African-American men share their feelings, concerns, situations, and advice in an anthology that captures the African-American experience, covering such topics as spirituality, sex, family, money, and power.
A WASHINGTON POST BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR Based on an unprecedented eighteen-year study, the center of this riveting book are three engaging streetwise brothers who provide powerful testimony to the exigencies of life lived on the social and economic margins. With profound lessons regarding the intersection of social forces and individual choices, Black succeeds in putting a human face on some of the most important public policy issues of our time.
"A marvelous addition to the literature of inspirational sports stories." - Booklist (Starred Review) "This remarkable and inspiring story shines." - Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) "Crossing the Line will not just leave you with hope, but also ideas on how to make that hope transferable” - New York Times bestselling author Wes Moore An inspiring memoir of defying the odds from Kareem Rosser, captain of the first all-black squad to win the National Interscholastic Polo championship. Born and raised in West Philadelphia, Kareem thought he and his siblings would always be stuck in “The Bottom”, a community and neighborhood devastated by poverty and violence. Riding their bicycles through Philly’s Fairmount Park, Kareem’s brothers discover a barn full of horses. Noticing the brothers’ fascination with her misfit animals, Lezlie Hiner, founder of The Work to Ride stables, offers them their escape: an after school job in exchange for riding lessons. What starts as an accidental discovery turns into a love for horseback riding that leads the Rossers to discovering their passion for polo. Pursuing the sport with determination and discipline, Kareem earns his place among the typically exclusive players in college, becoming part of the first all-Black national interscholastic polo championship team—all while struggling to keep his family together. Crossing the Line: A Fearless Team of Brothers and the Sport That Changed Their Lives Forever is the story of bonds of brotherhood, family loyalty, the transformative connection between man and horse, and forging a better future that comes from overcoming impossible odds.
Twin brothers Omar and Yaqub may share the same features, but they could not be more different from one another. And the possessive love of their mother, Zana, stirs the troubled waters between them even more. After a brutally violent exchange between the young boys, Yaqub, “the good son,” is sent from his home in Brazil to live with relatives in Lebanon, only to return five years later as a virtual stranger to the parents who bore him, his tensions with Omar unchanged. Family secrets engage the reader in this profoundly resonant story about identity, love, loss, deception, and the dissolution of blood ties. Set in the port city of Manaus on the riverbanks of the Amazon, Two Brothers celebrates the vibrant life and diversity of Brazil. Based on a work by acclaimed novelist Milton Hatoum, Two Brothers is stunningly reimagined by the award-winning graphic novelists Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá. "This work goes far beyond its publicity hook, which is that Eisner award–winning Brazilian twin brothers (Casanova, Daytripper) have adapted Milton Hatoum’s classic novel about twin brothers to the graphic novel form. Narrated mostly by Nael, the illegitimate son of one of the brothers, the tale is presented in a nonlinear narrative with multiple flashbacks, as stories within stories begin to fill in the greater family chronicle spiraling around the twins and their simmering rivalry and hatred. The intricate secrets and lies at the heart of families are set against a backdrop of almost cinematic cityscapes and vistas. Bá and Moon present the naturalistic dynamism of Brazil in their art: sweeping, dramatic organic shapes against the sharp angularity of the people. The stark b&w art crackles to express the subtleties of palpable, barely contained tension between kin, a brutal police beating, and the erotic electricity of an exotic dance. Bá and Moon bring a cool, confident sharpness to their narrative to reflect the shades of gray in this powerful family saga." —Publishers Weekly (Starred review) “TWO BROTHERS is a feat of bravura visual storytelling, a revealing and nuanced work of family portraiture, and a thrilling act of historical re-imagination. It is clearly the work of two major artists, two master collaborators, operating at the peak of their powers.” —Michael Chabon, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay “I cannot think of a single gift more pure than the gift the twins possess. Gabriel and Fabio give the world something unique, and precious. It is most amazing to be alive in a time where two creators such as these exist - they give us another reason to wake up and another way to see the world. Two Brothers, like their other work, is another masterpiece, but so different in it’s pacing and tone than anything they have done before. I am lucky to share the same planet with them, because they are kind enough to share their stories with me, and the world.“ —Gerard Way, The Umbrella Academy “This book immediately jumps onto the list of the most essential graphic novels you will read in your lifetime. Two amazing creators at the top of their game, telling a story in a way only they can tell it. What a gift. What a treat.” —Brian Michael Bendis. Powers “Moon and Bá have long been cartoonists of extraordinary skill, and with Two Brothers they have created their masterwork. Their passion for the comics medium bleeds through in every brushstroke and pen line. This is a stunning book that will touch your heart and leave you breathless.” —Jeff Lemire, Descender “TWO BROTHERS is a haunting tribute to sibling love, brotherly hatred, and the kinetic energy when those two forces fuel a family. The deep sense of place, the palpable sorrow of nostalgia, the aura of truth: once again Ba and Moon bring it like no one else in graphic storytelling. —Mat Johnson, Loving Day “This is an extraordinary work. Moon and Bá, two men already on top of their game, have rewritten what we thought the game was. The comic book was created as entertainment. Two Brothers is proof comics can be Art. The wider your eyes get, the more it touches your heart.” —Brian Azzarello, 100 Bullets "Speaking of brothers that both work in comics: TWO BROTHERS is a visually stunning work that makes me dizzy with admiration. Attention to detail, the concern with communicating with the reader on emotional terms as well as intellectual, it is a classic example that artistic chops still matter in the modern comics world. In fact it matters more than ever now. —Gilbert Hernandez, LOVE & ROCKETS “Moon and Bá have both shot for the stars here... TWO BROTHERS is a striking graphic novel that allows fans to see a different aspect of two of the very best creators in comics– come and see what flavor of genius the Brazilian-based brothers have crafted from the work of Milton Hatoum.” —COMICS BEAT “As anyone who’s read The Umbrella Academy, Casanova, or Daytripper knows, Moon and Bá are two of the most gifted artists in the comics world. Their new graphic novel, based on the Brazilian novel Dois Irmãos, may be their most ambitious work yet, and the preview art glows. Moon and Bá are themselves Brazilian twins, so it’s easy to see how they were attracted to the story.” —io9 “Riveting…. Two Brothers is an earthquake both visually and narratively.... Moon and Bá are in clear control of every element of Two Brothers, bringing to life a city, history, and compelling story of a family locked in obsession.” —FANBOY COMICS
“You don’t look like brothers . . .” Peace activist and cofounder of the Enough Project, John Prendergast is known as a champion of human rights in Africa. But the not-so-public face of J.P. is the life he’s led as a Big Brother to Michael Mattocks. As a curious, driven, and emotionally wounded twenty-year-old, J.P. made the life-changing decision to form a “Big Brother/Little Brother” relationship with then seven-year-old Michael, who was living out of plastic bags and drifting from one homeless shelter to the next with his mother and siblings. Lacking a connection with his own brother and distancing himself from a disastrous relationship with his father, J.P. formed a unique bond with Michael the moment they met. Michael and J.P. became like family, with Michael and some of his siblings even living with J.P. one summer. In the years that followed, J.P. took Michael and his brothers on outings, whether it was fishing, playing basketball, patronizing cheap restaurants, or going on road trips. This friendship would continue for over twenty-five years as the two coped with varying degrees of violence, instability, and trauma in their own lives. Told in duet, Unlikely Brothers follows Michael as he grows up on the tough streets of Washington, D.C., where as a young teenager he watched his best friend get shot, dropped out of school, and started dealing crack cocaine shortly thereafter. By sixteen, Michael had become the kingpin of his neighborhood, guns and drugs always close at hand. Meanwhile, J.P. was traveling to and from African war zones. J.P. offered Michael a refuge from the streets, never really confronting the gravity of what Michael was going through in his adolescence. In turn, Michael afforded J.P. an escape from his own turbulent personal and professional life. As the years go by, the two swoop in and out of each other’s lives, slowly disconnecting as they disappear into their respective worlds, but making their way back to each other at a critical moment for both of them. The effect the two have on each other is extremely significant to both of their paths to redemption. Inspirational and deeply moving, Unlikely Brothers beautifully showcases how life’s most random moments can often be the most profound.
The true story of two African-American brothers who were kidnapped and displayed as circus freaks, and whose mother endured a 28-year struggle to get them back. The year was 1899 and the place a sweltering tobacco farm in the Jim Crow South town of Truevine, Virginia. George and Willie Muse were two little boys born to a sharecropper family. One day a white man offered them a piece of candy, setting off events that would take them around the world and change their lives forever. Captured into the circus, the Muse brothers performed for royalty at Buckingham Palace and headlined over a dozen sold-out shows at New York's Madison Square Garden. They were global superstars in a pre-broadcast era. But the very root of their success was in the color of their skin and in the outrageous caricatures they were forced to assume: supposed cannibals, sheep-headed freaks, even "Ambassadors from Mars." Back home, their mother never accepted that they were "gone" and spent 28 years trying to get them back. Through hundreds of interviews and decades of research, Beth Macy expertly explores a central and difficult question: Where were the brothers better off? On the world stage as stars or in poverty at home? Truevine is a compelling narrative rich in historical detail and rife with implications to race relations today.
"A brilliant, powerful elegy from a living brother to a lost one, yet pulsing with rhythm, and beating with life." --Marlon James "Highly recommend Brother by David Chariandy--concise and intense, elegiac short novel of devastation and hope." --Joyce Carol Oates, via Twitter WINNER--Toronto Book Award WINNER--Rogers' Writers' Trust Fiction Prize WINNER--Ethel Wilson Prize for Fiction In luminous, incisive prose, a startling new literary talent explores masculinity, race, and sexuality against a backdrop of simmering violence during the summer of 1991. One sweltering summer in the Park, a housing complex outside of Toronto, Michael and Francis are coming of age and learning to stomach the careless prejudices and low expectations that confront them as young men of black and brown ancestry. While their Trinidadian single mother works double, sometimes triple shifts so her boys might fulfill the elusive promise of their adopted home, Francis helps the days pass by inventing games and challenges, bringing Michael to his crew's barbershop hangout, and leading escapes into the cool air of the Rouge Valley, a scar of green wilderness where they are free to imagine better lives for themselves. Propelled by the beats and styles of hip hop, Francis dreams of a future in music. Michael's dreams are of Aisha, the smartest girl in their high school whose own eyes are firmly set on a life elsewhere. But the bright hopes of all three are violently, irrevocably thwarted by a tragic shooting, and the police crackdown and suffocating suspicion that follow. Honest and insightful in its portrayal of kinship, community, and lives cut short, David Chariandy's Brother is an emotional tour de force that marks the arrival of a stunning new literary voice.
From award-winning and bestselling author, Jewell Parker Rhodes comes a powerful coming-of-age story about two brothers, one who presents as white, the other as black, and the complex ways in which they are forced to navigate the world, all while training for a fencing competition. Framed. Bullied. Disliked. But I know I can still be the best. Sometimes, 12-year-old Donte wishes he were invisible. As one of the few black boys at Middlefield Prep, most of the students don't look like him. They don't like him either. Dubbing him "Black Brother," Donte's teachers and classmates make it clear they wish he were more like his lighter-skinned brother, Trey. When he's bullied and framed by the captain of the fencing team, "King" Alan, he's suspended from school and arrested. Terrified, searching for a place where he belongs, Donte joins a local youth center and meets former Olympic fencer Arden Jones. With Arden's help, he begins training as a competitive fencer, setting his sights on taking down the fencing team captain, no matter what. As Donte hones his fencing skills and grows closer to achieving his goal, he learns the fight for justice is far from over. Now Donte must confront his bullies, racism, and the corrupt systems of power that led to his arrest. Powerful and emotionally gripping, Black Brother, Black Brother is a careful examination of the school-to-prison pipeline and follows one boy's fight against racism and his empowering path to finding his voice.
A bold exposé of the controversial secret that has potentially dire consequences in many African American communities. Delivering the first frank and thorough investigation of life “on the down low” (the DL), J. L. King exposes a closeted culture of sex between black men who lead “straight” lives. King explores his own past as a DL man, and the path that led him to let go of the lies and bring forth a message that can promote emotional healing and open discussions about relationships, sex, sexuality, and health in the black community. Providing a long-overdue wake-up call, J. L. King bravely puts the spotlight on a topic that has until now remained dangerously taboo. Drawn from hundreds of interviews, statistics, and the author’s firsthand knowledge of DL behavior, On the Down Low reveals the warning signs African American women need to know. King also discusses the potential health consequences of having unprotected sex, as African American women represent an alarming 64 percent of new HIV infections. Volatile yet vital, On the Down Low is sure to be one of the most talked-about books of the year. “A survey by the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta found that nearly a quarter of black HIV-positive men who had sex with men consider themselves heterosexual.” —Essence