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Two Wings to Veil My Face
Two Wings to Veil My Face Tony Lindsay Book Review There is genre fiction, and there is literary fiction. Within these two categories are groups; in part, genre fiction consists of mystery, romance, ...
Bibsy
Bibsy Carol Taylor Book Review “Langston County is tucked into the southern tip of New York State, wedged between the Hudson River and the New Jersey state line. And it was home to Jake Tuck...
I Am New Orleans
I Am New Orleans Robert Fleming Book Review American poet, author, filmmaker, and teacher Kalamu ya Salaam, a leading citizen of New Orleans’s 9th Ward, has always been a booster for the Cresce...
Post Black: How a New Generation Is Redefining African-American Identity
Post Black: How a New Generation Is Redefining African-American Identity Kam Williams Book Review "In this book, I will not detail every pathological condition that ever existed in African-American...
Daughters of Men
Daughters of Men Kam Williams Book Review ’Good black fathers are far more plentiful than either the media or warped social science would have us believe’ The moral beau...
Mister and Lady Day Billie Holiday and the Dog Who Loved Her
Mister and Lady Day Billie Holiday and the Dog Who Loved Her Kam Williams Book Review “The great jazz singer Billie Holiday, known as Lady Day, had fame, style, a distinctive singing voice&md...
Butter: Novellas, Stories, and Fragments
Butter: Novellas, Stories, and Fragments Robert Fleming Book Review Recently, I received a letter from lit legend Gayl Jones, saying that she wasn’t writing anymore. Discovered by iconic editor...
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. ...
City Son: Andrew W. Cooper’s Impact on Modern-Day Brooklyn
City Son: Andrew W. Cooper’s Impact on Modern-Day Brooklyn Robert Fleming Book Review So many African-American newspapers and publications have vanished from view, but their impact remains on the...
Wellington Webb
Wellington Webb Kam Williams Book Review ’I arrived in the Mile High City in 1953 as a sickly, 100-pound, 12 year-old with asthma. Denver had a small, tight-knit black communi...
Mrs. Black
Mrs. Black Idrissa Uqdah Book Review Angelia Vernon Menchan who also has written under the name, acVernon Menchan has just released an new novel that takes us further into the world of the...
Inner-City Interludes
Inner-City Interludes Jayne Cubbage Book Review Inner-City Interludes by Hoezee probably won’t go down in history as a literary classic. Perhaps as an ode to the ’hood’ and...
Inner City Miracle
Inner City Miracle Thumper Book Review Judge Greg Mathis makes his debut on the literary stage with his autobiography, Inner City Miracle: A Memoir. Mathis is the star of the popular The Judge Greg...
Restless City
Restless City Kam Williams restlesscity.jpg Film Review Harlem Provides Backdrop for Gritty Survival Saga Restless City [2012] In Theaters: Apr 27, 2012 (limited) Rated R for drug use and brief sex...
Second Line Home: New Orleans Poems
Second Line Home: New Orleans Poems Rudolph Lewis Book Review June 2005, almost a decade ago, was the time I last visited New Orleans. It was still almost the Big Easy I knew in the mid-1980s. Seve...
Insignificant Others: Erotic Novellas
Insignificant Others: Erotic Novellas Anita Doreen Diggs Book Review Award winning authors, Pynk and Carol Taylor have written two original tales for Insignificant Others. Fans will love both sto...
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. ...
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...
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...
Terminus: Tales of the Black Fantastic from the ATL
Terminus: Tales of the Black Fantastic from the ATL Amanda Robinson Book Review Atlanta is one of the most popular cities in this country. This metropolis is one of the few epicenters dripping Black ...
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...
Wimbey’s Corner
Wimbey’s Corner Emanuel Carpenter Book Review At first glance, one might think that Wimbey’s Corner is a story about a big and black country bumpkin’ named Wayne Hunter who moves from a...
The Central Park Five: A Chronicle of a City Wilding
The Central Park Five: A Chronicle of a City Wilding Kam Williams Book Review “In 1990, Anton McCray, Kevin Richardson, Korey Wise, Yusef Salaam and Raymond Santana, Jr. [were] convicted and...
Freedom's Journal: The First African-American Newspaper
Freedom's Journal: The First African-American Newspaper Kam Williams Book Review “While the Constitution declares that all men are born free and equal, the wise corporation of the city of...
The Sons of Shea
The Sons of Shea Robert Fleming Book Review In Dame DaVohn’s novel of self-determination and redemption, The Sons of Shea, the characters and plot seem ripped from the headlines. The ...
Sins of the Mother
Sins of the Mother Idrissa Uqdah Book Review KARMA???? Victoria Christopher Murray is the best selling author of several contemporary novels that touch on hot topics that church people aren...
Corruption Officer: From Jail Guard to Perpetrator inside Rikers Island
Corruption Officer: From Jail Guard to Perpetrator inside Rikers Island Kam Williams Book Review “This shocking memoir from a former corrections officer… shares an eye-opening, gritty,...
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...
Black Gotham: A Family History of African-Americans in 19th Century New York City
Black Gotham: A Family History of African-Americans in 19th Century New York City Kam Williams Book Review "This book is… not exactly a family memoir, but neither is it traditional social hi...
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-...
HIV/AIDS: The Facts and The Fiction
HIV/AIDS: The Facts and The Fiction Kam Williams Book Review “Unfortunately, a series of interlocking misconceptions have distorted scientific and public perceptions of HIV and the AIDS epide...
Nicki Minaj: The Woman Who Stole the World An Unauthorized Biography
Nicki Minaj: The Woman Who Stole the World An Unauthorized Biography Kam Williams Book Review “This is the story of Onika Tanya Maraj, born on December 8, 1982 in St. James, a suburb of Trini...
Passing by Samaria
Passing by Samaria Paige Turner Book Review In the early days of the church, when doing the Lord’s work, Christians tried to pass by the town of Samaria, tried to evade visiting this unpleasan...
Kingston Noir
Kingston Noir Robert Fleming Book Review With his first anthology for Akashic, Iron Balloons, Colin Channer, author of the celebrated novel, Waiting In Vain, showcased the full range of contempo...
All I Need to Get By
All I Need to Get By Thumper Book Review I have just finished reading All I Need to Get By, the debut novel by Sophfronia Scott. I am taking a moment to pause and collect my thoughts in order to ...
A Night In Babylon
A Night In Babylon Robert Fleming Book Review This “Woke” novel, A Night In Babylon, seems ripped from the current headlines. It opens with pow-pow-pow action worthy of any TV cop show, w...
Black Food
Black Food Robert Fleming Book Review Black food, aka Soul food, is celebrated all over the world for its delicious ingredients, tangy flavors, homegrown recipes, and traditional richness. This book,...
The Dow Twins' Legacy: 50 Years of Disco Reflections
The Dow Twins' Legacy: 50 Years of Disco Reflections Michael A. Gonzales Book Review Coming of age in the disco era 1970s, even as a kid, I knew about the cool clubs where people dressed fly and boog...
The Great Deluge
The Great Deluge Kam Williams Book Review ’One person not seen on the streets, at the Superdome, or on a rescue boat of any kind was Mayor Nagin. Since the storm had approached the Crescent C...
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 ...
The Color of Justice
The Color of Justice Thumper Book Review Gary Hardwick, author of Cold Medina, Double Dead and Supreme Justice, is back on the literary scene with his latest inner-city crime drama, The Color of Just...
Desert Bayou
Desert Bayou Kam Williams desert34.jpg Film Review Master P Produces Provocative Post-Katrina Documentary Desert Bayou Unrated Running time: 90 minutes Studio: Cinema Libre S...
Kevin Hart: Laugh at My Pain
Kevin Hart: Laugh at My Pain Kam Williams kevin_hart_movieposter2011.jpg Film Review Concert Flick Features Highlights of Funnyman’s 90-City Tour Kevin Hart: Laugh at My Pain [2011] ...
Crown Heights
Crown Heights Kam Williams ../reviews/images/crown-heights.jpg Film Review Courtroom Docudrama Recounts Real-Life Miscarriage of Justice Excellent (★★★★) Rated R for lan...
Detroit
Detroit Kam Williams ../reviews/images/detroit.jpg Film Review Claustrophobic Docudrama Revisits ’67 Riots through the Prism of Infamous Interrogation at Algiers Hotel Very Good (★ύ...
Lizzie & McKenzie’s Fabulous Adventures: Mayhem in Madrid
Lizzie & McKenzie’s Fabulous Adventures: Mayhem in Madrid Troy Johnson Book Review Lizzie & McKenzie’s Fabulous Adventures: Mayhem in Madrid is the first book in a series of chapter books t...
The Original Black Elite: Daniel Murray and the Story of a Forgotten Era
The Original Black Elite: Daniel Murray and the Story of a Forgotten Era Troy Johnson Book Review I grew up in New York City’s East Harlem during the 60s and 70s. Virtually all my peers were Bl...
Loving
Loving Kam Williams https://aalbc.com/reviews/images/loving.jpg Film Review Excellent (4 of 4 stars) Rated PG-13 for mature themes and ethnic slurs Running time: 123 minutes Studio: Big...
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...
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...
Going Home
Going Home Idrissa Uqdah Book Review Home Is Where The Heart Is Evelyn Palfrey is an author who writes romance novels. The unique thing about her books is that she writes romance for the "...
Eight Minutes of Heaven
Eight Minutes of Heaven Robert Fleming Book Review Travis English, author of Knights of Paris, returns with his second work of fiction, Eight Minutes of Heaven, a story about Derek Treadwell, w...
Obama Guilty of Being President While Black
Obama Guilty of Being President While Black Kam Williams Book Review "This book is an inspiration that came to me after witnessing the disrespect and venom expressed towards President Obama&h...
Who Would Have Thunk It! The First Adventures of the Fraser Foster Kids
Who Would Have Thunk It! The First Adventures of the Fraser Foster Kids Kam Williams Book Review “Our story began a very long time ago when we were little kids with no place to live. Our moth...
The Presidency in Black and White: My Up-Close View of Three Presidents and Race in America
The Presidency in Black and White: My Up-Close View of Three Presidents and Race in America Kam Williams Book Review “[This book] gives readers a compelling behind-the-scenes look at race re...
Love In A Carry-On Bag
Love In A Carry-On Bag Idrissa Uqdah Book Review As Wild As The Wind Modern technology has made a long-distance love affair more of a reality. The characters in this novel took the concept and made...
The Manual: A Guide to Achievement & Enlightenment in the Urban Community
The Manual: A Guide to Achievement & Enlightenment in the Urban Community Robert Fleming Book Review In a way, this book, The Manual: A Guide to Achievement & Enlightenment In The Urban Communit...
Ramblers: Loyola Chicago 1963 - The Team that Changed the Color of College Basketball
Ramblers: Loyola Chicago 1963 - The Team that Changed the Color of College Basketball Kam Williams Book Review “Was there a time when civil rights protesters could be attacked by a club-wield...
Shooting Stars
Shooting Stars Kam Williams Book Review ’I was born in December 1984 in a house on Hickory St. that was mostly maintained by my mother’s mother. But when I was three, my...
Looking for Sweet Love
Looking for Sweet Love Emanuel Carpenter Book Review Can a sista get some love? That’s the question addressed in R.L. Byrd’s new book "Looking for Sweet Love." The story takes place in...
What’s My Name
What’s My Name Kam Williams Book Review ’The most violent anti-busing demonstrations in America were not in Birmingham or Biloxi, but Boston. Every city has its stories of both racism and res...
Passin'
Passin' Idrissa Uqdah Book Review Is The Grass Any Greener On The Other Side? That is what Shanika Ann Jenkins seeks to find out as she applies for a position at a prestigious PR firm in New...
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...
The Black Chicago Renaissance
The Black Chicago Renaissance Kam Williams Book Review “Beginning in the 1930s and lasting into the 1950s, black Chicago experienced a cultural renaissance that rivaled and, some argued, exce...
Color Him Father
Color Him Father Kam Williams Book Review Book Reviewed by Kam Williams ’My dad has a gentle spirit and quiet determination. He worked 30 years for the U.S. Postal Service, beginning as the ...
Defying the Odds
Defying the Odds Kam Williams Book Review ’Whether the threat is a burning cross in a sleepy Southern town, or a female doctor bucking the whites-only hiring policies of a city h...
Faith under Fire
Faith under Fire Kam Williams Book Review ’God has given me the opportunity to reach scores of women, connecting with their spirits to bring understanding to the ’dow...
How To Think Big
How To Think Big Kam Williams Book Review "I am not a genius. I am not a prodigy or sensation or phenomenon. I am just like you. At the age of 19, I founded my first company. After graduat...
Moon
Moon Thumper Book Review Allow me to state up front that I am a huge fan of Jewell Parker Rhodes; have been since I read one of her earlier novels, Magic City. I got extremely excited when I ...
Gangsta Lean
Gangsta Lean Linda Watkins Book Review Too Clean! Debut novel, Gangsta Lean, penned by Rochan Morgan is one of the few chronologically tight stories written by a new author this year. It is so ti...
Buddy Guy: When I Left Home — My Story
Buddy Guy: When I Left Home — My Story Robert Fleming Book Review When I Left Home, the memoir of legendary blue guitarist Buddy Guy, with support from noted writer David Ritz, traces the musician ...
Love Bones: A Collection of Poetry
Love Bones: A Collection of Poetry Robert Fleming Book Review Love seems to be the emotional fuel for all forms of popular expression. This book’s author, Ronald Oliphant, knows firsthand ...
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...
Known to Evil
Known to Evil Thumper Book Review Walter Mosley is back with the second installment of his new, magnificent Lenoid McGill Mystery series, Known to Evil. Believe it or not, I got my hands on Known...
Rising
Rising Thumper Book Review Rising, Darnella Ford’s fictional debut is explosive. It is the story of a young girl who lives through a number of tragic occurrences. Rising hits the ground runni...
Shackling Water
Shackling Water Thumper Book Review I awoke and discovered myself in the middle of an improvisational jazz solo of great intensity, dexterity, color and depth. I knew not the melody, the song, the st...
Street Judge
Street Judge Thumper Book Review In his fiction debut Judge Greg Mathis, star of the syndicated Judge Mathis TV show, releases Street Judge, a mystery/thriller with a message. Although I ha...
Love Don’t Come Easy
Love Don’t Come Easy Tiffany M. Davis Book Review Boy looks for girl. Boy finds girl. Boy loses girl. Boy looks for another girl. J.T. Smith puts a fresh spin on an old formula in his highly enterta...
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...
A Matter of Life or Death: Why Black Men Must Save Black Boys in America’s Public Schools
A Matter of Life or Death: Why Black Men Must Save Black Boys in America’s Public Schools Kam Williams Book Review “Life for many black boys is akin to a war. Wars on their minds, souls, spi...
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...
Dakota Grand: A Novel
Dakota Grand: A Novel Brian Egeston Book Review There are codes within creeds and creeds within cliques. Perhaps this is the most subliminal, if not unintentional, message in Kenji Jasper’s lat...
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...
Jungle Nights & Soda Fountain Rags
Jungle Nights & Soda Fountain Rags Kalamu ya Salaam Book Review Brian Gilmore is a cut above. His 30-part poem on Duke Ellington is deep and deft. Each section can stand alone, but taken as a whole ...
An Extraordinary Life: Josephine E. Jones
An Extraordinary Life: Josephine E. Jones Brenda M. Greene Book Review Wendy Jones has written a tribute to her late mother Josephine E. Jones. Her mother was part of the Great Migration, depicted so...
Howard Street
Howard Street Tony Lindsay Book Review Writers are introduced to the craft of writing through a variety avenues: reading, experience, teaching, and mimicking. Writers often copy the skill sets of tho...
Gay Girl, Good God: The Story of Who I Was, and Who God Has Always Been
Gay Girl, Good God: The Story of Who I Was, and Who God Has Always Been Amanda Robinson Book Review In the midst of arguably a time of the greatest push for the advocacy of LGBT acceptance, Jackie Hi...
The Last Last-Day-of-Summer
The Last Last-Day-of-Summer Vanessa Vanzie Book Review A combination of fun, friends and awesome adventures make for a summer vacation that you never want to end. The Legendary Alston boys are no exc...
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...
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...
Don’t Drop the MIC
Don’t Drop the MIC Denolyn Carroll Book Review In Don’t Drop the Mic, renowned pastor, orator, and #1 New York Times bestselling author Bishop T. D. Jakes puts a new spin on the notion of the b...
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...
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...
Under the Skin
Under the Skin Robert Fleming Book Review Following the needless deaths of my grandfather and my father, I was very interested in reading Linda Villarosa’s Under The Skin: The Hidden Toll Of Ra...
Post-Traumatic
Post-Traumatic Robert Fleming Book Review Chantal Johnson’s debut novel, Post-Traumatic, confronts the emotional toll of sexual assault, a real-life survivor narrative, with the prickly residue...
Love in the Age of Dragons
Love in the Age of Dragons Robert Fleming Book Review Fatima R. Henson’s Love In The Age Of Dragons has all of the best ingredients of fantasy, speculative fiction, and science fiction. There i...
The Memory Librarian
The Memory Librarian Robert Fleming Book Review When I think of singer-actor-fashion icon Janelle Monae, the word eclectic comes to mind. She is everywhere in the media, on every platform. Along with...
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...
Every Man a King
Every Man a King Robert Fleming Book Review For those who love the creators of the hard-boiled private dicks from the 1930s such as Dashiell Hammett, James Cain, and Raymond Chandler, Walter Mosley&r...
Searching for Agabus: Embracing Authenticity and Finding Your Way to You
Searching for Agabus: Embracing Authenticity and Finding Your Way to You Robert Fleming Book Review What is “an authentic self?” Michael Walrond, a well-known keynote speaker and the past...