No Ashes in the Fire

Posted on 25 July 2017 by Darnell L. Moore

From a leading journalist and activist comes a brave, beautifully wrought survival story of navigating childhood during the height of the AIDS and crack epidemics, searching for intimacy and love as a young gay man, and ultimately finding a calling fighting for justice and liberation in the Black Lives Matter and LGBTQ movements When Darnell L Moore was fourteen years old, three boys from his neighborhood tried to set him on fire as he was walking home from school Darnell was tall and awkward and constantly bullied for being gay That afternoon, one of the boys doused him with gasoline and tried lighting a match It was too windy, and luckily Darnell s aunt arrived in time to grab Darnell and pull him to safety It was not the last time he would face death What happens to the black boys who come of age in neglected, poor, heavily policed, and economically desperate cities that the War on Drugs and mass incarceration have created How do they learn to live, love, and grow up Darnell was raised in Camden, NJ, the son of two teenagers on welfare struggling to make ends meet He explored his sexuality during the height of the AIDS epidemic, when being gay was a death sentence He was beaten down and ignored by white and black America, by his school, and even his church, the supposed place of sanctuary He made it out, but as he quickly learned, escaping Camden, escaping poverty, and coming out do not guarantee you freedom It wasn t until Darnell was pushed into the spotlight at a Newark rally after the murder of a young queer woman that he found his voice and his calling He became a leading organizer with Black Lives Matter, a movement that recognized him and insisted that his life mattered In recovering the beauty, joy, and love in his own life, No Ashes in the Fire gives voice to the rich, varied experiences of all those who survive on the edges of the margins In the process, he offers a path toward liberation. New Download [ No Ashes in the Fire ] by [ Darnell L. Moore ] – kino-fada.fr 4.5 stars Memory is a tricky force, especially when brutality, poverty, self hatred, and many other unseen hands, which turn beautiful people into the monsters and victims, dictate what we remember Wow This was a very eloquent, courageous, personal, and beautifully written memoir This first thing that got my attention was his beautiful writing, followed closely by the courage and strength it took to be so open and honest Darnell Moore was once a frightened young man living in a home filled w 4.5 stars Memory is a tricky force, especially when brutality, poverty, self hatred, and many other unseen hands, which turn beautiful people into the monsters and victims, dictate what we remember Wow This was a very eloquent, courageous, personal, and beautifully written memoir This first thing that got my attention was his beautiful writing, followed closely by the courage and strength it took to be so open and honest Da...Darnell Moore is only in his mid 40s, but his life is definitely already memoir worthy He is black and gay, and grew up in a poor predominantly black town in New Jersey There was crazy strong love in his family, but also violence, poverty and addiction Moore is now an activist, most recently involved in the Black Lives Matter movement He tells his own story, and also commentsbroadly about race, sexuality, class, family and education Everything he has to say is interesting, but I espec Darnell Moore is only in his mid 40s, but his life is definitely already memoir worthy He is black and gay, and grew up in a poor predominantly black town in New Jersey There was crazy strong love in his family, but also violence, poverty and addiction Moore is now an activist, most recently involved in the Black Lives Matter movement He tells his own story, and also commentsbroadly about race, sexuality, class, family and education Everything he has to say is interesting, but I especially liked his section dealing with his early education He was a bright kid in an underfunded school He...I m pretty much in love with reading memoirs by Black people right now Doing so, keeps reassuring me that we, as Black people, are not a monolith and our diversity is something to be celebrated I want to celebrate Moore after reading his memoir I want to celebrate him and the amount of growth he experienced from being a young insecure teen, bullied by the other kids in the neighborhood to being an accomplished sexually fluid man who advocates for the rights of Black people and the LGBT commu I m pretty much in love with reading memoirs by Black people right now Doing so, keeps reassuring me that we, as Black people, are not a monolith and our diversity is something to be celebrated I want to celebrate Moore after reading his memoir I want to celebrate him and the amount of growth he experienced from being a young insecure teen, bullied by the other kids in the neighborhood to being an accomplished sexually fluid man who advocates for the rights of Black people and the LGBT community It takes a lot of co...There are memoirs that send the reader into another place or time, often reviving thoughts that were kept deep in their psyche a secret between them and the God of their understanding Certainly, this is what Darnell Moore accomplished with No Ashes in the Fire Coming of Age Black and Free in America, the story of tribulation and triumph a hopeful spray of a toxic reality that raises questions and quells the darkest of anxieties Moore walks the readers through Camden, New Jersey during a per There are memoirs... No Ashes in the Fire is both a memoir from a gay black male growing up both poor, traumatized and loved in Camden, and a social commentary on being black, gay, queer, hiding, and out As a writer, Moore is honest, intense, and passionate In the prologue he says, Every word and every sentence that follows is an attempt to recover the many smiles and moments of joy hiding behind he walls trauma left True ...This one is a 4.5 into 5 stars, and because I want everyone to read it, I will try not to give a summary, as to not spoil anyone s experience with this revelatory memoir Darnell Moore s No Ashes in the Fire is the book we all need to read for Pride month, another year in Trump s America, college break, family reunion season, and every other day of our lives He has distilled the very particular experiences of his life in and beyond Camden, New Jersey into a deeply affectionate sermon to the bla This one is a 4.5 into 5 stars, and because I want everyone to read it, I will try not to give a summary, as to not spoil anyone s experience with this revelatory memoir Darnell Moore s No Ashes in the Fire is the book we all need to read for Pride month, another year in Trump s America, college break, family reunion season, and every other day of our lives He has distilled the very particular experiences of his life in and beyond Camden, New Jersey into a deeply affectionate sermon to the black folk he has encountered in his city,...In reading No Ashes in the Fire I was immediately drawn in by the writing of Darnel Moore His writing style was like smooth honey, slowly working its way into my soul hiding eyes that were windows into a worldfantastic that the world he moved through It was like listening to smooth jazz the whole way through the novel I would love to hear him speak, I feel his voice would be as soothing to the soul as his words are The love for his family and his people is quickly shown in the first In reading No Ashes in the Fire I was immediately drawn in by the writing of Darnel Moore His writing style was like smooth honey, slowly working its way into my soul hiding eyes that were windows into a worldfantastic that the world he moved through It was like listening to smooth jazz the whole way through the novel I would love to hear him speak, I feel his voice would be as soothing to the soul as his words are The love for his family and his people is quickly shown in the first chapter He truly wants to understand what had happened to his hometown and how he could help Revealing his families history and the history of Camden that was so similar to what is happening now in the United States is heartbreaking Moore overcomes violence at the hands of his father and peers, racism, near death due to heart failure,...I don t know that I m capable of providing an objective review of this book frankly, I m not sure a book review benefits from being impersonal when so much of reading is immediate and intimate It felt too personal I felt loved by it Truly, I did.Ostensibly it is a memoir about growing up queer, black, and impoverished and finding a way to thrive within those contexts The early chapters provide a context of statistics, facts, and history for his childhood in Camden, New Jersey The ensuing I don t know that I m capable of providing an objective review of this book frankly, I m not sure a book review benefits from being impersonal when so much of reading is immediate and intimate It felt too personal I felt loved by it Truly, I did.Ostensibly it is a memoir about growing up queer, black, and impoverished and finding a way to thrive within those contexts The early chapters provide a context of statistics, facts, and history for his childhood in Camden, New Jersey The ensuing chapters follow Moore s life from elementary school through college into a life focused on supporting and loving the communities he is a part of The book also details his internal struggles to come to love himself and then by extension those communities It is the detailing of those struggles where something transcendent occurs In his reckoning with his own internalized racism, homophobia, sexism, e...Thank you NetGalley for this advanced eGalley of No Ashes in the Fire by Darnell L Moore I always hesitate when I m asked to rate a memoir because it s a hard thing to rate the way a person writes his her their truth You simply cannot judge a story, or the way it s told, because who are you to do so If anything, I give any and every one who lays themselves bare 5 stars because that is something that s hard to do especially when you re a black, gay, man in Am...Review to come

25 July 2017

Darnell L. Moore