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Muhammad Ali: The Long-Lost Movie
Muhammad Ali: The Long-Lost Movie Kam Williams ali_film.jpg Film Review Documentary Gives Glimpses of The Greatest in ’73 & ‘74 Muhammad Ali: The Long-Lost Movie Unra...
Brave at Heart
Brave at Heart Kirkus Book Review “A professor emeritus reimagines Western notions of race, crime, and justice in this volume of essays. Not only has America failed to adequately say ‘...
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...
Victory Is Assured
Victory Is Assured Robert Fleming Book Review Larger than life, controversial scribe Stanley Crouch loved to throw shade, raise hell, and put himself laughingly in the crosshairs. In the golden age o...
Jimmy’s Rhythm & Blues
Jimmy’s Rhythm & Blues Clarence V. Reynolds Book Review This year, we will celebrate the centennial of the birth of prominent writer, civil rights activist, and intellectual James Baldwin. Born in Ha...
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...
Andrew Billingsley Scholar and Institution Builder: Essays and Tributes
Andrew Billingsley Scholar and Institution Builder: Essays and Tributes Robert Fleming Book Review What makes a scholar great? The easy answer is the prolonged effort of an individual to provide a la...
Summer Snow
Summer Snow Thumper Book Review Summer Snow: Reflections from a Black Daughter of the South, is a collection of essays by Trudier Harris, based on her memories, observations and opinions that came ...
The Myth of Race/The Reality of Racism: Critical Essays
The Myth of Race/The Reality of Racism: Critical Essays Kam Williams Book Review “From today’s perspective in a media-soaked world all too familiar with the genomic footprints of huma...
No Surrender
No Surrender Robert Fleming Book Review When news reached me about the death of renowned poetess, Ai, I knew that I must write something about her and her unwavering lyrical examination of the hu...
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 ...
Leaving Atlanta
Leaving Atlanta Thumper Book Review Tayari Jones enters the literary scene with Leaving Atlanta, a novel that takes place in 1979 Atlanta, Georgia during what came to be known as the Atlanta Child ...
Iron Lady
Iron Lady Kam Williams theironlady_movieposter.jpg Film Review Streep Delivers Oscar-Quality Performance Impersonating Brit PM The Iron Lady Rated PG-13 for violent images and brief nudity. R...
Oreo
Oreo Thumper Book Review I’m thinking, pondering, you might say, that possibly the sign of a good book isn’t the fact that it is in print. Maybe, the sign of a good book should be wheth...
Before I Forget
Before I Forget Thumper Book Review *giggling* I’m going to love writing this review. A little while ago, I read and finished a wonderful debut novel, Before I Forget by Leonard Pitt...
The Face That Changed It All
The Face That Changed It All Kam Williams Book Review “Beverly Johnson made history in 1974… [as] the first African-American woman… whose face appeared on the cover of the world...
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...
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 ...
Race
Race Kam Williams Book Review “This collection of original essays investigates one of the least-explored topics in the philosophy of film and the philosophy of race: the nexus of our ideas ...
Lost in Language & Sound: Or How I Found My Way to the Arts: Essays
Lost in Language & Sound: Or How I Found My Way to the Arts: Essays Alvin Romer Book Review Poetry and prose if presented and mixed well with a demonstrative esthetic can work wonders for anyone try...
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...
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...
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...
My America: Langston Hughes on Democracy
My America: Langston Hughes on Democracy Ahmad Wright Book Review My America: Langston Hughes on Democracy by Randal Maurice Jelks is self-described as “a commentary on select Langston essays, poems,...
My View from the Summit (VFS)
My View from the Summit (VFS) Carol Taylor Book Review My View From The Summit is Nicole Thomas’s “inspiring personal memoir” reflecting on her experiences and life lessons on m...
We Refuse to Be Silent
We Refuse to Be Silent Robert Fleming Book Review Back in 2014, after the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, journalist and writer Angela P. Dodson got the idea then for her recently publi...
Chike and the River
Chike and the River Kam Williams Book Review Book Review by Kam Williams "Chike was now 11 years-old, and he had never left his village. Then one day his mother told him that he would be going to ...
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...
The Henry Louis Gates
The Henry Louis Gates Robert Fleming Book Review Henry Louis Gates, Jr., one of the nation’s most acclaimed scholars, is a masterful jack of all trades, including educator, editor, critic and ...
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...
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 ...
In Another Place, Not Here
In Another Place, Not Here Akilah Monifa Book Review Lest we forget that all African-American woman do not live in the United States of America, along comes Dionne Brand, a Trinidadian born now Can...
Justice for Marcus Garvey
Justice for Marcus Garvey Robert Fleming Book Review Justice for Marcus Garvey: Look for Me in the Whirlwind is a recently published collection of essays that highlights the achievements and aspirati...
Rainbow in the Cloud: The Wisdom and Spirit of Maya Angelou
Rainbow in the Cloud: The Wisdom and Spirit of Maya Angelou Kam Williams Book Review “‘Words mean more than what is set down on paper,’ Maya Angelou wrote in her groundbreaking m...
Thoughts from a Unicorn: 100% Black. 100 Jewish. 0% Safe
Thoughts from a Unicorn: 100% Black. 100 Jewish. 0% Safe Kam Williams Book Review “Born to an African-American Orthodox Jewish family, MaNisshtana has spent his life being Black, being Jewish,...
Reconsidering The Souls of Black Folk
Reconsidering The Souls of Black Folk Thumper Book Review To commemorate the 100th anniversary of The Souls of Black Folk by W. E. B. Du Bois — of one of the most significant books ever publis...
Cosbyology
Cosbyology Akilah Monifa Book Review Many people regard Bill Cosby as the penultimate father figure of the 80s, replacing Robert Young of "Father Knows Best." Cosby is probably best known...
Words to Our Now: Imagination & Dissent
Words to Our Now: Imagination & Dissent Kam Williams Book Review ’The word ’faggot’ itself is to me as nasty a form of violence as the perennial spit-nastiness in that classic Ame...
It Begins With Tears
It Begins With Tears Akilah Monifa Book Review From Montego Bay (a.k.a. MoBay), Jamaica to Manhattan with visits in Brooklyn, Kristoff Valley, Jamaica, and Eternal Valley, Opal Palmer Adisa&rsquo...
In The House Of The Interpreter: A Memoir
In The House Of The Interpreter: A Memoir Robert Fleming Book Review This stunning second memoir by noted Kenyan writer Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, In The House Of The Interpreter, cover...
Wrapped In Rainbows
Wrapped In Rainbows Thumper Book Review Zora Neale Hurston ensured her place of prominence in the American literary canon with her masterpiece, Their Eyes Were Watching God. Her career was filled w...
The Survival Bible
The Survival Bible Kam Williams Book Review ’On April 13th, 1999, I was released from federal prison after serving 7 years for being ignorant. Yeah, I was a dope dealer’...
We Gotta Have It
We Gotta Have It Kam Williams Book Review ’We Gotta Have It represents twenty years of seeing a new generation of Black movies. Before this journey began in 1986, with Spike Lee’s She...
Hokum: An Anthology of African-American Humor
Hokum: An Anthology of African-American Humor Kam Williams Book Review ‘Hokum is my chance to recognize and thank the black upper-, middle-, low-, and no-class clown for being more than comic...
F.B. Eyes: How J. Edgar Hoover’s Ghostreaders Framed African American Literature
F.B. Eyes: How J. Edgar Hoover’s Ghostreaders Framed African American Literature Kam Williams Book Review “Drawing on nearly 14,000 pages of newly released FBI files, F.B. Eyes exposes the Bu...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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 ...
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 ...
Daughter
Daughter Jayne Cubbage Book Review The novel, Daughter is a wonderfully crafted book and a smashing follow up to Asha Bandele’s first book, The Prisoner’s Wife. In this suspenseful a...
In-Dependence from Bondage
In-Dependence from Bondage Kam Williams Book Review ’Claude McKay (1890-1948) and Michael N. Manley (1924-1997) shared a common commitment to the struggle of African Diaspora people for libe...
A Mighty Love
A Mighty Love Linda Watkins Book Review Relationship novels are for escapism. The content should tantalize the reader’ evoke deep emotion and keep one’s attention. Unfortunately, A Might...
Brown Girl in the Ring
Brown Girl in the Ring Sheree Renée Thomas Book Review Science fiction fans who love the vision and storytelling prowess of Octavia E. Butler are in for a treat with this up-all-nighter f...
Brown Glass Window
Brown Glass Window Thumper Book Review I’ve been waiting a long time for this and it is a privilege and a pleasure to state that Devorah Major’s new novel Brown Glass Window is out ...
A Thirst For Rain
A Thirst For Rain Tiffany M. Davis Book Review A Thirst For Rain is a multigenerational novel set in Trinidad. It is a tale about demons both real and perceived, and how deceptively simple it is to o...
Charcoal Joe
Charcoal Joe Tony Lindsay Book Review What was refreshingly abundant in Walter Mosley’s Charcoal Joe was Black male characters. From strong Black men to Black men seeking guidance, the reader w...
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...
Bamboozled by Jesus
Bamboozled by Jesus Carol Taylor Book Review Part self-help, part comedic memoir, part inspirational and motivational how-to, Yvonne Orji’s Bamboozled by Jesus is heartfelt and relatable advice...
The Third Verse
The Third Verse Robert Fleming Book Review America is a glorious idea founded on democracy and equality for all. When Jerry Canada, a former trial lawyer and New Yorker, chooses one of the most famou...
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 ...