![]() ![]() Walker refuses to lull his listeners instead his missives urge them to do better as they consider, through his eyes, how to be a good citizen, how to be a good father, how to live, and how to love. ![]() The result is a bracing and often humorous examination by one of America's most acclaimed essayists of what it is to grow, parent, write, and exist as a Black American male. Because both of his parents were blind, Walker hoped. Whether confronting the medical profession's racial biases, considering the complicated legacy of Michael Jackson, paying homage to his writing mentor James Alan McPherson, or attempting to break free of personal and societal stereotypes, Walker elegantly blends personal revelation and cultural critique. Holding a beer in one hand and a joint in the other, Walker was steering with his knee when he hit two parked cars and then fled the scene. ![]() Keeping things quick gives him the freedom to move he can alight on a truth without pinning it into place." (Jennifer Szalai, The New York Times)įor the Black community, Jerald Walker asserts in How to Make a Slave, "anger is often a prelude to a joke, as there is broad understanding that the triumph over this destructive emotion lay in finding its punchline." It is on the knife's edge between fury and farce that the essays in this exquisite collection balance. ![]() The brevity suits not just Walker's style but his worldview, too. "The essays in this collection are restless, brilliant and short. Finalist for the 2020 National Book Award in Nonfiction ![]()
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