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Lee Daniels’ The Butler (2013)
Lee Daniels’ The Butler (2013) Kam Williams the-butler.jpg Film Review Forest Whitaker Delivers Oscar-Quality Performance in Emotionally-Searing Civil Rights Saga Lee Daniels’ The Butler...
Madea’s Witness Protection
Madea’s Witness Protection Kam Williams madeas-witness-protection.jpg Film Review Tyler Perry and Eugene Levy Make for Strange Bedfellows in Fish-Out-of-Water Comedy Madea’s Witness Protec...
Positive Obsession: The Life and Times of Octavia E. Butler
Positive Obsession: The Life and Times of Octavia E. Butler Robert Fleming Book Review { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "Review", "headline": "Review of Positive Obsession: The...
Positive Obsession: The Life and Times of Octavia E. Butler
Positive Obsession: The Life and Times of Octavia E. Butler Robert Fleming Book Review { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "Review", "headline": "Review of Positive Obsession: The...
Blacktrospective 2013 by Kam Williams
Blacktrospective 2013 by Kam Williams Kam Williams http://aalbc.com/reviews/20-feet-from-stardom.jpg Film Review Blacktrospective 2013 - Annual Assessment of the Best in Black Cinema Each year we pub...
The “Lee Daniels’ The Butler” Interview
The “Lee Daniels’ The Butler” Interview Kam Williams https://aalbc.com/reviews/the-butler.jpg Film Review Two-Time Oscar-Nominee Talks about His Latest Offering Photo by Pascal Le Segretain – © 2...
Parable of the Sower
Parable of the Sower Tony Lindsay Book Review Parable of the Sower, Octavia Butler’s sci-fi novel gives the reader an intimate look into the mind of a young philosopher. Lauren Oya Olamina is a...
The Wounds Are the Witness
The Wounds Are the Witness Denolyn Carroll Book Review The Wounds Are the Witness speaks to the often disregarded or denied cycles of pain and trauma among marginalized and disenfranchised people, wh...
Conversations With Octavia Butler
Conversations With Octavia Butler Robert Fleming Book Review As the sole major black female author of science fiction throughout her career, Octavia Butler reshaped the fictional world of fantasy ...
Material Witness: The Drew Smith Series
Material Witness: The Drew Smith Series Robert Fleming Book Review In this third installment of Norwood Holland’s acclaimed Drew Smith Series, Material Witness, there are a few wrinkles in both...
Never Been a Time
Never Been a Time Thumper Book Review I am continuing my own personal goal of reading more history and biography books. If my memory serves me correctly, I think it had something to d...
Slaves with Swag: The Negroes Your History Teacher Forgot to Mention
Slaves with Swag: The Negroes Your History Teacher Forgot to Mention Kam Williams Book Review “Every February, your history teachers taught you about nine African-Americans: Martin Luther Kin...
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...
Choosing Deceit
Choosing Deceit Jill Robinson Book Review In this fantasy novel about the tenuous relationship man has with faith and spirituality, readers follow a young immortal named Lae on his quest to...
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...
Lackawanna Blues
Lackawanna Blues Brian Egeston lackaw3.jpg Film Review How Matriarchs Have Made Us A Film Review of Lackawanna Blues. Lackawanna Blues (2005) (TV) Directed by George C. Wolfe Written by Ruben Santi...
The Darkling
The Darkling Robert Fleming Book Review This debut novel, by Keoni Anderson, has all of the earmarks of one of the pulps from the golden age of science fiction, with Henry, the fresh-scrubbed ...
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...
New Harmony: A Mother’s Story of Love and Loss
New Harmony: A Mother’s Story of Love and Loss Robert Fleming Book Review A complete reading of this debut novel by Leon E. Pettiway, a professor emeritus at Indiana University and an ordained Buddhi...
The Love Ethic
The Love Ethic Robert Fleming Book Review Inspired by their work with African American couples at their Chicago organization, the acclaimed Twinlineal Institute, Kamau and Akilah Butler, bo...
Olympus Has Fallen
Olympus Has Fallen Kam Williams olympus-has-fallen-angela-bassett-Morgan-Freeman.jpg Film Review Olympus Has Fallen (2013) Click to order DVD from Amazon In Theaters: Mar 22, 2013 Wide ...
Code Name: The Cleaner
Code Name: The Cleaner Kam Williams code_n62.jpg Film Review DVD Features Cedric the Entertainer in Comic Crime Caper Code Name: The Cleaner Click to order via Amazon ...
African American History for Dummies
African American History for Dummies Kam Williams Book Review ’African-American history, to be clear, is so much more than a handful of extraordinary individuals or practices like slaver...
Creating Black Americans
Creating Black Americans Kam Williams Book Review ’Over the course of more than two centuries, black American artists have represented their history- scrupulously, meaningfully, and brilliantl...
The First Eight: A Personal History of the Pioneering Black Congressmen Who Shaped a Nation
The First Eight: A Personal History of the Pioneering Black Congressmen Who Shaped a Nation Robert Fleming Book Review South Carolina Congressman Jim Clyburn’s The First Eight: A Personal Histo...
Louise Thompson Patterson, A Life of Struggle and Justice by Keith Gilyard
Louise Thompson Patterson, A Life of Struggle and Justice by Keith Gilyard Brenda M. Greene Book Review To study her story is to witness the courage, sacrifice, vision and discipline of someone who s...
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...
Fail Up: 20 Lessons on Building Success from Failure
Fail Up: 20 Lessons on Building Success from Failure Kam Williams Book Review "If they’re being honest, most people who have ever succeeded in any human endeavor will tell you they learn...
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...
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 ...
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. ...
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...
Gift of Truth
Gift of Truth Michelle Paynter Book Review There are literary craftsmen who spend a lifetime writing in one particular genre, and there are others who possess a creative and literary zeal, which ...
Drinking Coffee Elsewhere
Drinking Coffee Elsewhere Linda Watkins Book Review Short story collections that are strong and rich throughout are rare finds. Most contain one or two good stories accompanied by mediocre ones....
Dearly Beloved
Dearly Beloved Shaundale Rénā Book Review Dearly Beloved: Prince, Spirituality, & This Thing Called Life opens with a recommended viewing of Sign O’ the Times and a curated list of songs se...
The Redemption Center is Closed on Sundays
The Redemption Center is Closed on Sundays Shaundale Rénā Book Review The Redemption Center Is Closed on Sundays was not at all what I expected. Although an avid reader, I challenged myself to enjoy ...
Rising Up From the Blood: A Legacy Reclaimed—A Bridge Forward: The Autobiography of Sarah Wash
Rising Up From the Blood: A Legacy Reclaimed—A Bridge Forward: The Autobiography of Sarah Wash Kam Williams Book Review “I am proud and honored to be the great-granddaughter of Booker T. Wash...
Still I Rise
Still I Rise Kam Williams Book Review ’One of the invaluable features of Still I Rise, the first cartoon history of black America, is the wealth of information it provides abo...
Living Black History
Living Black History Kam Williams Book Review ’Since race itself is a fraudulent concept, devoid of scientific reality, racism can only be justified through the suppression of black counter-n...
Adam by Adam
Adam by Adam Thumper Book Review ’Never let anyone keep you contained and never let anyone keep your voice silent.’ -Adam Clayton Powell, Sr. to a young Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. If I were...
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...
Black Power, Black Lawyer: My Audacious Quest for Justice
Black Power, Black Lawyer: My Audacious Quest for Justice Carol Taylor Book Review Much more than a memoir, Black Power, Black Lawyer traces not only Nkechi Taifa’s personal life, and her decad...
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...
Surviving and Thriving: 365 Facts in Black Economic History
Surviving and Thriving: 365 Facts in Black Economic History Kam Williams Book Review “In her poem, ‘And Still I Rise,’ Dr. Maya Angelou wrote, ‘You can write me down in h...
American Tapestry: The Story of the Black
American Tapestry: The Story of the Black Kam Williams Book Review “On November 4, 2008, Michelle Obama stood before a crowd of thousands of roaring, singing and weeping supporters in Chi...
United in Anger: A History of ACT UP
United in Anger: A History of ACT UP Kam Williams united-in-anger.jpg Film Review Riveting Gay Rights Retrospective Revisits Rise of AIDS Activism Movement United in Anger: A History of ACT ...
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...
Awaken
Awaken Melissa Brown Levine Book Review Awaken is a powerful story about heritage and restoration. Author Timothy George takes an innovative approach in this African-focused tale by combining m...
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 ...
Harlem Crossroads
Harlem Crossroads Kam Williams Book Review ’The story I tell begins with an introductory account of how photography came to Harlem- that is, how Harlem became, after the Renaissance and at...
Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention
Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention Robert Fleming Book Review Dr. Manning Marable, a professor of history at Columbia University and author of fifteen books, knew how important and controversial ...
Adam by Adam: The Autobiography of Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.
Adam by Adam: The Autobiography of Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Thumper Book Review ’Never let anyone keep you contained and never let anyone keep your voice silent.’ -Adam Clayton Powell, ...
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...
Sankofa University: Studying African-Centered History and Culture
Sankofa University: Studying African-Centered History and Culture Robert Fleming Book Review Dr. Burnett Kwadwo Gallman’s Sankofa University: Studying African-Centered History And Culture, is a...
Seven Sisters And A Brother
Seven Sisters And A Brother Denolyn Carroll Book Review History has recorded many instances of struggles for varied rights by a people haunted by the legacies of slavery. Yet, too often some such o...
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...
A People’s History of the United States
A People’s History of the United States Kam Williams Book Review "There is not a country in world history in which racism has been more important, for so long a time, as the United Stat...
The History of White People
The History of White People Kam Williams Book Review "Most Americans envision whiteness as racially indivisible, though ethnically divided; this is the scheme anthropologists laid out in the mid ...
The Ancestors
The Ancestors Thumper Book Review The Ancestors is an anthology featuring stories by authors L.A. Banks, Tananarive Due and Brandon Massey. I am always happy to come across science fiction ...
Uncle Tom: A Oral History of the American Black Conservative
Uncle Tom: A Oral History of the American Black Conservative Troy Johnson https://aalbc.com/reviews/images/Uncle-tom-movie-poster.jpg Film Review Rating: NR Genre: Documentary Directed By: Just...
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...
The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks
The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks Kam Williams Book Review “Described by the New York Times as ‘the accidental matriarch of the civil rights movement,’ the Rosa Parks who surf...
Welcome To Death Row: The Uncensored Oral History of Death Row Records in the Words of Those Who Were There
Welcome To Death Row: The Uncensored Oral History of Death Row Records in the Words of Those Who Were There Kam Williams Book Review “In the wake of Marion ‘Suge’ Knight’s mov...
The Legacy of Islamic Anti-Semitism
The Legacy of Islamic Anti-Semitism Kam Williams Book Review ’Is Islamic anti-Semitism only a modern phenomenon? During the last fifteen years, certain Western scholars have t...
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...
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...
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...
Choreographing the Folk
Choreographing the Folk Kam Williams Book Review ’Although I studied ballet and modern from an early age, jazz dance was my greatest love… In these predominantly white ...
In-Dependence from Bondage
In-Dependence from Bondage Kam Williams Book Review ’Claude McKay (1890-1948) and Michael N. Manley (1924-1997) shared a common commitment to the struggle of African Diaspora people for libe...
Digging
Digging Robert Fleming Book Review The literary legacy of award-winning writer and poet Amiri Baraka continues to thrive as he releases another new book, Digging: The Afro-American Soul Of ...
My Mother’s Mother by Maryse Conde
My Mother’s Mother by Maryse Conde Thumper Book Review One of my favorite authors in the whole wide world is back with a new novel that I loved, loved, loved! Maryse Condé's latest novel...
Negro with a Hat
Negro with a Hat Thumper Book Review I’m not an average reader of biographies. I am now realizing the older I get, the more biographies and history books my reading palette finds attr...
Jelly Roll: A Blues
Jelly Roll: A Blues Rondall Brasher Book Review Please allow me to set off the mood of this review by quoting one of my favorite Blues songs: I’ve been downhearted baby Ever since th...
Malcolm X: A Graphic Biography
Malcolm X: A Graphic Biography Troy Johnson Book Review The age of multitasking needs better narrative history. It must be absolutely factual, immediately accessible, smart, and brilliantly fun....
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...
Between the World and Me
Between the World and Me Kam Williams Book Review “In a profound work that pivots from the biggest questions about american history and ideals to the most intimate concerns of a father for h...
Solving The Race Issue In America by H. J. Harris
Solving The Race Issue In America by H. J. Harris Robert Fleming Book Review This slender book, written by Harris, states it holds the solution to American racism, examining the checkered history of...
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...
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...
Merritt Magic
Merritt Magic Robert Fleming Book Review Melinda Merritt’s nonfiction book, Merritt Magic, is a publication that defies category. In these pages, the reader will discover a reflective, mythical...
Black Hands White House: Slave Labor and the Making of America
Black Hands White House: Slave Labor and the Making of America Robert Fleming Book Review Renee K. Harrison, an associate professor of African American and US religious history at Howard University, ...
Burial Ground
Burial Ground Eryka Parker Book Review I recently spent time diving into the pages of Burial Ground, a collection of poetry by Glenda R. Taylor. The ethereal cover and enticing description sucked me ...
If My Hair Had a Voice
If My Hair Had a Voice Lisa Y? Wilson Book Review When another comb loses the battle with Kimya’s natural coils, feeling shame she apologizes and asks, “Can’t we just straighten it?...
Inheriting the Trade: A Northern Family Confronts Its Legacy as the Largest Slave-Trading Dynasty in U.S. History
Inheriting the Trade: A Northern Family Confronts Its Legacy as the Largest Slave-Trading Dynasty in U.S. History Kam Williams Book Review ’If you are able to see [your ancestors&...
Moses and the Monster and Miss Anne
Moses and the Monster and Miss Anne Thumper Book Review I admit that the things that form my initial impressions of a book are somewhat shallow. I love a good book cover, whether it is pictures or ...
Divas on Screen: Black Women in American Film
Divas on Screen: Black Women in American Film Kam Williams Book Review I admit that the things that form my initial impressions of a book are somewhat shallow. I love a good book cover, whether it...
Killing the Messenger: A Story of Radical Faith
Killing the Messenger: A Story of Radical Faith Kam Williams Book Review "When a 19 year-old member of a Black Muslim cult assassinated Chauncey Bailey in 2007—the most shocking killing...
Who We Be: The Colorization of America
Who We Be: The Colorization of America Kam Williams Book Review “Race. A four-letter word. The greatest social divide in American life, a half-century ago and today. During that time, the ...
Scottsboro
Scottsboro Thumper Book Review The history book train that I hopped on a few months ago is still rolling strong with no station stop in sight. The ride continues with the novel Scottsboro ...
Virginia Hamilton: Speeches
Virginia Hamilton: Speeches Kam Williams Book Review ’In the 35 years between the publication of her first book and her death in 2002, Virginia Hamilton earned a place of honor in the p...
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...
Unburdened by Conscience: A Black People’s Collective Account of America’s Antebellum So
Unburdened by Conscience: A Black People’s Collective Account of America’s Antebellum So Kam Williams Book Review "While pursuing my Bachelor of Arts degree in college, I took a lot of history cour...
Tangled Dreams
Tangled Dreams Kirkus Book Review A fantastic example of ancestry-driven fiction. In Friedman’s novel, a cultural anthropology professor at a crossroads receives a grant that draws her back into h...
Lighting the Fires of Freedom by Janet Dewart Bell
Lighting the Fires of Freedom by Janet Dewart Bell Brenda M. Greene Book Review In Lighting the Fires of Freedom: African American Women in the Civil Rights Movement (The New Press, 2018), Dr. Janet ...
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...
The Dagger
The Dagger Hedi Harrington Book Review Timothy George’s 2016 novel, The Dagger, should come with a warning to all readers: “Fasten your seatbelts.” The fast-paced thriller is a sequ...
Dear Mary, Dear Luther: A Courtship in Letters
Dear Mary, Dear Luther: A Courtship in Letters Carol Taylor Book Review Dear Mary, Dear Luther: A Courtship in Letters is an epistolary love story of a 1930s courtship between Mary Brooks and Luther ...
Alex Haley and the Books that Changed a Nation
Alex Haley and the Books that Changed a Nation Adam Henig Book Review In Alex Haley and the Books that Changed a Nation, Robert J. Norrell, professor of history at the University of Tennessee, Knoxvi...
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...