Episode 11 - A LOVE LETTER TO BLACK BOYS

Concrete Rose, by Angie Thomas? is a story about Maverick Carter, a 17-year-old black boy, who sells drugs, has a dad in jail, and who learns his girlfriend is pregnant. But the treatment of the issues and quality of writing is what makes this book absolutely stunning.

Angie writes in the voice of the teenager, with authenticity. More than that, she helps us to get inside his head and his heart, challenging us to experience the full humanity of a black boy in a world in which black teenagers are only noticed, typically, when they have encounters with a criminal justice systehe various kinds of social structural violence of Maverick's community aren't shied away from, but it is rare to have these hardened themes explored without anthropologising black teenagers and robbing them of affect, of humanity, of dreams and hopes, of struggles...of vulnerabilities.

It is gorgeous to read a novel that renders black boys human instead of treating them as would be criminals.

Angie Thomas joined me for a discussion on this beautiful love letter to black boys