**"Ilyasah Shabazz has written a compelling and lyrical coming-of-age
story as well as a candid and heart-warming tribute to her parents.
Growing Up X is destined to become a classic."
-SPIKE LEE
**
February 21, 1965: Malcolm X is assassinated in Harlem's Audubon
Ballroom. June 23, 1997: After surviving for a remarkable twenty-two
days, his widow, Betty Shabazz, dies of burns suffered in a fire. In the
years between, their six daughters reach adulthood, forged by the memory
of their parents' love, the meaning of their cause, and the power of
their faith. Now, at long last, one of them has recorded that tumultuous
journey in an unforgettable memoir: Growing Up X.
Born in 1962, Ilyasah was the middle child, a rambunctious livewire who
fought for-and won-attention in an all-female household. She carried on
the legacy of a renowned father and indomitable mother while navigating
childhood and, along the way, learning to do the hustle. She was a
different color from other kids at camp and yet, years later as a young
woman, was not radical enough for her college classmates. Her story is,
sbove all else, a tribute to a mother of almost unimaginable
forbearance, a woman who, "from that day at the Audubon when she heard
the shots and threw her body on [ours, never] stopped shielding her
children."
