No comments about Marcus Garvey Life and Lessons: A Centennial Companion to the Marcus Garvey and Universal Negro Improvement Association Papers.

5 comments about Grand Central Winter.

1. Several reviewers criticize Stringer's Grand Central Winter for what they see as its lack of information about life on the streets as well as an absence of narrative cohesion. While I sympathize with both of these complaints, I also think they're misguided.
   
   In the first place, Stringer doesn't claim to be writing social commentary or advocating social reforms. His book is a memoir, pure and simple. His stories are from the street, as the book's subtitle announces, but not necessarily about the street. Obviously in describing his life on the streets, Stringer necessarily sheds some light on what street life in general is like. Just as obviously, he also has a few things to say in passing about public policy (he's especially bitter about the "antiseptic Good Samaritanism" of large-scale relief agencies). But the focus of his book is sharing his own experiences living on the street.
   
   And this takes us to the second point: Stringer's writes about selected experiences. He's not really trying to tell a neatly packaged story with a clear beginning, middle, and end. (Philosophers might describe his approach as "phenomenological.") I don't know why Stringer chose to write about the episodes in his life he did. Some of them are probably consciously chosen; others may've forced themselves onto the empty page. But the point is that they're vignettes, not sequential episodes that together tell a full-fledged story.
   
   For my money, the vignettes are wonderfully written. Their minimalist style sets an almost photographic tone: to the point, revelatory, unsentimental, sometimes grim. Stringer successfully resists the temptation to demonize or romanticize.



2. I encountered this book on a sale rack and didn't expect much from it. After all why would be so discounted?
   
   I was wrong. This was a chilling and real depiction of life on the streets as a crack addict. What it may lack in direction, it makes up for with hard-hitting writing.
   
   If you are looking for a nice breezy read, this is not the book for you. If you want some food for thought, then don't miss it.



3. This book is an autobiographical account of a time in the author's life, Lee Stringer. Mr.Stringer begins the book describing his life as a homeless, crack addict who finds a pencil he intends to use to clean his crack pipe with. Then he realizes that a pen can be a very powerful tool and he starts to write. He writes about the streets where the homeless are seen but so often overlooked and his eventual position as a writer for a newspaper.Stringer has realized in this book that "the pen is indeed mightier than the sword" as he goes about seeking Recovery and Redemption. This book is a very well written account of a man's struggle to free himself from a serious addiction.The reader will cheer for Mr. Stringer as he tries to regain his Life and his Dignity.



4. I stuck the book out for about 2/3 of it always hoping for some point to be made from the various unconnected stories he tells, but most have no point or real end...such as the story of the blonde hooker who becomes central to his life for many months or the even less understandable the defrocked Greek priest who wants to be in the newspaper.Very little of this book is about how it is to be homeless or to sleep under subway tunnels etc. It's mostly about his hustling newspapers and cans and taking drugs,but even that is surface level & not very detailed.



5. This was the worst book I ever read.I thought the story was going to be about the homeless in Grand Central.Yet all the
   main character Lee talks about is his work with a newspaper
   written by the homeless.The book drags on and on going nowhere.
   The characters Lee mentions in the book are as dull as the book
   itself.I was trully disappionted.The only thing this book is good
   for is putting you to sleep.

4 comments about Modern Medea: A Family Story of Slavery and Child-Murder from the Old South.

1. The first chapter is about the Gaines family, how is it Mr. Weisenburger can make so many mistakes and no one seems to notice. Did he use newspaper articles of the day for his chapters having to do with the trial? If he can take a 12 page letter from Sept. 14, 1852 and change the names of those in the letter how can we believe he could get the rest of the story right ? The Gaines family genealogy chart is wrong and possibly gotten off any one of the internet genealogy websites.
   He constantly refers to a "teenage or young" Archibald, this Archibald was 25 years old ! And this Archibald was the oldest child of John Pollard Gaines.
   He gets the dates wrong to so many things you have to wonder what else is wrong ?
   This book may have been more accurate if the author had consulted with descendants of the Gaines, Bedinger or Marshall families, which he did not.
   Mr. Weisenburger's bio at the University of Kentucky states "Steven is a fanatical researcher of primary sources." With so many errors, I do not see that...



2. In February 1857, slave Margaret Garner fled from her master Archibald Gaines's Kentucky plantation. She, her husband Robert, his parents, and their four children crossed the frozen Ohio River in Cincinnati, hiding out in the cabin of one of Margaret's cousins, a free black. Gaines quickly trailed them to the cabin, and, in one quick moment, Margaret picked up a knife and killed one of her children, not wanting any of them to go back into slavery.

   In "Modern Medea," author Steven Weisenburger uses court documents, newspaper stories and other sources from the time to examine this almost-forgotten trail that challenged the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law. We follow along with the entire trial, seeing all the tricks that both defense and prosecution lawyers used to either bring a quick end to proceedings or to protract them in order to keep the Garners on free soil. The trail also gives us an interesting look into politics, the pro-slavery mindset, abolitionism view, and the media perception and bias of the time.

   What I found most interesting about this book is that the trial to determine whether or not the Garner's were still the property of Archibald Gaines took precedent over the charge of infanticide. The outcome would have a profound effect not only on state's rights but would spark a tiny flame leading up to the American Civil War. And even after the trial was concluded, the media, poets such as Elizabeth Barret Browning, and other authors used the events to add fuel to the ever-growing debate on slavery.

   But, it still remains a little-known trial, falling into the dust of history in part due to public "whitening" of the events and to the events of the Dred Scott decision almost a year later. Yet author Toni Morrison helped to revive interest in this trial by modeling one of the characters in her novel "Beloved" after the ghost of Margaret's slain daughter, Mary.

   The book sometimes reads more like a college text and asks many questions that are never answered. But the amount of information surrounding the trial and concerning the battle of state's rights versus federal law make this a great book to read.




3. Very well done indeed. I am impressed that an English professor could turn in such good work as an historian and cover the courtroom battles with the skill of an experienced lawyer. A well told story of an obscure, but very revealing, chapter in the period just before the Civil War.
   
   Minor criticisms: Too much is devoted to courtroom battles at the expense of describing daily slave life. As the author is a professor at a late 20th Century American university, he feels it necessary from time to time to wave his little red PC book in the air and shout slogans: Slavery was evil! Racism is not nice! Well, duh. None of this adds to the book and all of it detracts from the book.
   
   Still, this is a good read. Buy it; you won't be disappointed. (By the way, I have never read Toni Morrison's "Beloved"; one doesn't need to in order to enjoy this book.)



4. Weisenburger, with a meticulous eye and a careful hand, vividly retells the story of Margaret Garner, whose case (or rather, one account of whose case) was the seed from which Toni Morrison grew the central stalk of her novel Beloved. It is not exactly facts that he gives us -- Weisenburger is too careful a critic, too aware of the complex nature of the historical record -- but around what facts can be found, he has written a novel of his own, one which richly complements Morrison's though-experiment with the historical legacy of slavery.

   Garner's case, though little recalled today, was far better known in its day than many readers of Morrison's novel may realize. The best-known lawyers and abolitionists of the day argued Garner's case, and newspapers across the country reported the story. The most fascinating aspect of the story is the account of the competing legal and rhetorical strategies used to try to free Garner -- or, if she could not be freed, to give her the greatest possible symbolic value for the cause.

   Garner's act -- killing one of her children rather than allowing het to be returned to slavery -- placed her between two contrary legal systems. Within the slavery system, and the Federally- administered Fugitive Slave Act, Garner was a piece of property to be returned. Yet within Ohio law, as a person accused of murder, she was subject to persecution for her crime as a human being. Her lawyer, paradoxically, had to persuade a judge to issue a writ for her arrest for murder, in order to prevent her from being returned to Kentucky as a slave -- it was in fact her one hope.

   Weisenburger details how, in the end, this defense too failed, partly due to the complicity of certain Ohio officials with the Kentucky counterparts, and partly due to the inaction of then-governor of Ohio Salmon Chase. The actual tale of Margaret Garner, strangely enough, is even more tragic than that of Morrison's Sethe. Margaret was shipped off to cotton-belt slavery with relatives of her Kentucky owner, losing a second child to a streamboat accident en route, and evenrually died a horrible death from typhoid fever.

   I'd recommend this book to anyone engaged by Morrison's novel, or by the recent film -- not as 'the fact behind the fiction,' but instead as a vital counterpoint, an *other* story of Margaret Garner, a woman who stood at the razor's edge of on of American history's most brutal junctures.

No comments about Make It Plain: Standing Up and Speaking Out.

5 comments about Mixed: My Life in Black and White.

1. This book is absolutely, laugh out loud hilarious. Angela Nisell made fun of an often difficult and uncomfortable situation and turned it into an enjoyable memoir. Coming from a multiracial backround myself, I was able to understand Angela's view points. She was realistic and funny without ever missing a beat. Angela is a wonderful writer who I am glad, shared her experiences growing up biracial and all the interesting things she endured being the product of black mother and white father. You won't stop laughing. The author takes us on a ride and allows us to explore what it like to live on both sides. Worth buying and reading more than once.



2. I loved this book. It was absolutely hilarious! I was cracking up out loud ... on the subway that was particularly embarrassing. Ms. Nissel definitely has a gift. She is able to find the humor in even the most serious of subject matters.



3. Angela Nissel paints a portrait of her life, as she saw it, as a biracial child and young adult with humor, while simultaneously highlighting some tragic events of that life. MIXED: My Life In Black and White is Nissel's journey to the understanding her life.
   
   She opens her memoir with, "Mom, how did you and Dad meet?" This is important to the author because her mother was a former Black Panther in Philadelphia and her father, was a white man originally from northern Pennsylvania. Questioning her existence and always trying to fit into the current situation, Nissel constantly found herself an outsider, whether it was in her numerous neighborhoods, public and private schools or with her father's family Her tenure at the University of Pennsylvania was also marred with feelings of not belonging. As these events unfolded Nissel found herself battling depression. The chapter "Crazy Spa Interlude" provided a comical eye opener into the Mental Health system as Nissel counts down her 72-hour hold with compelling storytelling.
   
   The characters portrayed and the moments revealed are entertaining and filled with clipped dialogue. While the piece begins in this fashion, it quickly spirals into a depressed mode. Wanting to belong and having many questions as to her existence, Angela's mother tried to help her understand that she had worth, however outside forces intervened. MIXED: My Life In Black and White is a very revealing look into one woman's existence growing up biracial in America. It is a captivating read from beginning to end because she writes with unabashed wit and disheartening realism.
   
   Reviewed by Dawn R. Reeves
   of The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers



4. This author is extremely insightful while remaining hillariously witty through the entire book. For me- this was a page turner. Im also bi-racial and related to many of her anecdotes, challenges, and fears. I learned a lot about myself through reading this one.



5. I am so glad Ms. Nissel wrote this book. Being mixed Black and White myself, I have had similar experiences. So many people fought and cried against our very existence. Shoot, a hundred years of Jim Crow laws went into preventing it.But here we are - mixed and proud - maybe a little difficult to understand - but we're workin' on it. Not all mixed people are alike, but one by one - as we tell our stories, we are beginning to come into ourselves as members of our own group.
   
   Angela does a great job of representing both herself and the rest of us in a responsible, balanced, respectful and humorous way. You will soooo laugh. She has a knack for comedic timing and writing - and boy can she weave a story! Her Broke Diaries book is hilarious as well. Please pick these up when you get a chance. I need to get a couple more copies myself, as all of my family members keep passing them around.

2 comments about Fela: From West Africa to West Broadway.

1. This book is a collection of essays about Fela's history in music and politics. It also contains information about his lifestyle, which was unique, to say the least. The perspectives are so varying that one can't help but conclude that he was enigmatic, sometimes brilliant and other times misleading or delusional.
   
   Fela's music was introduced to me 20 years ago by a roommate from Ghana. I was lucky enough to see Fela in concert. He was incredibly charismatic and his music took over the unsuspecting audience at The Greek Theater in L.A. I didn't know he'd been tortured when I saw that concert, but it makes sense to me now, after seeing the fierceness with which he carried himself. The man had a Muhammed Ali type confidence that he backed up with an incredible show.
   
   My goal in buying this book was to learn more about the man. After reading these essays, I was delightfully puzzled and realized that nobody really understood him--I wonder if he understood himself. Regardless, his music was groundbreaking and remains unique. It's still fresh.



2. Afrobeat is a marriage of funk and jazz mixed with Yoruba and Highlife music. Considered the father of the Afrobeat style, Fela Anikulapo Kuti is as famous for his music as his personal life. These essays investigate his life, his art and his legacy, including the controversial issues.

   Knox Robinson explores the cult of Fela as it exists today, Mabinuori Idowu recounts the key events in the life of the legend and Joseph Patel discusses Fela's influence on hip hop and dance music. In her first of two essays, Vivien Goldman looks at his spiritual life and in the second she writes about the visual aspects of his world, like fashion, dance etc.

   There are also interviews with Fela's son Femi (by Jerome Sandlarz) and an interview with Fela from 1983 by Barney Hoskins. A 1977 diary of John Collins that he kept while acting in the film Black President is included. Other contributors include Delede Jegede who writes about cultural aspects of Lagos and Ghariokwu Lemi, the artist who designed Fela's album covers.

   The book concludes with an index and a Fela Timeline from his birth in 1938 to the latest related events in 2003 after his death in the late 1990s. There are 11 color photographs and about 30 black and white ones. The many illustrations include cartoons and a map of Nigeria.

   This is a great book that illumines the life and work of this fascinating Nigerian musician and counterculture hero. His lyrics are quoted extensively but there is no systematic rating or reviews section for his albums. The inclusion of a discography would certainly have enhanced the book, especially as a reference source.

1 comments about "They Say": Ida B. Wells and the Reconstruction of Race (New Narratives in American History Series).

1. This great book on Ida B. Wells is not and explicitly does not try to be a biography but rather a scholarly narrative history. This is a noble attempt for which the book deserves praise since the historical narrative has long been a neglected and maligned form of serious history in a field dominated by scholarly monographs. Instead of chronicling all Ida's life as do traditional biographies (the narrative stops in the late 19th century) Davidson tries to examine the ways that former slaves "reconstructed their identities" after the Civil War. Ida B. Wells is more than simply a vehicle for this lofty goal for this is distinctly her NARRATIVE that describes her immense struggles and immense victories.
   
   Ida B. Wells (July 16, 1862 - March 25, 1931) was born in Holly Springs Mississippi a two months before the Emancipation Proclamation. Her father was a carpenter born from a black mother and white plantation owner father who treated his son very well (meaning he had a profitable trade after the war). He became an outspoken proponent of black involvement in southern politics sometimes risking his life to vote. Some of the most interesting parts of the book examine the ways that the Southern Democrats prevented ex-slaves from voting. Her mother was cook who advocated the Victorian ideals in her household after the war. At the tender age of fourteen Ida's parents died in a Yellow Fever outbreak and she took over as surrogate mother to her young siblings. Ida was educated at the local college and became a teacher before finding her real passion while living in Memphis - journalism. She wrote outspoken political pieces dealing with key issues of the day (it was very rare for a women to be writing for newspapers, yet alone political articles). She waged a campaign against the increasing segregation in the railroads and was even forced to leave the newspaper she was co-owner of because her articles were seen as two controversial. She was an advocate of civil rights (traveling to the UK and all around America), women's rights in the male dominated field of political journalism, and launched anti-lynching campaigns.
   
   James West Davidson's book uses her early life (not a heavily documented period) to examine the KEY reconstruction issue that of self-definition in post-slavery new world where the "socially constructed definition of race [became] spelled out with greater and greater specificity" (pg ix). Davidson does a brilliant job weaving in sections of the education of blacks of the day, the beginnings of the Ku Klux Klan, even the growing postcard fad as Ida B. Wells comes into contact with these phenomena. This is a relatively new form of writing, one which tends to defy easy definition, and my primary critic comes from the fact that the narrative form forces all the analysis of her life to a lengthy Afterwards. Most readers (myself and my history honors reading group included) will be confused as to the purpose of such a form, in comparison to a more traditional biography until reading the massive Afterward. All in all this is a very well written book that certainly adds to existing scholarship on this remarkable woman.

5 comments about A Choice of Weapons (Borealis Books).

1. "A Choice of Weapons" is one of my favorite books. The compelling autobiographical story captures for us the experience of one of America's greatest treasures, Gordon Parks. His path from poverty and isolation to riches and notoriety is much more than just a story, it's an accounting of his life as an African American with rural roots in an America that was not welcoming nor supportive-- despite his amazing talent. He overcame that to become one of the world's best-known photographers, filmmakers, poets, and musicians. A fine person, strong with his mother's teaching, he brought his spirit to the world.
   
   Mr. Parks was recently buried in his hometown (Fort Scott, KS), not long after coming home to a wonderful celebration of his life and work-- a celebration that is an annual affair as part of the Gordon Parks Center for Culture and Diversity that has been founded there. I met him during the first celebration in 2004, going into the old Liberty Theatre to view a retrospective of his films. He was charming and personable, and his eyes sparkled with happiness; the peace of forgiveness and homecoming emanated from him. He had struggled and triumphed, and the prairie wind was still fresh within him.
   
   I encourage everyone to read this book and to explore the huge body of Gordon's work. You will be moved. You will be spurred to find the best of yourself...



2. I write this after hearing the news of his passing. This book gave hope to another youth who had lost his parents and was looking for a reason to become a man. The effect this book had on me cannot be overestimated. It was to set me on the path to becoming a photographer, and to pursue writing among other things. It was required reading for me when I was in High School, and the only book I read all the way through.



3. The book is interesting reading eventhough the narrator sounds a bit self-righteous to me. Too much of "I always knew best" for my taste. This is only referencing the personal remarks in the book; the description of the grinding poverty in the big cities and what the Depression years did to the people is really well written. All in all, I'd wish that especially young people read this book.



4. I absolutely love this book.
   I am an avid reader but reserve my recommendations for very few books and authors. I hold dear a carefully chosen list of books that receive unjustly low profiles and recommend them to always-thankful friends. This book, by Gordon Parks, (as well as Manchild in the Promised Land, by Claude Brown) rank high on my list. Gordon Parks is an amazingly gifted human being.



5. .... In my opinion,its imagery and descriptive scenarios will have you imagining as if it were you in the midst of the Great Migration. Concluding that "youth as it should be at seventeen was not for me, and that full manhood must come quickly if I was going to make it", Parks describes the journey in which he endures in order to make it through various seasons in the year. In trying to conquer the obstacles that each season brings, Parks learns to rely on his "choice of weapons" which allow him to see different walks of life. If you do choose to read Parks' autobiography, please don't forget to reflect upon what choice of weapons you have chosen in coping with life.

5 comments about Go Long!: My Journey Beyond the Game and the Fame.

1. A quick read. Nothing too heavy. I'm a huge Niners fan and it was good to hear Rice talk about his career. The drive he had while playing and training is inspiring.



2. I enjoyed the book, but do not expect great writing or insights. This is one of those obligatory autobios that sports figures feel they have to write for their fans. I'd have liked to read more about Rice's growing up in MS. His coments on various fellow sprts stars was fun to reqd. ( He doesn't believe Barry Bonds either ). Quick read. Solid three stars.



3. this was a great book, i rarly read but when i found out Jerry wrote a book I knew i'd have to have it. It was a very quick read, took me only 2 weeks to finish. It's also opened my eyes to the NFL and the way it works. One of the best books ive read



4. Not every football memoir/autbio will be like Jerry Kramer's DISTANT REPLAY or have a subject as complex as Jim Brown. It was painful to hear Rice read his book (Audio CD) because he's not a natural reader mor speaker, but one can appreciate the path he laid for future players to emulate. I think this book is more geared towards the non-fan as opposed to the historian, NFL fan or Jerry Rice fan. I do think Jerry could've improved his reading skills for the CD edition or have someone else read the book, but it's a good story. As long as the book served its purpose, I can't complain.
   
   - This review is for the Unabridged CD edition.



5. Excellent book, easy read. Very frank and honest dialogue produces a very refreshing look at the character and
   makeup of NFL great Jerry Rice. He possesses "old school" values, rare for todays athletes and his humble
   approach and its origins are clearly defined in his upbringing. Would highly recommend it for parents and players
   of any sport as well as non-players as it explores more than the world of athletics and promotes a great
   work ethic.
   
   K.F.

1 comments about Stretching My Mind: The Collected Essays 1960 to 2005.

1. As a member of the theatre community for some 25 years, I bring a rather unique perspective to Stretching My Mind. With some assurance, I can say that no 20th century playwright has offered such sound advice on playwriting and its production. This is a selection of Albee's essays through the years which reflect works he is then seeing to the stage or has recently seen to the stage. Woven with extreme discretion and insight into the play-oriented texts is a sound vision of the nugatory forces alive in the US entertainment world (tv, film, theatre). He decries these, while offering up a philosophy which those interested in saving, nurturing and creating a true cultural base for this nation should listen to carefully. He believes that a democracy can only flourish in a healthy way when the electorate has as aeshetic background on which to base its choices. In a nation that has elected GWB twice, we can see the emotional and intellectual simplification of the nation's narrowing mind. Albee believes that a nation attuned to an aesthetic theatre as opposed to a pop cultural, pc theatre can not only develop a large audience base, but lead to a nation not shackled by the amygdala mindset of the digital world. Stasis can only lead to the death of art and culture, the only sure indices of a nation's spiritual, moral and ethical values. Those essays in this volume not devoted to playwriting deal with the contemporary art world. Albee is an 'accumulator' of artworks from about the globe. This is path on which I cannot follow him as I do not agree that conceptual art is art at all. But his point that a dynamic inter-relationship among sculptors, painters, composers and playwrights is a sound one. He has put his money where his mouth is with his Montauk foundation, offering new talent from these disciplines an environment in which to enjoy mingling and sharing views whilst enjoying a working holiday. If you are a fledgling writer or a theatre lover, you must have this book in your collection. Accumulate it. Read it, from first to last page.