Spotlight: Miseducated by Brandon P. Fleming

Miseducated: My Journey
written by Brandon P. Fleming
published by Hachette Books, 2021

find it here: (affiliate links) Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Apple Books, Kobo, Target, Book Depository, Goodreads

About the book – from Goodreads: An inspiring memoir of one man’s transformation through literature and debate from a delinquent, drug-dealing dropout to an award-winning Harvard educator — all by the age of 27.
Brandon Fleming grew up in an abusive home, subject to the brutal rages of his stepfather, a cocaine-addicted Baptist preacher. Spirit broken, Fleming became a threat to everyone around him. He was shuffled through school, his passing grades a nod to his skill on the basketball court, not his presence in the classroom. He turned to the streets, a life of drug deals and violence, saved only by the dream of basketball stardom.

Fleming earned a chance to play for a Division I school. But when he suffered a career-ending injury during his first semester, he dropped out of college. He spent the next years toiling on an assembly line, until the depression that stalked him drove him to the edge. Miraculously, his life was spared.

Returning to college, Fleming was determined to reinvent himself as a scholar — to replace illiteracy with mastery over language, to go from being ignored and unseen to commanding attention. He immersed himself in the work of Black thinkers, from the Harlem Renaissance to present day. Crucially, he found debate, which became the means by which he transformed his life, and the tool he would use to transform the lives of others — teaching disadvantaged kids to be intrusive in places that are not inclusive, eventually at Harvard University, where he would make champions and history.

Through his personal narrative, readers witness Fleming’s personal transformation, self education, and how he takes what he learns about words and power to help others like himself. Not a “10 steps to personal transformation” or “how to go from the ‘hood to Harvard,” Miseducated is an honest personal narrative about resilience, visibility, role models, and overcoming all expectations.

 

 
 
 

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** This post first appeared on Every Free Chance Books (everyfreechance.com) on DATE, 2021.