 | |
| Author | Darnell L. Moore |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Nation Books |
Publication date | May 29, 2018 |
| Pages | 257 |
| ISBN | 978-1-568-58834-6 |
| OCLC | 1035947395 |
No Ashes in the Fire: Coming of Age Black and Free in America is a 2018 memoir by American writer and activist Darnell L. Moore. It explore Moore's experiences growing up in poverty in New Jersey, and his struggles with his personal identity as both black and queer.
No Ashes in the Fire follows Moore's early life, growing up black and queer, born to teenage parents and living in poverty in Camden, New Jersey. [1] It explores Moore's struggle with his racial identity against the popular expectation of "little more than anger from black boys", and his sexual identity in against the popular notion of "black men as symbols of hyper-heterosexuality". [1]
The book recalls a history of bullying and discrimination, including the event from which its title is drawn, where local boys doused him in gasoline, and attempted to burn him alive. [2] [3] It follows through the throes of the AIDS epidemic in the US, [4] and explores the breadth of Moore's life from his abusive father, to his untimely heart attack at age 19, which served as his later inspiration. [5]
Kirkus Reviews call No Ashes in the Fire "an engaging meditation on identity and creativity," [2] while Publishers Weekly dubbed it "a stunning tribute to affirmation, forgiveness, and healing", and an "invigorating emotional tonic". [5] In their interview with Moore, The Philadelphia Inquirer introduced it as both compelling and vulnerable, "glorious and traumatic". [6]
The LGBT community is a loosely defined grouping of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals united by a common culture and social movements. These communities generally celebrate pride, diversity, individuality, and sexuality. LGBT activists and sociologists see LGBT community-building as a counterweight to heterosexism, homophobia, biphobia, transphobia, sexualism, and conformist pressures that exist in the larger society. The term pride or sometimes gay pride expresses the LGBT community's identity and collective strength; pride parades provide both a prime example of the use and a demonstration of the general meaning of the term. The LGBT community is diverse in political affiliation. Not all people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender consider themselves part of the LGBT community.
Queer studies, sexual diversity studies, or LGBT studies is the study of topics relating to sexual orientation and gender identity usually focusing on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, gender dysphoric, asexual, queer, questioning, and intersex people and cultures.
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The African-American LGBT community, otherwise referred to as the Black American LGBT community, is part of the overall LGBT culture and overall African-American culture. The initialism LGBT stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender.
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