A memorable portrait of a little-understood movement and its founders.
An insider’s account of the Black communal movement that drew the ire—and the firebombs—of the Philadelphia police.
Vincent Lopez Leaphart (1931-1985), known to all as Benny, returned from the Korean War with the hard-won belief that the lives of people of color were worthless in the eyes of the white generals and politicians in charge. Ahead of his time, he propounded a vegetarian diet, promoted animal rights, and formulated a doctrine of self-sufficiency, writing a vast tome called The Analytical Book of Life, to which he applied the pen name John Africa—not a person, he insisted, but an idea. He was idiosyncratic but firm in his beliefs, including his resolute irreligion: “You don’t see whales praying to a fucking book. You don’t see tigers going to no church. Only people.” Others joined his cause, taking the name Africa and living communally, raising children jointly. Africa Jr. was one such child, born to an imprisoned mother who, along with his father, would serve more than 40 years before his release. Just so, Benny was always in legal trouble for his views. “Benny felt that as the Native Americans had their land stolen by the white man, so was water stolen from the people,” writes the author. “He rerouted the water pipes in the house to bypass the meter and stopped paying the water bill.” Throughout the book, Africa Jr. never shies away from criticism. “Honestly, I think MOVE, in some ways, was cultish,” he writes. “But so is Christianity, so is Buddhism, so is Judaism, and so are all the rest of the organized religions.” Now the director of MOVE, headquartered in the neighborhood infamously bombed by the police in 1985, Africa Jr. foresees a revival of the activism of old.
A memorable portrait of a little-understood movement and its founders.Pub Date: Aug. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9780063318878
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Mariner Books
Review Posted Online: May 29, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2024
Everything about Sabathia is larger than life, yet he tells his story with honesty and humility.
One of the best pitchers of his generation—and often the only Black man on his team—shares an extraordinary life in baseball.
A high school star in several sports, Sabathia was being furiously recruited by both colleges and professional teams when the death of his grandmother, whose Social Security checks supported the family, meant that he couldn't go to college even with a full scholarship. He recounts how he learned he had been drafted by the Cleveland Indians in the first round over the PA system at his high school. In 2001, after three seasons in the minor leagues, Sabathia became the youngest player in MLB (age 20). His career took off from there, and in 2008, he signed with the New York Yankees for seven years and $161 million, at the time the largest contract ever for a pitcher. With the help of Vanity Fair contributor Smith, Sabathia tells the entertaining story of his 19 seasons on and off the field. The first 14 ran in tandem with a poorly hidden alcohol problem and a propensity for destructive bar brawls. His high school sweetheart, Amber, who became his wife and the mother of his children, did her best to help him manage his repressed fury and grief about the deaths of two beloved cousins and his father, but Sabathia pursued drinking with the same "till the end" mentality as everything else. Finally, a series of disasters led to a month of rehab in 2015. Leading a sober life was necessary, but it did not tame Sabathia's trademark feistiness. He continued to fiercely rile his opponents and foment the fighting spirit in his teammates until debilitating injuries to his knees and pitching arm led to his retirement in 2019. This book represents an excellent launching point for Jay-Z’s new imprint, Roc Lit 101.
Everything about Sabathia is larger than life, yet he tells his story with honesty and humility.Pub Date: July 6, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-13375-0
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Roc Lit 101
Review Posted Online: May 11, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2021
A forceful, necessarily provocative call to action for the preservation and protection of American Jewish freedom.
Known for her often contentious perspectives, New York Times opinion writer Weiss battles societal Jewish intolerance through lucid prose and a linear playbook of remedies.
While she was vividly aware of anti-Semitism throughout her life, the reality of the problem hit home when an active shooter stormed a Pittsburgh synagogue where her family regularly met for morning services and where she became a bat mitzvah years earlier. The massacre that ensued there further spurred her outrage and passionate activism. She writes that European Jews face a three-pronged threat in contemporary society, where physical, moral, and political fears of mounting violence are putting their general safety in jeopardy. She believes that Americans live in an era when “the lunatic fringe has gone mainstream” and Jews have been forced to become “a people apart.” With palpable frustration, she adroitly assesses the origins of anti-Semitism and how its prevalence is increasing through more discreet portals such as internet self-radicalization. Furthermore, the erosion of civility and tolerance and the demonization of minorities continue via the “casual racism” of political figures like Donald Trump. Following densely political discourses on Zionism and radical Islam, the author offers a list of bullet-point solutions focused on using behavioral and personal action items—individual accountability, active involvement, building community, loving neighbors, etc.—to help stem the tide of anti-Semitism. Weiss sounds a clarion call to Jewish readers who share her growing angst as well as non-Jewish Americans who wish to arm themselves with the knowledge and intellectual tools to combat marginalization and defuse and disavow trends of dehumanizing behavior. “Call it out,” she writes. “Especially when it’s hard.” At the core of the text is the author’s concern for the health and safety of American citizens, and she encourages anyone “who loves freedom and seeks to protect it” to join with her in vigorous activism.
A forceful, necessarily provocative call to action for the preservation and protection of American Jewish freedom.Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-593-13605-8
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 22, 2019
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