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A review by jennog
The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks about Race by Jesmyn Ward
4.0
I haven't read James Baldwin's The Fire Next Time yet (shameful I know) so I wasn't sure how much of this book I was going to really understand but I will say there were some stand out chapters/essays:
Part 1:
"Lonely in America" - forgotten slave burial sites in New Hampshire
"Where Do We Go From Here?" - eloquently stated prose on where we are in America today
Chapter on Phillis Wheatley - I learned so much about the first published African American female poet. I remember learning about her in first grade but never did I know about her husband and life before now.
"White Rage" - makes similar points to the Netflix movie "13th"
Part 2:
"Blacker Than You" - I appreciate it when Asian Americans get a shoutout and general pop culture references.
"Black and Blue" - walking (literally just walking) while black in different regions of the US from a first person perspective...just, wow.
I could go on but basically all the chapters in Part 2 really resonated with me.
Part 3:
Appropriately entitled "Jubilee", Part 3 encourages the reader to feel hopeful for the future to build a better world so that "your generation of brown and black men, women, and children will be the last who will experience all this."
Once I read The Fire Next Time, I'll probably give this a 5 star rating.
Part 1:
"Lonely in America" - forgotten slave burial sites in New Hampshire
"Where Do We Go From Here?" - eloquently stated prose on where we are in America today
Chapter on Phillis Wheatley - I learned so much about the first published African American female poet. I remember learning about her in first grade but never did I know about her husband and life before now.
"White Rage" - makes similar points to the Netflix movie "13th"
Part 2:
"Blacker Than You" - I appreciate it when Asian Americans get a shoutout and general pop culture references.
"Black and Blue" - walking (literally just walking) while black in different regions of the US from a first person perspective...just, wow.
I could go on but basically all the chapters in Part 2 really resonated with me.
Part 3:
Appropriately entitled "Jubilee", Part 3 encourages the reader to feel hopeful for the future to build a better world so that "your generation of brown and black men, women, and children will be the last who will experience all this."
Once I read The Fire Next Time, I'll probably give this a 5 star rating.