In Cinderella Story , James Haywood Rolling, Jr. introduces us to an intricate collage of embodied experiences and aspirations, hopes and redemptions, afflictions and possibilities. Wow, what a fantastic visual read! With every turn of the page you will imagine Rolling sketching meaningful narratives of Black lives with broad strokes and fine lines, and we are left with an intellectually nuanced iteration of a textured imagination of Blackness that many of us will resonate with so deeply so as to consider it Truth. Perhaps what is most refreshing in this book is Rolling's self-reflection as a Black male. Privileging the reader with self-portraits drawn by the author, Rolling reminds us without cliché that each of our lives is a tremendously personal canvas. Unlike most books on identity that theorize without location, Rolling invites us to see identities as real transformative spaces we inhabit daily. He helps us to remember that just like he and his family, we all not only come from a place with a physical address like 1260 Lincoln Place, but we also continue to inhabit spaces and places that are designed to offer a profound sense of security, agency, self, position, and most of all home. In this book, Rolling unabashedly takes on issues of race and representation, but does so in a way that forces us to not only grapple with how race contains us, but how despite its social apparatus we might be transformed.

sical address like 1260 Lincoln Place, but we also continue to inhabit spaces and places that are designed to offer a profound sense of security, agency, self, position, and most of all home. In this book, Rolling unabashedly takes on issues of race and representation, but does so in a way that forces us to not only grapple with how race contains us, but how despite its social apparatus we might be transformed.sical address like 1260 Lincoln Place, but we also continue to inhabit spaces and places that are designed to offer a profound sense of security, agency, self, position, and most of all home. In this book, Rolling unabashedly takes on issues of race and representation, but does so in a way that forces us to not only grapple with how race contains us, but how despite its social apparatus we might be transformed.sical address like 1260 Lincoln Place, but we also continue to inhabit spaces and places that are designed to offer a profound sense of security, agency, self, position, and most of all home. In this book, Rolling unabashedly takes on issues of race and representation, but does so in a way that forces us to not only grapple with how race contains us, but how despite its social apparatus we might be transformed.