A powerful collection of journalism on race, racism and black life and death from one of the nation's leading political voices. For the last three decades Gary Younge has had a ringside seat during the biggest events and with the most significant personalities to impact the black diaspora: accompanying Nelson Mandela on his first election campaign, joining revellers on the southside of Chicago during Obama's victory, entering New Orleans days after hurricane Katrina or interviewing Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Maya Angelou and Stormzy. He has witnessed how much change is possible and the power of systems to thwart those aspirations. Dispatches from the Diaspora is an unrivalled body of work from a unique perspective that takes you to the frontlines and compels you to engage and to 'imagine a world in which you might thrive, for which there is no evidence. And then fight for it.'

Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his powerful “I Have a Dream” speech on August 28, 1963. Sixty years later, the speech endures as a defining moment in the civil rights movement and remains a beacon in the ongoing struggle for racial equality. This gripping book tells the story behind “The Speech” and sheds light on other key moments of the March on Washington, drawing on interviews with Clarence Jones, a close friend of and draft speechwriter for Martin Luther King Jr.; Joan Baez, who sang at the march; as well as Angela Davis and other leading civil rights luminaries. Now with a new introduction to mark the 60th anniversary of that historic day in Washington, The Speech offers an essential analysis of King’s words at a moment of urgent reckoning and renewed calls for justice and liberation.

"I was struck by the wisdom of this work, a quiet wisdom that inheres in images so fully imagined that one can never forget them. The language has been so thoroughly purified that truth becomes, in the telling, austerely beautiful."--Jay Parini "There's no word for what Young does, only for what he accomplishes--the capturing of small, daily miracles."--Dorianne Laux Gary Young is one of the country's best known prose poets and his unique, sinuous, brief style has a flavor all its own. This collection includes work selected from six previously published volumes and two unpublished sequences of new work. Gary Young lives in Santa Cruz, California.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE, THE JHALAK PRIZE, THE CWA GOLD DAGGER FOR NON-FICTION AND THE BREAD AND ROSES AWARD Saturday, 23rd November 2013. It was just another day in America. And as befits an unremarkable day, ten children and teens were killed by gunfire. Far from being considered newsworthy, these everyday fatalities are simply a banal fact. The youngest was nine; the oldest nineteen. None made the news. There was no outrage at their passing. It was simply a day like any other day. Gary Younge picked it at random, searched for the families of these children and here, tells their stories. Another Day in the Death of America explores the way these children lived and lost their short lives, offering a searing portrait of the vulnerability of youth in contemporary America.

THE night before the March on Washington in 1963 Martin Luther King asked his aides for advice about the next day's speech. 'Don't use the lines about "I have a dream,"' Wyatt Walker told him 'It's trite, it's cliche. You've used it too many times already.' Martin Luther King delivered many speeches (at least 350 in 1963 alone). Many speeches have been delivered on civil rights and, indeed, were delivered at the March on Washington. So what was it that made that particular speech historical? And what makes it great? Why do we remember it? How do we remember it? What is it about it that we like to remember? And what about it have we chosen to forget? Published to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King's famous address, Gary Young examines what made the speech so timely ... and so timeless. Few at that time could imagine the world he was evoking but to continue being involved all had to believe it was possible.Fifty years on it is clear that in eliminating segregation - not racism but formal, codified, explicit discrimination - the civil rights movement delivered the last significant moral victory in America for which there is still a consensus. The speech's appeal endures because it remains the most eloquent, poetic, unapologetic and public articulation of that victory. The Speech is the only book to combine line-by-line analysis, background detail and interviews with those who wrote, heard and acted upon King's words.

Staying Power is a panoramic history of black Britons. Stretching back to the Roman conquest, encompassing the court of Henry VIII, and following a host of characters from Mary Seacole to the abolitionist Olaudah Equiano, Peter Fryer paints a picture of two thousand years of Black presence in Britain. First published in the '80s, amidst race riots and police brutality, Fryer's history performed a deeply political act; revealing how Africans, Asians and their descendants had long been erased from British history. By rewriting black Britons into the British story, showing where they influenced political traditions, social institutions and cultural life, was - and is - a deeply effective counter to a racist and nationalist agenda. This new edition includes the classic introduction by Paul Gilroy, author of There Ain't No Black in the Union Jack, in addition to a brand-new foreword by Guardian journalist Gary Younge, which examines the book's continued significance today as we face Brexit and a revival of right wing nationalism.

Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his powerful “I Have a Dream” speech on August 28, 1963. Sixty years later, the speech endures as a defining moment in the civil rights movement and remains a beacon in the ongoing struggle for racial equality. This gripping book tells the story behind “The Speech” and sheds light on other key moments of the March on Washington, drawing on interviews with Clarence Jones, a close friend of and draft speechwriter for Martin Luther King Jr.; Joan Baez, who sang at the march; as well as Angela Davis and other leading civil rights luminaries. Now with a new introduction to mark the 60th anniversary of that historic day in Washington, The Speech offers an essential analysis of King’s words at a moment of urgent reckoning and renewed calls for justice and liberation.

Staying Power is a panoramic history of black Britons. Stretching back to the Roman conquest, encompassing the court of Henry VIII, and following a host of characters from Mary Seacole to the abolitionist Olaudah Equiano, Peter Fryer paints a picture of two thousand years of Black presence in Britain. First published in the '80s, amidst race riots and police brutality, Fryer's history performed a deeply political act; revealing how Africans, Asians and their descendants had long been erased from British history. By rewriting black Britons into the British story, showing where they influenced political traditions, social institutions and cultural life, was - and is - a deeply effective counter to a racist and nationalist agenda. This new edition includes the classic introduction by Paul Gilroy, author of There Ain't No Black in the Union Jack, in addition to a brand-new foreword by Guardian journalist Gary Younge, which examines the book's continued significance today as we face Brexit and a revival of right wing nationalism.

*WITH A NEW INTRODUCTION* 'Deals intensely and critically with urgent questions facing a globalised world' The Times The way we think and live, who we vote for and who we fear, has become ever more dictated by our personal identity. In his ground-breaking book, Gary Younge argues that we have recoiled into refuges of race or class, religion or national identity to survive in a state seemingly indifferent to our lives. Ranging from his Stevenage childhood to present day America, from the borders of Europe to division in South Africa, Younge explores the issues that bind the powerful elite and the poor immigrant, the fundamentalist and the conservative. In this powerful dissection of modern society Gary Younge challenges us not to succumb to what divides us, but through solidarity to search for a common - and higher - ground. 'With brilliant clarity, Gary Younge carefully guides us through a political minefield' Andrea Levy 'An indispensable guide to 'identity' in politics, and a terrific read' Margaret Atwood 'An absorbing and thoughtful discussion of identity' Financial Times

People come and go but no one ever really leaves your life. New beginnings are possible, new starts are available, and sometimes, whether you are aware of it or not, you have turned a corner