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Beat of a Different Drum: The Untold Stories of African Americans Forging Their |  |
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Beat of a Different Drum: The Untold Stories of African Americans Forging Their | |
"Dax-Devlon Ross's clear-eyed subjects present themselves as unique Americans, men and women of variety and depth, cognizant of their place in society, yet varied in their opinions, hues, and occupations. They are wondrously amazed by the joy and pains of their self created lives. I'm glad Dax-Devlon Ross allowed me to meet them." -- James McBride, author of The Color of Water and Miracle at St. Anna
In a series of insightful, probing interviews, Dax-Devlon Ross gives voice to the less-acknowledged realms of the black experience ? and gives us all new role models of courage, iconoclasm, and creativity. Ross, an inner-city schoolteacher who eschewed a career in law, became aware of the need for a book like this one when he came to his own career crossroads. To write it, he crisscrossed the country and even traveled to Europe, talking to black Americans who have stepped outside their comfort zones ? and found lives that no one had ever imagined they?d lead. In BEAT OF A DIFFERENT DRUM, you?ll meet:
Lisa Stevens, the zoo curator who cares for the pandas at the National Zoo
Johnathon Lee Iverson, the first black Ringling Brothers Circus ringleader
Jair Lynch, an Olympic athlete and real estate entrepreneur
James McLurkin, an inventor and robotics researcher
Ray Hill, a brewmeister who left a lucrative career to start his own beer company
Uchenna Smith, who, at 25, began running her own school with the KIPP-Sankofa program
Jake Lamar, an expatriate novelist
Mike Ladd, an M.C., producer, and professor
Bill Collins, a former Principal turned sailor turned world-renowned chef
Stacey Barney, a schoolteacher turned book editor
. . . as well as many others, each of whose stories has something unique to teach us about the search for meaning in one?s lifework, and the challenges that we must still face when we march to the beat of a different drum.
作者简介 Dax-Devlon Ross is a seventh-grade English teacher in a New York City public school. A graduate of Rutgers University and George Washington University Law School, he spent two years working in publishing and journalism before joining New York City?s Teaching Fellows program. It was in this program that he realized the need to expand the role models for young African American people. He lives in New York City.
专业书评 From Publishers Weekly
To inspire young African-Americans whose horizons seem limited, Ross, a seventh-grade English teacher in New York City, presents brief accounts of 30 people who have made careers "outside of the boundaries that seemed so stringently set for blacks living in America." Ross interviews a chef and a brewmeister, a holistic healer and a circus ringmaster, an oceanographer, a real estate developer and an editor. The conventional African-American role models (doctor, lawyer, teacher, basketball player, rock musician) appear only marginally, though Ross does profile a guitar maker and a guitar player. As one of Ross's informants puts it, "There's like this secret army of alternative people," and the great value of the book is that it reveals this army to those who might otherwise never see it. Ross's profiles are best taken in short doses, however. In spite of the variety of personal backgrounds and occupations, the writing style is uniform, and what is intended to be inspiring becomes wearying after several hundred pages. Still, high school guidance counselors and teachers would do well to keep this volume handy. It's a fine antidote to students' inexperience.
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