AALBC Search

Found 75 matching records for “Somebody Blew Up America & Other Poems”.
Excerpt

Raisins in Milk – Chapter 1

by Chauncey Ridley

Raisins in Milk – Chapter 1 Chauncey Ridley Excerpt Raisins in Milk – Chapter 1 Mandarin, Florida Springtime 1913 The breeze that came in from the sea was warm. It brought with it also the...

Excerpt

Wicked Enchantment: Selected Poems

by Wanda Coleman

Wicked Enchantment: Selected Poems Wanda Coleman Excerpt “Wanda Why Aren’t You Dead“ from Wicked Enchantment: Selected Poems “American Sonnet“ from Wicked Ench...

Excerpt

A PERFECT WORLD: (A Perry Richards Novel)

by Bernard Alexander McNealy

A PERFECT WORLD: (A Perry Richards Novel) Bernard Alexander McNealy Excerpt From Chapter 2: On Shaky Ground I moved to the porch baluster…leaning closer to her. ’You aren’t ruling...

Excerpt

Dead Emcee Scrolls: The Lost Teachings of Hip-Hop

by Saul Williams

Dead Emcee Scrolls: The Lost Teachings of Hip-Hop Saul Williams Excerpt A CONFESSION There is no music more powerful than hip-hop. No other music so purely demands an instant affirmative on such ...

Excerpt

Black Wings & Blind Angels: Poems

by Professor Griff

Black Wings & Blind Angels: Poems Professor Griff Excerpt Breaking Karma #5 i It is like a scene in a play. His bald spot shines upward between dark tufts of hair. We are sitting in a pool of...

Excerpt

Life Upon These Shores: Looking at African American History, 1513-2008

by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

Life Upon These Shores: Looking at African American History, 1513-2008 Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Excerpt Introduction Before the pen of Jefferson etched the majestic words of the Declaration of Ind...

Excerpt

Introduction: The Isley Brothers’ 3+3

by Darrell M. McNeill

Introduction: The Isley Brothers’ 3+3 Darrell M. McNeill Excerpt Introduction The Isley Brothers Are America’s Most Tenured Rock and Roll Group: Deal with it. All you are ever told in this ...

Excerpt

WHEN MINORITIES LEAD IN AMERICA: A Black Theologians Political Journey

by Herman J. Fountain Jr.

WHEN MINORITIES LEAD IN AMERICA: A Black Theologians Political Journey Herman J. Fountain Jr. Excerpt Growing up in the fifties in Louisville, Kentucky, I wondered how much I was like the other kids ...

Excerpt

On My Journey Now: Looking At African-American History Through The Spirituals

by Nikki Giovanni

On My Journey Now: Looking At African-American History Through The Spirituals Nikki Giovanni Excerpt America was looking for very, very, very cheap labor, because they wanted workers who were e...

Excerpt

Embracing the Horror

by Darline Dorce-Coupet

Embracing the Horror Darline Dorce-Coupet Excerpt San Juan although very beautiful was a blur, as I contemplated the mysteries of the powerful desire I was experiencing. So completely absorbed by m...

Excerpt

INTRODUCTION

by Khristi Lauren Adams

INTRODUCTION Khristi Lauren Adams Excerpt INTRODUCTION The turn of the millennium has seen an upsurge in new and young African writers and this has been particularly noticeable in terms of the num...

Excerpt

God in the Ghetto: A Prophetic Word Revisited

by William Augustus Jones Jr.

God in the Ghetto: A Prophetic Word Revisited William Augustus Jones Jr. Excerpt Chapter 1: The System “The System” refers implicitly to the American trinity of capitalism, racism,...

Excerpt

Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America

by Ibram X. Kendi

Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America Ibram X. Kendi Excerpt PART I Cotton Mather CHAPTER 1 Human Hierarchy THEY WEATHERED BRUTAL WINTERS, suffered...

Excerpt

The Unmaking Of The Black Man

by Gibran Tariq and Gregory S. Jones

The Unmaking Of The Black Man Gibran Tariq and Gregory S. Jones Excerpt THE OTHER END OF THE STICK The social revolution for the control of the black image had a profound impact on the sistas as w...

Excerpt

Dick Gregory’s Natural Diet for Folks Who Eat: Cookin’ with Mother Nature

by Dick Gregory

Dick Gregory’s Natural Diet for Folks Who Eat: Cookin’ with Mother Nature Dick Gregory Excerpt 1Warning: The Author Has Determined That Not Reading the Following Pages Is Dangerous to Your Health ...

Excerpt

Haint Blue

by Katherine Dempsey

Haint Blue Katherine Dempsey Excerpt Go On Girl! Book Club’s 2021 Unpublished Writers Award Winner Haint BlueChapter One March 2021 “My brain reeled as I saw the mighty walls rus...

Excerpt

Where to Choose: A Novel

by Penny Mickelbury

Where to Choose: A Novel Penny Mickelbury Excerpt Chapter Four Late-morning sun shone directly down on the purple and lilac and pink and white bougainvillea; shone easily through the tops of to...

Excerpt

The Other Side of the Game

by Anita Doreen Diggs

The Other Side of the Game Anita Doreen Diggs Excerpt CHAPTER 5 EVELYN Phil is taking me to B.B. King’s blues club in Manhattan so I’m trying to find the right pair ...

Excerpt

Coming Forth by Day

by Kakwasi Somadhi

Coming Forth by Day Kakwasi Somadhi Excerpt Excerpt from Chapter Seven When Loretha showed up with Solly that hot July evening, the village was already crowded. Men and women with Afros as big as ...

Excerpt

Will by Will Smith

by Robert Fleming

Will by Will Smith Robert Fleming Excerpt one FEAR I’ve always thought of myself as a coward. Most of my memories of my childhood involve me being afraid in some way-afraid of other kids,...

Excerpt

Running to Fall — Chapters 1 & 2

by Kalisha Buckhanon

Running to Fall — Chapters 1 & 2 Kalisha Buckhanon Excerpt ONE MARCH 2021 Right around time things started reopening, the late March thaw brought a lifeless girl up to the tail end of the Grays...

Excerpt

Running to Fall — Chapters 1 & 2

by Kalisha Buckhanon

Running to Fall — Chapters 1 & 2 Kalisha Buckhanon Excerpt ONE MARCH 2021 Right around time things started reopening, the late March thaw brought a lifeless girl up to the tail end of the Grays...

Excerpt

Wonderful Ethiopians Of The Ancient Cushite Empire, Book 1

by Drusilla Dunjee Houston

Wonderful Ethiopians Of The Ancient Cushite Empire, Book 1 Drusilla Dunjee Houston Excerpt The minds of men today are stirred with eager questionings about the origin of civilization and about ...

Excerpt

The Angry Ones

by John A. Williams

The Angry Ones John A. Williams Excerpt You remember a lot of things about a trip across America. You remember the sandstone rocks reared above red and brown plains, the twisted, fiercely shaped arro...

Excerpt

Bone to Pick: Of Forgiveness, Reconciliation, Reparation, and Revenge

by Ellis Cose

Bone to Pick: Of Forgiveness, Reconciliation, Reparation, and Revenge Ellis Cose Excerpt To forgive the truly horrible is to kiss the robe of God, to emulate no less a figure than the dying Jesus Chr...

Excerpt

The Color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother

by James McBride

The Color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother James McBride Excerpt CHAPTER ONE Dead I’m dead. You want to talk about my family and here I been dead to them for fifty y...

Excerpt

Zora Neale Hurston: A Life In Letters by Carla Kaplan

by Zora Neale Hurston

Zora Neale Hurston: A Life In Letters by Carla Kaplan Zora Neale Hurston Excerpt Chapter 1 “DE TALKIN’ GAME” The Twenties (and Before) First and foremost a storyteller, with ...

Excerpt

Standing Tall

by Jake Sloan

Standing Tall Jake Sloan Excerpt 1 The Culture: Southern Influence at a West Coast Installation, 1930—1961 The year 1961 was the one that a future president of the United States, Barack Husse...

Excerpt

Night Hawks: Stories

by Charles Johnson

Night Hawks: Stories Charles Johnson Excerpt The Weave Three thieves battered through a wall, crawled close to the floor to dodge motion detectors and stole six duffel bags filled with human hair ...

Excerpt

A Thug’s Redemption

by Yani

A Thug’s Redemption Yani Excerpt Shawn, Jamal and Maurice headed over to Erie Avenue to check out a basketball game in a nearby playground. Shawn was scoping out the competition to see who he would ...

Excerpt

Obsessive Intimacies

by Yani

Obsessive Intimacies Yani Excerpt This nigga must’ve either lost his fucking mind or he thinks I’m still the same dumb and naïve Tierra from high-school and college. I know muthafucking ...

Excerpt

Hot Johnny (and the Women Who Loved Him)

by Sandra Jackson-Opoku

Hot Johnny (and the Women Who Loved Him) Sandra Jackson-Opoku Excerpt He knew just how to feed them You see all our hungry faces in the photo album of his life. And you wonder. Who is ...

Excerpt

A Lesson Before Dying

by Ernest J. Gaines

A Lesson Before Dying Ernest J. Gaines Excerpt I was not there, yet I was there. No, I did not go to the trial, I did not hear the verdict, because I knew all the time what it would be. Still,...

Excerpt

Diamonds and Pearl

by K’wan

Diamonds and Pearl K’wan Excerpt CHAPTER 1 New Orleans, L.A.: Sept. 2005 “It looks bad out there, man.” Larry said staring out the rain slicked window of the second floor bedroom. I...

Excerpt

Pieces from Life’s Crazy Quilt

by Marvin V. Arnett

Pieces from Life’s Crazy Quilt Marvin V. Arnett Excerpt When my mother saw the smiles on our faces, she heaved a sigh of relief. When she asked my father what he though of my teacher, he answer...

Excerpt

Juneteenth

by Ralph Ellison

Juneteenth Ralph Ellison Excerpt After Ellison’s death on April 16, 1994, speculation about the existence of the second novel reignited. In an article in the New York Times, William Grimes asse...

Excerpt

Provenance: A Novel

by Donna Drew Sawyer

Provenance: A Novel Donna Drew Sawyer Excerpt Prologue Park Place, Virginia - Fall 1909 “Hank, run!” was the last thing he heard Junior say. Deputies struggled to hold and handcuff ...

Excerpt

My Soul to Keep

by Tananarive Due

My Soul to Keep Tananarive Due Excerpt Even now, alone, Dawit knew he was being watched. One of the Searchers had found him, perhaps months before. He’d noticed a cigarette butt half bur...

Excerpt

Sometimes I Cry

by Linda Dominique Grosvenor

Sometimes I Cry Linda Dominique Grosvenor Excerpt I have never been more anxious in my entire life than I am right now. I’m sitting at my desk with an hour or more to kill and a list of things...

Excerpt

Morning Drive to Midnight

by Renee Prewitt Killingsworth

Morning Drive to Midnight Renee Prewitt Killingsworth Excerpt After working together awhile, Adrienne and Selena developed a bond that transcended simple friendship. Adrienne used to say they clicke...

Excerpt

Into Africa: A Personal Journey

by Yvonne Blackwood

Into Africa: A Personal Journey Yvonne Blackwood Excerpt “On Sunday afternoon Adamson and I returned to Labadi Beach. I did a double take when we entered the gate. The empty stretch of beach I&...

Excerpt

A Letter for My Mother

by Nina Foxx

A Letter for My Mother Nina Foxx Excerpt Nina Foxx’s Letter: A Letter to My Once Mother-in-Law Charlenne, The doctors say that it won’t be long now. Your son just called and told m...

Excerpt

Cowards and Angels

by Aileen Muhammad

Cowards and Angels Aileen Muhammad Excerpt Mia (From Cowards and Angels) Death before dishonor. An embrace like no other. A fair exchange. An honored declaration that life’s sagging hypocr...

Excerpt

Black Man’s Version to Exhale

by Akie F. Davis

Black Man’s Version to Exhale Akie F. Davis Excerpt Introduction We know all too well of the frustrating encounters that many Black women have had when dealing with Black men. However, little h...

Excerpt

Consequences

by Martha Kennerson

Consequences Martha Kennerson Excerpt Prologue Don’t pass out. Do not pass out. Kristine didn’t want to be that girl—the one who gets so tanked that she loses consciousness....

Excerpt

Alain Locke: An Introduction

by Charles Molesworth

Alain Locke: An Introduction Charles Molesworth Excerpt ALAIN LOCKE: AN INTRODUCTION(Part 1)      Alain Locke established his intellectual brilliance by a lifetime of study ...

Excerpt

West of Rehoboth

by Alexs D. Pate

West of Rehoboth Alexs D. Pate Excerpt The soft summer held them all. They gently sat upon the shimmering flecks of sun hidden in the cut grass. They came together like this every Fourth of July. It ...

Excerpt

Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle

by Chris Hedges

Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle Chris Hedges Excerpt Now the death of God combined with the perfection of the image has brought us to a whole new state of expe...

Excerpt

Peace From Broken Pieces: How To Get Through What You’re Going Through

by Iyanla Vanzant

Peace From Broken Pieces: How To Get Through What You’re Going Through Iyanla Vanzant Excerpt It is often difficult to identify the exact moment that your life falls apart. In most cases, it is not a...

Excerpt

Overtime

by Connie Barrett

Overtime Connie Barrett Excerpt Chapter One:With one foot lodged in her house shoe, Toi searched in vain for the other, all the while fighting the urge to roll back into the warm covers that invi...

Excerpt

Dear G-Spot: Straight Talk About Sex and Love

by Zane

Dear G-Spot: Straight Talk About Sex and Love Zane Excerpt Chapter One: Sexual Addiction Sexual addiction is a topic very near and dear to my heart. When I first decided to write my novel Add...

Excerpt

Journey To Justice

by Johnnie Cochran

Journey To Justice Johnnie Cochran Excerpt WHY I WANTED TO BE A LAWYER I have often been asked why I wanted to be a lawyer. One of the most important things that happened to me during ...

Excerpt

Unsung Heroes

by Elizabeth Ross Haynes

Unsung Heroes Elizabeth Ross Haynes Excerpt In casting about for stories to read to a little friend, one day I drew from the Library "My Life and Times" by Frederick Douglass. I knew that t...

Excerpt

In the Still of the Night: Personal Safety for Women

by Andrea Foy

In the Still of the Night: Personal Safety for Women Andrea Foy Excerpt Une Nuit de Paris\ “How did I get myself into this mess?” I thought. There I was, riding on the Metro out of Par...

Excerpt

You Are Free: Stories

by Danzy Senna

You Are Free: Stories Danzy Senna Excerpt What’s the Matter with Helga and Dave? When I married Hewitt, I didn’t realize — among other things — that I would become a member...

Excerpt

Forbidden Fruit

by Stanley Gazemba

Forbidden Fruit Stanley Gazemba Excerpt The air over the village that evening was pregnant with tension. A thick dark cloud loomed heavy above the grey colored thatch huts that dotted the steep green...

Excerpt

Standing at the Scratch Line

by Guy Johnson

Standing at the Scratch Line Guy Johnson Excerpt LeRoi picked up the rifle that was leaning against a root with its stock in the water. He checked the barrel carefully for obstructions, then mounted ...

Excerpt

Chasing Ava

by Siera London

Chasing Ava Siera London Excerpt Ava had been distracted for days, Logan noticed. When he’d questioned her, she denied that there was a problem. But she seemed more fragile and solitary. Even w...

Excerpt

Sister Betty Says I Do

by Pat G’Orge Walker

Sister Betty Says I Do Pat G’Orge Walker Excerpt Chapter 1 One year later… Moments earlier the sun had slowly rose on this sure-to-be blazing hot Saturday morning. For much of her adult ...

Excerpt

The Husband We Share

by London St. Charles

The Husband We Share London St. Charles Excerpt Chapter One Lauren Carter screamed and bolted upright in her bed, snatched from the reoccurring nightmare that had plagued her for years. She touched ...

Excerpt

Chapter 3 Jonathan Fraiser

by J. A. Faulkerson

Chapter 3 Jonathan Fraiser J. A. Faulkerson Excerpt Mr. Black led me down a spiral, granite staircase surrounded by granite walls with more ornate carvings on them.  When we reached the...

Excerpt

The New Negro: Voices Of The Harlem Renaissance

by Jose Andres and Matt Goulding

The New Negro: Voices Of The Harlem Renaissance Jose Andres and Matt Goulding Excerpt “Harlem” by Alain Locke If we were to offer a symbol of what Harlem has come to mean in the short s...

Excerpt

The Water Dancer

by Ta-Nehisi Coates

The Water Dancer Ta-Nehisi Coates Excerpt And I could only have seen her there on the stone bridge, a dancer wreathed in ghostly blue, because that was the way they would have taken her back when I w...

Excerpt

Chapters 1 and 2

by Harlow Giles Unger

Chapters 1 and 2 Harlow Giles Unger Excerpt Chapters 1 and 2 Chapter 1College Is Not for Everyone So your kid says he or she wants to go to college. “All my friends are going!&rdq...

Excerpt

CHAPTER 1: Stunt Work

by Pam Grier

CHAPTER 1: Stunt Work Pam Grier Excerpt CHAPTER 1: Stunt Work I was snuggled in my mother’s arms in the backseat of the old Buick. My dad’s Air Force buddy was at the wheel, driving us...

Excerpt

Unbossed: How Black Girls Are Leading the Way

by Helon Habila and Kadija Sesay

Unbossed: How Black Girls Are Leading the Way Helon Habila and Kadija Sesay Excerpt Chapter 1 When she was just five years old, Ssanyu Lukoma fell in love with a book called Rosa, an inspiring chi...

Excerpt

His Name Is George Floyd: One Man’s Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice

by Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa

His Name Is George Floyd: One Man’s Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa Excerpt Chapter 1 An Ordinary Day “It’s Memorial Day. Y&rsq...

Excerpt

Wolf Hustle

by Cin Fabré

Wolf Hustle Cin Fabré Excerpt Introduction The hustle has always been with me. Once I discovered the stock market I became infected with the delirious joy that comes from a successful speculative ...

Excerpt

Everything Fades Away

by Zane

Everything Fades Away Zane Excerpt An Excerpt (expletives redacted) Lust is the benefit of self at the expense of others. Love is the benefit of others at the expense of self. The first lick...

Excerpt

American Wings

by Sherri L. Smith and Elizabeth Wein

American Wings Sherri L. Smith and Elizabeth Wein Excerpt PROLOGUE A Dream Takes Flight Omaha, Nebraska, 1919 It was going to cost three dollars to ride—about $50 in 2023, but the wo...

Excerpt

Woleté The Story of an Enslaved Ethiopian Girl

by Aklilu Kidanu Woldegiorgis

Woleté The Story of an Enslaved Ethiopian Girl Aklilu Kidanu Woldegiorgis Excerpt Part 5 The Catastrophe In one unsuspecting bright morning, the lives of a happy girl and her childhood friends ch...

Excerpt

Tuff: A Novel

by Paul Beatty

Tuff: A Novel Paul Beatty Excerpt Now on this, the last cool night of summer, Brooklyn was short three more niggers for Winston to hate. Although he addressed all black men as “God,” Ch...

Excerpt

Table of Contents <em>Black Power, Black Lawyer: My Audacious Quest for Justice</em>

by Nkechi Taifa

Table of Contents Black Power, Black Lawyer: My Audacious Quest for Justice Nkechi Taifa Excerpt Table of Contents Black Power, Black Lawyer: Memoir of Nkechi Taifa Prologue—“Judge Not” Red Ba...

Excerpt

IN STATES TO THE SOUTHWEST

by Carter G. Woodson

IN STATES TO THE SOUTHWEST Carter G. Woodson Excerpt CHAPTER VI IN STATES TO THE SOUTHWEST Elsewhere the natives on or near the West Coast had not developed such political organizations as those wh...

Excerpt

The Fisher King: A Novel

by Paule Marshall

The Fisher King: A Novel Paule Marshall Excerpt Chapter 1 &quot;Had the brass-face to come round me playing the Sodom and Gomorrah music!&quot; The old woman they said was his g...

×

Reset Password

Enter your email address below and we will send you a secure link to reset your password.