Audacity of Dopes Is Ruining America Kam Williams Book Review “The American Dream is in dire need of a wake-up call… If only Uncle Sam could see...
12 Angry Men: True Stories of Being a Black Man in America Today
12 Angry Men: True Stories of Being a Black Man in America Today Kam Williams Book Review "This book of stories by black men living in America can serve as a primer to help all Americans understan...
Virginia Hamilton: Speeches
Virginia Hamilton: Speeches Kam Williams Book Review ’In the 35 years between the publication of her first book and her death in 2002, Virginia Hamilton earned a place of honor in the p...