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Fearless Jones
Fearless Jones Thumper Book Review After 5 years, Walter Mosley has returned to the mystery scene with a new pair of crime solvers for his novel Fearless Jones. It’s as if Mosley had never said...
Hollywood Fantasies of Miscegenation
Hollywood Fantasies of Miscegenation Kam Williams Book Review "Hollywood Fantasies of Miscegenation analyzes white fantasies of interracial desire in the history of popular American film. Fro...
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...
Black Male Frames: African-Americans in a Century of Hollywood Cinema
Black Male Frames: African-Americans in a Century of Hollywood Cinema Kam Williams Book Review “Black Male Frames charts the development and shifting popularity of two stereotypes of black mal...
Hollywood Chinese
Hollywood Chinese Kam Williams hollyw27.jpg Film Review Asian Stereotypes in Cinema Explored by Enlightening Expose Hollywood Chinese ...
The Pursuit of Happyness
The Pursuit of Happyness Kam Williams pursui29.jpg Film Review Down on His Luck Vet Goes from Broke and Homeless to Successful Stockbroker in Inspirational Bio-Pic The Pursuit of Happynes...
Skid Row
Skid Row Kam Williams skid_r12.jpg Film Review Rapper Goes Undercover to Shed Light on Plight of the Homeless Skid Row Click to order via Amazon Rated R for drug use and profanit...
Handbook for an Unpredictable Life How I Survived Sister Renata and My Crazy Mother
Handbook for an Unpredictable Life How I Survived Sister Renata and My Crazy Mother Kam Williams Book Review “I hated the fact that my mother was crazy. I wanted her to be normal. Even when...
Miracle at St. Anna
Miracle at St. Anna Thumper Book Review I wish all of my review assignments were like this one. It came upon me unexpectedly. I don’t need advance warnings when good things come my way, thoug...
Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea
Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea Linda Watkins Book Review Everyone knows that poetry is opinionated, subjective and sometimes downright confusing. I was delighted to find that the problem of comprehensi...
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...
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...
Bastards of the Party
Bastards of the Party Kam Williams bastar2.jpg Film Review Documentary Highlights the Grim Side of Ghetto Gangsta Lifestyle Bastards of the Party Film Review by Kam William...
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...
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...
Breastlessness
Breastlessness Jayne Cubbage Book Review Breastlessness by Nicole Bryant is both memoir and breast cancer resource guide. In the first half of the book, Bryant shares her own experience with the di...
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...
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...
Growing Up In The Nation’s Capital: We Made It, But It Took An Entire Village
Growing Up In The Nation’s Capital: We Made It, But It Took An Entire Village Carol Taylor Book Review “I am a native Washingtonian, but I did not ‘live’ where most people want t...
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&...
Place of Cool Waters
Place of Cool Waters Michael A. Gonzales Book Review As a book critic, I rarely know what to expect when handed a project to review. There are veteran writers who drop projects that make me question ...
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...
Trespass: Portraits of Unhoused Life, Love, and Understanding
Trespass: Portraits of Unhoused Life, Love, and Understanding Clarence V. Reynolds Book Review Have you ever come upon or passed a homeless/unhoused person and experienced an emotion that tugged at y...
Rooftop Diva
Rooftop Diva Idrissa Uqdah Book Review D. T. Pollard’s novel, Rooftop Diva became an Essence bestseller novel in 2007. This fictionalized account put a different spin on a survivor of H...
The Soloist
The Soloist Kam Williams jamie_14.jpg Film Review Jamie Foxx Riveting as Homeless Savant in Best Role since Ray The Soloist Rated PG-13 for mature themes, drug us...
Sucka 4 Luv
Sucka 4 Luv Kam Williams sucka-4-luv.jpg Film Review Sucka 4 Luv (2014) Click to Buy or Rent This Film Unrated Running time: 84 minutes Distributor: Pierre Films Romance Film Review...
Giuliani Time
Giuliani Time Kam Williams giulia9.jpg Film Review Documentary Portrays Presidential Hopeful as Racist Mayor Giuliani Time Click to order via Amazon DVD Release Date: November 21, 2006 Run Time: ...
Harlem Aria
Harlem Aria Kam Williams images/img33.jpg Film Review Opera Serves as Fulcrum for Unfunny, Unlikely-Buddy Comedy Harlem Aria Rated R for crude and profane language. Running time: 100 Minut...
The Hip Hop Project
The Hip Hop Project Kam Williams the_hi36.jpg Film Review Once Homeless Orphan Relies on Rap to Reach Troubled NYC Teens The Hip Hop Project Rated PG-13 for profanity and ...
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...
Ain’t Nothing Like Freedom
Ain’t Nothing Like Freedom Kam Williams Book Review “Elected six times to the House from the state of Georgia, Cynthia McKinney cut a trail through Congressional deceit like a hot ember throug...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Zodiac Saga 2 The Balance of Power by Kaitlyn McKnight
Zodiac Saga 2 The Balance of Power by Kaitlyn McKnight Robert Fleming Book Review There are quality novels in the Young Adult novel market. It’s not easy or simple to do these hybrid collection...
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...
Captain Phillips
Captain Phillips Kam Williams captain-phillips.jpg Film Review Somali Pirates Hold Captain Hostage in Navy SEAL Rescue Thriller Captain Phillips In Theaters: Oct 11, 2013 Wide PG-13 for intense ...
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...
Finding Heaven in the Dark
Finding Heaven in the Dark Carol Taylor Book Review Part memoir, part self-help, part-spiritual realization, Finding Heaven In The Dark is William Ingram’s moving account of his journey to spir...
To the Mountaintop: My Journey through the Civil Rights Movement
To the Mountaintop: My Journey through the Civil Rights Movement Kam Williams Book Review “On January 20, 2009, 1.8 million people crowded onto the cold, hard grounds of the nation’s cap...
Better Than Alright: Finding Peace
Better Than Alright: Finding Peace Kam Williams Book Review “I can’t believe someone found my journey interesting enough to want to put it in a book…Being on display as an artist...
High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Kn
High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Kn Kam Williams Book Review “As a youth, Carl Hart didn’t realize the value of school; he studied ...
Some of My Best Friends: A White Woman’s Journey into Racial Profiling
Some of My Best Friends: A White Woman’s Journey into Racial Profiling Kam Williams Book Review “This project grew out of my realization that I was negatively profiling young African-American...
From Ike to Mao and Beyond: My Journey from Mainstream America to Revolutionary Communist
From Ike to Mao and Beyond: My Journey from Mainstream America to Revolutionary Communist Herb Boyd Book Review Like many red-blooded American boys, Bob Avakian’s early years were consumed wi...
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...
Stepping into Womanhood: A Black Woman’s Poetic Journey
Stepping into Womanhood: A Black Woman’s Poetic Journey Sister Shiree Sarana Book Review After reading sistah Traci Brooks’ book, Stepping into Womanhood: A Black Woman’s Poetic Journey,...
Barack Obama: The Man and His Journey
Barack Obama: The Man and His Journey Kam Williams barack3.jpg Film Review Obama Bio-Pic Recounts Rise to the Presidency Barack Obama: The Man and His Journey Click to order v...
What in the Hell Happened? An Intimate Look at Love and Relationship with Raw Honesty
What in the Hell Happened? An Intimate Look at Love and Relationship with Raw Honesty Kam Williams Book Review “There is an illusion of marriage created by Hollywood… that only exists in...
I Beat the Odds: From Homelessness to "The Blind Side" and Beyond
I Beat the Odds: From Homelessness to "The Blind Side" and Beyond Kam Williams Book Review "I didn’t write this book just to revisit The Blind Side… I want to help sepa...
Marriage 101
Marriage 101 Kam Williams Book Review ’Most of us have heard what the acronym BIBLE stands for: Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth. The Bible gives us everything we need ...
Casanegra
Casanegra Linda Watkins Book Review From the moment Casanegra crossed my palms, I was curious. Not only for the content of the story within, but for the story of the trio of authors that penn...
Evil Never Sleeps
Evil Never Sleeps Andre Seewood Book Review If the short story is a lost art, then you wouldn’t know it from reading Robert Fleming’s latest collection of story stories, Evil Never Slee...
Confessions of a Video Vixen
Confessions of a Video Vixen Kam Williams Book Review This is a review of a version of Confessions of a Video Vixen published 20 years earlier. Where young girls once aspired to be models and b...
Confessions of a Video Vixen
Confessions of a Video Vixen Kam Williams Book Review "Where young girls once aspired to be models and ballerinas, they now aspire to be hip-hop video girls. I sat down to write this book...
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...
Triple Take
Triple Take Thumper Book Review Triple Take, the debut novel by Y. Blak Moore, reminds me of an old timey Hollywood western. Despite the fact that Triple Take takes place in the 21st century mean s...
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...
Kiss and Tail
Kiss and Tail Kam Williams http://aalbc.com/authors/Kiss-and-tail.jpg Film Review Video Vixen’s Victims Get Even on Damning DVD Kiss and Tail: Hollywood Jump Off Click to order via Amazo...
The Pride
The Pride Kam Williams kimber9.jpg Film Review Philly Role Model’s Inspirational Life Story Turned into Formulaic Hollywood Bio-Pic Pride Film Review by Kam Williams Rated PG for mature th...
The Salon
The Salon Kam Williams the_sa56.jpg Film Review DVD Features Sassy Sisters Trash-Talking Galore at ”The Salon“ The Salon Click to order via Amazon Rated PG-13 for profanity, sexu...
Watchmen
Watchmen Kam Williams watchm18.jpg Film Review Long-Awaited Adaptation of Graphic Novel an Underwhelming Disappointment Watchmen Rated R for full frontal nu...
Color of the Cross
Color of the Cross Kam Williams color_60.jpg Film Review Crucifixion Revisited with Black Jesus as Victim of Bias Crime Color of the Cross Film Review by Kam Williams Was Jesus a black man?...
Diary of a Tired Black Man
Diary of a Tired Black Man Kam Williams diary_11.jpg Film Review Brow-Beaten Brother Gets Even in Thought-Provoking Melodrama Diary of a Tired Black Man Unrated Running time: 108 m...
Blacktrospective 2008 - Annual Assessment of the Best (and Worst) in Black Cinema
Blacktrospective 2008 - Annual Assessment of the Best (and Worst) in Black Cinema Kam Williams https://aalbc.com/reviews/the_se11.jpg Film Review Kam's Annual Assessment of the Best (and...
Reversal of Trends: A Black Man’s Journey across the Mason-Dixon Line
Reversal of Trends: A Black Man’s Journey across the Mason-Dixon Line Robert Fleming Book Review Often, memoirs can be self-indulgent, unimaginative, and a cheesy promotion of self. That’s not ...
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...
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...
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...
High on the Hog: A Culinary Journey from Africa to America
High on the Hog: A Culinary Journey from Africa to America Kam Williams Book Review "We [African-Americans] are a race that never before existed: a cobbled together admixture of Africa, Europe, and...
Journey to the Woman I've Come to Love: Affirmations from Women Who Have Fallen in Love with The
Journey to the Woman I've Come to Love: Affirmations from Women Who Have Fallen in Love with The Kam Williams Book Review “About 10 years ago, I was hanging out with some old high school c...
Spiritual Shackles
Spiritual Shackles Tiffany M. Davis Book Review Who burned the churches? This is a question that kicks off the historically mystic journey that is Spiritual Shackles. Set primarily in Pasadena...
A Game of Character: A Family Journey from Chicago's Southside to the Ivy League and Beyond
A Game of Character: A Family Journey from Chicago's Southside to the Ivy League and Beyond Kam Williams Book Review "A fundamental teaching my parents always emphasized [was] that life happens to...
Michelle Obama: Meet the First Lady
Michelle Obama: Meet the First Lady Kam Williams Book Review ’A tall 44 year-old African-American woman took her place at the podium and began her speech at the Democratic ...
What Becomes of the Brokenhearted
What Becomes of the Brokenhearted Rondall Brasher Book Review Before I begin this review I would like to "kick", not "thank" Thumper for handing me a stack of books, and putting a...
Spirit Seeker: John Coltrane’s Musical Journey
Spirit Seeker: John Coltrane’s Musical Journey Kam Williams Book Review “Music and religion were the twin forces that shaped John Coltrane’s early years. Both of his grandfathers were Me...
The Talented Ripkins by Ladee Hubbard
The Talented Ripkins by Ladee Hubbard Brenda M. Greene Book Review Drawing from W.E.B. DuBois’s concept of the Talented Tenth, Hubbard’s debut award-winning The Talented Ribkins follows t...
Raisins in Milk
Raisins in Milk Brenda M. Greene Book Review Raisins in Milk by David Covin is a coming of age story focused on a young girl, Ruth-Ann Weathering, who is subjected to the staunch racism and stark rea...
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...
Trading Dreams at Midnight
Trading Dreams at Midnight Idrissa Uqdah Book Review Mothers and Daughters: A Family of Women For more than twenty years, Neena has been searching for her absent, mentally ill mother, F...
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 ...
Poetic Perceptions
Poetic Perceptions Robert Fleming Book Review Some African-American critics yearn for a return to the fire and passion of the revolutionary fervor of the 1960s Black Arts Movement, but there are ...
Grasshopper Speaks
Grasshopper Speaks Emanuel Carpenter Book Review In Katrina Register’s memoir, “Grasshopper Speaks,” the author takes readers on the whirlwind journey of her life. In this debut, s...
Soulacoaster: The Diary of Me
Soulacoaster: The Diary of Me Jesse Washington Book Review Let’s get this out of the way up front: R. Kelly’s autobiography does not discuss what really happened with the sex tape th...
The Olympian: An American Triumph
The Olympian: An American Triumph Emanuel Carpenter Book Review What must it have been like to be the first African-American Olympic gold medalist? Would the feat have instilled pride in a nation w...
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,...
The Black Sleuth
The Black Sleuth Thumper Book Review Suggested Title: Tale of Early Black Detective Prescribes Strong Medicine Or Forgotten Black Writer Doses Up Strong Medicine Northeastern University Press, in its...
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...
The Rejected Stone: Al Sharpton and the Path to American Leadership
The Rejected Stone: Al Sharpton and the Path to American Leadership Kam Williams Book Review “As you read through the following pages and get a sense of my journey and the lessons I’ve...
Held
Held Idrissa Uqdah Book Review Jehovah Rapha, The Lord Who Heals Author Leslie Haskin has written a follow-up to her best seller, Between Heaven and Ground Zero, an account of her experiences...
IDOLeyes
IDOLeyes Idrissa Uqdah Book Review A Singer’s Life Changing American Idol Experience Mandisa Hundley may well go down in history as the most talked about American Idol participant who di...
Walking Among The Kudzu
Walking Among The Kudzu Emanuel Carpenter Book Review In H. Victoria Hargro Atkerson's latest book, "Walking Among the Kudzu," readers are taken on the journey of the life of Shelby ...
Just Wanna Testify
Just Wanna Testify Idrissa Uqdah Book Review Vamping The Vamps… Just Wanna Testify by the mega-talented author, Pearl Cleage was met with mixed reviews when it was first released. Many of...
Consumed…
Consumed… Jacqueline Jones LaMon Book Review AALBC.com review by Jacqueline Jones LaMon I firmly believe that there are no coincidences in this life, that we are presented with that which is f...
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-...
The Entrepreneur Guide 2010 Edition
The Entrepreneur Guide 2010 Edition Kam Williams Book Review "Are you someone seeking to start your own business and frustrated with the lack of straightforward answers to your countless question...
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...
The First: President Barack Obama’s Road to the White House
The First: President Barack Obama’s Road to the White House Kam Williams Book Review "On February 10, 2007, Barack Hussein Obama stood before thousands waiting in the cold in front of the Old Stat...
Guiou: The Other Blacks The Afro-Jamaican Presence in Guatemala
Guiou: The Other Blacks The Afro-Jamaican Presence in Guatemala Kam Williams Book Review [This book] “chronicles the journey of a group of Jamaican pioneers who went to Guatemala during the ...
Help Me to Find My People: The African-American Search for Family Lost in Slavery
Help Me to Find My People: The African-American Search for Family Lost in Slavery Kam Williams Book Review “This is a book about slavery and family and loss and longing… It is about th...