School Library Journal Review
Khan-Cullors, one of the founders of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, was raised in a family and community impacted by poverty. Her parents worked multiple jobs, and the family struggled with job, housing, and food insecurity. At age nine, she saw the police beat and arrest her brother Monte. Although Monte has schizoaffective disorder, he was placed in solitary confinement without access to necessary medication. This interaction, as well as her time at a predominantly white school, forced Khan-Cullors to see the different ways blacks and whites experience the world. She contrasts Monte's story with the police's treatment of white mentally ill inmates who receive better treatment. The brutality her brother endured, along with the acquittal of George Zimmerman, Trayvon Martin's killer, made her realize that the fight for change needed to begin within her own community. This insightful firsthand account of the creation of BLM deftly exposes the injustices of the United States' social structures and calls for an end to a judicial system that leaves black men and women unprotected and their families broken. VERDICT An excellent look at the history of this movement, especially for those who appreciated the social commentary of Ta-Nehisi Coates's Between the World and Me.-Desiree Thomas, Worthington Library, OH © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Black Lives Matter cofounder Kahn-Cullors brings an earnest and heartfelt tone, if not always a consistent delivery style, to the audio production of her memoir. Over the course of the book she describes how her early experiences growing up in public housing in Los Angeles led to her political activism. She reads in a conversational manner that in no way belies the emotional weight of the hardships her family endured. The most memorable portions of the narrative are about her mentally ill older brother Monte, who was in and out of prison for years. Kahn-Cullors provides a more wistful tone in describing her immediate and extended families and their devotion to work and self-improvement in the midst of worsening economic and social conditions. In the second half of the book, the narrative addresses the motivations for and tactics of the Black Lives Matter movement. Kahn-Cullors's pacing here is choppy and harder to follow. Still, the audiobook is well worth it for the first half in which listeners are privy to hearing Kahn-Cullors's personal experiences as a black person in America read in her own voice. A St. Martin's hardcover. (Jan.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Library Journal Review
As the Black Lives Matter movement marks its five-year anniversary, community organizer Khan-Cullors and Bandele (The Prisoner's Wife) tell the story of how it all began. Khan-Cullors cofounded the movement with Alicia Garza and Opal Tometi in 2013. The memoir isn't a manifesto for the movement but instead a heartfelt narrative about Khan-Cullors's experiences with police, prisons, poverty, and the lack of community resources that marginalize black (and brown) people. The memoir brings to life the terror black people face, but it also highlights the spirit of today's civil rights leaders. Black Lives Matter may have been born at a time of anger, but it's a movement rooted in love. That's the undercurrent flowing through Khan-Cullors's stories: her mother working day and night to provide for her family, her father showing that her black life mattered, her friends supporting her through life's challenges, her father's unexpected death, and her brother's struggles with his mental illness. Khan-Cullors narrates, the sincerity in her voice drawing listeners in so they see through her eyes and hear through her own words what it's like to grow up black and poor in America. Listeners gain an intimate understanding of who she is and what inspired her role in the movement. VERDICT A relevant memoir in today's times; recommended for all library collections. ["Khan-Cullors's prose is dynamic; a rhythmic call to action that deftly illustrates the impact of living in a place that systematically demeans black person-hood through neglect and aggressively racist state policy.... [A] searing, timely look into a contemporary movement from one of its crucial leading voices": LJ 12/17 starred review of the St. Martin's hc.]-Gladys Alcedo, -Wallingford, CT © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.