Brothers Within Reach

The mission of ROBE is to educate, equip, and empower men to have an impact that increases breastfeeding rates and decreases infant mortality rates within the African-American community. We do this by presenting evidence and experience-based information in a culturally sensitive method. ROBE is unique because we bridge our relationships between academia and individual family members. Our national model of relationship building and respectful community develop has proven to be successful. I can often be heard telling people that ROBE does not want to “franchise” in multiple locations because we would rather support and reinforce local organizations. Dependable, impactful leaders are a pleasure to work with and assure that resources are directed properly.

A powerful wartime saga recounting the extraordinary story of the 761st Tank Battalion, the first all-black armored unit to see combat in World War II. “More than a combat story . . . it’s also the story of how black soldiers had to fight (literally and figuratively) for the right to fight the Germans.”—USA Today Kareem Abdul-Jabbar first became immersed in the history of the 761st Battalion through family friend Leonard “Smitty” Smith, a veteran of the unit. Working with acclaimed writer Anthony Walton, Abdul-Jabbar interviewed surviving members of the battalion to weave together a page-turning narrative based on their memories, stories, and historical accounts, from basic training through the horrors of the battlefield to their postwar experiences. Trained essentially as a public relations gesture to maintain the support of the black community for the war, the battalion was never intended to see battle. In fact, General Patton originally opposed their deployment, claiming African Americans couldn’t think quickly enough to operate tanks in combatconditions. But in the summer of 1944, following heavy casualties in the fields of France, the Allies—desperate for trained tank personnel—called the battalion up anyway. While most combat troops fought on the front for a week or two before being rotated back, the men of the 761st served for more than six months, fighting heroically under Patton’s Third Army at the Battle of the Bulge and in the Allies’ final drive across France and Germany. Despite a casualty rate that approached 50 percent and an extreme shortage of personnel and equipment, the 761st would ultimately help liberate some thirty towns and villages, as well as several branch concentration camps. The racism that shadowed them during the war and the prejudice they faced upon their return home are an indelible part of their story. Shining through most of all, however, are the lasting bonds that united them as soldiers and brothers, the bravery they exhibited on the battlefield, and the quiet dignity and patriotism that defined their lives.

I was around ten years old, sleeping in the back seat of my mom’s car, parked during evenings at the Detroit River. I looked out the window at the stars, as I feared morning until by exhaustion I would fall asleep. I often woke up having wet my pants from my very real and imagined fears. By day, my mom would look for work and wash clothes while I hung out with the old black guys that would spend their day fishing in the Detroit River. I thought I was the only one who grew up in fear, in a world of abuse, until at thirteen I finally met my half-brother at a professional boxing match. He was in sitting next to our dad. Donny looked at me from inside the ring, trying to figure out who I was as the fight announcer was making his formal introductions. All we had shared at this point was the same biological father. Little did we know...

A New York Times Best seller! One Way Out is the powerful biography of The Allman Brothers Band, an oral history written with the band's participation and filled with original, never-before-published interviews as well as personal letters and correspondence. This is the most in-depth look at a legendary American rock band that has meant so much to so many for so long. For twenty-five years, Alan Paul has covered and written about The Allman Brothers Band, conducting hundreds of interviews, riding the buses with them, attending rehearsals and countless shows. He has interviewed every living band member for this book as well as managers, roadies, and contemporaries, including: Gregg Allman, Dickey Betts, Jaimoe, Butch Trucks, Warren Haynes, Derek Trucks, Oteil Burbridge, the late Allen Woody, Jimmy Herring, Eric Clapton, Bob Weir, and many others. Tracking the band's career from their 1969 formation to today, One Way Out is filled with musical and cultural insights, riveting tales of sometimes violent personality conflicts and betrayals, drug and alcohol use, murder allegations and exoneration, tragic early deaths, road stories, and much more, including the most in-depth look at the acrimonious 2000 parting with founding guitarist Dickey Betts and behind-the-scenes information on the recording of At Fillmore East, Layla, Eat A Peach, Brothers and Sisters, and other classic albums.

Foreword by Junot Diaz. This anthology emerges from the Creative Writing class of San Quentin State Prison. The subtitle "Six Cubic Feet" refers to the amount of space each prisoner is allotted for personal property. The work presented here attests, in a variety of voices, to the ways that stories can transcend even the severe, constricted enclosure of prison. Contributors include: Cole Bienek, Charles "Talib" Brooks, Kenneth R. Brydon, N. T. "Noble" Butler, Micheal "Yahya" Cooke, Arnulfo T. Garcia, Andrew Gazzeny, Richard F. Gilliam, Ivan Skrblinski (a.k.a. Juan Haines), Michael R. Harris, Keoghan O'Donnell, JulianGlenn Padgett, Paul Stauffer, Watani Stiner, Aly Tamboura, Keshun Tate (a.k.a. Daleadamown Abu Muhsin), Troy Williams, Danny York. Edited by Zoe Mullery.

In Europe within Reach Gerrit Verhoeven traces some sweeping evolutions in the early modern travel behaviour of Dutch and Flemish elites (1585-1750), as the classical Grand Tour to Italy was slowly but surely overshadowed by other modes of travelling.