Books by Michael Awkward

The conflict between the nation's ideals and the racial animus that persists even into the second term of America's first black president.

Cultural and literary study of the construction of racial and artistic identity in soul cover albums of three popular artists--Aretha Franklin, Al Green, and Phoebe Snow.

Presents a memoir of the author, a noted scholar of African American literature. This book offers his coming-of-age as a bookish black male in the projects of 1970s Philadelphia, his relationships with his family and peers, their struggles with poverty and addiction, and his move from underfunded urban schools to a prestigious private school.