Nathan McCall, author of Makes Me Wanna Holler, a popular book on urban black youth, will be the featured speaker at a lecture at Grand Valley State University on Monday, November 13.
McCall will speak at 2 p.m. on Monday in the Cook-DeWitt Center. The lecture is open to the public free of charge. A reception will follow, hosted by the Black Student Union.
The 1994 book Makes Me Wanna Holler: A Young Black Man in America is McCall's memoir of his troubled youth, including crime sprees, stints in jail, and an underlying rage at a society that he felt stilted the lives of many young people of color. McCall's in-your-face honesty, as the Washington Post calls it, paints a harrowing and eye-opening picture of an African American male facing life at the end of the 20th century.
McCall, who teaches journalism classes at Emory University in Atlanta, also will sign copies of his book at Schuler Books and Music, 2660 28th St. SE in Grand Rapids, beginning at 3 p.m. on Sunday, November 12.
-McCall's book stemmed from an article he wrote as a journalist for the Washington Post. Its title was taken from a Marvin Gaye song, Inner City Blues, which expresses frustration over the social struggles African Americans face. McCall's second book, What's Going On (1998), also takes its title from Marvin Gaye.
McCall's appearance is sponsored by the GVSU African-American Studies and Literary Studies programs.
