Born bright : a young girl's journey from nothing to something in America

Resource Information

The work Born bright : a young girl's journey from nothing to something in America represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in Memorial Hall Library. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.

Label

Born bright : a young girl's journey from nothing to something in America

Title remainder

a young girl's journey from nothing to something in America

Statement of responsibility

C. Nicole Mason

Creator

• Mason, C. Nicole, 1976-

Author

• Mason, C. Nicole, 1976-

Subject

• African Americans -- Biography
• Autobiographies
• BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY -- Personal Memoirs
• Gifted women -- United States -- Biography
• Homeless persons -- United States -- Biography
• Mason, C. Nicole, 1976-
• African American women -- Biography
• Poor children -- United States -- Biography
• SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Ethnic Studies | African American Studies
• Successful people -- United States -- Biography
• Mason, C. Nicole, 1976- -- Childhood and youth
• African American women educators -- Biography

Genre

• Biography
• Autobiographies

Language

eng

Summary

"'Standing on the stage, I felt exposed and like an intruder. In these professional settings, my personal experiences with hunger, poverty, and episodic homelessness, often go undetected. I had worked hard to learn the rules and disguise my beginning in life ... ' So begins C. Nicole Mason's powerful memoir, a story of reconciliation, constrained choices and life on the other side of the tracks. Born in the 1970s in Los Angeles, California, Mason was raised by a beautiful, but volatile16-year-old single mother. Early on, she learned to navigate between an unpredictable home life and school where she excelled. By high school, Mason was seamlessly straddling two worlds. The first, a cocoon of familiarity where street smarts, toughness and the ability to survive won the day. The other, foreign and unfamiliar with its own set of rules, not designed for her success. In her Advanced Placement classes and outside of her neighborhood, she felt unwelcomed and judged because of the way she talked, dressed and wore her hair. After moving to Las Vegas to live with her paternal grandmother, she worked nights at a food court in one of the Mega Casinos while finishing school. Having figured out the college application process by eavesdropping on the few white kids in her predominantly Black and Latino school along with the help of a long ago high school counselor, Mason eventually boarded a plane for Howard University, alone and with $200 in her pocket. While showing us her own path out of poverty, Mason examines the conditions that make it nearly impossible to escape and exposes the presumption harbored by many--that the poor don't help themselves enough"--

Assigning source

Provided by publisher

Biography type

autobiography

Cataloging source

DLC

Dewey number

• 305.48/8960730092
• B

Index

no index present

LC call number

E185.97.M374

LC item number

A3 2016

Literary form

non fiction

Nature of contents

bibliography