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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...
My View from the Summit (VFS)
My View from the Summit (VFS) Carol Taylor Book Review My View From The Summit is Nicole Thomas’s “inspiring personal memoir” reflecting on her experiences and life lessons on m...
Supreme Discomfort
Supreme Discomfort Kam Williams Book Review ’[Clarence] Thomas once said he would never accept a race-based job, and yet he spent an entire federal career in such positions’ The irony i...
Long Fall
Long Fall Thumper Book Review I started Walter Mosley’s The Long Fall with a bit of left over anger and some anticipation. I’m not going to lie, I did not ever think that I would feel...
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...
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...
Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom
Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom Kam Williams mandela-2013-alternate-movie-poster.jpg Film Review Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom In Theaters: Nov 29, 2013 Limited PG-13 for sexuality, intense violence...
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...
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...
Fourplay: The Dance of Sensuality
Fourplay: The Dance of Sensuality Thumper Book Review Fourplay…the Dance of Sensuality, the latest novel by Brenda L. Thomas, is the continuing story of Sasha Boranni from Thomas’s firs...
Why I Sued the Bible Publishers
Why I Sued the Bible Publishers Robert Fleming Book Review If there was ever a book title that yelled its intentions, this is it. The book’s author, Bradley Fowler, one of the faithful of Presb...
What Makes You Come Alive: A Spiritual Walk with Howard Thurman
What Makes You Come Alive: A Spiritual Walk with Howard Thurman Robert Fleming Book Review This was a labor of love. Over seven years ago, it was the mission of Dr. Lerita Coleman Brown, a Harvard-tr...
Long Train…
Long Train… Jacqueline Jones LaMon Book Review One of the magical qualities of reading is that we are transported from who we are and all that we know to be true into other realms. We are intr...
Long Live the Spirit of the Million Man March
Long Live the Spirit of the Million Man March Kam Williams images/longlivemmm.jpg Film Review Long Live the Spirit of the Million Man March Click to Order via Amazon Unrated Running ti...
Muhammad Ali: The Long-Lost Movie
Muhammad Ali: The Long-Lost Movie Kam Williams ali_film.jpg Film Review Documentary Gives Glimpses of The Greatest in ’73 & ‘74 Muhammad Ali: The Long-Lost Movie Unra...
Mumia: Long Distance Revolutionary
Mumia: Long Distance Revolutionary Kam Williams mumia-movie-poster.jpg Film Review Reverential Biopic Paints Sympathetic Portrait of Controversial Cause Célèbre Mumia: Long distance Revolut...
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 ...
Losing My Cool: How a Father’s Love and 15
Losing My Cool: How a Father’s Love and 15 Kam Williams Book Review "Since the dawn of the hip-hop era in the 1970s, black people have become increasingly freer and freer as individuals, with a wid...
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...
In Trembling Boldness: Wisdom for Today from Ancient Jesus People
In Trembling Boldness: Wisdom for Today from Ancient Jesus People Denolyn Carroll Book Review The book In Trembling Boldness: Wisdom for Today from Ancient Jesus People brings us newly discovered wri...
Race Matters
Race Matters Kirby Roy III Book Review Reading and evaluating the overriding themes in Cornel West’s Race Matters, which was published in 1993, given the context of events that have occurred si...
Legacy
Legacy Michael Dequina images/LegacyPoster4-212x300.jpg Film Review Legacy [2010] LEGACY Not Rated Running time: 92 minutes Studio: Codeblack Entertainment Rating: 3 1...
My Long Trip Home: A Family Memoir
My Long Trip Home: A Family Memoir Kam Williams Book Review "His father, Syl Whitaker, was the charismatic grandson of slaves… His mother, Jeanne Theis, was a shy, World War II refugee from ...
Oh God!
Oh God! Paige Turner Book Review Sexuality is an extremely powerful force and a very real and large component of everyone’s existence. Yet black churches, like most religions through the ages, ...
Known to Evil
Known to Evil Thumper Book Review Walter Mosley is back with the second installment of his new, magnificent Lenoid McGill Mystery series, Known to Evil. Believe it or not, I got my hands on Known...
The Single Moms Club
The Single Moms Club Kam Williams The-Single-Moms-Club-poster.jpg Film Review The Single Moms Club In Theaters: Mar 14, 2014 Wide Rated PG-13 for sexuality and mature themes Running time: 11...
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...
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...
Threesome
Threesome Tiffany M. Davis Book Review I must say, this book was not what I expected. The title brings to mind images of a steamy m’nage a trois, either male/female/male or the more commonly po...
Samson
Samson Idrissa Uqdah Book Review A Man's Strength Is Determined By His Faith Christian author Jacquelin Thomas has crafted a new novel with a contemporary twist on the love story of the Bibl...
Playing with Destiny
Playing with Destiny Thumper Book Review As incredible as it may seem, I’m a tad bit in shock. I recently finished reading and actually LOVING a novel published by BET under its Sepia imprint;...
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...
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...
Well Considered By Richard Morris
Well Considered By Richard Morris Robert Fleming Book Review Some critics have often said white authors cannot capture the soul and passion of African American characters, but that is not the case ...
Am I Not a Man?
Am I Not a Man? Robert Fleming Book Review What a curious book to be written by Mark L. Shurtleff, Utah’s Attorney General! This well-researched historical novel, Am I Not A Man?,...
Kingston Noir
Kingston Noir Robert Fleming Book Review With his first anthology for Akashic, Iron Balloons, Colin Channer, author of the celebrated novel, Waiting In Vain, showcased the full range of contempo...
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 ...
Dark Dreams
Dark Dreams Thumper Book Review Author Brandon Massey (Thunderland, Dark Corner) has compiled a magnificent anthology designed to scare and terrify. Although African-American literature ha...
Gay Rebel of the Harlem Ren…
Gay Rebel of the Harlem Ren… Thumper Book Review Richard Bruce Nugent is the best well-kept secret of the Harlem Renaissance. Nugent isn’t unheard of in the annals of the Renaissance; ...
The Power of Presence
The Power of Presence Tony Lindsay Book Review The Power of Presence is a training manual for those looking to improve life, but not merely the life of an individual but those that depend on an indiv...
Heart and Soul: Poems of Thoughts & Emotions
Heart and Soul: Poems of Thoughts & Emotions V.S. Chochezi Book Review Masterful New Poetry Collection for Sipping or Gulping My observation has been that many wine drinkers tend to have a wide ar...
Don’t Drop the MIC
Don’t Drop the MIC Denolyn Carroll Book Review In Don’t Drop the Mic, renowned pastor, orator, and #1 New York Times bestselling author Bishop T. D. Jakes puts a new spin on the notion of the b...
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...
Fever in the Blood
Fever in the Blood Thumper Book Review I must say that I write this review from a somewhat prejudicial position. I am a fan of Robert Fleming. I loved the two anthologies he edited, Intimacy and ...
Dark Matter: Reading the Bones
Dark Matter: Reading the Bones Chris Hayden Book Review If It Ain’t Speculative and It Ain’t Fiction Need Black Folks Read Speculative Fiction? It distresses me when I can grant only q...
The Race Card
The Race Card Kam Williams Book Review ’Almost all Americans agree that racism is wrong’ But a lot of people also worry that the charge of racism can be abused. We can all thi...
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 Odd Life of Timothy Green
The Odd Life of Timothy Green Kam Williams the-odd-life-of-timothy-green.jpg Film Review Childless Couple’s Prayers Answered in Enchanting Fairytale The Odd Life of Timothy Green In Thea...
Do the Right Thing
Do the Right Thing Kam Williams do_the8.jpg Film Review 20th Anniversary Edition of Spike Lee Classic Now Available on DVD Do the Right Thing Click to order via ...
Repentance
Repentance Kam Williams repentance.jpg Film Review Repentance In Theaters: Feb 28, 2014 Limited Rated R for profanity, violence and torture Running time: 90 minutes Mystery & Suspense, Ho...
Ali
Ali Marvin X alimovie.jpg Film Review ""A notable and articulate advocacy of black conscientious objection came from the Nation of Islam. In 1942 Elijah Muhammad was arrested in Chicago an...
Annie
Annie Kam Williams annie-movie-poster.jpg Film Review Annie (2014) In Theaters: Dec 19, 2014 Wide Rated PG for mild epithets and rude humor Running time: 118 minutes Distributor: Columbia Pictu...
Balls of Fury
Balls of Fury Kam Williams balls_8.jpg Film Review Balls of Fury Film Review by Kam WilliamsRated PG-13 for profanity, crude behavior and sex-related humor. Running time: 90 minutes ...
The Survival Bible
The Survival Bible Kam Williams Book Review ’On April 13th, 1999, I was released from federal prison after serving 7 years for being ignorant. Yeah, I was a dope dealer’...
The Justice Imperative: How Hyper-Incarceration Has Hijacked the American Dream
The Justice Imperative: How Hyper-Incarceration Has Hijacked the American Dream Kam Williams Book Review “Our criminal justice system is in need of reform. [It] costs the taxpayers too much, ...
The Disilgold Way
The Disilgold Way Kam Williams Book Review "After starting a business proposal that took over 10 years, as long as it took to finally self publish my first book, I knew that I needed to ...
Love In A Carry-On Bag
Love In A Carry-On Bag Idrissa Uqdah Book Review As Wild As The Wind Modern technology has made a long-distance love affair more of a reality. The characters in this novel took the concept and made...
Oreo
Oreo Thumper Book Review I’m thinking, pondering, you might say, that possibly the sign of a good book isn’t the fact that it is in print. Maybe, the sign of a good book should be wheth...
Come Joy!
Come Joy! Idrissa Uqdah Book Review From reading only the first four poems in this collection; I knew I was on to something wonderful. Come Joy, Songs From The Soft of Night by Bridgette Alyce Grea...
Harlem Godfather
Harlem Godfather Idrissa Uqdah Book Review Bumpy’s Widow Tells Her Story Harlem Godfather: The Rap on my Husband, Ellsworth ’Bumpy’ Johnson has been a long time coming on the h...
Brown Glass Window
Brown Glass Window Thumper Book Review I’ve been waiting a long time for this and it is a privilege and a pleasure to state that Devorah Major’s new novel Brown Glass Window is out ...
Every Woman’s Man
Every Woman’s Man Thumper Book Review Yeah, it’s unusual for me to read a book with a title like, Every Woman’s Man, a novel by Rique Johnson. I don't normally go for the sister girl...
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...
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 ...
The Next Big Story
The Next Big Story Kam Williams Book Review "I began life as the child of a mixed-race marriage growing up in a white suburb, treated sometimes as a creature of bad circumstance… Bad things h...
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...
Lookin’ For Luv
Lookin’ For Luv Thumper Book Review I gotta be honest with y’all, I wasn’t expecting too much from this book when I picked it up. I wanted to read it because the author Carl Weber somet...
Fool Me Thrice
Fool Me Thrice Carol Taylor Book Review “No doubt, I was born a sucker—a sucker for a hot girl with a smile, that is. I have to admit I was abused by every gold-digger I came across. For ...
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...
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...
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...
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 Gem Connection
The Gem Connection Robert Fleming Book Review This is the usual jewel heist, complicated by a ruthless murder. These are the facts: Wealthy jeweler Clinton Windell, a man who is used to getting his o...
The Central Park Five: A Chronicle of a City Wilding
The Central Park Five: A Chronicle of a City Wilding Kam Williams Book Review “In 1990, Anton McCray, Kevin Richardson, Korey Wise, Yusef Salaam and Raymond Santana, Jr. [were] convicted and...
Glorious
Glorious Idrissa Uqdah Book Review Bernice McFadden’s long awaited release, is pure poetry. This novel sings to you through the eyes of Easter Bartlett who runs away as a young girl when ...
Raceball: How The Major Leagues Colonized The Black and Latin Game
Raceball: How The Major Leagues Colonized The Black and Latin Game Robert Fleming Book Review As a life-long baseball fan, I�m always on the look-out for meaningful books on the sport with its pa...
Gather Together in My Name
Gather Together in My Name Thumper Book Review You know, there are times when I simply LOOOVE being Thumper and reviewing books. Reviewing Tracey Price-Thompson’s latest novel, Gather...
Bright Eyes
Bright Eyes Troy Johnson Book Review Here, Cheryl Willis Hudson co-author of: Bright Eyes, Brown Skin, helps young children see the beauty of their physical characteristics. Bright eyes, brown sk...
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 "...
Whippins
Whippins Thumper Book Review It’s times like these that I wish I were an editor. Whippins, Switches & Peach Cobbler, the first by Brian Egeston, is a novel that doesn’t quite make up ...
PHD (Po Ho on Dope) to Ph.D.: How Education Saved My Life
PHD (Po Ho on Dope) to Ph.D.: How Education Saved My Life Anita Doreen Diggs Book Review PHD (Po Ho on Dope) to Ph.D.: How Education Saved My Life by Elaine Richardson begins in a poor and working c...
Who Would Have Thunk It! The First Adventures of the Fraser Foster Kids
Who Would Have Thunk It! The First Adventures of the Fraser Foster Kids Kam Williams Book Review “Our story began a very long time ago when we were little kids with no place to live. Our moth...
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...
America I AM Pass It Down Cookbook: Over 130 Soul-Filled Recipes
America I AM Pass It Down Cookbook: Over 130 Soul-Filled Recipes Kam Williams Book Review "The Pass It Down Cookbook is filled with recipes that reflect the generations-long need to document and sh...
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...
The Rise: Creativity
The Rise: Creativity Kam Williams Book Review “This book is about the advantages that come from the improbable ground of creative endeavor. Brilliant inventions and human feats that have co...
What the Word Be: Why Black English… Is the King’s (James) English
What the Word Be: Why Black English… Is the King’s (James) English Kam Williams Book Review “Blacks came to the U.S. chained to each other but from different tribes. Neither could spea...
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...
Round & Round Together
Round & Round Together Kam Williams Book Review “About four months before the March on Washington, Dr. Martin Luther King was arrested during demonstrations in Birmingham, Alabama. While in j...
Shooting Stars
Shooting Stars Kam Williams Book Review ’I was born in December 1984 in a house on Hickory St. that was mostly maintained by my mother’s mother. But when I was three, my...
The World Has Changed: Conversations with Alice Walker
The World Has Changed: Conversations with Alice Walker Thumper Book Review The World Has Changed: Conversation with Alice Walker edited by Rudolph Byrd is a type of book that I had not seen befor...
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...
Ebony & Ivy: Race
Ebony & Ivy: Race Kam Williams Book Review “Ebony & Ivy… delivers a groundbreaking and incendiary exploration of the intertwined histories of slavery, race, and higher education&he...
Peony’s Daughters
Peony’s Daughters Idrissa Uqdah Book Review A Mother With Crosses To Bear Although not categorized as Christian Fiction, Peony’s Daughters by Leceila Turnage is a very spiritual read w...
Iconic: Decoding Images of the Revolutionary Black Woman
Iconic: Decoding Images of the Revolutionary Black Woman Kam Williams Book Review “This book asks what it means to represent black womanhood and explores how these representations are connect...
The Speech: The Story behind Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Dream
The Speech: The Story behind Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Dream Kam Williams Book Review “A great speech is both timely and timeless. First and foremost, it must touch and move its immediate ...
Water Street
Water Street Thumper Book Review Recently, I had the pleasure of reading the short story collection, Water Street, written by Crystal E Wilkinson. I loved it. The short stories are slices of the l...
Oooooh… Say It Again: Mastering the Fine Art of Verbal Seduction and Aural Sex
Oooooh… Say It Again: Mastering the Fine Art of Verbal Seduction and Aural Sex Kam Williams Book Review “How can you get a woman sexually aroused simply by using certain words, your vo...
Phenomenally Me
Phenomenally Me Chris Hayden Book Review In a dark room with a blue light In the basement, music just right Nothing going down but the Mellow sounds of Mr. DJ’s turntables Going round" Boyz...
Stand Your Ground: Black Bodies and the Justice of God
Stand Your Ground: Black Bodies and the Justice of God Kam Williams Book Review “Why is it becoming increasingly acceptable to kill unarmed black children? Why are they so easily perceived as...