Showing results by narrator "Beresford Bennett" in All Categories

In ancient mythology, the Titan Prometheus was punished by the gods for bringing man the gift of fire - an event that set humankind on its course of knowledge. As punishment, Prometheus was bound to a rock. But in The Gift of Fire, those chains cease to be, and the great champion of man walks from that immortal prison into present-day South Central Los Angeles. Disheveled and lost, he is thrown in jail, where he meets lifelong criminal Nosome Blane....

The evening of April 12, 1979, was clear and warm. Unaware of the danger lurking on the periphery of the French Quarter, Drs. Ronald Banks and John Hakola made a tragic decision - to walk the few blocks from the historic district to the Hyatt Regency. Inches from the safety of their hotel entrance, they were accosted by two young men - a scuffle ensued, a shot fired, Dr. Banks lay dead on the sidewalk. Fighting Time tells the story of what happened next - hours, days, weeks, and years after those horrible seconds.

An acclaimed chronicler of the Civil Rights Movement, Peniel Joseph presents this sweeping overview of a key component of the struggle for racial equality: the Black Power movement. This is the story of the men and women who sacrificed so much to begin a more vocal and radical push for social change in the 1960s and 1970s.

Theatre journalist Eddie Shapiro sits down for intimate, career-encompassing conversations with 19 of Broadway's most prolific and fascinating leading men. Full of detailed stories and reflections, his conversations with such luminaries as Joel Grey, Ben Vareen, Norm Lewis, Gavin Creel, Cheyenne Jackson, Jonathan Groff, and a host of others dig deep into each actor's career; together, these chapters tell the story of what it means to be a leading man on Broadway over the past 50 years.

The seventh child of one of Richmond, Virginia's, most ambitious hustlers, Seven is a talented poet and author with a true ear for the streets. In Gorilla Black, a boy with a love of Shakespeare and Langston Hughes struggles to thrive while growing up in the projects as the son of an alcoholic mother. In time, self-dubbed Gorilla Black will ascend to the top seat of a cocaine-fueled empire - and discover the truth about his beloved brother's death so many years before.

Keeble spent fifty-five years as a full-time evangelist using his remarkable gifts, steadfastness, toughness, and tactical navigation of the Black/White divide to baptize as many as forty thousand people. He planted and raised over three hundred congregations and mentored powerful sons and grandsons in the faith, including Fred Gray, the famous civil rights attorney. Gray, the famous civil rights attorney. Keeble's message was simple, but his life is more complicated than many have thought.

In 1911, a relatively unknown physicist named Albert Einstein published his preliminary theory of gravity. But it hadn't been tested. To do that, he needed a photograph of starlight as it passed the sun during a total solar eclipse. So began a nearly decade-long quest by seven determined astronomers from observatories in four countries, who traveled the world during five eclipses to capture the elusive sight. Over the years, they faced thunderstorms, the ravages of a world war, lost equipment, and local superstitions.

Named to the New York Times Book Review's annual 10-best list, this blues-tinged novel tells the story of an unnamed black man estranged from his white wife and their three children. As he struggles to pull money together to provide for his children, his story emerges as a powerful statement about American society.

"There is no equal justice for Black people today; there never has been. To our everlasting shame, the quality of justice in America has always been and is now directly related to the color of one's skin as well as to the size of one's pocketbook." This quote comes from George W. Crockett Jr.'s essay, "A Black Judge Speaks" (Judicature, 1970). The stories of Black lawyers and judges are rarely told. By sharing Crockett's life of principled courage, "No Equal Justice" breaks this silence.

It’s 1967 in the Chagos Archipelago—a group of atolls in the Indian Ocean—and life is peaceful and easy for hardworking Marie. Her fierce independence and love for her home are quickly apparent to Gabriel, the handsome and sophisticated Mauritian secretary to the archipelago’s administrator; it’s love at first sight. As these two lovers from neighboring islands welcome a new son, Joséphin, a bright future seems possible. But Gabriel is hiding a terrible secret.

From 2008-2016, the leader of the free world was a black man. Obama's presidency reshaped America and transformed the international conversation around politics, race and equality. But it attracted criticism and bred discontent as much as it inspired hope - so much so that the world now faces an uncertain future under a very different kind of US President. In this essential new book, peerless journalist and thinker Ta-Nehisi Coates takes stock of the Obama era.

Victor McGlothin is the Essence best-selling author of Autumn Leaves. In The Secrets of Newberry, McGlothin crafts a stunning portrait of race relations in New Orleans circa 1955. When Hampton Bynote meets Bones Arcineaux, the two begin stealing from the rich whites of the French Quarter as a way of recovering the pride that was once taken from them. But when one burglary takes a turn for the worse, the consequences haunt the two men for years to come.

National best-selling author Keith Lee Johnson enjoyed breakout success for his novel Little Black Girl Lost. Now Johnson introduces Nelson Kennard, a former number-one NBA draft pick who blew his chance at the big time - and is about to lose the best thing that's ever happened to him, sexy school teacher Parris Stalls. Soon-to-be-dissed Nelson may have been a playa back in the day, but there's always another baller waiting in the wings.

How do you change the world? Dr. John M. Perkins says the answer is friendship. Find out why in He Calls Me Friend.

Here is living proof that White and Black Christians can live together. When Spencer Perkins was 16 years old, he visited his bloodied and swollen father (Pastor John Perkins) in jail. Police had beaten the Black activist severely, and Spencer never forgot the moment. He couldn't imagine living in community with a White person after that. But his plans were changed.

Sometimes Farmgirls Become Revolutionaries is the story of an unsung civil rights organizer, Black Power activist, and barrier-breaking Black woman, Florence Louise Tate (1931-2014). Tate was close to the young leaders of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. She became a mentor, a mother-of-the-movement, and a target of J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI.

Three of fiction’s most beloved writers—nationally best-selling authors all—each contribute a novella to this enchanting work. With the tales focusing on what happens when a character wins the lottery, the collection boasts hard-earned truths about Christian charity, redemption, and the place of the almighty dollar in people’s lives.

A young, Black kid from a hardworking family in one of the poorest sections of Washington, DC, despite being legally blind in one eye, leaps to the pinnacle of his sport: the Hall of Fame. A rookie bank teller rises to become one of the nation's most celebrated Black business leaders. A once-reluctant political neophyte answers the call to become a major of America's most troubled big city, and he establishes a mentoring program for African American boys that serves as a model for the nation. All of these stories belong to Dave Bing.

When Ferron Morgan's father dies in suspicious circumstances, his trauma is exacerbated by the conflict within his family and among his father's friends over whether the death was the result of medical negligence or if it was a political assassination. Ferron grew up in awe of his father's radical political endeavors, but in later years he watched as the resurgence of the political right in the Caribbean in the 1980s robbed the man of his faith.

Writer, director, and starring actor in Sundance Grand Jury Prize nominee Somebodies, Hadjii remembers the trials and tribulations of youth in Don't Let My Mama Read This. From the havoc that a boy's crusty underwear can wreak on a family's reputation to the first time getting caught coming home drunk, Hadjii covers all the aspects of a "blessedly normal" childhood.