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A Black Tale of Homeland, Baltimore
by Lawrence Jackson
In 2016, Lawrence Jackson accepted a new job in Baltimore, searched for schools for his sons, and bought a house. It would all be unremarkable but for the fact that he had grown up in West Baltimore and now found himself teaching at Johns Hopkins, whose vexed relationship to its neighborhood, to the city and its history, provides fodder for this captivating memoir in essays.
With sardonic wit, Jackson describes his struggle to make a home in the city that had just been convulsed by the uprising that followed the murder of Freddie Gray. His new neighborhood, Homeland—largely White, built on racial covenants—is not where he is "supposed" to live. But his purchase, and his desire to pass some inheritance on to his children, provides a foundation for him to explore his personal and spiritual history, as well as Baltimore's untold stories. Each chapter is a new exploration: a trip to the Maryland shore is an occasion to dilate on Frederick Douglass's complicated legacy, an encounter at a Hopkins shuttle-bus stop becomes a meditation on public transportation and policing, and Jackson's beleaguered commitment to his church opens a pathway to reimagine an urban community through jazz.
Shelter is an extraordinary biography of a city and a celebration of our capacity for domestic thriving. Jackson's story leans on the essay to contain the raging absurdity of Black American life, establishing him as a maverick, essential writer.
"[A] series of essays that seamlessly blend history, journalism, and memoir. The author's command of factual detail is matched by the laser clarity of his childhood memories, whether offering a taxonomy of his elementary school teachers or recollecting the loan of a landscaping tool by a neighbor...An extraordinary dual portrait of the author and his hometown—angry, tender, incisive, and bracingly eloquent." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"A Black man makes a conflicted return to his roots in this bittersweet meditation on race and belonging...The result is a stirring reflection on the meaning of home." - Publishers Weekly
"There are an endless number of wonderful things to say about Lawrence Jackson's Shelter―from luminous to breathtaking to just being outright admirable. Jackson essentially gifts his reader with two stories that are skillfully and beautifully intertwined: the work to create a great home for himself and his two sons, and a history of Baltimore, the hometown that helped create him. Along the way we are treated to so much that helps those stories come to life―from Jackson's history with cars to the ingredients of 19th century cornbread to Johns Hopkins University's treatment of Black people. It is all a lovely mix. Jackson has the mind of a historian, but he is also something of a poet―just note these words: 'a person whose strength is more meringue than muscle.' Shelter is a singular achievement." - Edward P. Jones
"Shelter is an intriguing meditation on past and present Baltimore, as reflected through the eyes of a black native son. Lawrence Jackson, deeply ambivalent about returning after years away from his once-slaveholding hometown, is a keen observer of the complex interplay between race, time, and place. Surprisingly funny and often unsettling, Shelter is a fascinating read." - Nathan McCall, author of Makes Me Wanna Holler: A Young Black Man in America
This information about Shelter was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Lawrence Jackson is a biographer and critic whose work has appeared in Harper's Magazine, n+1, and Best American Essays. He teaches English and history at Johns Hopkins and founded the Billie Holiday Project for Liberation Arts.
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