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A Call To Conscience
A Call To Conscience Thumper Book Review A Call To Conscience: The Landmark Speeches of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr is an excellent book that should serve as a wonderful introduction to the writing...
The Last King
The Last King Thumper Book Review Now is a time of rejoicing. Nichelle Tramble has finally released her much anticipated second novel, The Last King: A Maceo Redfield novel. I have been...
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...
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...
Role Call
Role Call Rondall Brasher Book Review I encounter many literary anthologies that try to appease my appetite for new talent. But most of them fall short of their mark, and few of these collections ar...
Confessions of a Call Girl
Confessions of a Call Girl Kam Williams confes55.jpg Film Review Tamala Jones Plays Conflicted Title Character in Kinky Blaxploitation Flick Confessions of a Call Girl Click to ...
Last Man Standing
Last Man Standing Thumper Book Review The year, 2002, I decided to take Black History Month literally by reading books that expanded my scope of being black in America. I decided to read Last Man Sta...
Before the Streetlights Come on: Black America’s Urgent Call for Climate Solutions
Before the Streetlights Come on: Black America’s Urgent Call for Climate Solutions Robert Fleming Book Review As I received Heather McTeer Toney’s new book on climate solutions, I had also read...
The Wake Up Call
The Wake Up Call Robert Fleming Book Review With a focus on the young at heart, personal finance expert Ash Exantus aka Ash Cash employs the themes of master rapper-businessman Jay Z’s classic ...
Forever
Forever RAWSISTAZ Book Review The title of McCann’s new book, Forever, made me wonder what really lasts forever, does life, love or even death? And why do we exert so much energy trying to make...
The Last Love Letter
The Last Love Letter Robert Fleming Book Review Amanda Easton, the author of The Last Love Letter, has a history of letter writing going back to her college days when she sometimes said the...
Crisis of the Black Intellectual
Crisis of the Black Intellectual Kam Williams Book Review ’Today there are many Black intellectuals who do not think of Black people as a people and have no wish to do so. They think of the...
Nappy Hair
Nappy Hair Troy Johnson Book Review One nap of her hair is the only perfect circle in nature. —from Nappy Hair I recently purchased Nappy Hair and have read it to my daughters. I must say c...
Come on People
Come on People Kam Williams Book Review "For the last three and a half years, I have been holding community call-outs in cities around the country… This book will cover selec...
When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir
When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir Kam Williams Book Review ’We have joined the rest of the country in protesting in order to get Trayvon Martin’s killer charged....
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...
The Presumption of Guilt: The Arrest of Henry Louis Gates
The Presumption of Guilt: The Arrest of Henry Louis Gates Kam Williams Book Review "This book is about more than the arrest of one man. It is abut how we need to examine our criminal justice syst...
Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo”
Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo” Amanda Robinson Book Review American history is saturated with the flagrant oppression of African people and their descendants. We have recently been pr...
The Bridge
The Bridge Thumper Book Review The Bridge, the second novel by Solomon Jones, should blow open the doors that his debut novel, Pipe Dreams did not. I am getting excited simply remembering the book ...
Mama Dearest
Mama Dearest Thumper Book Review As many of you know, Mama Dearest is the last book written by E. Lynn Harris. I was a fan of Harris’s during the Invisible Life days and a few books ...
This Is Herman Cain: My Journey to the White House
This Is Herman Cain: My Journey to the White House Kam Williams Book Review "I didn’t grow up wanting to be President of the United States. I grew up po', which is even worse than be...
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&...
The Last King of Scotland
The Last King of Scotland Kam Williams the_la56.jpg Film Review Forest Whitaker Delivers Oscar-Quality Performance in Implausible Portrait of Ugandan Dictator The Last King of Scotland - Film...
A Dream Foreclosed: Black America and the Fight for a Place to Call Home
A Dream Foreclosed: Black America and the Fight for a Place to Call Home Kam Williams Book Review “Black families and neighborhoods have been disproportionately victimized by bankers’ p...
The Girl Is in Trouble
The Girl Is in Trouble Kam Williams the-girl-is-in-trouble.jpg Film Review The Girl Is in Trouble In Theaters: Apr 3, 2015 LimitedOn DVD: May 11, 2015Runtime: 1 hr. 34 min.Rating: UnratedGenre: Myst...
Black Pain
Black Pain Kam Williams Book Review "How much does suffering from and living with addiction, incarceration, dirty neighborhoods, HIV, hypertension, violence, racism, and class discriminatio...
Echoes of Cabrini-Green: Letters to my Mother
Echoes of Cabrini-Green: Letters to my Mother Eryka Parker Book Review In Echoes of Cabrini-Green, Rudolph Elliot Willis writes letters to his late mother, narrating the events of his childhood leadi...
Chaka! Through the Fire
Chaka! Through the Fire Linda Watkins Book Review The memoirs of high profile people command attention. The chance to get the dirt, learn the weaknesses and shortcomings of the famous and celebrated...
The Protest Psychosis: How Schizophrenia Became a Black Disease
The Protest Psychosis: How Schizophrenia Became a Black Disease Kam Williams Book Review "This book tells the story of how race gets written into the definition of mental illness… The book a...
What Happened
What Happened Kam Williams Book Review How did we screw up so badly? The problem wasn't lack of information. The potential seriousness of the storm had b...
Learning to Stay: The 12 Keys
Learning to Stay: The 12 Keys Kam Williams Book Review "Learning to Stay is a book of self-discovery, change, growth and transitions. It’s intended to restore your mind and relationships to...
All You Need to Know about the Music Business
All You Need to Know about the Music Business Kam Williams Book Review ’In the music business, the key to success lies in knowing how to protect yourself. To do that, you need...
His Name Is George Floyd
His Name Is George Floyd Robert Fleming Book Review In the midst of the deadly Covic-19 pandemic, the world witnessed the brutal killing of George Floyd, a 44-year-old black man, by a white Minneapol...
An Obama’s Journey: My Odyssey of Self-Discovery Across Three Cultures
An Obama’s Journey: My Odyssey of Self-Discovery Across Three Cultures Kam Williams Book Review ”‘My family will hate me for this book, baby,’ I explained [to my wife]. She hugge...
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 "...
D.C. Unmasked & Undressed: A Memoir
D.C. Unmasked & Undressed: A Memoir Kam Williams Book Review "D.C. Unmasked & Undressed is a memoir. The story of my life includes events, characters and insights related to my miserable child...
Kanye West in the Studio
Kanye West in the Studio Kam Williams Book Review ’Many brilliant artists are dead long before their impact is recognized and crystallized, or even established and explored in any analyti...
The Blackbird Papers
The Blackbird Papers Thumper Book Review It never fails that every year there is one book in which the book’s good publicity reaches me before the book does. This year one of the books is Ian ...
Is It Just Me? Or Is It Nuts Out There?
Is It Just Me? Or Is It Nuts Out There? Kam Williams Book Review "Thoughtlessness is the new manners, and I’ve got to say I don’t like it… Somehow, so many little pieces of court...
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...
Holly
Holly Thumper Book Review French is brilliant. French’s follow up to the equally magnificent Billy. One of the few books that I have to disagree with it’s publishers’ summary of t...
Without the King
Without the King Kam Williams withou27.jpg Film Review The Misadventures of Mswati in Swaziland Without the King Director - Michael Skolnik Run Time - 84 Minutes Language - English and siSwati Fo...
Minion
Minion Thumper Book Review Somebody, somewhere, is either trying to run game on me, or thinks I done fell and bumped my damn head by passing this "book" to me! Minion: A Vampire Huntress ...
Why White Kids Love Hip Hop
Why White Kids Love Hip Hop Kam Williams Book Review "Hip-hop is the last hope for this generation and arguably the last hope for America… The best remedy for leaving the o...
A Phat Death
A Phat Death Thumper Book Review A Phat Death (or, the Last Days of Noir Soul) is the latest Nina Halligan novel by Norman Kelley. I have been a fan of Nina Halligan and her creator since I read t...
Michelle Obama: First Lady of Hope
Michelle Obama: First Lady of Hope Kam Williams Book Review ’I will never forget the unabashed affection the president-elect displayed [Election Night] as, with the whole worl...
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...
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...
Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America
Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America Kam Williams Book Review “America is in trouble, and a lot of that trouble—perhaps most of it—has to do with race. Everywhere we tu...
Touched
Touched Walter Benefield Book Review Martin Luther King, Jr. said, "We are not makers of history. We are made by history, Dr. Matthew (Matty) Allen Green knows this all to well. On his first nig...
The Prime Anniversary
The Prime Anniversary Brianna-Christine Alicea Book Review Jay Wright is an acclaimed poet, essayist, and playwright. Wright is the author of several collections of poetry, which include but are not ...
Black Chess
Black Chess Denolyn Carroll Book Review “Life’s a chess game…There are infinite possibilities and multiple universes, depending on the choices you make,” asserts Celeste, the ...
Pregnant While Black: Advancing Justice for Maternal Health in America
Pregnant While Black: Advancing Justice for Maternal Health in America Eryka Parker Book Review As a Black woman born and raised in the United States, I have always been aware of how blessed I am to ...
Where Wild Peaches Grow
Where Wild Peaches Grow Eryka Parker Book Review When heartbreak and familial betrayal send Nona “Peaches” Davenport running from her home of Natchez, Mississippi as a teenager, neither s...
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...
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...
Book Review: Them That Are Called: An Epic
Book Review: Them That Are Called: An Epic Robert Fleming Book Review This truly epic science-fiction novel, Them That Are Called, took its author more than sixteen years to complete this hefty narra...
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...
Distant Lover
Distant Lover Thumper Book Review "Ooooo, she makes me SICK!! She does this to me every time!" I heard this from my good friend Steve right after I said hello when I answered the phone. A...
Gonna Lay Down My Burdens
Gonna Lay Down My Burdens Thumper Book Review On a rainy night, Desiree Sheffield calls Carmen Taylor (on the eve of Carmen’s wedding to Burl,) to come get her after another violent fight with...
The Future Has a Past
The Future Has a Past Thumper Book Review The Future Has A Past is the latest short story collection by author J. California Cooper. In case you don’t know, I adore J. California Cooper! I&rs...
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 ...
I’m African and Proud
I’m African and Proud Kam Williams Book Review ’I’ve taught in New Jersey schools for 32 years, 21 as a kindergarten teacher. I’ve seen so many children of African descent who 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...
Sittin’ In The Front Pew
Sittin’ In The Front Pew Thumper Book Review Sittin’ In The Front Pew is the latest novel by Parry "EbonySatin" Brown. This tale showcases the reactions a family to the death of its ...
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...
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-...
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 ...
A Prayer For Deliverance
A Prayer For Deliverance Thumper Book Review Christopher Chambers has returned FBI agent Angela Bivens, to the frontline in his marvelous sophomore thriller, A Prayer For Deliverance, an intense, ...
Married Men
Married Men Thumper Book Review Savvy, smart Kyle runs a booming African American beauty supply business, but his main job is hiding his wife from Talk about a Calgon-take-me-away book!! Married...
God Bless Our Divided America: Unity, Politics and History from a Biblical Perspective
God Bless Our Divided America: Unity, Politics and History from a Biblical Perspective Denolyn Carroll Book Review At its core, David W. Marshall’s God Bless Our Divided America: Unity, Politic...
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...
Thieves’ Paradise
Thieves’ Paradise Thumper Book Review Every summer I look forward to a new Eric Jerome Dickey novel. This year Dickey delivers one that I absolutely love! Thieves’ Paradise is a tight, smart, q...
Delta Farce
Delta Farce Kam Williams delta_3.jpg Film Review Nothing Works in Ill-Conceived Army Comedy Delta Farce MPAA:Rated PG-13 for crude and sexual humor. Runtime: 90 min Release Date:11 May 2007 (USA) ...
Breaking the Code of Silence
Breaking the Code of Silence Kam Williams Book Review ’I felt even more secure with this man than I had ever felt in an previous relationship. Even though h...
High Waters
High Waters Thumper Book Review High Waters, a novel by Suzon Tropez, is a novel that I am unsure as to what the storyline or the point of the novel is. I think it is a novel about an older black ...
The Middle Sister
The Middle Sister Thumper Book Review I’m still finding my footing. Being away from reading books for three years, obtaining another degree, has dulled my reading senses. Now that the...
Too Beautiful To Die
Too Beautiful To Die Thumper Book Review It had been a long while since I read a suspense/mystery novel’too long. I had a stroke of good fortune when the most recent mystery book I read was To...
Saving Our Daughters
Saving Our Daughters Kam Williams Book Review ’Where do we begin with this delicate subject of color and racism within a race — I call it intra-racial profil...
Don’t Blame It on Rio
Don’t Blame It on Rio Kam Williams Book Review ’Black women were once at the center of black men’s lives, as wives, mothers, lovers and partners’ However, in this generation, b...
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...
In Search of Nella Larsen
In Search of Nella Larsen Thumper Book Review I’m back! It’s good to be back, although I have to tell you that it took me a minute to find groove, before I was able to fall int...
Circus
Circus Kam Williams circus10.jpg Film Review Russian Retrospective Features 1936 Film Indicting American Racism Circus (Tsirk) Unrated In Russian and English with subtitles. ...
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...
Sister Citizen: Shame
Sister Citizen: Shame Kam Williams Book Review "This book is concerned with understanding the emotional realities of black women’s lives in order to answer a political, not a personal, ques...
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...
Won't Back Down
Won't Back Down Kam Williams https://aalbc.com/reviews/wont-back-down.jpg Film Review Jaded Teacher and Single-Mom Join Forces in Uplifting Tale of Female Empowerment Won’t Back Down (2012) In ...
Black Power Inc.
Black Power Inc. Rondall Brasher Book Review I would like to initiate my review of Cora Daniels’ Black Power Inc. by eluding to a quote attributed to Malcolm X, too Black’too strong. T...
Run Toward Fear
Run Toward Fear Rondall Brasher Book Review This book is actually done in two parts. The first is a collection of personal poems. The second part is forty pieces of advice for poets who wanted to k...
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...
The Equalizer
The Equalizer Kam Williams the-equalizer.jpg Film Review The Equalizer In Theaters: Sep 26, 2014 Wide Rated R for graphic violence, sexual references and pervasive profanity Running time: 131 minu...
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 ...
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...
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...
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-...
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...
I Know Who Holds Tomorrow
I Know Who Holds Tomorrow Thumper Book Review I Know Who Holds Tomorrow is the first book that I’ve read written by Francis Ray. I hesitated to pick it up because it shares its title with an o...
Black Women, Ivory Tower
Black Women, Ivory Tower Ahmad Wright Book Review The best colleges and universities in the nation promise a sense of belonging, public validation, and personal relationships that can last a lifetime...
Chasing Me to My Grave
Chasing Me to My Grave Robert Fleming Book Review This enthralling memoir is one of the most heralded books about the life, imagination, and cultural influences of an African American man who goes to...