The Beast Side

Book cover of The Beast Side: Living and Dying While Black in America

Book description

A New York Times Best Seller! Baltimore, one of our country's quintessential urban war zones, is brought powerfully to life by literary talent, D. Watkins

To many, the past 8 years under President Obama were meant to usher in a new post-racial American political era, dissolving the divisions of the…

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Why read it?

1 author picked The Beast Side as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Mary Rizzo

Author

In the space of two years, D. Watkins published two stunning books about Baltimore. The second, The Cook Up: A Crack Rock Memoir, is sharp and smart, but if I had to only choose one, it would be The Beast Side. In this slim volume of essays, Watkins invites us to explore the two worlds he lives within and between. He grew up on the tough east side, known locally as the beast side, and sold drugs, but also went to college and now teaches creative writing.

While there are many books by Black authors that use stories…

From Mary's list on why Baltimore's problems are so hard to fix.