“Black America, we have a problem.” The opening words of Not In My Family: AIDS in the African American Community (Agate, 2006)—like this entire 320-page collection of essays—sound an Apollo 13 of a wakeup call for the black community and far, far beyond. The candid, deeply personal accounts spring from the likes of the Reverend Al Sharpton and original Dreamgirl Sheryl Lee Ralph, who remind us that, united by this epidemic, we’re all family.