A Taste of Power: A Black Woman's Story

Rating:
Summary: A Powerful and Tragic Journey
Review: "A Taste of Power" makes me feel both proud and very sorry for the Black Panther Party. Out of the four or five books I've read about the BPP, Brown's account has been the most revealing. I didn't realize that the Party had been so well funded, that their Survival Programs had gone beyond breakfast programs (to medical care, a school, etc.), that Brown and Bobby Seale had ran for public office, that Huey P. Newton had egotistically ran the Party for both the people and his own self interests, that Party members were physically disciplined for breaking Party rules, and that Newton had expelled Party co-founder Bobby Seale from the organization. I understand that Newton's actions were influenced by the FBI's COINTELPRO program that worked to undermine and shut down progressive Black organizations, but it's interesting that Brown doesn't talk much about the tactics of COINTELPRO. She stuck with the more personal side of leading Party members, albeit she does not overlook the federal-sponsored and police brutality brought onto the Black community and the Party.

I imagine that Brown's account of the Party's history carries its own subjectivity, but it's certainly important that she wrote about what was largely a very painful journey, despite how much good the Party was doing in Black communities throughout the country. Brown worked hard as a leading editor the BPP newspaper, as a lover and servant of Newton, as a candidate for public office in Oakland, and as a woman to determine to keep the Party running despite the onslaught of internal and external problems and obstacles.

Finally, it's very important that this book is written from a woman's perspective--a perspective that is sorely lacking in the accounts of Black Power era. Far too much machismo mentality and behavior served to undermine and hold the movement back. For as long as women were be exploited by so-called male revolutionaries, the struggle for revolution would always be bankrupted because the liberation of women was not on the agenda.

After reading Brown's book, it will be very interesting to see what Katheleen Cleaver, another prominent BPP female will have to say in her memoir about the history of the Party and Brown's leadership of it.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Biographical Read
Review: ...

In "A Taste of Power", Elaine Brown describes acts of brutal bloody violence as giving her an almost sexual pleasure, saying, "It is a sensuous thing to know that at one's will an enemy can be struck down" and she compares her pleasure in violence to "the tremor before orgasm". Elaine brown openly savors her pleasure in the beatings of lawyer Elaine Wenders and Brown's former lover Steve in this book. The description of Steve's beating is particularly gruesome, and Brown's pleasure in it is incredibly chilling.

... She is very open about her philosophy: the ends justify the means. ... She says, "Faith was all there was. If I did not believe in the ultimate rightness of our goals and our party, then what we did, what Huey was doing, what he was, what I was, was horrible." ...

Rating:
Summary: Making It In a Mans World.
Review: A Taste of Power is truly one of the most interesting reads that I have encoutered. Elaine Brown tells her story with so much debth and brutul truth that every woman could relate to. The story talks about the history of her life and all of the many encounters that she had and the different lives that she lead. It talks her youth as she grew up dirt poor and learn how to play the color game really well. How she learn to associate herself as being special - not like other blacks becaue she had learn the Jewish culture so well and was excepted by so many outsiders. It also talks about her journey throughout her youth as she grew into a young woman and begin yet another life with nothing but high-class everything... even her older, white married man friend. Then it shows you how she came into the Black Panther Party. How she changed the Black Panther Party, how she was one of the most important leaders in the party, and about her relationship with Huey Newton. It was completely astonishing. . . . She was the only woman to ever lead the Black Panther Party......
The book also showed what the BPP was really all about. All of the programs that they instituted... they did so much good that a lot of people don't even know about.

I encourage and challenge to open your mind to read this book.

Rating:
Summary: "The best damn autobiography ever"
Review: Having a love of black history and women, this book blew me away in the five days I read it. My history project in college this past year, was based on the black panthers. Having to find my information for the project, I read many books, based on the revolutionaty panthers. "A Taste of Power, blew me away, and made me feel proud to be black and a WOMAN!

Rating:
Summary: Amazing!
Review: I am a 20 year old college student and only accidentally came across "A Taste of Power" while looking for the autobiography of the much more recognized Angela Davis. The book was incredible to say the least. Though only a small segment of the book discussed sexism in the party, the message was overwhelming. Male chauvinistic attitudes, to a large extent, destroyed the party. Elaine, though seemingly strong-minded, also struggles with the self-worth issues that are so common amongst black women. She tried hard to fit into the schema of black womanhood that others (whites, her mother, black men) had created for her. She moves quickly through the ranks of the party, experiencing a taste of power, but in the end she wonders if she lost herself. READ IT!

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Biographical Read
Review: I enjoyed Elaine Brown's book "A Taste of Power: A Black Woman's story was by far the most engaging read in terms of an autobiography that I have ever encountered. I was totally drawn in by the author's life experiences and strength. She gained in grace as one gains in the hardships of life.

Rating:
Summary: Elaine Brown - The Forgotten Comrade
Review: I had to read this book for a Women's History Class, and I am so glad. I now have a better understanding of what the Black Panther Party was all about, the in's and out's. Another reader commented that Elaine "slept her way to the top" but I don't agree. Yes, she had many lovers, but you have to look at the reason why: Where was her dad? She has alot of misplaced "love" and searches everywhere for it. But that is not the purpose of the book. Part of being a female Panther was to "oblige" the male Panthers that were doing what they were supposed to. Also, during the time the book speaks of, the sexual values we have today did not exist.

The struggle for racial AND gender equality is not over. She was one of the few people who actually FOUGHT for it. Elaine: Wherever you are - I commend you.

Rating:
Summary: A woman's life in the Black Panther movement
Review: I liked this book. Elaine Brown was incredibly honest in her writing, especially when she wrote about her sexuality. Most of us would have omitted certain incidents that she included--getting lots of money after a night with a rich donor, getting beat up by a lover, sleeping with her friend's husband--yet it makes her story very human because it expresses the complexity of human interactions. Her mistakes helped me to identify with her, though I am not African American. She was very vulnerable in her relationships with men, even though she was the head of the Black Panther Party. The Party gave Brown the opportunity to work toward correcting social injustices. But the environment was filled with guns and violence directed both inward and outward, as well as much sexual exploitation. At the end, I was happy when she flew away from her Panther life because she eventually feared for her life and she had begun to incorporate some of the violence of the male Panthers in her actions. Yet she also accomplished much good through her association. Elaine Brown has many talents to give the world and I hope that she is continuing to work towards the goals that attracted her to the Panthers in the first place.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent.
Review: I originally read this book in my senior year of high school and i became hooked. I still read it today for strenth and inspriation. Elaine Brown has opened her mouth and told us her experience of this institution, and let me tell you, it is so refreshing to hear a different,female approach to the Panther Revolution, not the "we-shall-overcome-no-matter-what" side, but the ugly, scary,emotional, real side of the lessons she learned from being a major part of this party, and also what she had to endure to get there. I will give no secrets away from this book, all I will say is that there are strong women and there are women of strength. She may not have started out as either one, but by the end, she, and many others became and helped define what it is to be a strong woman and be a woman of strentgth. This book will shock you, and inspire you to do your best in this world at whatever it is you choose to do durring your existence.

Rating:
Summary: Required Reading but ended up not being able to put it down
Review: I started reading Elaine Brown's, "A Taste of Power" for my African American politics class. I had no desire to do any reading what so ever. The day the reading was do I started reading it and from then until I was finished every free momment I had was indulged in this book. My roomates got tired of me talking about what was going on and so did friends in my other classes. It is a must read if you are from philly or know anything about it this book puts you right there with her and also you feel like you are there when some of the panthers are being killed or beaten or harrased by police.