Tuscaloosa News story by Ben Windham:
Had I not got involved in ‘Sweets,’ things now probably would have been a lot different,” Williams says in his alligator tenor. “I probably wouldn’t have completed the time that I needed in rehab (at Chicago Lakeshore Hospital). Doing this thing kept me busy. Mentally.”
“Sweets” may have saved Williams’ life, but the story it tells is no thing of beauty. It’s a raw, unvarnished tale that minces no words.
It centers on a luscious 17-year-old African-American woman named Sweets. Six of her seven brothers are killed in a shootout between Black Panthers and the FBI, and she is unmarried and pregnant. Hank, the father of her unborn child, is slain in a drug deal gone bad, her surviving brother joins the Navy, and Sweets realizes she has to hustle to cope for herself and her unborn baby.
Williams wastes no time on sociology or psychobabble. Like a hit of speed, his narrative races brutally head, plunging into prostitution, drugs, lesbianism, murder, bribery and treachery...
Read Ben Windham's interview with Andre Williams
