M.K. Asante

Buck: A Memoir by MK Asante is a young man's account of growing up in the inner-city. Asante has an impressive educational background including The University of London, Lafayette College, and UCLA School of Theater Film and Television. He has written four books and has been in or directed three movies. He has accumulated many awards including the key to my adopted city of Dallas, Texas. Currently, Asante is an Associate Professor of Creative Writing and Film at Morgan State University.

I will be the first to admit that I do not like Hip-Hop. I do not like hearing base thumping from a car a half mile away.* I don't understand the culture...until I read this book. I grew up on the east side of Cleveland in the l960s and 1970s. I could identify with much of what Asante was experienced. There was the lower class, white not black, the city was extremely segregated and we all kept to our side. There was drugs and violence, too. Cleveland’s education system was, and still is, in ruins. There were kids you didn't hang around with and places you just didn't go. And there was music. Previously, I would never had made the connection to what I listened to and what Asante listened to. The sound is different but the message is, surprisingly, much the same.

Reading the book, I kept thinking this is the 21st Century version of S.E. Hinton's The Outsiders or That Was Then, This is Now, except it is all real. Buck (Asante) has a rough life and loses most of those around him. He, like many others, did not see a way out through the established system. Looking outside the systems he sees hope, in criminal activity. However, it is a chain of events that puts his life on a different path; it's not religion or some miracle, but smart and practical thinking.

The book is punctuated with hip-hop lyrics: “At exactly which point do you start to realize that life without knowledge is death in disguise?” K.O.S.. Other lyrics are more graphic and violent, but in them are message of repression, unity, and fighting for your rights. It is what I heard growing up,but to totally different music. Although twenty years his senior, Asante thought me to rethink what I know about hip-hop and its message. I understand it now; Thank you. It is rare to find a book that changes your opinions.

Buck is an outstanding memoir of culture, life, death, and redemption. The message is universal no matter what your race. In what most claim to be a fair and free society, many do not experience it. Many are locked into a cycle of poverty; some stay in poverty, some turn to crime, some to drugs , and luckily, a very few escape to remind the rest of us that there are major problems in society that go ignored. -- Don't live in that neighborhood, Don't live in that school district, don't even drive through that area...just pretend it does not exist. Asante, made it out and reminds us that we have a long way to go before fair or even a fair chance exists for all. A must read book.



*I do now understand there is a difference between rap and hip-hop.… (mais)

I signed up to receive a copy of this book from the Early Reviewers program, and won a copy, but for some reason I never received it. So I finally just bought the book from Amazon.com, since I really wanted to read it and I love biographies. I'm glad I did.
I enjoyed hearing his mother's words, woven throughout the story like a silver thread. There are moments of sadness, disappointment, bitterness and grief. There are also moments of joy, triumph and of a young man evolving into beautiful maturity. For every individual who manages to successfully emerge from growing up in a place like "Killadelphia" I have to wonder how many others do not. Too many, far too many. For a lot of people, this is probably a rare glimpse into the life and emotions of a young black man whose life could easily have gone down an entirely different path. I was left wondering how things turned out for some of Malo's family members; his brother, his sister and his father. Perhaps there will be a follow up?
I became amused at times when I found myself looking up unfamiliar terms, some of which (perhaps) should have been obvious, such as Kiwi polish sticks on p. 7; it didn't sink in that he was talking about shoe polish until I found it on Google. :)
There are many quotes in this book. At the very beginning he cites Ovid: "Be patient and tough; someday this pain will be useful to you." He has bits of song lyrics throughout the book as well. From p. 4: "I do this - spit lyrics to songs under my breath - all day, every day. The bars just jump out of me no matter where I am or what I'm doing. It's like hip-hop Tourette's."
One thing I have in common with the author is the love of reading and finding a whole new world in the discovery of books. For MK Asante it was a small leap from a passion for music, lyrics and reading to a successful, multi-faceted career. That and a group of special teachers at Crefeld school, who were able to inspire creativity in their pupils, instead of frustration and anger. Especially Stacey, who taught English lessons. She encouraged the students to write. P. 202: "I grip the pen and something shoots down my spine, sits me straight up. The pen feels heavy, like it's made of stone..... I stare deep into the blank page and see myself. I feel something I've never felt before: purpose. I don't know what my exact purpose is yet, but I know it has something to do with this pen and blank page. I am a blank page."
From a mother who battled mental illness to a father who is not present at key points in this young man's life, a brother who lands in prison, friends involved in a cycle of dead end activity, friends of his brother, who is no longer present in his life....p. 25: "I walk up to the corner of 10th and Godfrey - we call it 10 Gs - where all of Uzi's [Malo's brother] boys chill. They stand where they always stand, between the liquor store and the corner store, next to the Fern Rock Apartments fence, under the train tracks, and across the street from Rock Steady, this bugged ngh who sits on a crate all day with a broken radio, rocking his head back and forth to a beat no one else can hear." By p. 169 they're still on that same corner; p. 208, still on the same corner. And so it goes for many of the young men who grew up in like circumstances, but this young man emerges triumphantly. ".....someday this pain will be useful to you."
I love the way this story comes together in the end, but you will have to read it to find out for yourself! And I love the Afterword, which is titled Much Love. Here is one line from it (p. 252): "To the voiceless whose voice I evoke through pen strokes." Read this book and find true inspiration!… (mais)

In his memoir Buck, MK Asante traces his days as a teenager in North Philadelphia, searching for solid ground in his constantly shifting, dangerous world. Though he was raised in a supportive household, Asante (then known as Malo) struggles as successive changes turn his home inside out: his brother is in prison across the country, his father leaves and his mother is in and out on the edge of mental illness. With few options, full of untamed anger and emotion, Malo looks to the street as his new family.

Woven into Malo's story are excerpts from his mother's diary, which he finds himself reading while she is hospitalized. Her voice gives insight into the family while her concern for her sons act as a stark contrast to the increasingly violent life Malo is living. In haunting passages she makes it clear that writing is a family strength, something Malo won't realize until he makes his way through several schools and finally sits down with a piece of paper in the right one.

"I realize that school and education don't go hand in hand, that school and education can be as distant or as close as sex and love."

Written in a voice that flows with the poetic beauty of hip hop, Buck is a testament to the impact of education, the bonds of family and the power of the written word. MK Asante has written an unforgettable memoir that will stay with you long after the final page.

Full Review: www.rivercityreading.com… (mais)