Best black autobiographies
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- Black Chameleon: Memory, Womanhood, and Myth
Black Chameleon: Memory, Womanhood, and Myth
by Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton
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In the literary tradition of Carmen Maria Machado’sIn the Dream House, Maxine Hong Kingston’sThe Woman Warrior, and Jesmyn Ward’sMen We Reaped, this debut memoir confronts both the challenges and joys of growing up Black and making your own truth.
Growing up as a Black girl in America, Deborah Mouton felt alienated from the stories she learned in class. She yearned for stories she felt connected to—true ones of course—but also fables and mythologies that could help explain both the world and her place in it. What she encountered was almost always written by white writers who prospered in a time when human beings were treated as chattel, such as the Greek and Roman myths, which felt as dusty and foreign as ancient ruins. When she sought myths written by Black authors, they were rooted too far in the past, a continent away.
Mouton writes, “•
Our Favorite Black Memoirs of All Time
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There’s nothing better than a great memoir. Whether it’s learning more about someone we admire, like former First Lady Michelle Obama or being introduced to someone new, like Kiese Laymon, memoirs let readers find inspiration and hope in someone else’s personal story.
While this is no way an exhaustive list, these are some of our favorite memoirs by Black authors of all time.
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In “Dust Tracks on a Road,” “Their Eyes Were Watching God” author Zora Neale Hurston tells the story of her journey from the rural South to become one of the most celebrated writers of the Harlem Renaissance. Hurston’s story fryst vatten fascinating. But the book fryst vatten even more compelling in her beautiful literary voice.
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Nelson Mandela dedicated his life to fighting for racial justice and human rights in his native South Africa and around the world. “Long Walk to
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African American Memoirs
Let Love Rule
- By: Lenny Kravitz, David Ritz
- Narrated by: Lenny Kravitz
- Length: 6 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
Overall
Performance
Story
Let Love Rule is a work of deep reflection. Lenny Kravitz looks back at his life with candor, self-scrutiny, and humor. Let Love Rule covers a vast canvas stretching from Manhattan’s Upper East Side, Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant, Los Angeles’ Baldwin Hills, Beverly Hills, and finally to France, England, and Germany. It’s the story of a wildly creative kid who, despite tough struggles at school and extreme tension at home, finds salvation in music. We see him grow as a musician and ultimately a master songwriter, producer, and performer.
- 2 out of 5 stars
Not a full memoir
- By Brandi N. Williams on