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WORK TITLE: No Ashes in the Fire
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE: 1/24/1976
WEBSITE: https://www.darnelllmoore.com
CITY: Brooklyn
STATE: NY
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY: American
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born January 24, 1976, in Camden, NJ.
EDUCATION:Seton Hall University, B.A.; Eastern University, M.A. (clinical counseling); Princeton Theological Seminary, M.A. (theological studies).
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer and activist. Editor-at-Large at CASSIUS (an iOne digital platform); formerly a senior editor and correspondent at Mic, New York, NY; appointments as a visiting fellow at Yale Divinity School, New Haven, CT, and a visiting scholar at the Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality at New York University, New York; served as a lecturer at Rutgers University, NJ, and the City College of New York (CUNY).
Work-related activities include serving as a board member of the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies at CUNY and the Tobago Center for Study and Practice of Indigenous Spirituality; part of the Audre Lorde Human Rights Speaker Series at the Sexuality, Gender & Human Rights Program at Harvard Kennedy School, CARR Center for Human Rights Policy; served s inaugural Chair of the city of Newark, New Jersey LGBT Concerns Advisory Commission; cochair of the Queer Newark Oral History project. Other activities include serving as a member of the Beyond Apologetics colloquium and as a selected participant in the 2012 Seminar on Debates on Religion and Sexuality, Harvard Divinity School.
AWARDS:Humanitarian Award, 2012 American Conference on Diversity.
WRITINGS
Contributor to professional journals, including Black Theology and Pneuma. Contributor to national and international media venues, including the Feminist Wire, Ebony magazine, and the Huffington Post. Editorial Collective Member of the Feminist Wire and coauthor, with former professional football player Wade Davis, II, of a bi-monthly column on the Huffington Post Gay Voices.
SIDELIGHTS
Writer and activist Darnell L. Moore grew up in Camden, New Jersey. He earned degrees in social and behavioral science, clinical counseling, and theological studies. In addition to making theoretical contributions to the field of sociology, Moore has developed and/or worked on a number of activist campaigns. For example, he visited Israel and the Palestinian territories in 2012 as a member of the U.S. LGBTQ Delegation to Palestine.
As a writer, Moore has contributed to local and national periodicals. He also contributes to professional journals, and his articles have been cited by sociologists in journal articles. He served as editor of and a contributor to A Universe of Hairdressers: Nicolaus Schmidt: Astor Place, Broadway, New York = Ein Universum der Friseure, Written both in English and German, the book is about the Astor Place barber shop in New York City, which was founded in 1947 and still employs more than fifty hairdressers. It includes numerous photographs.
Moore is also the author of the memoir titled No Ashes in the Fire: Coming of Age Black and Free in America. “Memory is a tricky force, especially when brutality, poverty, self-hatred, and many other unseen hands which turn beautiful people into monsters and victims, dictate what we remember,” Moore writes in the prologue to No Ashes in the Fire. Moore goes on to note that for years he blocked bad memories from his past in order to be able to sleep. Others he deliberately forgot, partly as an act of self-forgiveness and at other times to keep him from killing the “monsters” in his life.
Calling his memoir “a search for self,” Moore goes on in the prologue to No Ashes in the Fire to write: “Every word and every sentence that follows is an attempt to recover the parts of myself I stared at in … photos” that his mother haf. Moore also called the book “a quest for history, because we come to be the people we are within the context of a larger world ruled by powerful, insidious forces.”
Moore’s memoir reveals that he grew up scared and bullied, recounting the time when he was fourteen years old and three boys attempted to set him on fire because they thought he was gay. He barely escaped but only after the boys had already doused him with gasoline. No escaping his rough environment, Moore was especially targeted for derision and even beatings by neighborhood kids, largely due to the perception that he was different.
Fortunately, Moore grew up in a loving extended family with parents who married when they were still teenagers. Despite the love, Moore recalls that his boisterous family also included numerous disagreements and arguments. Moore also writes about his hometown of Camden, where he lived during a wave of crack addiction in the 1970s. In addition, Moore witnessed the city’s subsequent decline after whites began moving away. Like most of the kids in his neighborhood, Moore faced long odds that he would ever become successful. He worked hard to achieve academically and made it to Seton Hall University to begin his college education.
Still, Moore was also battling his own inner turmoil involving his deep religious faith and the fact that he was a homosexual. Moore reveals that he actually came to accept his identity and sexuality years later when he began teaching, worked in youth programs, and became an activist. Moore eventually revealed his sexuality to his mother, who accepted that her son was gay, thus providing Moore with more healing.
“Moore’s well-crafted book is a stunning tribute to affirmation, forgiveness, and healing–and serves as an invigorating emotional tonic,” wrote a Publishers Weekly contributor. Laura Schultz, writing in the New York Journal of Books website, noted: “There are many pivotal life experiences in this impressive memoir. The poise of the author as he delineates each one with grace and clarity–qualities of immense strength shine through above all else.”
BIOCRIT
BOOKS
Moore, Darnell L., No Ashes in the Fire: Coming of Age Black and Free in America, Nation Books (New York, NY), 2018.
PERIODICALS
Kirkus Reviews, April 1, 2018, review of No Ashes in the Fire.
Publishers Weekly, February12, 2018, review of No Ashes in the Fire, p. 66.
ONLINE
BookPage, https://bookpage.com/ (June 1, 2018), Carla Jean Whitley, review of No Ashes in the Fire.
Darnell L. Moore website, https://www.darnelllmoore.com (June 26, 2018).
Lambda Literary, https://www.lambdaliterary.org/ (May 27, 2018), Nahshon Dion Anderson, “Darnell L. Moore on the Transformative Power of the Personal Narrative.”
New York Journal of Books, https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/ (June 4, 2018), Laura Schultz, review of No Ashes in the Fire.
Darnell L. Moore is Editor-at-Large at CASSIUS (an iOne digital platform) and formerly a senior editor and correspondent at Mic. He is co-managing editor at The Feminist Wire and an editor of The Feminist Wire Books (a series of University of Arizona Press). He is also a writer-in-residence at the Center on African American Religion, Sexual Politics and Social Justice at Columbia University. Along with NFL player Wade Davis II, he co-founded YOU Belong, a social good company focused on the development of diversity initiatives.
Darnell’s advocacy centers on marginal identity, youth development and other social justice issues in the U.S. and abroad. He is the host of Mic's digital series, The Movement, which was nominated for a Breakthrough Series: Short Form Award at the 2016 IFP Gotham Awards. He has led and participated in several critical dialogues including the 58th Session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women; the 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington National Panel on Race, Discrimination and Poverty, the 2012 Seminar on Debates on Religion and Sexuality at Harvard Divinity School, and as a member of the first U.S. delegation of LGBTQ leaders to Palestine in 2012.
A prolific writer, Darnell has been published in various media outlets including MSNBC, The Guardian, Huffington
Post, EBONY, The Root, The Advocate, OUT Magazine, Gawker, Truth Out, VICE, Guernica, Mondoweiss, Thought Catalog, Good Men Project and others, as well as numerous academic journals including QED: A Journal in GLBTQ World Making, Women Studies Quarterly, Ada: A Journal of Gender, New Media & Technology, Transforming Anthropology, Black Theology: An International Journal, and Harvard Journal of African American Policy, among others. He also edited the art book Nicolaus Schmidt: Astor Place, Broadway, New York: A Universe of Hairdressers (Kerber Verlag) and has published essays in several edited books.
Darnell has held positions of Visiting Fellow and Visiting Scholar at Yale Divinity School, the Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality at New York University and the Institute for Research in African American Studies at Columbia University. He is presently Writer-in-Residence at the Center on African American Religion, Sexuality, and Social Justice at Columbia University. He has taught in the Women and Gender’s Studies and Public Administration departments at Rutgers University, Fordham University, City College of New York City and Vassar College. Darnell has also provided keynote addresses at Harvard University, Williams College, Stony Brook University, New Jersey City University, Stanford University, and the New School.
Darnell received the 2012 Humanitarian Award from the American Conference on Diversity for his advocacy in the City of Newark, where he served as Chair of the LGBTQ Concerns Advisory Commission. He is the recipient of the 2012 Outstanding Academic Leadership Award from Rutgers University LGBTQ and Diversity Resource Center for his contributions to developing the Queer Newark Oral History Project. He received the 2013 Angel Award from Gay Men of African Descent and the 2014 Gentleman of the Year Award from the Gentlemen’s Foundation. He was listed as a one of Planned Parenthood’s Top 99 Dream Keepers in 2015, was featured in USA Today’s #InTheirOwnWords multimedia feature on contemporary civil rights activists, was named among EBONY Magazines's 2015 Power 100, Time Out New York's Eight LGBT Influencers, Be Modern Man 100, and The Root 100 2016.
He assisted in organizing the Black Lives Matters Ride to Ferguson in the wake of Mike Brown’s tragic murder and along with Alicia Garza, Patrisee Cullors, and Opal Tometti (#BlackLivesMatter Co-Founders) developed the infrastructure for the BLM Network. He is presently represented by Chartwell Worldwide Speaker Agency and is soon to complete his first book, No Ashes in the Fire (Nation Books).
Darnell L. Moore on the Transformative Power of the Personal Narrative
by Nahshon Dion Anderson
May 27, 2018
In his new memoir No Ashes in the Fire: Coming of Age Black and Free in America, Darnell L. Moore revisits the traumas of his past, and traces how he not only survived them, but went on to become the prominent activist and writer that he is today.
Moore is also Editor-at-Large at CASSIUS, co-managing editor at The Feminist Wire, and an editor of The Feminist Wire Books (a series of University of Arizona Press). He is a writer-in-residence at the Center on African American Religion, Sexual Politics and Social Justice at Columbia University.
Moore recently spoke with Lambda Literary’s Nahshon Dion Anderson about the roots of his activism, his book, and what he’s been reading lately.
Your book really resonated with me. As a teen I was brutally assaulted, grew up with Rodney King, dated a pastor, lost a sister in a fire, and have also experienced racism.
In regards to racism and homophobia, do you find it challenging to separate the two? Is it sometimes necessary to “choose” a side at the risk of downplaying the other?
I am happy that my book resonated with you. Your story, my story, stories that examine what happens to those of us who exist on the edges of the margins, contain truths I imagine many Black queer and trans people can relate to. The various forms of antagonistic behaviors and policies that surface as a result of systemic racism and the calculated disdain of LGBTQI people are interconnected, which is why I don’t see those forces as separate. They are vestiges of what bell hooks calls “imperialist white supremacist capitalist patriarchy.” I’d amend that descriptor to read “imperialist white supremacist capitalist ableist heteropatriarchy.” So, for me, there is no choosing sides in a world where Black people are embattled on all fronts. Black feminists have taught us as much.
No Ashes in the Fire is your personal coming-of-age story. What gave you the courage to write about your life? Why is this important at this point in your career?
I didn’t set out to write a memoir. I didn’t think I had lived and experienced enough to write about the textures of my life. And I always thought memoir, as a genre, appeared grand and narcissistic. At that point, I hadn’t read enough good memoirs to challenge my naïve assumptions. But I realized that our personal narratives, if honest and compelling, can be transformative. I wanted a 16-year-old Black youth somewhere to pick up a book that offered a window into some aspects of their lives. I wrote a book I needed—words that, had I had access to them in the past, might have made the difference between the many days I spent trying to die and the years I’ve spent trying to live. I finally felt free enough to share parts of my life story with others.
In the book you detail an horrific episode when you were fourteen, some boys from your neighborhood tried to set you on fire. Do you find that you still deal with the effects of the trauma you endured? Does the smell of gasoline or fire bother you?
No Ashes in the Fire: Coming of Age Black and Free in AmericaTraumas don’t easily pick up their bags and abandon the emotional and psychic spaces they inhabit in our bodies. Writing No Ashes in the Fire was healing work. It was an excavation of my mental and emotional history.
In order to be transformed, which is a process that is ever evolving, we must be willing to confront the sources of our pains—that which arrests us because we’ve been harmed, and that which haunts us as a result of our wrongdoings. I am not bothered by the smell of gas but I am shook by the possibility that the lives of Black LGBTQI people can be snuffed out by fire, or bullets, or hands, or words, with ease.
If you were not a Black gay man that also endured homophobia and racism, do you have other motivating or circumstantial factors that may have led you down a similar path of activism and social justice?
I am a son of Black mother who gave birth to me during her teenage years in a predominantly Black, economically devastated city, during the rise of neoliberal politics and HIV and the so-called war on drugs and the burgeoning prison industrial complex. I witnessed, and was impacted by, the violence of male dominance, poverty, racism, and much else. The first piece of political writing I wrote for public consumption was a poem about the power of Blackness. I was 14. That said, I (and my politics) have been shaped by so many factors, including the abuse my mother and aunts experienced at the hands of men in their lives, state violence, structural inequity, and self-detestation. So much of my work is about undoing those forces and imaging, and co-creating, communities where those violences are no more.
In February 2018, you interviewed my mentor, Sarah Schulman, about her book, Conflict Is Not Abuse: Overstating Harm, Community Responsibility, and the Duty of Repair. She inferred that had the Stoneman Douglas High School shooter received community support and acknowledgement of his pain, this tragedy may have been avoided.
You’ve endured violence before. Are your thoughts similar to Sarah’s, or do you have a different outlook in light of what you’ve experienced?
I appreciated Sarah’s take. In my book, I write about a neighbor who tried to end my life when we were teens. The easy way to characterize him would have been to mark him as a monster, but I wanted to wrestle with my assumptions and limited empathy. I sought to unpack the interiority of someone who harmed me and understand what might have been at the root of his hate for me. I don’t mean to imply that his actions weren’t harmful. I tried to connect with his humanity in an attempt to uncover the grounds of his hurt. My hope is that anyone reading my book who feels/thinks similarly might make a more just choice.
Now, let’s talk about Darnell the author. How do you prepare to write? Do you have a particular setting? What needs to take place to complete your process?
I wish I could share some super dope tips, but I am a whimsical Aquarius who is often journeying in my head and who tends to be moved by how I feel as much as I am by what I am thinking. I write best when my spirit is leaping and when my heart is on fire. When I was writing No Ashes in The Fire, I spent all of my writing time alone in Atlanta. I like to write in silence and solitude so that I can fall apart, walk away from the laptop or notepad, take a stroll outside to jot down notes, scream, hide under my covers, knock out, delete pages, and then return to the blank screen with words that I can live with and love. It’s a strange and hard and beautiful and messy process. But it works for me.
What are you reading now, or what’s the last thing you read?
I am fortunate to be surrounded by so many brilliant Black and queer writers who also happen to be friends. Some of their books are out now or are soon to be available. I’ve just finished When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir by Patrisse Cullors and Asha Bandele; Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower by Brittney Cooper; Sister Love: The Letters of Audre Lorde and Pat Parker, 1974–1989, edited by Julie R. Enszer and Inside/Out by Joe Osmundson. I am currently reading Michael Arceneaux’s debut book, I Can’t Date Jesus: Love, Sex, Family, Race, and Other Reasons I’ve Put My Faith in Beyoncé; May We Forever Stand: A History of the Black National Anthem by Imani Perry and The Opposite of Hate: A Field Guide to Repairing Our Humanity by Sally Kohn. I am also excited for Kiese Laymon’s memoir, Heavy, to shake the world.
What advice would you give to other emerging writers?
Write from the gut and the heart. Don’t be distracted by the “business” of writing or the lure of the cult of celebrity. It is easy to get caught up and lose focus when the industry demands of us to be avatars and brands—even as artists. Some of us believe that we are only successful as writers only when, and after, we’ve been published, celebrated, or received book deals. We are on no one’s timeline but our own. Write. And fall in love with it. Write some more. Try again. And honor your gift by giving it the time and love it requires.
Would you address the naysayers who once doubted your writing ability, or is the proof in the pudding, so to speak?
I’d rather not address the naysayers. There will always be those who don’t believe in our abilities or some people who just don’t like what we have to offer. That’s cool. I’d rather focus on those willing to engage and offer generous criticism.
What else is on the horizon for Darnell Moore? What can we look forward to?
I plan to rest and vacation after we promote and tour the book. I also hope to flesh some ideas around a second book project by early summer. It’s ambitious, I know, but it’s another love project. I’m eager to release a CASSIUS originals docuseries on Black LGBT life in ATL. And some other fun things soon coming.
Darnell L. Moore
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Darnell L. Moore
Born Camden, New Jersey, United States
Nationality American
Occupation Writer, activist
Darnell L. Moore (January 24, 1976 Camden, New Jersey) is an American writer and activist whose work is informed by anti-racist, feminist, queer of color, and anti-colonial thought and advocacy. Darnell's essays, social commentary, poetry, and interviews have appeared in various national and international media venues, including the Feminist Wire,[1] Ebony magazine,[2] and The Huffington Post.[3] He was appointed by Mayor Cory Booker as inaugural Chair of the city of Newark, New Jersey LGBT Concerns Advisory Commission, the first of its kind in the state of New Jersey.[4][5][6][7] He is the co-chair, with Beryl Satter, of the groundbreaking Queer Newark Oral History project—an archival project that seeks to chronicle the multifaceted lives of LGBTQ Newarkers and their allies.
Moore's scholarship focuses broadly on Black Theology and Black Christian thought that is inclusive of queer subjectivities. He has published peer-reviewed essays that attempt to queer Black Christian thought in Black Theology: An International Journal, Theology & Sexuality, and Pneuma: The Journal of the Society for Pentecostal Studies. He was a member of the Beyond Apologetics colloquium organized by theologians Joretta Marshall and Duane Bidwell, which brought together scholars/pastors centered on the themes of sexual identity, pastoral theology, and pastoral practice. Moore was also a selected participant in the 2012 Seminar on Debates on Religion and Sexuality convened by theologian Mark Jordan at Harvard Divinity School.
He is an Editorial Collective Member of the Feminist Wire[8] and co-author, with former NFL player Wade Davis, II, of a bi-monthly column on The Huffington Post Gay Voices focused on black manhood and queer politics titled "Tongues Untied."[9] Moore has served appointments as a visiting fellow at Yale Divinity School and a visiting scholar at the Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality at New York University[10][11] and has served as a Lecturer at Rutgers University and The City College of New York (CUNY). Moore is a board member of the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies at CUNY and The Tobago Center for Study and Practice of Indigenous Spirituality. He has interviewed Frank Mugisha,[12] Steve Harper,[13] Cheryl Clarke (Lambda Literary),[14] Amiri Baraka[15] and Mayor Cory Booker. Moore is part of the Audre Lorde Human Rights Speaker Series at The Sexuality, Gender & Human Rights Program at Harvard Kennedy School, CARR Center for Human RIghts Policy[16]
Contents
1 Background and education
2 Honors and awards
3 Theoretical contributions
4 Palestinian solidarity work
5 Citations
6 Current works
7 Bibliography
8 References
9 External links
Background and education
Moore hails from Camden, NJ, and lives in Brooklyn, NY. He received his B.A. in Social and Behavioral Science from Seton Hall University, an M.A. in Clinical Counseling from Eastern University, and an M.A. in Theological Studies from Princeton Theological Seminary.
Honors and awards
Moore is a recent recipient of the 2012 Humanitarian Award from the American Conference on Diversity for his advocacy in the city of Newark where he served as Chair of the LGBTQ Concerns Advisory Commission under the auspices of Mayor Cory A. Booker.[17]
He also is the recent recipient, along with Prof. Beryl Satter, of the 2012 Outstanding Academic Leadership Award from Rutgers University LGBTQ and Diversity Resource Center for their work on developing the Queer Newark Oral History Project.[18][19]
First Annual Episcopal Diocese of Newark's Dr. Louie Crew Scholarship for individuals and groups working "at the intersection of sexuality and faith."[20]
Theoretical contributions
"Intralocality" is a theoretical perspective conceptualized by Moore. Moore employs intralocality as an analytic that extends Kimberle Crenshaw's theory of intersectionality. According to Moore, "Borrowing from sociologists, the term 'social location,' which broadly speaks to one's context, highlights one's standpoint(s)—the social spaces where s/he is positioned (i.e. race, class, gender, geographical, etc.) Intralocality, then, is concerned with the social locations that foreground our knowing and experiencing of our world and our relationships to the systems and people within our world. Intralocality is a call to theorize the self in relation to power and privilege, powerlessness and subjugation. It is work that requires the locating of the 'I' in the intersection. And while it could be argued that such work is highly individualistic, I contend that it is at the very level of self-in-relation-to-community where communal transformation is made possible."
Palestinian solidarity work
In January 2012, Moore visited Israel and the Palestinian territories as a member of the first US LGBTQ Delegation to Palestine organized by scholar/activist Sarah Schulman.
Moore is a member of the International Committee on Queer BDS and Pinkwashing for World Social Forum 2013.[21][22]
Citations
Moore's Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality talk cited in Carolyn Poljski, Coming Out, Coming Home or Inviting People In? Supporting same-sex attracted women from immigrant and refugee communities, 2011.
Moore's work on "complex relationships between race and sexuality in the black community" cited in Patrick S. Cheng's Radical Love: An Introduction to Queer Theology, 2011.[23]
Current works
In 2013 he edited the book Astor Place – Broadway – New York about a barber shop, one of the last stores remaining from the 1940s in Lower Manhattan, with photographs by Nicolaus Schmidt.
He is working on a co-edited anthology which examines the intersections and convergences within America's contemporaneous moments of radical protest, an essay collection, and book on Black queer Christian thought.
Bibliography
Darnell L. Moore, editor: Nicolaus Schmidt, Astor Place | Broadway | New York, Kerber Verlag, Bielefeld 2013, ISBN 978-3-86678-806-0
QUOTES FROM PROLOGUE
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Print Marked Items
Moore, Darnell L.: NO ASHES IN THE
FIRE
Kirkus Reviews.
(Apr. 1, 2018):
COPYRIGHT 2018 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Moore, Darnell L. NO ASHES IN THE FIRE Nation Books (Adult Nonfiction) $26.00 5, 29 ISBN: 978-1-
56858-948-0
Affecting memoir that looks back on surviving a hardscrabble childhood and learning to thrive as a queer
black man.
Journalist Moore casts his debut as an open-hearted exploration of faith, fluid sexuality, and the myriad
challenges of being a black American when advancement seems elusive as ever. His parents were teenagers,
so he grew up among a loving, fractious extended family: "Too many people, which meant there was too
much love and there were too many arguments." The author writes powerfully about his home city of
Camden, New Jersey, during an era of crack and decline following the white flight of the 1970s. "To claim
love for a city so denigrated by the US media," he writes, "is to contradict every idea Camden residents
have been socialized to accept." As a child in this rough environment, Moore was perceived as different,
making him a target of neighborhood bullies, culminating in a horrific scene where they attempted to burn
him alive: "The feeling of embarrassment was as overpowering as the bitter smell of the gas that emanated
from my body." As a teenager, Moore tried to present a front of masculinity while gravitating toward his
few courageously out gay classmates as friends. "Queerness is magic for those brave enough to make use of
it," he writes, "but it can feel poisonous for those who have yet to give in to its power." The author drove
himself toward academic achievement, understanding the odds against him. At Seton Hall University,
despite exploring both hedonistic hookups and a deepening religious faith, he still felt unsettled as to his
identity until he began teaching, later becoming involved in youth programs and activism and finally
coming out to his mother. "Her acceptance was more healing than any prayer," he writes. Moore writes
deftly in passages that purposefully meander to present a broad, socially engaged tableau of his experiences,
though some of his observations can be repetitive.
An engaging meditation on identity and creativity within challenging settings.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Moore, Darnell L.: NO ASHES IN THE FIRE." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Apr. 2018. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A532700321/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=93c17698.
Accessed 4 June 2018.
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No Ashes in the Fire: Coming of Age
Black & Free in America
Publishers Weekly.
265.7 (Feb. 12, 2018): p66+.
COPYRIGHT 2018 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
* No Ashes in the Fire: Coming of Age Black & Free in America
Darnell L. Moore. Nation, $26 (256p) ISBN 9781-5685-8948-0
Moore, an editor-at-large at the content distributor Urban One and a columnist at Logo, describes his bold
and candid memoir as "snapshots of my life," molded by forces of "brutality, poverty, and self-hatred."
During the 1980s, he is one of a family of 11 in a three-bedroom home in Camden, N.J.; he shares
memories of barbecues, dance contests, hip-hop music, and dark family secrets. One grim secret is his
abusive father, a regular resident of jails in the 1970s and '80s, who routinely abused his wife. Moore's most
eye-opening event occurred when neighborhood boys yelled gay slurs at the 14-year-old Moore and tried to
set him on fire before an aunt came to the rescue. At age 19, Moore suffered a near-fatal heart attack, which
quickened his resolve to succeed at Seton Hall University even while dealing with the stigma of being gay.
Moore offers insightful comments on racism and sexual identity throughout ("The consequences of black
queer desire seemed more lethal than poetic. And I did everything in my power to resist becoming what I
sensed society hated"); eventually, he moved past self-hatred to a firm commitment to service and activism
as a leader in the Black Lives Matter movement. Moore's well-crafted book is a stunning tribute to
affirmation, forgiveness, and healing--and serves as an invigorating emotional tonic. (June)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"No Ashes in the Fire: Coming of Age Black & Free in America." Publishers Weekly, 12 Feb. 2018, p. 66+.
General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A528615520/ITOF?
u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=7d51b800. Accessed 4 June 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A528615520
No Ashes in the Fire: Coming of Age Black and Free in America
Image of No Ashes in the Fire: Coming of Age Black and Free in America
Author(s):
Darnell L Moore
Release Date:
May 28, 2018
Publisher/Imprint:
Nation Books
Pages:
256
Buy on Amazon
Reviewed by:
Laura Schultz
“The long collective hatred of blackness, the calculated policing of sexual difference, the intentional ghettoization of urban centers, and the lure of the American dollar are just a few of the strong forces that shaped my sense of self and the way I viewed others.”
This statement reflects the anguish of growing up in Camden, New Jersey, one of the many epicenters of urban blight in America. Not only have businesses abandoned the residents but so, too, did government. The author mournfully states the perception while “stereotyping black urban cities like Camden as ‘ghetto’ and the people who live within them as leeches sucking the state dry of its capital.”
The residents of Camden were considered “the source of the violence and poverty plaguing the city.” As Moore explains, “We were never the problem.” He attributes entrenched racism, economic abandonment, exploitation and policing through violence as the root causes that inevitably led to community organizing, demonstrations and a fiery uprising in 1971.
His mom and her family were “rich in empathy, support and compassion.” Outsiders assumed that because families in Camden were poor, they made judgments based on the fact that families were struggling financially and failed to take into account the close family ties that held families together. These close, nurturing families continued to be supportive even though care never came from government entities including the police.
While Darnell felt protected from the outside world by his mom and her siblings, the opposite was true of his father. One night Darnell walked in and heard loud sobbing from his mother and witnessed his dad pulverizing the back of her body; dad’s hands that used to be tender with him, “were now used as weapons to make my mom submit.”
That was the beginning of many more scenes like these in the familial home. Once when Darnell tried to step in while dad was punching and kicking their helpless mother, he turned to his son and used his hands toward him. In a flash “I gave up whatever love I had for him in that moment.”
Darnell was not dissuaded by the turmoil he had witnessed, and he became determined to rise above his circumstances and achieve a fulfilling life. The psychological pain he endured from witnessing the domestic violence sparked an inner strength that would not allow him to be deterred from his path. As a young teen, he received the “highest award for achievement in social studies.” And he became a voracious reader of renowned novels such as Of Mice and Men.
While Darnell’s struggle continued, he was also wrestling with another issue in the realization that he was gay. He explains, “I learned how to protect and nurture my desire for same-sex intimacy, long before I began searching for touch in eerie parks and strangers’ beds.” There was a great deal of pain in being forced to hide his attraction in order to make others feel comfortable. As he clarifies the feeling, “Black queer love is a life of solitary confinement. The human spirit breaks when longings so human so acceptable to everyone else are denied.” As a result he kept his secret buried within.
But Darnell’s life surely doesn’t end there. Yes, there were times of great sorrow and a desire at one point to kill himself while struggling with his sexual identity. He rose above his inner turmoil and began to organize another struggle . . . that of the Black Lives Matter Movement after the officer involved shooting death of Mike Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. According to Darnell, “We wanted to do something, anything, because we had grown tired of containing our rage.”
No Ashes in the Fire: Coming of Age Black and Free in America is both psychologically astute as well as visually exceptional. The reader is in the room with Moore when his father is perpetrating intense physical abuse upon his mother. One feels every excruciating word and the thoughts of that scene linger long after the book concludes.
There are many pivotal life experiences in this impressive memoir. The poise of the author as he delineates each one with grace and clarity—qualities of immense strength shine through above all else. Each of his thoughts emphasize the import of a situation and clarify the issues involved from his perspective. And every word is carefully chosen to maximize the emotional impact on the reader. One cannot soon forget this powerful real-life story that affects myriad people in America.
Laura Schultz has been a licensed Marriage, Family, and Child Therapist for over 25 years with a specialization in chemical dependency. Additionally she is a freelance writer, published in myriad of venues on topics such as relationships, sexuality, and family dynamics. For over 12 years she was the Director of a postsecondary institution whose students were from traditionally underserved populations. Among her duties as director she conducted individual and group counseling sssions and facilitating workshops on multicultural sensitivity.
June 2018
NO ASHES IN THE FIRE
And still I rise
BookPage review by Carla Jean Whitley
Love is a complicated matter. That’s true for anyone, and it’s a concept Darnell L. Moore has wrestled with throughout his life.
Moore was born into tough circumstances as the child of two black teenagers in Camden, New Jersey. What his large and close family lacked financially, they made up for in love. But Moore struggled to love himself. He recognized his attraction to other men at a young age, and he found it abhorrent. Homosexuality didn’t fit with his idea of acceptable black masculinity. Moore pushed down his feelings with a tough attitude and attempted to hide from the world with a series of girlfriends and sexual encounters with women.
It didn’t work. When he was 14, neighborhood boys suspected him of being gay and attempted to set him on fire. The fire didn’t light, but the bullying left emotional scars.
In No Ashes in the Fire, writer and Black Lives Matter leader Moore recounts decades of running from his true self. His lyrical reflection reveals a teenage boy in search of his family story—and a young man who ran from it.
“As long as I wasn’t a clone of my dad, I thought, there was no need for her to complain,” he writes of his emotionally manipulative relationships with women. “I hadn’t yet realized I was his son, his likeness, an ellipsis extending his presence into the world.”
Moore describes years of self-loathing and the drugs, then religiosity, he used to mask his desires. He faces his biases against certain people, such as black femme men, and in doing so he realizes—and invites the reader to recognize—that justice means freedom and equality for all.
This article was originally published in the June 2018 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.