Best of
Black-Literature
2012
Hated by Many Loved by None
Shan - 2012
The three of them would die for each other and have always had each other's back. They each desperately wanted better lives and were willing to work extra hard in order to attain it.Relationship issues in their personal lives bring the girls closer together than ever before- especially when Jahzara brings a business proposal to the table.Betrayal, lies, jealousy and murder is only the beginning of what they have to overcome. Will they succumb to it all or will they rise above it and find their way out?
The Sovereignty of Quiet: Beyond Resistance in Black Culture
Kevin Quashie - 2012
In The Sovereignty of Quiet, Kevin Quashie explores quiet as a different kind of expressiveness, one which characterizes a person’s desires, ambitions, hungers, vulnerabilities, and fears. Quiet is a metaphor for the inner life, and as such, enables a more nuanced understanding of black culture. The book revisits such iconic moments as Tommie Smith and John Carlos’s protest at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics and Elizabeth Alexander’s reading at the 2009 inauguration of Barack Obama. Quashie also examines such landmark texts as Gwendolyn Brooks’s Maud Martha, James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time, and Toni Morrison’s Sula to move beyond the emphasis on resistance, and to suggest that concepts like surrender, dreaming, and waiting can remind us of the wealth of black humanity.
That Girl is Poison
Tia Hines - 2012
Abandoned by her mother, she yearns for love and attention. Her uncle shelters her, but life is impossible to bear with his abusive wife. To make things worse, she gets involved with Malik, who shatters her hope and trust by leaving her pregnant and infected with HIV. So hardened, she decides to do the unspeakable, purposely infecting people with her disease. Of course, no one knows of her intent, not even her best friend, Jennifer, who unwittingly helps Desire find her victims. Will Desire realize the error of her ways before it's too late?Tia Hines delivers a powerful message in this cautionary tale full of action and drama.
Panther Baby: A Life of Rebellion and Reinvention
Jamal Joseph - 2012
Today he’s chair of their School of the Arts film division. Jamal Joseph’s personal odyssey—from the streets of Harlem to Riker’s Island and Leavenworth to the halls of Columbia—is as gripping as it is inspiring.Eddie Joseph was a high school honor student, slated to graduate early and begin college. But this was the late 1960s in Bronx’s black ghetto, and fifteen-year-old Eddie was introduced to the tenets of the Black Panther Party, which was just gaining a national foothold. By sixteen, his devotion to the cause landed him in prison on the infamous Rikers Island—charged with conspiracy as one of the Panther 21 in one of the most emblematic criminal cases of the sixties. When exonerated, Eddie—now called Jamal—became the youngest spokesperson and leader of the Panthers’ New York chapter.He joined the “revolutionary underground,” later landing back in prison. Sentenced to more than twelve years in Leavenworth, he earned three degrees there and found a new calling. He is now chair of Columbia University’s School of the Arts film division—the very school he exhorted students to burn down during one of his most famous speeches as a Panther.In raw, powerful prose, Jamal Joseph helps us understand what it meant to be a soldier inside the militant Black Panther movement. He recounts a harrowing, sometimes deadly imprisonment as he charts his path to manhood in a book filled with equal parts rage, despair, and hope.
The Classroom and the Cell: Conversations on Black Life in America
Mumia Abu-Jamal - 2012
Covering topics such as race, politics, hip-hop culture,education, mass incarceration, and love, their discussions shine a spotlight on some of the most pressing issues in 21st century African American life.
On Intellectual Activism
Patricia Hill Collins - 2012
This book is a collection of those lectures, along with new and (a few) previously-published essays.