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“The Black Kids” by Christina Hammonds Areed

October 18, 2020 By Patricia Hruby Powell Leave a Comment

Ashley is a wealthy black high school senior when the 1992 Los Angeles riots break out following the police beating of Rodney King in “The Black Kids” (Simon & Schuster 2020) by Christina Hammonds Reed. Ashley hangs with the popular white cheerleader and athlete types headed by Kimberly and her boyfriend Michael and ignores the handful of black kids at school.

Afterall, she’s rich like her white friends. The girls try to stand up to their sometimes-dismissive boyfriends. Ashley says, “Just because sometimes our music comes wrapped in glitter doesn’t mean it’s empty.” For readers who have problems with swearing, I warn you that these kids swear just like most of today’s kids. Seems real to me.

Ashley’s big sister, Josephine (named after Josephine Baker) is secretly married to a white man and is the only family member who seems to have a social conscience or feel a need to be politically active. The family frets that Jo is endangering herself in the city while protesters loot and burn stores. But Jo has always been dramatic, in Ashley’s eyes—always too sensitive.

Lucia, the sisters’ Latina nanny and best friend says of Jo, “Your parents don’t know what she’s so sad about. Sadness for them is a cause and effect, not simply a way to be.”

The reader is reminded that this isn’t contemporary, only when the characters talk about records on turntables, cassette tapes—and the fact that they don’t have cellphones.

Things rev up when LaShawn, the black scholarship athlete at their private school takes notice of Ashley. But Ashley is going to prom with Trevor, one of her white crowd. The riots are ramping up, Jo is in more and more danger, the family is increasingly worried, while “good girl” Ashley is making a couple big mistakes. She’s paying way too much attention to Kimberly’s boyfriend Michael and she wonders aloud to her group where LaShawn got his brand new Jordan sneakers. A rumor starts about LaShawn and looting. Eventually a rumor will start about Ashley being slutty.

In the meantime we’re introduced to Ashley’s cousin, Morgan, and her father’s brother Ronnie. That’s the poor side of the family that Ashley’s family has forgotten. But they live downtown in the path of the burning and looting where they also own a vacuum repair shop inherited from their grandmother, the family-legend, Shirley. It turns out that Shirley’s family—their family— survived the Tulsa, Oklahoma riots of 1919 and sought refuge in LA afterwards.

Ashley wonders why she’d never heard these stories. Well, her parents wanted better for their kids. They wanted them to be kids without worries, to have a carefree childhood. This seems reasonable, but now they’re all paying the price—and it’s a big price. Ashley comes of age as a young black woman and brings her family with her in this eye-opening book—a story that shows we haven’t made nearly enough racial progress in the last three decades or even the last century.

Patricia Hruby Powell is the author of the award-winning Josephine; Loving vs Virginia; and Struttin’ With Some Barbecue and the new Lift As You Climb. She teaches community classes in writing at Parkland College. talesforallages.com

“Someday We Will Fly” by Rachel DeWoskin

September 27, 2020 By Patricia Hruby Powell Leave a Comment

Following an evening performance as acrobat/dancers with the Stanislav Circus, teenaged Lillia, her father, and her baby sister flee Poland, as planned. But her mother, in the chaos, goes missing. The three members of the Jewish Kazka family head for Shanghai in 1941 in “Someday We Will Fly” (Viking 2019) by Rachel DeWoskin. I hadn’t known that Shanghai was a refuge for Jewish people. It turns out that the Chinese once considered Jewish people mystical—and therefore desirable.

By foot, by train, by ship the dumb-struck family travels to Shanghai, arriving with little money, no ability to speak Chinese, no food, no home, no Mama—yet they’re allowed to enter.

The family crowds into a tenement house with other Jewish families. A shell of his former self, Lillia’s Papa looks for work, day after day until their money runs out. Everyone in the tenements is struggling to various degrees in Japan-occupied China.

Lillia, in between taking care of her disabled infant sister and searching for food, manages to go to the Jewish school. She befriends other refugees. Biata’s family, also from Poland, hopes to start a bar in Shanghai. American Rebecca, Lillia’s favorite, is rich due to her father being a doctor. Sally, also American, scorns Lillia, but Rebecca discretely gives Lillia a pink dress—Lillia’s only dress—and invites her to Scouts. She tries to fit in with the girls but she can’t pay the Scouts membership—and is usually hungry. Rebecca takes Lillia to the theater, but Lillia doesn’t fit in there.

Lillia befriends Wei, the Chinese janitor boy at school. The other girls are aghast at their friendship, but Lillia is falling in love with Wei. She borrows school supplies from his janitor closet to make puppets at home. She has dreams of her friends making a theater/circus production with her, using her beautiful hand-made puppets and her own dancing.

Lillia’s father finds a manual labor job. But both he and her baby sister Naomi, contract cholera. Their neighbor Taube, who has become a mother to the children, dies of the disease. Lillia nurses her family, and despite wronging him, Wei helps her obtain healing Chinese herbs. At a breaking point, Lillia finds work as an escort and dancer at a “gentleman’s club,” where one particular Chinese gentleman regularly buys her meals. Many of the girls are forced to go beyond dancing, including Wei’s sister. Lillia’s life is perilous. And always they wait for her mother.

After Japan bombs Pearl Harbor, the war in China escalates. Bombs take down tenements and warehouses. As Japan takes stronger control of China even wealthy Jews are in danger—maybe more than the poor who are better able to remain invisible. The Japanese have imprisoned all Americans and their outcome looks bad.

There is plenty of heartbreak in this story but much beauty in coming of age while struggling for one’s survival. If you love learning history by reading well-researched well-written historical fiction, this book is a must. The audio book (Listening Library – available on Overdrive from our public libraries) is fine, too.

“Being Toffee” by Sarah Crossan

September 6, 2020 By Patricia Hruby Powell Leave a Comment

Allison runs away from her London home and her abusive father to the coastal town of Bude in Cornwall, England. Kelley-Ann, her father’s girlfriend, “escaped” earlier and asked 16 year old Allison along but Allison wasn’t ready to desert her troubled father. We know the father has injured Allison—there’s a mark on her face, but it’s quite a while until we get the details of how it happened, in the remarkable book “Being Toffee” (Bloomsbury 2020) by Sarah Crossan.

Allison finds a shed behind a deserted house near the beach, curls into a ball and sleeps the night. Come morning, she looks in the window of the deserted house and comes face to face with an odd old woman—it isn’t deserted after all. Allison bolts, but the woman calls after her, “Toffee.” Allison realizes she’s not being offered candy. The woman thinks she’s a long-lost friend named Toffee.

The woman, Marla, invites Allison in. Allison is quite willing to be “Toffee.” She’s hungry. She asks for a hot cross bun sitting on the counter, eats it, asks for another and devours it as well. Marla goes in and out of spells of dementia. When Marla goes upstairs at day’s end, Allison/Toffee finds a spare room and sleeps in a bed. Heavenly.

Allison says, “I am not who I say I am,/ and Marla isn’t who she thinks she is./ I am a girl trying to forget./ She is a woman trying to remember.”

Allison has left her phone in London so her father can’t track her. But now she has no means of contacting Kelley-Ann. While Allison hides in the upstairs bedroom, Peggy, Marla’s occasional caretaker comes to the house. Allison hides under the bed. Marla tells Peggy about her new friend “Toffee,” but Peggy thinks she’s delusional. Marla’s dementia is working for Allison.

Eventually, Marla’s dismissive son pays a visit. Again, Allison hides. She pinches Marla’s cash and food.

Allison finds rich girlfriends on the beach and drinks with them, saying, “…glug/ glug/ glug/ to prove I am fun,/ someone to invest in.” Allison begins doing their homework assignments in exchange for money and is able to pay Marla back more than she’s taken. Allison and Marla begin to take excursions together. They are lovely together.

In a conversation between the two, Allison says, “You come in and out of yourself, I say./ She laughs./ Sure, don’t we all?”

Eventually Allison contacts Kelley-Ann and together they are squatters in Marla’s house. There are surprises that I don’t want to spoil. But I’ll say, the outcome is authentic, moving, and heart-breaking—like life. Written in exquisite and accessible verse, “Being Toffee” is a must-read for anyone who cares about a person suffering dementia—or anyone who loves a great story beautifully told.

“Clap When You Land” by Elizabeth Acevedo

August 16, 2020 By Patricia Hruby Powell Leave a Comment

One girl, Yahaira, in New York City says goodbye to her father, when he leaves on his annual summer trip to Dominican Republic. One girl, Camino in DR awaits her father to arrive for his summer-long visit where she will clap when the plane lands, as is the custom. But the plane crashes at the onset of “Clap When You Land” (Harper Collins 2020) by the remarkable poet Elizabeth Acevedo.

Camino has been raised by her aunt, Tia Solano, after her mother died. Tia is a curandera, a healer. Because she consults “the Saints,” some would call her a witch. But her healing with herbs offers effective cures in the barrio where they live. Camino accompanies Tia to births and visits to the ill. In fact, Camino wants to study medicine at Columbia University in NYC. She’s a good healer and an excellent student.

Yahaira lives with her mother in Harlem. She’s a bit spoiled by her doting Papi and her angry Mami who manages a nail salon. Yahaira’s girlfriend, Dre and Dre’s mother, a doctor, are a second family to her. Until recently, Yahaira has been a chess champion. Dark like her father, she traveled the nation with him for her championship tournaments.

In DR Camino lives in a poor barrio a short run to the beach. Camino says: “this thin body better fed than most, curved softly/ in the places that elicit whistles & piropos; swimming/ has kept this body honed like Tia’s oft-sharpened machete.”

They live in a nicer shack than most of their neighbors due to Papi’s money. The vecinos—neighbors—depend on Camino, Tia, and Papi with his summertime visits to help them climb out of the hardships of abject poverty. Papi pays off El Cero to leave fourteen-year-old Camino alone.

But Papi is dead. El Cero is dangerous, not just as a young man, but as a newly minted sex hustler. “I am a girl who is not full-fledged,” just the kind of girl El Cero wants. Camino is in danger. And without Papi, how will she get to medical school in NYC. She can’t even pay for her private school tuition in DR without Papi’s money.

In NYC, Yahaira’s mother is about to receive the half a million-dollar settlement from the airline. Relatives are requesting money and she’s giving it. Mami is furious, but grieving deeply. Papi, always bigger-than-life, not just to his family, but to the whole hood where he owns a couple billiard halls. Everyone is mourning.

“There are pieces/of him all over/ this barrio,” Camino tells us. Acevedo conveys island life and urban Harlem life as only an “own-voice” writer can—knowing it from the inside out.

The reader realizes early on that island-dwelling Camino and urban Yahaira are sisters and we witness their shocking discovery. We see how they maneuver among the adults, and how they ultimately find support in each other. What an emotional story, beautifully told.

“Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You” by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi

July 26, 2020 By Patricia Hruby Powell Leave a Comment

In the USA, Black people make up 13% of the population, yet they are 40% of the incarcerated population, Ibram X. Kendi tells us in the introduction of “Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You” by Jason Reynolds and Kendi. “Stamped” is a “remix” of the national Book Award-winning “Stamped from the Beginning” by Ibram X. Kendi.

This snappy young adult (or any adult) version begins with a history of racism dating back to 1415 when Portuguese Prince Henry convinced his father King John to capture the Muslim trading depot in Morocco and take the riches of Black Africans. Man’s downfall always seems to come down to greed.

White Portugal enslaved Black Moors—as more spoils of war. It has never been unusual for the victor to enslave their vanquished, and oftentimes it has been Whites enslaving Whites. At this time a White man known as Zurara wrote a chronicle championing the idea of Christianizing African “savages.” That narrative was a hit, and it convinced some Black men that they were indeed savages—inferior to Whites.

A Black man, Leo Africanus, wrote about hyper-sexual Black savages who “needed” to be enslaved and taught about Jesus. Written documents are powerful. They can be disseminated to the masses. And that is how racism became institutionalized, say Reynolds and Kendi.

The authors divide the population into 1) segregationists, the “real haters,” 2) assimilationists who only “‘like’ you because you’re like them,” and 3) antiracists who “love you because you’re like you.” Back to the history.

Puritans arrived in America in the 17^th Century believing themselves to be the chosen people, superior to others. This laid groundwork for the justification for over-running indigenous people and enslaving Black people. For the sake of their own riches, rich White men devised ways for poor Whites to turn against poor Blacks, creating White privilege (which still exists to this day).

Enter Cotton Mather who convinced people that, “the only mission of slavery, had to be to save the souls of slaves, because through salvation the enslaved would be whitened. Purified.” Whiter meant purer!

The many brief chapters include the history and ideologies of Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Booker T. Washington, and W.E.B. Du Bois. Don’t assume that anyone listed is lionized. Booker Washington and Du Bois were both assimilationists (category 2) for decades, fighting for White approval, until Du Bois eventually headed toward antiracism. And working toward the present—Martin Luther King, James Brown, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon. Again, don’t expect to find heroes, except maybe Angela Davis. Do expect to learn.

Reynold’s briefly outlines the plots of books and movies popular through modern history and shows how they both represented and guided people’s opinions—Harriet Beecher Stowe’s “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”; the outrageously racist movie “Birth of a Nation”; “Tarzan”; and “Planet of the Apes.”

There is so much here to study and assess. Everyone should read it. Everyone.

Patricia Hruby Powell teaches “Write Your Story” for Parkland College Community Education. Her newest book, Lift As You Climb: The Story of Ella Baker is available, signed from Jane Addams Bookstore or available wherever you buy books. talesforallages.com

“The Great Nijinsky: God of Dance” by Lynn Curlee

July 5, 2020 By Patricia Hruby Powell Leave a Comment

What do you know about Nijinsky? He was a legendary dancer, homosexual, he caused a riot in Paris when he performed to Stravinsky’s music? All true, but there is so much more as shown in Lynn Curlee’s “The Great Nijinsky: God of Dance” (Charlesbridge 2019).

The photos in the book show a stocky, plain, stationary Slavic-looking man with decidedly small feet. Only one photo hints at Nijinsky’s brilliance as a dancer. Yet the artwork of the author/illustrator suggests the dancer’s theatrical genius.

Born in 1890, a Pole in Russia, he was educated at the preeminent Imperial Ballet School in St. Petersburg and joined the Imperial Ballet upon graduation. In 1909, he was wooed by the great impresario Sergei Diaghilev to dance in his Ballet Russe. At the time, Vaslav Nijinsky was heterosexual but Diaghilev required complete dedication which included being his lover. With Nijinsky dancing and luminaries Michel Fokine as choreographer and artist Leon Bakst producing sets and costumes, Ballet Russe was innovative beyond anything Paris or the world had ever seen.

The book is divided by the great ballets, each with an illustration, program details, blurbs from reviews, and the ballet’s story. They include Fokine’s Firebird, Scheherazade, Carnaval, Specter of the Rose, Petrushka—all titles known to balletomanes. The story of Nijinsky’s life is interspersed. Nijinsky soon came to hate Diaghilev, but Diaghilev was conducting Nijinsky’s remarkable career, so the dancer remained living with the entrepreneur.

Whereas Nijinsky was thought to be a dull, shy man, he was lauded as a miracle on stage—the most accomplished, brilliant dancer of the early 20^th century. This is entirely based on memories, reviews, photos, because there is absolutely no existing footage of Nijinsky’s dancing. He was known as a sex symbol—a genius performer.

In 1912 Nijinsky choreographed Afternoon of a Faun on the Ballet Russe, to music of Debussy. A remarkable costume sketch by Leon Bakst is included and the dance is described as, “spare, severe, strangely erotic, totally original, and very beautiful.” Nijinsky required his dancers to abandon their classical training to execute challenging movement created to get from one “awkward” pose to the next. Some audience members, accustomed to lyrical Russian ballet hated it; some loved it. Regardless, Nijinsky was considered the “God of Dance.”

For the 1913 premier of Nijinsky’s Rite of Spring, Igor Stravinsky “composed a revolutionary score so audacious and original, so brutal and harsh, that when combined with Nijinsky’s unconventional choreography, it caused the audience to riot.” The yelling Parisians drowned out the orchestra so the dancers couldn’t hear it. Fist fights broke out amongst the audience.

Soon after, the Ballet Russe was booked to tour South America. Diaghilev stayed behind. On the voyage Nijinsky met a beautiful Budapest society girl, Romola de Pulszky, and married her, never thinking that Diaghilev would withdraw his support. But he did. Nijinsky’s career and mental health plummeted. Without the support of Diaghilev, Nijinsky, unable to dance, spiraled into mental illness and was institutionalized in 1919. He died in an asylum in 1950.

His life was tragic, his legacy stellar. I, among so many other dancers and admirers long to have seen this man dance.

Patricia Hruby Powell’s newest book, Lift As You Climb: The Story of Ella Baker is available, signed from Jane Addams Bookstore or available wherever you buy books. talesforallages.com