Black Youth Rising

Black Youth Rising is a book that restores hope and possibility to the lives of urban black youth. In this pathbreaking account, author Shawn Ginwright details the powerful positive impact that community-based organizations can have in rebuilding the lives of urban black youth, through a process he calls radical healing. Readers can see how caring adults in a community setting are able to create safe spaces for youth to turn away from neighborhood violence and their own traumatic pasts. Together, young people build a refuge within their own community that allows them to avoid the common dangers of street life and build healthy identities and a productive future for themselves and others.

Combining a theoretically grounded framework with practical strategies, Black Youth Rising offers a new model for understanding what African American youth need in order to succeed in school and in life. This book is essential reading for educators, social workers, community organizers, after-school coordinators, and all who work with inner-city adolescents.

Shawn A. Ginwright is Associate Professor of Africana Studies and Senior Research Associate at the Cesar Chavez Institute for Public Policy at San Francisco State University. Visit his website at www.shawnginwright.com.

“Brilliant, shocking, tender, full of poetic fury, Black Youth Rising probes deep into the tender, aching hearts of Urban America's neglected young people.”
—Susan L. Taylor, editor-in-chief emerita, Essence Magazine

“Read this book if you're ready to do more than lament how bad things are and are ready to take action for change.”
—Pedro A. Noguera, New York University