The Stickup Kids

The Stickup Kids PDF Author: Randol Contreras
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520273370
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 302

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Book Description
Randol Contreras came of age in the South Bronx during the 1980s, a time when the community was devastated by cuts in social services, a rise in arson and abandonment, and the rise of crack-cocaine. For this riveting book, he returns to the South Bronx with a sociological eye and provides an unprecedented insiderÕs look at the workings of a group of Dominican drug robbers. Known on the streets as ÒStickup Kids,Ó these men raided and brutally tortured drug dealers storing large amounts of heroin, cocaine, marijuana, and cash. As a participant observer, Randol Contreras offers both a personal and theoretical account for the rise of the Stickup Kids and their violence. He mainly focuses on the lives of neighborhood friends, who went from being crack dealers to drug robbers once their lucrative crack market opportunities disappeared. The result is a stunning, vivid, on-the-ground ethnographic description of a drug robberyÕs violence, the drug market high life, the criminal life course, and the eventual pain and suffering experienced by the casualties of the Crack Era. Provocative and eye-opening, The Stickup Kids urges us to explore the ravages of the drug trade through weaving history, biography, social structure, and drug market forces. It offers a revelatory explanation for drug market violence by masterfully uncovering the hidden social forces that produce violent and self-destructive individuals. Part memoir, part penetrating analysis, this book is engaging, personal, deeply informed, and entirely absorbing.

The Stickup Kids

The Stickup Kids PDF Author: Randol Contreras
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520273370
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 302

Get Book Here

Book Description
Randol Contreras came of age in the South Bronx during the 1980s, a time when the community was devastated by cuts in social services, a rise in arson and abandonment, and the rise of crack-cocaine. For this riveting book, he returns to the South Bronx with a sociological eye and provides an unprecedented insiderÕs look at the workings of a group of Dominican drug robbers. Known on the streets as ÒStickup Kids,Ó these men raided and brutally tortured drug dealers storing large amounts of heroin, cocaine, marijuana, and cash. As a participant observer, Randol Contreras offers both a personal and theoretical account for the rise of the Stickup Kids and their violence. He mainly focuses on the lives of neighborhood friends, who went from being crack dealers to drug robbers once their lucrative crack market opportunities disappeared. The result is a stunning, vivid, on-the-ground ethnographic description of a drug robberyÕs violence, the drug market high life, the criminal life course, and the eventual pain and suffering experienced by the casualties of the Crack Era. Provocative and eye-opening, The Stickup Kids urges us to explore the ravages of the drug trade through weaving history, biography, social structure, and drug market forces. It offers a revelatory explanation for drug market violence by masterfully uncovering the hidden social forces that produce violent and self-destructive individuals. Part memoir, part penetrating analysis, this book is engaging, personal, deeply informed, and entirely absorbing.

Black Chameleon Memoirs

Black Chameleon Memoirs PDF Author: Montez DeCarlo
Publisher:
ISBN: 1593303424
Category : African American families
Languages : en
Pages : 85

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Book Description
Most corporate executives follow a traditional path to success by graduating college and accepting an entry-level position in a major corporation, which may or may not lead them to prominence. This strategy may work for some, but not for Mico Brunson, who through fate and circumstances was born poor and Black in a society that wasn't created for him or by him. Black Chameleon Memoirs reveals the gripping saga of how one of the most successful Black businessmen in America rose to prominence using criminal activity and murder while overcoming adversity and an abusive childhood.

Memoirs of an Accidental Hustler

Memoirs of an Accidental Hustler PDF Author: J.M. Benjamin
Publisher: Urban Books
ISBN: 1622864743
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description
Moving from a brownstone in Bed-Stuy Brooklyn to a housing project in the small town of Plainfield, New Jersey, young Kamil is exposed to another world and a different breed of people. Bonded by the pain caused by their absentee fathers, Kamil and his brother befriend a group of boys from the neighborhood, forming an unbreakable connection. The boys vow not to travel down the same road as their dads, making a pact to stay in school and out of the streets. When Kamil discovers the allure of the opposite sex, a childhood crush develops into something much more. Walk with Kamil as he transitions from childhood to young adulthood and struggles with the very things his mother tried so hard to prevent him and his brother from embracing. What starts out as a game and a means of survival ultimately ends up serious and addictive. This is Memoirs of an Accidental Hustler. What did you want to be when you grew up?

Fire Shut Up in My Bones

Fire Shut Up in My Bones PDF Author: Charles M. Blow
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN: 0544228049
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 243

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Book Description
A respected journalist describes the abuse he suffered at the hands of a close family relative, the effect this had on his formative years and how he overcame the anger and self-doubt it left behind.

Memoirs of A Mack

Memoirs of A Mack PDF Author: Rev. Dr. Jimi Starr M.Div.
Publisher: AuthorHouse
ISBN:
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 281

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Book Description
The Manuscript addresses the analytical dynamics of the lifestyle known as the Game. In addition to discussing the narrative storyline. Pimping is a Thinking Man’s Game. The Sex Trade is global, as is Free Market Enterprise and the System of Capitol. Point of fact; the Sex Trade is a symptom of the disease known as Capital. Historically, regardless of ethnicity, people of oppressed populations gravitate towards the lifestyle known as the Game to become Pimps, Whores, Conmen, and Thieves. Globally, the Sex Trade garners 186 Billion Per annum. Sex has been a consistent and noteworthy commodity for sale in the Global Marketplace, from the Institution of Civilized Man at the Dawning of Time Memorial, until date. To date, there are roughly 13Million, 828 Hundred Thousand, 7 Hundred known whores in the world, which generate this $186 Billion per annum. The only way a real live pimp doesn’t have at least one whore, is if he chooses not to have one and the only way a real live pimp doesn’t have any money is if he chooses to be impoverished and has taken a vow of poverty. Don’t be misinformed, the Sex Trade Industry is Big Business. $186 Billion is a figure is worthy of recognition, by the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) the NASDAQ and thus the DOW. Pussy sells when cotton and corn won't. The IZM is a Thinking Man’s Game. ~Jimi Starr, G.O.A.T

Dopeman: Memoirs of a Snitch:

Dopeman: Memoirs of a Snitch: PDF Author: JaQuavis Coleman
Publisher: Urban Books
ISBN: 1599832844
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 204

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Book Description
Dopeman: Memoirs of a Snitch is a complex tale about the life and times of one the biggest drug traffickers the Midwest has ever seen. The FBI has launched an intricate plot to take down one of the most prolific drug organizations in the summer of 2009, and Seven Smith is their main target. Seven establishes a relationship with an up and coming hustler and takes him under his wing. Unbeknownst to Seven, his protégé works for the authorities. The young hustler falls in love with a woman who is off-limits, and he has to make a difficult decision that puts many people's lives at risk. Lola Banks is the daughter of a well-known hit man and street legend in Ohio. When she lays her eyes on the out-of–towner/snitch, it becomes a forbidden love. She is caught in a web of lies and deceit, only to get the hurtful truth on the last page. This is a hustler's love story at its absolute finest. The conclusion to this story is so unpredictable and intelligent that no one will see it coming--no one.

Hold Still

Hold Still PDF Author: Sally Mann
Publisher: Little, Brown
ISBN: 031624774X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 553

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Book Description
This National Book Award finalist is a revealing and beautifully written memoir and family history from acclaimed photographer Sally Mann. In this groundbreaking book, a unique interplay of narrative and image, Mann's preoccupation with family, race, mortality, and the storied landscape of the American South are revealed as almost genetically predetermined, written into her DNA by the family history that precedes her. Sorting through boxes of family papers and yellowed photographs she finds more than she bargained for: "deceit and scandal, alcohol, domestic abuse, car crashes, bogeymen, clandestine affairs, dearly loved and disputed family land . . . racial complications, vast sums of money made and lost, the return of the prodigal son, and maybe even bloody murder." In lyrical prose and startlingly revealing photographs, she crafts a totally original form of personal history that has the page-turning drama of a great novel but is firmly rooted in the fertile soil of her own life.

The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid

The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid PDF Author: Bill Bryson
Publisher: Crown
ISBN: 0767926315
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 290

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Book Description
From one of the world's most beloved writers and New York Times bestselling author of A Walk in the Woods and The Body, a vivid, nostalgic, and utterly hilarious memoir of growing up in the 1950s. Bill Bryson was born in the middle of the American century—1951—in the middle of the United States—Des Moines, Iowa—in the middle of the largest generation in American history—the baby boomers. As one of the best and funniest writers alive, he is perfectly positioned to mine his memories of a totally all-American childhood for 24-carat memoir gold. Like millions of his generational peers, Bill Bryson grew up with a rich fantasy life as a superhero. In his case, he ran around his house and neighborhood with an old football jersey with a thunderbolt on it and a towel about his neck that served as his cape, leaping tall buildings in a single bound and vanquishing awful evildoers (and morons)—in his head—as "The Thunderbolt Kid." Using this persona as a springboard, Bill Bryson re-creates the life of his family and his native city in the 1950s in all its transcendent normality—a life at once completely familiar to us all and as far away and unreachable as another galaxy. It was, he reminds us, a happy time, when automobiles and televisions and appliances (not to mention nuclear weapons) grew larger and more numerous with each passing year, and DDT, cigarettes, and the fallout from atmospheric testing were considered harmless or even good for you. He brings us into the life of his loving but eccentric family, including affectionate portraits of his father, a gifted sportswriter for the local paper and dedicated practitioner of isometric exercises, and of his mother, whose job as the home furnishing editor for the same paper left her little time for practicing the domestic arts at home. The many readers of Bill Bryson’s earlier classic, A Walk in the Woods, will greet the reappearance in these pages of the immortal Stephen Katz, seen hijacking literally boxcar loads of beer. He is joined in the Bryson gallery of immortal characters by the demonically clever Willoughby brothers, who apply their scientific skills and can-do attitude to gleefully destructive ends. Warm and laugh-out-loud funny, and full of his inimitable, pitch-perfect observations, The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid is as wondrous a book as Bill Bryson has ever written. It will enchant anyone who has ever been young.

Dapper Dan: Made in Harlem

Dapper Dan: Made in Harlem PDF Author: Daniel R. Day
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
ISBN: 0525510532
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 322

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Book Description
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “Dapper Dan is a legend, an icon, a beacon of inspiration to many in the Black community. His story isn’t just about fashion. It’s about tenacity, curiosity, artistry, hustle, love, and a singular determination to live our dreams out loud.”—Ava DuVernay, director of Selma, 13th, and A Wrinkle in Time NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY VANITY FAIR • DAPPER DAN NAMED ONE OF TIME’S 100 MOST INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE IN THE WORLD With his now-legendary store on 125th Street in Harlem, Dapper Dan pioneered high-end streetwear in the 1980s, remixing classic luxury-brand logos into his own innovative, glamorous designs. But before he reinvented haute couture, he was a hungry boy with holes in his shoes, a teen who daringly gambled drug dealers out of their money, and a young man in a prison cell who found nourishment in books. In this remarkable memoir, he tells his full story for the first time. Decade after decade, Dapper Dan discovered creative ways to flourish in a country designed to privilege certain Americans over others. He witnessed, profited from, and despised the rise of two drug epidemics. He invented stunningly bold credit card frauds that took him around the world. He paid neighborhood kids to jog with him in an effort to keep them out of the drug game. And when he turned his attention to fashion, he did so with the energy and curiosity with which he approaches all things: learning how to treat fur himself when no one would sell finished fur coats to a Black man; finding the best dressed hustler in the neighborhood and converting him into a customer; staying open twenty-four hours a day for nine years straight to meet demand; and, finally, emerging as a world-famous designer whose looks went on to define an era, dressing cultural icons including Eric B. and Rakim, Salt-N-Pepa, Big Daddy Kane, Mike Tyson, Alpo Martinez, LL Cool J, Jam Master Jay, Diddy, Naomi Campbell, and Jay-Z. By turns playful, poignant, thrilling, and inspiring, Dapper Dan: Made in Harlem is a high-stakes coming-of-age story spanning more than seventy years and set against the backdrop of an America where, as in the life of its narrator, the only constant is change. Praise for Dapper Dan: Made in Harlem “Dapper Dan is a true one of a kind, self-made, self-liberated, and the sharpest man you will ever see. He is couture himself.”—Marcus Samuelsson, New York Times bestselling author of Yes, Chef “What James Baldwin is to American literature, Dapper Dan is to American fashion. He is the ultimate success saga, an iconic fashion hero to multiple generations, fusing street with high sartorial elegance. He is pure American style.”—André Leon Talley, Vogue contributing editor and author

Sober Stick Figure

Sober Stick Figure PDF Author: Amber Tozer
Publisher: Running Press Adult
ISBN: 0762459743
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 274

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Book Description
Sober Stick Figure is a memoir from stand-up comedian Amber Tozer, chronicling her life as an alcoholic and her eventual recovery -- starting with her first drink at the age of seven -- all told with the help of childlike stick figures. Amber writes and illustrates the crazy and harsh truths of being raised by alcoholics, becoming one herself, stagnating in denial for years, and finally getting sober. As a teenager, Amber is an overachieving student athlete who copes with her family's alcoholic tragedies by focusing on her achievements. It quickly takes a funny and dark turn when she starts to experiment with booze and ignores the warning signs of alcoholism. Through blackouts, cringe-worthy embarrassments, and pounding hangovers, she convinces herself that she "just likes to party." She leaves her hometown of Pueblo, Colorado to follow her dreams, and ends up in New York City, spending lots of time binge drinking, passing out on trains, and telling jokes on stage. She then moves to Los Angeles, thinking sunshine and show business will save her. Eventually hitting rock bottom, she has a moment of clarity, and knows she has to stop drinking. It's now been seven years since that last drink, and she's ready to tell her story. Sober Stick Figure is adventurous, hilarious, sad, sweet, tragic -- and ultimately inspiring.