No ashes in the fire : coming of age black & free in America
(Book)

Includes reading group guide.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 241-242).

"When Darnell Moore was fourteen, three boys from his neighborhood tried to set him on fire. They cornered him while he was walking home from school, harassed him because they thought he was gay, and poured a jug of gasoline on him. He escaped, but just barely. It wasn't the last time he would face death. Three decades later, Moore is an award-winning writer, a leading Black Lives Matter activist, and an advocate for justice and liberation. In No Ashes in the Fire, he shares the journey taken by that scared, bullied teenager who not only survived, but found his calling. Moore's transcendence over the myriad forces of repression that faced him is a testament to the grace and care of the people who loved him, and to his hometown, Camden, NJ, scarred and ignored but brimming with life. Moore reminds us that liberation is possible if we commit ourselves to fighting for it, and if we dream and create futures where those who survive on society's edges can thrive. No Ashes in the Fire is a story of beauty and hope--and an honest reckoning with family, with place, and with what it means to be free."--Dust jacket.

As a teenager, Moore was tall and awkward and constantly bullied for being gay. And one afternoon three boys from his neighborhood doused him with gasoline and tried lighting a match. What happens to the black boys who come of age in neglected, poor, heavily policed, and economically desperate cities that the War on Drugs and mass incarceration have created? It wasn't until Darnell was pushed into the spotlight at a Newark rally after the murder of a young queer woman that he became a leading organizer with Black Lives Matter, a movement that recognized him and insisted that his life mattered. Here Moore gives voice to the rich, varied experiences of all those who survive on the edges of the margins. -- adapted from publisher info.