A review by jaduhluhdabooks
The Talk by Darrin Bell

challenging dark informative reflective tense fast-paced

5.0

A powerful depiction of Darrin Bell’s life through the medium at which he found his voice, drawings. It’s an eclectic form of story telling that demonstrates the atrocious realities of growing up Black in America. It’s about discovering wealth in your identity and beauty in your experience and value in your speech. It’s about exploration and expression of the self, to exhibit confidence and bodily admonish one’s ability to stand. It’s about the depth of racism institutionally and relationally, gripping the roots of our nation. It’s about the brutality of law enforcement and the criminalization of the “other”. It’s about seeing each other as human, for fighting for equity and equality. It’s about safety. It’s about love. It’s about life. 

Darrin Bell is the first African American to win the Pulitzer Prize for a cartoon editorial. He made history and it’s a history worth remembering and celebrating. But in order to do it properly you must know ALL of Bell’s story. I am honored to have gotten to sit and reflect with Bell’s experiences, as well as on my own.

Theirs is beauty in acknowledging and celebrating the journey. But theirs is something solidifying about ensuring a safer and more fulfilling journey for those who come after us. May their “talks” be one of history and remembrance. Not of survival and self preservation. 
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