“asha bandele has a poignant story to share in Something Like Beautiful. It is the love that comes through that makes this such a compelling tale.” —Nikki Giovanni Award-winning journalist, and author of The Prisoner’s Wife andDaughter, and performance poet featured on HBO’S Def Poetry Jam, asha bandele once again writes from the heart in her lyrical and intimate memoir Something Like Beautiful—a moving story of love, loss, motherhood, and survival. Sharing the story of her struggles as a single black mother in New York City and her tragically self-destructive near-breakdown, asha bears her soul in a book Rebecca Walker, author of Baby Love, calls “courageous, profound, and achingly beautiful.”

Something Like Beautiful: One Single Mother's Story

Biographies & Memoirs

Bandele, Asha

Community & Culture

Harper

When asha bandele fell in love with a prisoner serving a twenty-to-life sentence and became pregnant with his daughter, she had reason to hope they would live together as a family. But soon after Nisa was born, ashas dreams were shattered. Her husband, Rashid, was denied parole and told hed be deported to his native Guyana once released. Suddenly a statistica black single mother in New York Cityasha kept it together on the outside while falling apart on the inside. Despite having a great job at a high-profile magazine and a beautiful daughter whom she adored, asha began drinking and smoking and stumbled into a relationship that opened new woundsdescending into depression when her life should have been filled with love and joy. A lyrical, astonishingly honest memoir, Something Like Beautiful is not only ashas story but also the story of thousands of women who struggle daily with little help and much against them.

Harper-perennial

How did a beautiful, talented college student fall in love with a man serving twenty to life for murder? And why did she marry him? At a time when one in four black men are caught in the web of the criminal justice system, asha bandele shatters the myths of prisoners' wives and tells a story of embracing the beauty of love in the ugliest circumstances and of people's ability to change, to do better, to grow.  Whether she is describing her restricted but romantic courtship with Rashid -- when letters were like dates, like "whispers on the slow, blue-light dance floor" -- or riding the bus upstate with the other wives and girlfriends, asha bandele creates haunting images and reflections so powerful and unique that they beg to be reread and savored. At the same time that she recalls the extreme ups and downs that accompany a relationship constantly scrutinized by guards and surveillance cameras, she confronts her own dark secrets and sadness. The love of a man with an ugly past but a firm belief in redemption is what heals her broken spirit and grants her the courage and confidence to embrace life again.  This is a love story extraordinary in its circumstances but universal in its message. With unblinking honesty, asha bandele writes about the tenuous balance of power upon which most relationships rest, the deep needs that bring two people together, the jealousy and insecurity that can drive them apart. But most of all, "The Prisoner's Wife" reminds us why we love -- what we give up for it and what we receive from it. An immensely gifted poet whom the "Bay Guardian" has called "an essential new voice in African-American literature," asha bandele has written a remarkably candidbook that resonates with poetic language and abundant insight.

The Prisoner's Wife: A Memoir

Children's Books

Demco Media

As a favor for a friend, a bright and talented young woman volunteered to read her poetry to a group of prisoners during a Black History Month program. It was an encounter that would alter her life forever, because it was there, in the prison, that she would meet Rashid, the man who was to become her friend, her confidant, her husband, her lover, her soul mate. At the time, Rashid was serving a sentence of twenty years to life for his part in a murder. The Prisoner's Wife is a testimony, for wives and mothers, friends and families. It's a tribute to anyone who has ever chosen, against the odds, to love.

The Prisoner's Wife : A Memoir

Arts & Literature

Washington Square Press

How did a beautiful, talented college student fall in love with a man serving twenty to life for murder? And why did she marry him? At a time when one in four black men are caught in the web of the criminal justice system, asha bandele shatters the myths of prisoners' wives and tells a story of embracing the beauty of love in the ugliest circumstances and of people's ability to change, to do better, to grow. Whether she is describing her restricted but romantic courtship with Rashid -- when letters were like dates, like "whispers on the slow, blue-light dance floor" -- or riding the bus upstate with the other wives and girlfriends, asha bandele creates haunting images and reflections so powerful and unique that they beg to be reread and savored. At the same time that she recalls the extreme ups and downs that accompany a relationship constantly scrutinized by guards and surveillance cameras, she confronts her own dark secrets and sadness. The love of a man with an ugly past but a firm belief in redemption is what heals her broken spirit and grants her the courage and confidence to embrace life again. This is a love story extraordinary in its circumstances but universal in its message. With unblinking honesty, asha bandele writes about the tenuous balance of power upon which most relationships rest, the deep needs that bring two people together, the jealousy and insecurity that can drive them apart. But most of all, The Prisoner's Wife reminds us why we love -- what we give up for it and what we receive from it. An immensely gifted poet whom the Bay Guardian has called "an essential new voice in African-American literature," asha bandele has written a remarkably candid book that resonates with poetic language and abundant insight.

The Prisoner's Wife

Scribner

Miriam finds her world shattered when her daughter is shot by a white police officer in a case of mistaken identity, a situation that forces her to confront her past, her identity as an African American woman, and her widowhood.

Daughter: A Novel

Literature & Fiction

United States

At nineteen, Aya is a promising Black college student from Brooklyn who is struggling through a difficult relationship with her emotionally distant mother, Miriam. One winter night, Aya is shot by a white police officer in a case of mistaken identity. Keeping vigil by her daughter's hospital bed, Miriam remembers her own youth: her battle for independence from her parents, her affair with Aya's father, and the challenges of raising her daughter. But as Miriam confronts her past - her losses and regrets - she begins to heal and discovers a tentative hopefulness.

Absence in the Palms of My Hands: &amp; Other Poems [Paperback] [Nov 01, 1996] Bandele, Asha

Absence in the Palms of My Hands: & Other Poems

Writers & Readers

Poetry. African American Studies. THE SUBTLE ART OF BREATHING is a work about women, survival and abuse that deals with self evaluation and politics from an intimate and personal perspective. "asha's writing has an ease and urgency that is rare, welcome and necessary. Her story is at once highly particular and universal. Her courage to love is heroism without pretension, and as Malcolm once said of himself, her sincerity is her credential"--Mos Def. asha bandele is a former features editor and writer for Essence magazine, and is currently the deputy director of policy with the Drug Policy Alliance, an organization leading the nation in reforming drug laws and mandatory sentencing. Her previous works include the novels "The Prisoner's Wife" and "Daughter", and the poetry collection "Absence in the Palm of My Hands".

The Subtle Art of Breathing

Poetry

Moore Black Press

When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir

THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER. New York Times Editor’s Pick. Library Journal Best Books of 2019. TIME Magazine's "Best Memoirs of 2018 So Far." O, Oprah’s Magazine’s “10 Titles to Pick Up Now.” Politics &amp; Current Events 2018 O.W.L. Book Awards Winner The Root Best of 2018 "This remarkable book reveals what inspired Patrisse's visionary and courageous activism and forces us to face the consequence of the choices our nation made when we criminalized a generation. This book is a must-read for all of us." - Michelle Alexander, New York Times bestselling author of The New Jim Crow
A poetic and powerful memoir about what it means to be a Black woman in America―and the co-founding of a movement that demands justice for all in the land of the free.
Raised by a single mother in an impoverished neighborhood in Los Angeles, Patrisse Khan-Cullors experienced firsthand the prejudice and persecution Black Americans endure at the hands of law enforcement. For Patrisse, the most vulnerable people in the country are Black people. Deliberately and ruthlessly targeted by a criminal justice system serving a white privilege agenda, Black people are subjected to unjustifiable racial profiling and police brutality. In 2013, when Trayvon Martin’s killer went free, Patrisse’s outrage led her to co-found Black Lives Matter with Alicia Garza and Opal Tometi.
Condemned as terrorists and as a threat to America, these loving women founded a hashtag that birthed the movement to demand accountability from the authorities who continually turn a blind eye to the injustices inflicted upon people of Black and Brown skin. 
Championing human rights in the face of violent racism, Patrisse is a survivor. She transformed her personal pain into political power, giving voice to a people suffering inequality and a movement fueled by her strength and love to tell the country―and the world―that Black Lives Matter.
 When They Call You a Terrorist is Patrisse Khan-Cullors and asha bandele’s reflection on humanity. It is an empowering account of survival, strength and resilience and a call to action to change the culture that declares innocent Black life expendable.

Cullors, Patrisse

Reference

St.Martin's Press

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Bandele, Asha. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Bandele, Asha

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Bandele, Asha. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Something Like Beautiful: One Single Mother's Story

Something Like Beautiful: One Single Mother's Story

The Prisoner's Wife: A Memoir

The Prisoner's Wife : A Memoir

The Prisoner's Wife

Daughter: A Novel

Daughter: A Novel

Absence in the Palms of My Hands: & Other Poems

The Subtle Art of Breathing

When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir