Reviews tagging 'Bullying'

The High Desert: Black. Punk. Nowhere. by James Spooner

7 reviews

moranguinhos's review

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adventurous emotional reflective fast-paced

3.75

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streberkatze's review

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challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

5.0

The narrative started out slow but really picked up speed in the second half of the book. In hindsight this developmeny perfectly matches the trajectory described in the book. The author does an amazing job weaving information about the punk scane, and especially POC in it, in the U. S. in the 1980s and 1990s into the account of his coming-of-age experience. 
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chlorentine's review

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challenging emotional hopeful informative reflective tense medium-paced

5.0

I was a teenager when I heard about the Afro-Punk festival through a friend who was knowledgable about the Atlanta art scene, and I remember having a mental fixation with it that went nowhere. Reading this book feels like putting a name to a face.
The blurb by Ian McKaye says it all... I feel like I was there. The Nazi youth in small town SoCal alternate between uneasy ceasefires and wanton violence against the Black kids/people of color. It really put into perspective how fucking dangerous it is to be a kid.
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standerson's review

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adventurous informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

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ehrenb's review

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emotional hopeful inspiring reflective fast-paced

4.5

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sup3r_xn0va_maya's review

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emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.5

The High Desert. Black. Punk. Nowhere, is the story of a young James Spooner (creator of Afro-Punk) and how he discovered punk rock at the age of 13 years old. I don't usually rate memoirs because rating someone's experience is a strange concept. However, I rated this 4.5 out of 5 stars from the entertainment I received from the story-telling as well as the art (because it's a graphic novel and then art is nice). 

The story was so relatable, being one of the few Black people around and having to deal with racism and then violence as a result is an experience many Black people end up going through. I love that the author became an activist at a young age.
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witchythey's review

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emotional hopeful informative tense fast-paced

4.5

a deep dive into the author's relationship with race and the punk scene. james spooner offers a ton of information about getting involved in punk and its deep and radical history. he also talks in depth about anti-black racism within the scene and his experiences with racism as a teenager. 
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