This book is his journeya Black Kiss-story thats full of funny, entertaining, and in some cases, heartbreaking stories of his years as a die-hard Kiss fan committed to the hottest band in the land. Its the voice for everyone who was there and remembers what it was like being a hardcore Kiss fan back in the day, with all the mystery, excitement, anticipation, and mania, but also the rejection, taunting, and funny looks. So get ready to go back to a time before you had a full-time job, responsibilities, commitments, the stress of daily life, and when Kiss was the most important thing in your life. Get ready to relive your magical Kiss years all over again.

Can black males offer useful insights on black women and patriarchy? Many black feminists are doubtful. Their skepticism derives in part from a history of explosive encounters with black men who blamed feminism for stigmatizing black men and undermining racial solidarity and in part from a perception that black male feminists are opportunists capitalizing on the current popularity of black women's writing and criticism. In Breaking the Silence, David Ikard goes boldly to the crux of this debate through a series of provocative readings of key African American texts that demonstrate the possibility and value of a viable black male feminist perspective. Seeking to advance the primary objectives of black feminism, Ikard provides literary models from Chester Himes's If He Hollers Let Him Go, James Baldwin's Go Tell It on the Mountain, Toni Morrison's Paradise, Toni Cade Bambara's The Salt Eaters, and Walter Mosley's Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned and Walkin' the Dog that consciously wrestle with the concept of victim status for black men and women. He looks at how complicity across gender lines, far from rooting out patriarchy in the black community, has allowed it to thrive. This complicity, Ikard explains, is a process by which victimized groups invest in victim status to the point that they unintentionally concede power to their victimizers and engage in patterns of behavior that are perceived as revolutionary but actually reinforce the status quo. While black feminism has fostered important and necessary discussions regarding the problems of patriarchy within the black community, little attention has been paid to the intersecting dynamics of complicity. By laying bare the nexus between victim status and complicity in oppression, Breaking the Silence charts a new direction for conceptualizing black women's complex humanity and provides the foundations for more expansive feminist approaches to resolving intraracial gender conflicts.

Performing Blackness offers a challenging interpretation of black cultural expression since the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s. Exploring drama, music, poetry, sermons, and criticism, Benston offers an exciting meditation on modern black performance's role in realising African-American aspirations for autonomy and authority. Artists covered include: * John Coltrane * Ntozake Shange * Ed Bullins * Amiri Baraka * Adrienne Kennedy * Michael Harper. Performing Blackness is an exciting contribution to the ongoing debate about the vitality and importance of black culture.

In this book, Smitherman makes a substantial contribution to an understanding of Black English by setting it in the larger context of Black culture and life style. In her book, Geneva Smitherman makes a substantial contribution to an understanding of Black English by setting it in the larger context of Black culture and life style. In addition to defining Black English, by its distinctive structure and special lexicon, Smitherman argues that the Black dialect is set apart from traditional English by a rhetorical style which reflects its African origins. Smitherman also tackles the issue of Black and White attitudes toward Black English, particularly as they affect educational policy. Documenting her insights with quotes from notable Black historical, literary and popular figures, Smitherman makes clear that Black English is as legitimate a form of speech as British, American, or Australian English.

Featuring the work of the most distinguished scholars in the field, this volume assesses the state of Afro-American literary study and projects a vision of that study for the 1990s. "A rich and rewarding collection."—Choice. "This diverse and inspired collection . . . testifies to the Afro-Am academy's extraordinary vitality."—Voice Literary Supplement

In discussions of American poetry since World War II, the work of John Berryman has become increasingly neglected and marginalized. Critics have overwhelmingly chosen to favour the notion that he is an academic, 'establishment' poet whose career can comfortably be described as a move from New Critical traditionalism towards self-absorbed confessionalism. This study shows how such a narrow understanding of Berryman's work is reflective of a broader critical inclination towards a codification of the literary canon as a duel between competing factions of a formalist, establishment 'mainstream' and an experimentalist, countercultural 'avant-garde'. By examining the extent to which Berryman's poetry engages with the complex religiopolitical climate of Cold War American culture, this study exposes the inadequacy of the paradigm of mainstream traditionalism in relation to his work. In doing so, it opens up threads of comparative possibility between his work and that of poets ordinarily segregated from him by divisive conceptions of the literary canon. As such, this volume provides a reconsideration of Berryman's work that simultaneously asks broader questions about the nature of the American poetic canon and established definitions of 'postmodern' poetry.

Last night Charlie went on a bender. Today he woke up with a tattoo of the mythical African sankofa bird on his right shoulder blade. The solid black tribal tattoo was probably too dark for his pale white skin, but he hadn't actually chosen the tattoo himself. The sankofa bird looked back over its shoulder as it flew forward justifying its meaning - one can not move intelligently into the future without paying attention to the past. Contrasting again with the too dark tattoo and the too light skin was the pretty brown face of the little girl peaking over her father's shoulder as he cradled her. What on earth was he going to do with this little life? Two days ago he didn't even know she existed. Yesterday he woke up with this strange tattoo. Today he decided to go to the hospital and take responsibility for his daughter. He didn't even know what the tattoo was and why those men had taken it upon themselves to have it given to him. Today it was just some dumb bird that he was contemplating having removed. It would be quite a while before he would find out why he had gotten it and what the significance of it really was. He repositioned her into his arms and tenderly kissed little Sankofa on the forehead. "We can do this."

'The River' is the first offering of 'The Blood Brother Chronicles', a dramatic series loosely based on family folklore that has been passed down through countless generations in the author's family. Many of these legends, reaching as far back as 1919, are about two (2) half brothers born in and around the turn of the century, 'Slick' and 'Skeeter'. Not much is known about the two brothers that were said to have disappeared either in New York City or on their way up North in 1927, except that they were contract killers with kind hearts that helped the poor. After an extensive two (2) year family history search, speaking with several older relatives, the author was inspired to write 'The River'. Slick and Benjamin (Skeeter) are half brothers, one white, the other creole, both growing up poor on a tobacco plantation in the late 1800's. Now grown men in the Roaring 1920's, the brothers work as contract killers for the highest bidder, often the first option for wealthy white men, the last option for the poor. Always with ears to the the underworld, the boys soon learn of white and black lynchings, bullying, land grabbing and resource stealing by big corporation. Usually killing bigots and hate-mongers for sport, stakes are raised when large multinational companies stomp into South Carolina with steel toed boots and not much of a care whom they step on, intimidating poor white, black and native American farmers for their hard earned land. Coming up with a small well thought out plan after finally locating the legal documents, Slick and Benjamin discover that the parchments have been burned in the middle of the sheriff's office after a midnight raid. This only deepens the men's suspicions as well as the mystery of whom or what owns vast amounts of land all around the Carolinas, land certain well heeled men are willing to kill whole families for. As the men travel through the dark under belly of corrupt South and North Carolina local government and the highest echelons of wealth and society, their investigation is complicated when twelve (12) young prostitutes are discovered dismembered, their body parts discovered in several Carolina rivers. Each dead girl had one thing in common; they all once worked for the infamous Madame Lolly, owner of the most exclusive 'skin-hustling' business in all of the Deep South. Rustling up clues and discovering the truth behind an investigation that will eventually take them all over the world, the killers-turn- investigators call upon a complicated cast of characters, many of which lie as easily as they tell truths, protecting wealth, heritage, family and their own lives. Slick and Benjamin have embarked on a journey they could have never imagined in darkest, wildest dreams; supernatural gods and powers, vast wealth, dark international brother hoods, all while trying to stay safe as their enemies grow more and more powerful.

A collection of fifteen biographical profiles provides a look at legendary musicians and songwriters captured in moments of crisis, despair, revelation, and glory, in portraits of Leiber and Stoller, Doc Pomus, Ronnie Spector, Keith Ferguson and Tommy Shannon, and others. Original.

Madison Johnson is fighting battles of being overweight. After embarking on a self-journey with exercise and a diet education, she loses the weight, and has kept it off. She is eager to begin her new life with her new body, but the insecurities are still there when she meets a possible soul mate for life. Will Madison let the devil of emotions forfeit a new love in her life? Toxic Lyons, a very wealthy and debonair male is looking for the love of his life. He meets Madison at his restaurant, and the sparks are booming with dynamite. He has relationship issues, and is buried with Madison’s insecurities. Will Madison and Toxic find love? Or is their relationship just to toxic for them both? Take a ride with me and romance!