A Parallel Life

"The long-awaited first volume of Bonnie Greer's memoirs. Award-winning playwright, author and critic Bonnie Greer opens her heart and her history in this beautiful, emotive and honest biography. From her early years in segregated, racist Chicago to the months in New York City that would lead to her first steps on British soil, Bonnie's story is not only compelling and eye-opening, but an exquisite testament to one woman's strength, determination and pride. Standing on the corner of Michigan Avenue, in the middle of the biggest blizzard of the decade and at the height of the rush hour, I yelled into the driving snow and howling Arctic wind: OK! After playing the role of good daughter, great sister, best friend, girlfriend in the background, and black student warrior, what else? Because there is something else. And there always was something else. Now, Miss Greer, you must finally face it-- 'cause you have run out of road. The curtain is about to come down. They're packin' up and goin' home, baby! It was time to leave. Time to leave Chicago -- and my family and friends. Time to leave everything and finally go to meet that parallel life -- the one that lived inside of me ever since I was a very little girl. Bonnie Greer's touching, funny and thought-provoking memoir is a voyage into the making of a woman who set out to unmake what she'd been born and brought up to be: 'A proper girl' -- a precious definition in a segregated and racist America where black life was deemed only three-fifths of white life ... and the life of a black woman even less. This is the first volume of a compelling memoir that will not just enlighten, engage and enthrall, but move you to tears with every turn of the page. Courage, defiance and, ultimately, hope define the story of a life -- indeed, a parallel life -- that just had to be lived"--Provided by publisher.;Part I. Blues people, 1948-1963 -- Part 2. Songbook, 1964-1978 -- Part 3. Horses. Extraordinarily moving story of a young African-American girl born into the black working class, growing up in a culture of racism and limited opportunity in Chicago of the 1960s, and ultimately receiving an award from the Queen for her contribution to the arts in the UK. 'When I first heard the word Negro, I saw in my mind's eye a grey metallic colour, like the colour of a knife blade or a cooking pot scrubbed too many times. The sound of it was ugly and hollow and tinny. The sound had no resonance. In other words, like Muhammed Ali, I did not like the word. But it was used to refer to little children who looked like me – children simply trying to go to school under a barrage of adult insults and the hostility of the local police. I was an American kid at the end of the 1950s, at the time when schools were desegregated in the South. It was on TV, along with 'The Mouseketeers', 'Shirley Temple's Storybook' and 'The Nat King Cole Show', which we all gathered to watch...