lpahomov

Mekhi Granby

Staff Writer

It felt like I was right there with Geoffrey Canada as he told his story in Fist, Stick, Knife, Gun: A Personal History of Violence.

Fist Stick Knife Gun: A Personal History of Violence is a memoir by Geoffrey Canada, an American social activist. Beacon Press published the book on January 31, 1995. Publishers Weekly praised the book, commenting that, “A more powerful depiction of the tragic life of urban children and a more compelling plea to end ‘America’s war against itself’ cannot be imagined.” In the mid-2000s (decade), Beacon Press began considering publishing an alternate graphic novel version. Illustrator Jamar Nicholas and editor Allison Trzop created Fist Stick Knife Gun: A Personal History of Violence (A True Story in Black and White), which was released in stores on September 14, 2010.

Canada takes readers way back to the childhood of his youth to narrate multiple stories from his point of view about growing up. It was a rough journey which taught Geoffrey a lot along the way.

The story takes place in the 1950s and 1960s, when Canada moved to an inner city neighborhood in New York. South Bronx was the new home of Canada at a very young age. Canada lived with his younger brother, older brother, and mother. There was no father figure present. His mother was a hard working single mother forced to provide alone for her three children. The story provided insight on the norms of bad neighborhoods and also gave Canada’s perspective about things.

Not all bad comes from Canada’s moving experience, the neighborhood he moved to taught him multiple lessons that will stick with him for life.

The experience that Canada had growing up is something that I can relate to and I think many other young African American males in Philadelphia can as well. It’s crazy to see that things haven’t changed as much in the African American community regarding male youth. To this day I  know people and have friends who don’t have  their fathers in their life, or have never even met their dads, and are living in poverty.

The effect of this is clear: children are negatively affected by default from their adolescence. It’s sad to say that this is how things are and I personally don’t see a change anytime soon; this book has opened my eyes tremendously to the issues in my community. I have my own personal history of violence and I’ve had my fair share of fights growing up. This book made me realize that things aren’t so different in other places from my own.

Canada began his life’s work helping children who, like himself, grew up in poor, distressed neighborhoods. Canada is the president of Harlem’s Children Zone which supports kids from birth through college in order to break the cycle of poverty. Geoffrey Canada is an American educator, social activist and author.

Mr. Canada has written two books: Fist Stick Knife Gun: A Personal History of Violence in America (1995; reissued as a graphic novel in 2010) and Reaching Up for Manhood: Transforming the Lives of Boys in America (1998). A strong voice in public debates on education, he also has written for a number of publications, including op-eds for The New York Times and Daily News; gave a TED Talk on our failing schools and the need for innovation that was broadcast on PBS; and has spoken to audiences around the world about what it takes to help children succeed, from evaluation to early childhood education and beyond.

Tamir Harper

Staff Writer

Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness! In 1831, Nat Turner led a spirited fight to end Slavery. A Slave in Virginia himself, He worked and got hundreds of Slaves to rebel against their Slave owners for the first extended period of time in the United States. This attempt ended after six weeks, but is credited as being the start of real rebellion among American Slaves.  

On October 7th, 2016, Nat Parker released a movie about Nat Turner and how he fought for freedom. On October 7th, I had the opportunity to attend a screening  of the movie. The movie starred Nat Parker, who also directed the movie, Armie Hammer, Mark Boone Junior and others who played the Slaves who sought to rebel against their masters.

The most compelling part of the movie is that it shows the fight that Blacks went through during that time, such as having to serve food and beverages to the Masters during fancy dinners to having sex with visiting Slave Masters.

However, the movie also had some huge holes that need to be filled. For example, they  portrayed the young Slave that told one the Masters that Nat was about to rebel as weak. In truth, this Slave was a strong youngman that actually continued the movement after Nat was killed.  

The script  also made White women living on these plantations seem innocent. Throughout the film,  White women were shown teaching the enSlaved children  and trying to defend adult Slaves. They never demonstrated how White women made Black men their  sex Slaves.

I am frustrated by these narrow portrayals,  but I also accept that no movie about history will ever be perfect. I give the movie a positive rating overall because shows audiences the history of Slaves rebelling, unlike many other movies based around Slavery this movie clearly showed the unity of the Slaves for the most part. At one point during the movie, Nat was getting whipped by his master because he was defending a fellow Slave. One of Nat’s friends who was a Slave picked up a brick and signaled to Nat that he was going to hit the master, but Nat told him not to, for fear of the master lashing out at him as well. This showed the brotherhood, unity and respect that Slaves had for one another even when going through hard times.

As I sat there in the crowded theater, with many other Black viewers, I felt the anger and hurt of people while watching the movie. But, when I watched it I felt a mixture of emotions. I felt happy, proud and angry at the same time.

When I think about the history of my people then and now, I begin to feel happy. Even though we are still fighting Slavery in the form of being imprisoned, we have fought through it once so we can fight through it again. But I felt angry because of what White men was doing to the Slaves. Even now, we are fighting against a system that continue to oppress Blacks, and sooner or later we will REBEL.