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John Fountain's latest book |
Theirs is a story of joy and pain. It is a soul’s song—told
in this book through the lens of John W. Fountain, a Chicago native son and
veteran journalist who grew up on the West Side, where Dr. Martin Luther King
Jr. and his family once lived during his campaign to help the poor.
"My soul cries. It quivers, sometimes like the human body too long exposed to the cold..."
The Chicago
Tribune has
written of Fountain’s work: It is “stirring, searing poetry of John Fountain,
whose pungent words” give “focus and force” and speak of “the cultural glories
that African Americans gave to Chicago and the world.”
This book, in one sense, is an urban opera set in the key of life. One that sings of the ancestral past, of the present and of future struggles, of the triumphs and glories of a people but also of their fears, of the strain, drain and consequence upon their souls.
This book, in one sense, is an urban opera set in the key of life. One that sings of the ancestral past, of the present and of future struggles, of the triumphs and glories of a people but also of their fears, of the strain, drain and consequence upon their souls.
An award-winning writer and former New York Times national correspondent,
John W. Fountain is a contemporary psalmist, born and bred in poverty and
redeemed by faith, hope and clarity. “Soul Cries: In Black & White &
Shades of Gray” is his inspirational song.
It is a song—a story—that emanates from a place where the
voices of those who dwell there often are not heard. We all need to hear them.
John W. Fountain presents them in a compelling literary song we won’t soon
forget.
Put simply, this book is a literary collection of one man’s
reflections on living while black in America. A psalm of the afflictions
endured by the black body, and of the resilience of black folks’ souls that
have been bathed in the blood, sweat and tears of our ancestors—and that are
still tormented at this present time—on this the quadricentennial of our
arrival as slaves upon American shores. A compilation of the innermost
reflections, thoughts and feelings of the experience of being black and
American and of our longing as a people still to someday be free. It is at its
core one black man's soul's cry for freedom. A familiar song sung by our
ancestors, ringing with the chorus, “Deep in my heart, I do believe, we
shall overcome someday.” This is my soul’s cry.
—John W. Fountain