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The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks about Race
by
Jesmyn Ward (Goodreads Author) ,
Kima Jones (Goodreads Author) , Garnette Cadogan , Claudia Rankine , Emily Raboteau , Mitchell S. Jackson (Goodreads Author) , Natasha Trethewey , Daniel José Older (Goodreads Author)
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National Book Award winner Jesmyn Ward takes James Baldwin’s 1963 examination of race in America, The Fire Next Time, as a jumping off point for this groundbreaking collection of essays and poems about race from the most important voices of her generation and our time.
In light of recent tragedies and widespread protests across the nation, The Progressive magazine republish ...more
In light of recent tragedies and widespread protests across the nation, The Progressive magazine republish ...more
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(showing 1-30)
4.5 stars. TRUE STORY : I had so many articulated thoughts (I swear, humor me) to explain why I loved this collection of essays and why I thought it was very important to read it - of course if you're Afro-American but also if you are not. I'll forever advocate for books who make me feel uncomfortable because of my own privileged biases - even if I'm not American.
I had all these articulated sentences ready to burst on the page, talking about how I will never truly know what it is to be black ...more
it is hard, if not I possible, for person born white to enter the skin of a person of color, to understand how they see things. No matter how sympathetic we are to their plight, no matter how regretful, we cannot see things the way they see them, experience things the way they do. These essays let me glimpse inside, showed me a little of how things have effected them, how the past has colored their future. The color divide is a wide one, I believe, though after all this time it should not be. No
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The Fire This Time blew me away. It’s an odd experience to read a collection of essays that’s hard to put down – reading past my bedtime, early in the morning, and at my desk at lunch. Why? The incredibly timely subject is only part of it – the writing and the personal quality of the essays is what had me glued to this collection. Inspired by James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time, the editor has collected a series of personal essays and poems written by African Americans about race in the US today.
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In the Introduction to this collection of essays by an impressive roster of writers known for thoughtful and articulate discussion of their experience with race in America, Jesmyn Ward explains that she wanted something more than newspaper accounts or editorials when faced with the events of the past eighteen months in the USA. Her own book on the death of five young men of her acquaintance, Men We Reaped, meant that hearing of and seeing via public media further deaths of black men by white men
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4.5 Stars
I’m very grateful for the opportunity to read this collection of essays, a topic that seems to be everywhere, in the news, as well as nonfiction and fiction books. The Fire This Time by Jesmyn Ward is timely as a topic, but it’s tragic that it needed to be written.
Some of these essays are better than others, but all are worth reading. You’ll recognize the names of people you’ve read about, heard some of the details of their tragic stories. The details of areas where the high racial ten ...more
This is perhaps the best essay collection that I have read thus far. Not that I've read a significant number of essay collections; but it's becoming an appealing genre for me. I approached this book with one thought in mind: What do young people think about race? Do they get it? Of course the title to me implies young people 30ish or so. I recently read The Fire Next Time. It was tremendously affecting in that the mood and thoughts on race back then, were strikingly similar to where we stand to
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"My only sin is my skin, ... What did I do, to be so black and blue?"
Fats Waller, "(What Did I Do to Be So) Black and Blue?""
The title of this choric collection of prismatic prose and poetry convoking for equality, compassion and freedom from fear, written by some of today's prominent and talented African-American writers, derives from the title of James Baldwin's groundbreaking The Fire Next Time which he ended with the fiery memorable passage:
Fats Waller, "(What Did I Do to Be So) Black and Blue?""
The title of this choric collection of prismatic prose and poetry convoking for equality, compassion and freedom from fear, written by some of today's prominent and talented African-American writers, derives from the title of James Baldwin's groundbreaking The Fire Next Time which he ended with the fiery memorable passage:
"If we...the relatively conscious whites and the re...more
Aug 10, 2016
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This anthology has a stellar list of contributors, including Edwidge Danticat, Kiese Laymon, Claudia Rankine, Isabel Wilkerson, and many more. It’s fabulous. The pieces are varied, ranging from essay to memoir to poetry. They are consistently moving and powerful, each capturing a different perspective on what it means to be Black in America today. Readers will come to this book for different reasons, but it remains essential reading for everyone who cares about the American experience, past, pre
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I read The Fire This Time with great urgency. The murders this week of two more innocent black men at the hands of cops, followed by the sniper attacks on Dallas police officers, are a kind of nightmarish call and response that demand reflection and action.
It's hard to know what to do when the problems in our country seem so huge and insurmountable. I want so badly not to be part of the problem. I want to quit agonizing over my privilege and do something that matters. But what can one person do ...more
It's hard to know what to do when the problems in our country seem so huge and insurmountable. I want so badly not to be part of the problem. I want to quit agonizing over my privilege and do something that matters. But what can one person do ...more
4.5 stars to 5.
I inhaled this collection of essays. This book was a response to a series of killings of African Americans over the last few years, and to the book The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin.
The collection contains essays and some poems. The writing styles of each piece are different, and though many of the works cover similar incidents, each author brings something a little different to the discussion.
Once I started reading this collection, I could not stop. I found the essays were po ...more
I inhaled this collection of essays. This book was a response to a series of killings of African Americans over the last few years, and to the book The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin.
The collection contains essays and some poems. The writing styles of each piece are different, and though many of the works cover similar incidents, each author brings something a little different to the discussion.
Once I started reading this collection, I could not stop. I found the essays were po ...more
The Fire This Time. Police brutality and systemic racism are plaguing the United States as if we hadn't gone through the Civil Rights movement. I living in France, a country without worry or anxiety when I go out, don't have to face so much overt racism, nor too many microagressions, sit and listen to the countless horrific cases of police brutality ending in fatality. I am almost fifty years old and am proud to have seen a black president and hopefully a female one. However the hate crimes, pol
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A book like this is more important now than ever. Amid the Black Lives Matter movement, the widespread national anthem protests and the recent election of a racist president, The Fire This Time digs deep into the legacy of racism in America and what it means to be black in the past, in the present and in the future.
Curated by National Book Award-winning author Jesmyn Ward and dedicated to Trayvon Martin, it's an anthology divided into three parts: Legacy, Reckoning and Jubilee.
Each writer is tas ...more
Curated by National Book Award-winning author Jesmyn Ward and dedicated to Trayvon Martin, it's an anthology divided into three parts: Legacy, Reckoning and Jubilee.
Each writer is tas ...more
To say that I enjoyed this book would be a lie. This is not a book that one enjoys reading, because the essays collected in this volume are not written for enjoyment. To say that this book changed my life would not be an exaggeration though. These essays, written in response to police brutality against black Americans, pushed me to my limits, made me feel emotions that I didn't know I could feel, and taught me so much--about what it is to be black in America, both historically and in present day
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What the fuck is wrong with Trent Lott? Jesmyn Ward I have yet to shake that incident. What a repellent human being.
This anthology is dauntless. And the intellect? Not sure which is more impressive that or the talent. Kevin Young ...I took a black shower and shaved a black shave, I walked a black walk and sat a black sit... is in top form. But then the same could be said for all of the contributors.
Recommended.
This anthology is dauntless. And the intellect? Not sure which is more impressive that or the talent. Kevin Young ...I took a black shower and shaved a black shave, I walked a black walk and sat a black sit... is in top form. But then the same could be said for all of the contributors.
Recommended.
Thanks Netgallery for the advanced copy of this book.
First let me say, everyone should read this, especially if you are an American and if you love spectacular writing. The essays in this book were well thought out, personal, moving, raw and in more than one ways inspiring. Yes, the topic covered- Racism in America- is an ugly one and its been covered time and time again but these essays give a very fresh personal look at the subject.
I personally loved "Black and Blue" by Garnette Cadogan main ...more
First let me say, everyone should read this, especially if you are an American and if you love spectacular writing. The essays in this book were well thought out, personal, moving, raw and in more than one ways inspiring. Yes, the topic covered- Racism in America- is an ugly one and its been covered time and time again but these essays give a very fresh personal look at the subject.
I personally loved "Black and Blue" by Garnette Cadogan main ...more
Splendid is a very apt word to describe this very timely collection of essays/poems that will sooth the soul, nourish the spirit and rouse the mind!
Editor Jesmyn Ward competently gathered an illustrious group of contributors to continue the discussion/update/reflect on what James Baldwin so poignantly expressed in his 1963, “The Fire Next Time”.
As I normally do with collections, I read only a story or two per day so I could savor and reflect on each contribution. As expected some of the essays ...more
Editor Jesmyn Ward competently gathered an illustrious group of contributors to continue the discussion/update/reflect on what James Baldwin so poignantly expressed in his 1963, “The Fire Next Time”.
As I normally do with collections, I read only a story or two per day so I could savor and reflect on each contribution. As expected some of the essays ...more
3.5 stars
Me thinks this could’ve been 400 pages longer.
Me thinks this could’ve been 400 pages longer.
You guys, this book is out today, and it is such an important book to read.
An emotional and sonorous collection that deserves all the proclamations and praise it has received, plus extra. The brevity of it does nothing to speak towards its immeasurable depth. Essays on the markings and unmarkings of slavery in the North, the aberration (in truth, the what-the-fuckery) of Rachel Dolezal, the unspeakable and inhuman horrors of the Charleston massacre and the deaths of the names of children we know all too well by now, the way their bodies are routinely humiliated and lef
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“… when and how to talk to our children about protecting themselves from the police. At what age is such a conversation appropriate? By what age is it critical? How could it not be despairing? And what, precisely, should be said?”*
I found this to be the thread that linked most of the essays in this anthology: the parents’ worry and fear for their children’s lives, the knowledge that their children will live in the same unsafe world as they did, as their parents and grandparents and grand-grandpa ...more
The Fire This Time
The Fire This Time was an amazing book. I loved Jesmyn Ward's books "Savage the Bones" and "Men We Reaped" but this surpasses those books by far. This book was what needed to be written and I'm so happy that I was able to read it. No one else could have said any of these things in this book than the authors who contributed to it. Great job by Mrs. ward for putting this together.
The Fire This Time was an amazing book. I loved Jesmyn Ward's books "Savage the Bones" and "Men We Reaped" but this surpasses those books by far. This book was what needed to be written and I'm so happy that I was able to read it. No one else could have said any of these things in this book than the authors who contributed to it. Great job by Mrs. ward for putting this together.
Must read no matter what your race or background.
Wonderful. I especially loved essays by Rachel, Kiese, Garnette & Edwidge.
Jesmyn Ward is a national treasure. I've read and loved Salvage the Bones and Men We Reaped, so I had no hesitation whatsoever to picking up a book that comprises essays and poetry by writers hand chosen by her. Some of the names I already knew -- Kiese Laymon, Isabel Wilkerson, Edwidge Danticat, and Claudia Rankine -- and some I didn't -- and obviously should. The variety of voices and methods of conveying ideas means that, as far as I can see, everyone who reads this book should be able to tak
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I wish I could stand on street corners all over America and hand out copies of this book. Seriously, this poignant collection of essays and poems on race should be required reading.
“... to dissent, to call for account, to witness, to reckon.” This collection of novelist and memoirist did just that.
(New) favorite read of 2016.
(New) favorite read of 2016.
A piercing collection of poetry and prose.
With James Baldwin as inspiration, Jesmyn Ward gathers some contemporary voices to riff on race and the value or lack thereof of Black lives. This is an uneven effort with some high highs, and some disappointing lows. It's mostly a book of essays with some poetry sprinkled in, with varying levels of impact.
Jesmyn Ward's introduction packs a wallop of truths along with some jabs of injustice and the feeling of hopelessness and helplessness. As she laments the myth of Black thuggish hoodlums, as ...more
Jesmyn Ward's introduction packs a wallop of truths along with some jabs of injustice and the feeling of hopelessness and helplessness. As she laments the myth of Black thuggish hoodlums, as ...more
Ward divides The Fire This Time into three sections: Legacy, Reckoning, and Jubilee. But as she admits in the introduction, the pieces she received resisted the tidy structure she had envisioned. In some respects, this speaks to the complexity of the pieces, which refuse to be confined to past events or present reactions, but delve into the nuanced relationship between history and current events. Most of the pieces are essays, but each of the three sections begins with a more stylized piece or p
...more
Any new book about race in modern America is immediately thrust into great, potentially intimidating company, a group headlined by Between the World and Me and Invisible Man Got the Whole World Watching. If that new book about race also happens to bear a title that intentionally echoes that of one of the seminal books on that topic, it's placed in even more elite company. All of this is simply to say that, fairly or not, expectations (mine, at least) are high for The Fire This Time.
And there are ...more
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Jesmyn Ward is the author of Where the Line Bleeds, Salvage the Bones, and Men We Reaped. She is a former Stegner Fellow (Stanford University) and Grisham Writer in Residence at the University of Mississippi. She is an associate professor of Creative Writing at Tulane University.
Her work has appeared in BOMB, A Public Space and The Oxford American.
More about Jesmyn Ward...
Her work has appeared in BOMB, A Public Space and The Oxford American.
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“Replace ropes with bullets. Hound dogs with German shepherds. A gray uniform with a bulletproof vest. Nothing is new.”
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“I want to look happily forward. I want to be optimistic. I want to have a dream. I want to live in jubilee. I want my daughters to feel that they have the power to at least try to change things, even in a world that resists change with more strength than they have. I want to tell them they can overcome everything, if the are courageous, resilient and brave. Paradoxically, I also want to tell them their crowns have already been bought and paid for and that all they have to do is put them on their heads. But the world keeps tripping me up. My certainty keeps flailing.”
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