Brother Booker Ashe : “It’s amazing what the Lord can do,” by Willy Thorn. ISBN-13: 978-0-87462-091-7. ISBN-10: 0-87462-091-0. Paper. 195 pp. $20. Generously illustrated. Notes. Index.
Who is Brother Booker Ashe?
Milwaukee’s premier humanitarian … a beggar and a provider … a Mother Theresa type with no hidden agenda … a preacher and theatrical director… the Black Ghetto Santa Claus … a gambler and a chain smoker … a modern day Gandhi … an Ecclesastical pimp … a pimp for Christ … the black Friar Tuck … The Star of Walnut Street…a very Catholic Franciscan … a very Franciscan Catholic … America’s premier black monk … an inner city institution … the hood’s Robin Hood … a chef and artist …. a civil rights icon and proclaimer of love … A Black man clad in brown robes taking Christ’s teachings to the poor ... a big man with a hearty laugh and a twinkle in his eye that belies the seriousness that underlies his life … a man of effusive ebullient goodness … a humble black man with a compelling voice of love ... a sign of the revolution being accomplished in the Roman Catholic Church worldwide and in the Franciscan family.
Willy Thorn was born and raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He attended Capuchin-run St. Lawrence Seminary for high school, before earning degrees in Journalism & Mass Communications from Marquette University. He has lived and worked in Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Bangkok, Thailand, Chicago, Minneapolis & St. Paul, Phoenix & St. Francis (SD) and has worked as an agate clerk & sports reporter, arts critic, Capitol Hill reporter, syndicated columnist, van driver & art therapist, international wire editor, radio dj & play-by-play announcer, copywriter & scriptwriter, photographer & painter, coach, teacher, & hobo. His writing has appeared in hundreds of advertisements, broadcasts, graphic novels, magazines, newspapers, plays, poems, scripts, websites, & wire transmissions. His awards include: National Catholic Press Association writing awards for national reporting, news stories, & magazine feature writing; the Pete Axthelm Memorial Award for Sportswriting Excellence and the Minnesota State Gateway Trail Photography Contest. This is his first book.
Marquette University Press
