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We the Party
We the Party Kam Williams wetheparty.jpg Film Review The African-American answer to American Pie! We the Party [2012] In Theaters: Apr 6, 2012 Limited Comedy Directed By: Mario V...
This Side of Glory
This Side of Glory Thumper Book Review This Side Of Glory: The Autobiography of David Hilliard and the Story of the Black Panther Party by David Hilliard and Lewis Cole On my continuing quest in read...
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...
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 ...
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...
Party Crashing
Party Crashing Kam Williams Book Review ’Unlike their parents and grandparents, young black Americans no longer view their political identity as black and white, so to speak. Today,...
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...
The Loneliness of the Black Republican: Pragmatic Politics and the Pursuit of Power
The Loneliness of the Black Republican: Pragmatic Politics and the Pursuit of Power Kam Williams Book Review “This study introduces readers to key figures across a spectrum of black Republican...
The Black Agenda
The Black Agenda Robert Fleming Book Review Who was Glen Ford? If you ask that question of some of the best critical thinkers in the Black community, they would say Ford was one of the most capabl...
This Leaves Me Okay
This Leaves Me Okay Ahmad Wright Book Review It is not every day that your grandmother writes you a letter. Even rarer for a grandmother with an eighth-grade education to write periodically in her ow...
Better Mus' Come: In Theaters: March 15, 2013
Better Mus' Come: In Theaters: March 15, 2013 Kam Williams https://aalbc.com/reviews/better-mus-come.jpg Film Review Better Mus’ Come In Theaters: Mar 15, 2013 Limited Written and Directed by Stor...
The Chitlin’ Circuit and the Road to Rock 'n’ Roll
The Chitlin’ Circuit and the Road to Rock 'n’ Roll Robert Fleming Book Review It’s a shame that nothing substantial has been written about that sacred Black entertainment network of the ...
Fear of a Black Republican
Fear of a Black Republican Kam Williams fearofablackrepublican.jpg Film Review Fear of a Black Republican Unrated Running time: 111 Minutes Studio: Shamrock Stine Productions DV...
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...
Create Dangerously: The Immigrant Artist at Work
Create Dangerously: The Immigrant Artist at Work Kam Williams Book Review "There are many possible interpretations of what it means to create dangerously, and Albert Camus… suggests that it...
One Day I Saw a Black King
One Day I Saw a Black King Thumper Book Review Earlier this year, J. D. Mason had me singing her praises for her wonderful novel, And on the Eighth Day She Rested. Now I am at the mike again, ready ...
The African Lookbook: A Visual History of 100 Years of African Women
The African Lookbook: A Visual History of 100 Years of African Women Robert Fleming Book Review Identity and gender have always fascinated Catherine McKinley, one of the fewer 15,000 mixed-race child...
Beulah Hill
Beulah Hill Thumper Book Review I am sounding the alert that I just read a novel that has a strong black male character in it. Let’s imagine that I’m waving a big neon sign with...
Ghetto Nation
Ghetto Nation Kam Williams Book Review ’Ghetto no longer refers to where you live, it is how you live. It is a mind-set’ a mind-set that thinks the M words — monogamy and marr...
Wrong on Race
Wrong on Race Kam Williams Book Review ’It must be acknowledged that in the progress of nations Negroes have shown less capacity for government than any other race of people. No independen...
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...
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...
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...
Post-Traumatic Slave Syndrome
Post-Traumatic Slave Syndrome Kam Williams Book Review ’When African-Americans accept the deprecating accounts and images portrayed by the media, literature, music and the arts as a true ...
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 ...
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...
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...
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 ...
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...
Black Folk Could Fly
Black Folk Could Fly Robert Fleming Book Review Some of our literary greats fly under the radar. The unexpected death of the late great author Randall Kenan in 2020 at age 57 brought him well-deserve...
Free and Other Stories
Free and Other Stories Thumper Book Review My Dear Ms. Anika Nailah, I know, normally, that book reviews are not generally written in letterform, from the reviewer to the author. Since I have been kn...
The Day You Begin
The Day You Begin Neoma Nwasike Book Review Have you ever felt like an outsider, or like you just did not belong? In this big world, with so many different faces, it can sometimes feel overwhelming a...
The Audacity of Hope
The Audacity of Hope Kam Williams Book Review ’There’s a school of thought that sees the Founding Fathers only as hypocrites and the Constitution only as a betrayal of the grand ideal...
Zion and Zara Stories: The Big Bike Race
Zion and Zara Stories: The Big Bike Race Amanda Robinson Book Review Good children’s books are hard to come by. Many of them lack morals for children to learn from or educational content to gro...
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...
Color Me Butterfly
Color Me Butterfly Idrissa Uqdah Book Review Domestic Abuse: A Generational Curse?This book spans a 60 year period in the lives of a family of strong African American women who survived domestic a...
Red at the Bone
Red at the Bone Brenda M. Greene Book Review Jacqueline Woodson is the best-selling author of more than two dozen award-winning books, including the 2016 New Times best-selling National Book Award fi...
Blackout
Blackout Kam Williams Book Review "It may be difficult for us today to understand both the vastness of American racism or th...
Descending from the Clouds
Descending from the Clouds Kam Williams Book Review "When we finally got the order to go on D-Day, we moved to our planes, loaded our bundles in the belly racks, and saddled up. I was loaded ...
Wonderful Ethiopians of the Ancient Cushite Empire
Wonderful Ethiopians of the Ancient Cushite Empire Kam Williams Book Review ’Arguably, Drusilla Dunjee Houston was one of the most important African-American women writers of the 20th Centu...
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 Prophetic Lens: The Camera and Black Moral Agency from MLK to Darnella Frazier
The Prophetic Lens: The Camera and Black Moral Agency from MLK to Darnella Frazier Donna Hill Book Review From the moment Africans were kidnapped, brought to America and enslaved, violence has been i...
Who’s Afraid of a Large Black Man?
Who’s Afraid of a Large Black Man? Kam Williams Book Review "We were the only minority family in all of Cypress, California. When my parents moved in, before I was born, they used to have th...
The People Could Fly
The People Could Fly Kam Williams Book Review "The People Could Fly is one of the most extraordinary, moving tales in black folklore… [It] is a detailed fantasy of suffering, of magi...
paths of sanctuary
paths of sanctuary Jill Robinson Book Review ihsan bracy’s new novel, paths of sanctuary, is an intricate story of love, lust, envy’and filled to the brim with examples of how each can ...
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...
Dark Corner
Dark Corner Thumper Book Review I love vampire tales with a passion. I’m always on the look out for new, well written, vampire adventures. I was anxious to read Brandon Massey’s latest ...
Take Your Pleasure Where You Find It
Take Your Pleasure Where You Find It Idrissa Uqdah Book Review Will The Truth Set Them Free? In my humble opinion, J.D. Mason is a master storyteller, as they say. From the very first novel, ...
The Adventures of Sasha & Malia at the White House
The Adventures of Sasha & Malia at the White House Kam Williams Book Review "[This] story came to me in a dream one night not long after the inauguration of President Barack Obama… I d...
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...
Passing Strange
Passing Strange Thumper Book Review "We were the only minority family in all of Cypress, California. When my parents moved in, before I was born, they used to have these oranges come through t...
A Great Day in Harlem
A Great Day in Harlem Kam Williams a_grea34.jpg Film Review DVD Documentary on the Anatomy of Historic Jazz Photo A Great Day in Harlem Click to order via Amazon Plot Synopsis: Art Kane, now...
Sweet Release
Sweet Release Kam Williams Book Review ’The racial struggle, for many of us, is over. Our struggles are now centered around schools for our children, career opportunities, and develop...
The Good House
The Good House Thumper Book Review Tananarive Due has returned with The Good House, her best book to date. The Good House is a magnificent, irresistible family drama of one family fighting an evil ...
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 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 Covenant with Black America
The Covenant with Black America Kam Williams Book Review Book Review by Kam Williams "Why a Covenant with Black America? In short, because’ without organization, black folk will ...
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...
A Good Day to Be Black & Sexy
A Good Day to Be Black & Sexy Kam Williams a_good15.jpg Film Review Sexplicit Action Aplenty in Raw, Raunchy Romantic Romp A Good Day to Be Black & Sexy Click to order...
The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration
The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration Connie Bradley Book Review I finally finished the 620-page The Warmth of Other Suns by Pulitzer Prize winning author, Isabel W...
Eve’s Bayou
Eve’s Bayou Sherelle R. Williams images/eve’s.39.jpg Film Review EVE’S BAYOU (1997) MPAA: Rated R for sexuality and language. Runtime: USA 109 minutes ...
Daddy Day Camp
Daddy Day Camp Kam Williams daddy_52.jpg Film Review Daddy Day Camp Click to order via Amazon Rated PG for bodily humor and mild epithets. Running time: 93 minutes Studio: Sony Pic...
I Can Do Bad All by Myself
I Can Do Bad All by Myself Kam Williams img1A.jpg Film Review DVD Features Adaptation of Tyler Perry’s Music-Driven Morality Play I Can Do Bad All by Myself Click to order via Amazon Rat...
Just Too Good to Be True
Just Too Good to Be True Thumper Book Review I never thought the moon would rise or the sun would set on the day that I would be writing a review on any E. Lynn Harris book. I use to be a fan of ...
Who Does She Think She Is
Who Does She Think She Is Thumper Book Review Demons and condemned souls must be having snowball fights in Hell because I not only read another Benilde Little book; I actually liked it. I know, I kn...
Severed: A Novel
Severed: A Novel Mel Hopkins Book Review Severed, a Novel | A Black Woman’s Burden Someone is a few digits short of a hand in Nakadee, Louisiana. What’s worse, someone may be t...
Mind Right
Mind Right Kam Williams Book Review "If you are looking for a quick fix to your current financial issues, then this isn’t the right book for you… this book was written to dispel...
I Wish I Had A Red Dress
I Wish I Had A Red Dress Thumper Book Review I’m going to be upfront. The review will be short and sour. I Wish I Had A Red Dress, Pearl Cleage’s new novel, we return to Idlewood, Michiga...
Blacklash: How Obama and the Left Are Driving Americans to the Government Plantation
Blacklash: How Obama and the Left Are Driving Americans to the Government Plantation Kam Williams Book Review “There is this strange notion that because I am black I should agree with all blac...
Unfinished Business: Black Women
Unfinished Business: Black Women Kam Williams Book Review “This book explores the Black Church as a black religious site that can offer not only hope and cultural flourishing for poor black w...
Kevin and His Dad
Kevin and His Dad Kam Williams Book Review ’What could be better for a young boy than to spend a whole day with his father! With mom away on a Saturday, that’s exa...
A Memory of Fictions (or) Just Tiddy-Boom
A Memory of Fictions (or) Just Tiddy-Boom Robert Fleming Book Review So many books written by gay, Black men do not explore the inner emotional terrain of their character. That is why this vast, dram...
Black Brother, Black Brother
Black Brother, Black Brother Shafika Burke Book Review Invisibility is all Donte wishes for after moving from New York to Massachusetts. The move places him in a war against people blinded by racism ...
Masjid Morning
Masjid Morning Alexis E. Jackson Book Review Richard Morris’ Masjid Morning is a dedication to the millennial college student both embracing and learning how to live with religious and racial d...
Child
Child Kam Williams Book Review “In this wise and funny memoir, Ylonda Gault Caviness describes her journey to the realization that all the parenting advice she was obsessively devouring, as...
A Flag for Juneteenth
A Flag for Juneteenth Mel Hopkins Book Review Choose Freedom In A Flag for Juneteenth, Kim Taylor weaves a tale of freedom and how to achieve it even when your world is in tatters. And while this...
The Black Rose
The Black Rose Paige Turner Book Review Journalist and novelist Tananarive Due is fast establishing herself as a professional writer who can master any genre she deigns to approach. With her previ...
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...
The Cutting Season: A Novel
The Cutting Season: A Novel Emanuel Carpenter Book Review Attica Locke’s (Black Water Rising) latest novel, The Cutting Season, takes place on a sugar cane plantation in Louisiana. Though the s...
Brown Boys Rule
Brown Boys Rule Clarence V. Reynolds Book Review While listening to a recent meditation session on the app Happier—one of my favorites—I was reminded of the importance of embracing wo...
Endgame
Endgame Kam Williams endgam10.jpg Film Review South African Docudrama Chronicles Demise of Apartheid Endgame Rated PG-13 for violence, profanity and disturbing images. In En...
Before Brown
Before Brown Kam Williams Book Review "Before Brown details the ferment in civil rights that took place across the South before the momentous Brown vs. Board of Education decision in 1954. T...
Yoga
Yoga Kam Williams Book Review “This book is for you, the everyday person, the person who works, has a family (or not) and wants to stay stress-free, happy, fulfilled and healthy. This book ...
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...
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 ...
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...
Motion Sickness
Motion Sickness RAWSISTAZ Book Review Terry O’Neal shares her collection of poetry in her first book entitled Motion Sickness. It is a compilation of poems that range in topics including ...
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 ...
Hair Love
Hair Love Neoma Nwasike Book Review When you were a little Black girl, growing up, did you embrace your beauty? Did you love the deep richness of your blackness and the uniqueness of your hair? Do yo...
If There Be Pain
If There Be Pain Jayne Cubbage Book Review On the surface it appears that Gloria Mallette has designed her latest novel, If There Be Pain to read like a chronicle of the life of Kyle Lawson, a selfi...
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...
Looking for Happy
Looking for Happy Judy Allen Dodson Book Review “Some days, Happy is Hard to Find” as we set out on a quest in this heartfelt and hopeful picture book, Looking For Happy, which follows a ...
Read Until You Understand
Read Until You Understand Robert Fleming Book Review With a solid array of books to her credit, Farah Jasmine Griffin has possibly written one of the artistic highlights in the national book marketpl...
Street Journeys
Street Journeys Kam Williams street-jouneys-movie-poster.jpg Film Review Street Journeys (2011) Director: Tracy Christian Kenya, 2011, Duration 58 min., English & Swahili In the he...
Not a Day Goes By
Not a Day Goes By Paige Turner Book Review Lifestyles of the Bitch and Famous If you enjoy the big payback and revenge, then popular writer E. Lynn Harris’ is "da man", and his lat...
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 "...
Mimi’s Village and How Basic Health Care Transformed It
Mimi’s Village and How Basic Health Care Transformed It Kam Williams Book Review “Mimi’s fictional village is like thousands of real villages in the developing world, where health care...
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...
Free Lunch
Free Lunch Kam Williams Book Review ’The evidence of a growing divide between the superrich and everyone else in America is so overwhelming that all but the few lightweight ideologues amo...
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...