Coleman and Harris write with keen observation, a satirical eye, and a genuine love for their subject.
An engaging look at “the wild, wicked, waggish journey of Blacks in modern horror cinema.”
As horror movies have moved into the artistic and commercial mainstream, the genre has attracted interest for its social meaning and racial inclusiveness. Coleman’s academic work focuses on media studies and cultural politics, and Harris is an entertainment journalist and horror movie buff; both bring expertise to their collaboration. They note that for a long time, the main function of Black characters was to get the narrative rolling by being the first victim of the murderer/monster/alien/etc. In fact, the actor Tony Todd holds the record for the most screen deaths, at 24 (and counting). Coleman and Harris identify various other stereotypes, always in secondary positions. There were some outlier films, like Night of the Living Dead (1968), which had a Black man in a leadership role. That movie became the source code for the zombie genre, although it did little to help Black actors. Eventually, after decades of effort, Black actors began to break into big-budget movies in prominent roles. When they did, there was a receptive audience. Will Smith’s I Am Legend (2007), for example, made more than $256 million in the U.S. These movies were not really about the Black experience, and there were still few Black creatives in the film industry. The real turning point, however, was Get Out (2017), which won numerous awards for director/writer Jordan Peele and also earned $176 million in the domestic market. The rise of direct-to-video movies and streaming also opened new opportunities for Black filmmakers. The authors often write with their tongues firmly in their cheeks, but they make serious points about representation and depiction. They acknowledge the level of improvement but emphasize that there is still much to be done.
Coleman and Harris write with keen observation, a satirical eye, and a genuine love for their subject.Pub Date: Feb. 7, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-982186-53-1
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Saga/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Nov. 8, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2022
It’s not Shakespeare, not by a long shot. But at least it’s not James Franco.
A noted actor turns to verse: “Poems are a Saturday in the middle of the week.”
McConaughey, author of the gracefully written memoir Greenlights, has been writing poems since his teens, closing with one “written in an Australian bathtub” that reads just as a poem by an 18-year-old (Rimbaud excepted) should read: “Ignorant minds of the fortunate man / Blind of the fate shaping every land.” McConaughey is fearless in his commitment to the rhyme, no matter how slight the result (“Oops, took a quick peek at the sky before I got my glasses, / now I can’t see shit, sure hope this passes”). And, sad to say, the slight is what is most on display throughout, punctuated by some odd koanlike aperçus: “Eating all we can / at the all-we-can-eat buffet, / gives us a 3.8 education / and a 4.2 GPA.” “Never give up your right to do the next right thing. This is how we find our way home.” “Memory never forgets. Even though we do.” The prayer portion of the program is deeply felt, but it’s just as sentimental; only when he writes of life-changing events—a court appearance to file a restraining order against a stalker, his decision to quit smoking weed—do we catch a glimpse of the effortlessly fluent, effortlessly charming McConaughey as exemplified by the David Wooderson (“alright, alright, alright”) of Dazed and Confused. The rest is mostly a soufflé in verse. McConaughey’s heart is very clearly in the right place, but on the whole the book suggests an old saw: Don’t give up your day job.
It’s not Shakespeare, not by a long shot. But at least it’s not James Franco.Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2025
ISBN: 9781984862105
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
A blissfully vicarious, heartfelt glimpse into the life of a Manhattan burlesque dancer.
A former New York City dancer reflects on her zesty heyday in the 1970s.
Discovered on a Manhattan street in 2020 and introduced on Stanton’s Humans of New York Instagram page, Johnson, then 76, shares her dynamic history as a “fiercely independent” Black burlesque dancer who used the stage name Tanqueray and became a celebrated fixture in midtown adult theaters. “I was the only black girl making white girl money,” she boasts, telling a vibrant story about sex and struggle in a bygone era. Frank and unapologetic, Johnson vividly captures aspects of her former life as a stage seductress shimmying to blues tracks during 18-minute sets or sewing lingerie for plus-sized dancers. Though her work was far from the Broadway shows she dreamed about, it eventually became all about the nightly hustle to simply survive. Her anecdotes are humorous, heartfelt, and supremely captivating, recounted with the passion of a true survivor and the acerbic wit of a weathered, street-wise New Yorker. She shares stories of growing up in an abusive household in Albany in the 1940s, a teenage pregnancy, and prison time for robbery as nonchalantly as she recalls selling rhinestone G-strings to prostitutes to make them sparkle in the headlights of passing cars. Complemented by an array of revealing personal photographs, the narrative alternates between heartfelt nostalgia about the seedier side of Manhattan’s go-go scene and funny quips about her unconventional stage performances. Encounters with a variety of hardworking dancers, drag queens, and pimps, plus an account of the complexities of a first love with a drug-addled hustler, fill out the memoir with personality and candor. With a narrative assist from Stanton, the result is a consistently titillating and often moving story of human struggle as well as an insider glimpse into the days when Times Square was considered the Big Apple’s gloriously unpolished underbelly. The book also includes Yee’s lush watercolor illustrations.
A blissfully vicarious, heartfelt glimpse into the life of a Manhattan burlesque dancer.Pub Date: July 12, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-250-27827-2
Page Count: 192
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2022
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