Ghetto Superstar

The reigning queen of hip-hop lit, Nikki Turner, takes on the music biz in this tale of a young woman who risks everything to be a superstar. Fabiola Mays was born to sing. She has a voice like honey and a body to match, but one heartbreaking setback after another threatens to derail her dreams of a recording deal. To make matters worse, it’s Christmastime, rent is past due, and the cops intend to kick her tight-knit family to the curb–until a small-town gangster comes to the rescue and offers them a place to stay. Years pass, and Fabiola continues to play gigs and travel around the country hoping for another shot at fame. She’s long forgotten the gangster named Casino who bailed out her family once upon a time. But when Casino is shot, Fabiola feels that she must help the man who helped her family during their lowest point. As Fabiola climbs the ladder of success, she is pulled between the spotlight and the street, trying to resist industry moguls who find the allure of fresh meat irresistible and the thugs from the shadowy side of the ghetto who threaten to keep her close.

"A story of INSPIRATION... Nathan is truly rising up and moving forward" - Robin Roberts, ABC Good Morning America "A story WORTHY of the BIG SCREEN" - The Boston Globe "Not your average WARD of the STATE" - The Enterprise "Walking TALL" - Boston Herald A Walking Peace is a non-fiction account of the coming of age of a young African American man adopted and raised by a deeply religious but profoundly troubled family in inner-city Boston in the 1980s and 90s. It addresses the author's entanglement with the issues of abandonment, poverty, and homelessness. It profiles his search for racial identity, self-worth, and love-his quest for the "walking peace" of the title. This memoir offers a graphic description of the physical, verbal, and sexual abuse the author secretly endured throughout much of his childhood at the hands of family members. It focuses primarily, however, not on his victimization but on his transcendence of his circumstances through the combined powers of religious faith.

Hoover Crips is the product of field interviews with Crip gang members in South Central Los Angeles, California. Older gang members offer a dramatic portrayal of their life experiences within a social world beset by gangster politics. The book reveals the Hoover street gang is a community institution that significantly impacts the lifestyle choices of Black male residents. The main feature of the book is its insider's view of gangs. Unique information gathered by Professor Steven R. Cureton includes: ·the origins and current state of the Hoover community, gang, and residents ·insight into the subculture of gang membership, reputation building, and hustling drugs, guns, and people for survival ·the balance between humanity, civility, peace, and war in gang life ·and new discoveries relative to Black residency in a gang-dominated environment. The study concludes with a "where they are now" for the participants in the interviews. This book is recommended for courses in deviance, juvenile delinquency, criminology, cultural deviance, urban communities/sociology of communities, race in America, Black experiences, race relations, race and ethnic relations, qualitative research methodology, and ethnographic research.

A Juggalo DJ with a gang of Juggalos chanting "I-C-P, I-C-P" and "Family" and "Whoop, whoop!"

OK, break out your microphones (or hair brushes) and start singing to these test and quizzes. For this second level of the test we have included 100 main questions, over twenty smaller quizzes, that are broken into categories like ; songs about time, songs with the word funk in the title, songs about the law, songs with soul in the title, songs about the ghetto, instrumental soul, songs about the occult, songs by three man and three girl groups, songs by coed soul groups and more. You can use this second level of the BBSATs at your next family reunion, house party, cook out, high school or college reunion, fraternity or sorority party, or any gathering of friends. I bet they will start singing!

The first book of essays by a long-time renowned chronicler of underground culture. Johan Kugelberg's book on the early history of hip hop won the NYPL books for the teen age award 2008 and his book on the Velvet Underground won the Foreword silver medal for music 2010. The way this book mashes up lo-bro and hi-bro is readable, funny and thought-provoking, and also downright provoking. Johan Kugelberg's essays on punk, style and pop culture have entertained readers of international publications including Dazed and Confused, Another Man, Ugly Things, Perfect Sound Forever, Spin, Raygun and Fact over the last couple of decades.