Kristal Brent Zook's Books

The Girl in the Yellow Poncho

A Memoir

By: Kristal Brent Zook

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At five years old, Kristal Brent Zook sat on the steps of a Venice Beach, California, motel trying to make sense of her white father’s abandonment, which left her feeling unworthy of a man’s love and of white protection. Raised by her working-class African American mother and grandmother, Zook was taught not to count on anyone, especially men. Men leave. Men disappoint. In adulthood she became a feminist, activist, and “race woman” journalist in New York City. Despite her professional success, something was missing. Coming to terms with her identity was a constant challenge. The Girl in the Yellow Poncho is Zook’s coming-of-age tale about what it means to be biracial in America. Throughout, she grapples with in-betweenness while also facing childhood sexual assault, economic insecurity, and multigenerational alcoholism and substance abuse on both the Black and white sides of her family. Her story is one of strong Black women—herself, her cousin, her mother, and her grandmother—and the generational cycles of oppression and survival that seemingly defined their lives. Setting out on an inner journey that takes her across oceans and continents, Zook tells the story of a little girl who never gives up on love, even long after it seems to have been destroyed. In the end she triumphs, reconciling with her father and mother to create the family of her dreams through forgiveness and sheer force of will. A testament to the power of settling into one’s authentic identity, this book tells a story of a daughter’s lifelong yearning, a mother’s rediscovery of lost love, and the profound power of atonement and faith to heal a broken family.

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Page Count

179

Publisher

Duke University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

147802447X

ISBN 13

9781478024477

Black Women's Lives

Stories of Pain and Power

By: Kristal Brent Zook

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Black Women's Lives

Stories of Pain and Power

By: Kristal Brent Zook

Kristal Brent Zook explores the lives of contemporary African America women from all walks of life. Based on her travels across America and years of interviewing and building relationships with women from a wide variety of socio-economic backgrounds, she offers vivid archetypal portraits of a school principal in Georgia, a filmmaker in Los Angeles, a factory worker in Mississippi, a corporate executive in New York City, a prisoner in Seattle, and an organic farmer in Vermont, among others. Through these portraits, Black Women's Lives explores common overlapping themes while highlighting the shared dreams, hopes, and disappointments of ordinary women. This book also reveals the many challenges and inequalities that black women still face, and how far this nation has yet to travel if it is to live up to its promise to create an equal and just society for all citizens.

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Page Count

240

Publisher

Nation Books

Published Date

ISBN 10

1560257903

ISBN 13

9781560257905

Color by Fox

The Fox Network and the Revolution in Black Television

By: Kristal Brent Zook

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Color by Fox

The Fox Network and the Revolution in Black Television

By: Kristal Brent Zook

Locating a persistent black nationalist desire - yearning for home and community - in the shows produced in the 1980s and 1990s, Zook shows how the Fox hip-hop sitcom both reinforced and rebelled against earlier black sitcoms from the 1960s and 1970s.

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Page Count

177

Publisher

Oxford University Press, USA

Published Date

ISBN 10

0195106121

ISBN 13

9780195106121

Color by Fox

The Fox Network and the Revolution in Black Television

By: Kristal Brent Zook

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Color by Fox

The Fox Network and the Revolution in Black Television

By: Kristal Brent Zook

Following the overwhelming success of "The Cosby Show" in the 1980s, an unprecedented shift took place in television history: white executives turned to black dollars as a way of salvaging network profits lost in the war against video cassettes and cable T.V. Not only were African-American viewers watching disproportionately more network television than the general population but, as Nielsen finally realized, they preferred black shows. As a result, African-American producers, writers, directors, and stars were given an unusual degree of creative control over shows such as "The Fresh Prince of Bel Air," "Roc," "Living Single," and "New York Undercover". What emerged were radical representations of African-American memory and experience. Offering a fascinating examination of the explosion of black television programming in the 1980s and 1990s, this book provides, for the first time ever, an interpretation of black TV based in both journalism and critical theory. Locating a persistent black nationalist desire--a yearning for home and community--in the shows produced by and for African-Americans in this period, Kristal Brent Zook shows how the Fox hip-hop sitcom both reinforced and rebelled against earlier black sitcoms from the sixties and seventies. Incorporating interviews with such prominent executives, producers, and stars as Keenen Ivory Wayans, Sinbad, Quincy Jones, Robert Townsend, Charles Dutton, Yvette Lee Bowser, and Ralph Farquhar, this study looks at both production and reception among African-American viewers, providing nuanced readings of the shows themselves as well as the sociopolitical contexts in which they emerged. While black TV during this period may seem trivial or buffoonish to some, Color by Fox reveals its deep-rooted ties to African-American protest literature and autobiography, and a desire for social transformation.

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Page Count

177

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0195355652

ISBN 13

9780195355659

The Girl in the Yellow Poncho

A Memoir

By: Kristal Brent Zook

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The Girl in the Yellow Poncho

A Memoir

By: Kristal Brent Zook

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N/A

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Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

179

Publisher

Duke University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

147802447X

ISBN 13

9781478024477

Book's by Kristal Brent Zook

The Girl in the Yellow Poncho

The Girl in the Yellow Poncho

Black Women's Lives

Black Women's Lives

Color by Fox

Color by Fox

Color by Fox

Color by Fox

The Girl in the Yellow Poncho

The Girl in the Yellow Poncho

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