Ever since you learned how it happened, you couldn’t get it out of your mind. People, packed like pencils in a box, tightly next to each other, one by one by one, tier after tier. They couldn’t sit up, couldn’t roll over or scratch an itch or keep themselves clean on a ship that took them from one terrible thing to another. And in the new book “In Slavery’s Wake,” essays by various contributors, you’ll see what trailed in waves behind those vessels. You don’t need to be told about the horrors of slavery. You’ve grown up knowing about it,…
Author: Terri Schlichenmeyer
An average oak tree is bigger around than two people, together, can reach. That mighty tree starts out with an acorn the size of a nickel, ultimately growing to some eighty feet tall, with a canopy of a hundred feet or more across. And like the new book, “Affrilachia” by Chris Aluka Berry (with Kelly Elaine Navies and Maia A. Surdam), its roots spread wide and wider. In 2016, “on a foggy Sunday morning in March,” Chris Aluka Berry visited the Mount Zion AME Zion Church in Cullowhee, North Carolina for the first time. The congregation was tiny; just a…
What do you think? You may remember the first time a respected adult asked you in earnest for your opinion, and you felt like you had arrived. Ten feet tall, you were. Suddenly a grown-up with viewpoints and thoughts that mattered. What do you think about sports, fashion, food, school, a new apartment or neighbor? In the new book “If We Are Brave” by Theodore R. Johnson, what do you think about current events? Every summer for most of his childhood, Theodore Johnson traveled with his family from North Carolina to Georgia to visit relatives. There, Johnson always tried to…
“Growing Up Urkel” by Jaleel White c.2024, Simon & Schuster $28.99 336 pages At some point in the next few weeks, somebody’s going to bring up That Story. You know the one: That Story happened fifteen or twenty years ago, when you were a kid and did something dumb that became a hilarious tale for an elder to pull out every holiday. Har-dee-har-har. As in the new memoir, “Growing Up Urkel” by Jaleel White, being an adult doesn’t give you a pass. It was only meant to be a single appearance. Twelve-year-old Jaleel White was a veteran of television, having…
Your dream job is still a job. You still must be there on time, looking presentable and ready to go. You can love the work and dislike your coworkers, embrace the challenge but hate the drudge, enjoy the process but dread the politics. And in the new book, “Groundbreaking Magic” by Martha Blanding with Tim O’Day, you can relish your unique employment and still have to represent. On the day she retired from a job she’d had for half a century, Martha Blanding took a tour of her workplace as she took stock of the years. Her parents, who’d lived under Jim Crow in…
“The Spirit of Justice: True Stories of Faith, Race, and Resistance” by Jemar Tisbyc.2024, Zondervan Reflective $29.99 262 pages You have all the tools you need. You have a level, so you’re always even-keeled. A hammer, to nail down your ideals. A saw to cut through nonsense and pliers to pull out the truth. You have almost everything you need for equality; now you need The Spirit of Justice by Jemar Tisby for the right blueprint. In early December of 2017, Myrlie Evers-Williams “granted a private audience” with a group of journalists on the day that the Mississippi Civil Rights…
Something’s all wrong about this scenario. It doesn’t even look right. It’s a mess, which isn’t how you expected it to be. No, you should’ve turned around the minute you saw it, walked out the door, and denied all responsibility but now you’re involved. And in the new memoir “I Wasn’t Supposed to Be Here” by Jonathan Conyers, making things good is going to take some work. For most of his earliest life, Jon Conyers was never totally sure where he’d wake up the next weekend. His parents were both addicted to crack, and moving from apartment to shelter and…
So why didn’t you…? Your life wasn’t random, there was a plan of some kind somewhere. Why didn’t you pick this path instead of that other, make this choice a priority, decide in favor of something else? Surely, you didn’t simply fall headlong into every opportunity. Now, as in “Holler, Child” by LaToya Watkins, a collection of short stories, you’ll always wonder what if… Ever since her son, Hawk, died, news reporters have been sniffing around Mrs. Hawkins’ house, asking questions. She wants to explain why she gave her son away, why he told people he was God’s son before…
Your entire life has been filled with milestones to meet, and many firsts. Your first tooth and first steps were celebrated. Your first word and first day of school were recorded; graduations, proms, puppy love, and beyond, you’ve enjoyed years of achievement. It’s true that milestones are fewer as you age; still, as in the new book “The Peach Seed” by Anita Gail Jones” life sometimes throws you a pleasant surprise. There was no mistaking that perfume. He hadn’t smelled it in decades but Fletcher Dukes, on his weekly visit to Piggly Wiggly with his sister, Olga, knew that scent…
Someone who was older than you taught you to tie your shoes. An elder showed you around a kitchen, a car, a workplace, a classroom, and the inside of a library. A lot of what you know has thoughtfully come from someone with years – which might make you wonder, as in the new book, “The Talk” by Darrin Bell, why weren’t you taught the most important lessons of all? It was 1981 and little Darrin Bell wanted nothing more than a squirt gun. It seemed like everyone had a squirt gun, but the one Darrin’s mother bought him was…