I Rise-The Transformation of Toni Newman [Large Print] [Paperback]

toni newman (Author), kevin hogan (Editor), eric scot (Cover Design), alton willoughby (Assistant), dr. marc weiss (Contributor)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 14, 2011

I’ve always found it interesting that someone had to throw Jackie Robinson the ball for there to be a Jackie Robinson. Give talent and passion the right team to play on, and, as they say, the rest is history. In no less a historical spotlight, I am proud to present you with I Rise – The Transformation of Toni Newman, the first memoir written in America by a member of the African American transgender community. It is gut-wrenchingly honest, factually supported, and well written. Dr. Marc Weiss Ph.D., Former Associate Professor of Urban Development, Planning, and Preservation at Columbia University wrote the foreword to this memoir, is a best-selling author, and a former member of the Clinton administration. I Rise is the true story of Toni Newman’s transformation from an internally conflicted male to a proud, pre-operative transsexual. Born the eldest son into a strict Christian family, Toni admits knowing from her earliest days that she “was a different bird born in the wrong body.” With laser-guided sincerity, curiosity, and above all, humor and compassion, Toni tells her story of being a “sissy boy,” a scholarship student, a business professional, an escort, a drag queen, a NYC prostitute, an LA dominatrix, and finally, a transsexual attending law school in order to help her transsexual sisters in need. From cross-dressing and Bible Study classes in Jacksonville, North Carolina, to writing and studying while tending to the fetish fantasies of Hollywood’s A-list, I Rise is far from a tale of fitting in. It is instead a unique and mesmerizing study of finding oneself in a world where gender and beauty can be hard fought for and earned. And Toni Newman, more than anyone else I know, deserves to be proud of her identity. Through the complete loss of friends, family support, employment and shelter, Toni was never deterred from seeking the path that was right for her. When a minority community so stricken by drug abuse, sexual exploitation, explosive suicide rates, and lack of education, has a voice rise out of it as courageous and profound as Toni Newman’s, you do everything you can to make sure it’s a home run heard the world over.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Toni Newman is a 1985 graduate of Wake Forest University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology. She is currently studying law with plans of becoming a lawyer defending the Transgenders and their rights. For the last twenty years, Toni has been making Male-to-Female (MTF) transformation. For ten years, she worked as a professional mistress with a female mistress and male master. They were known as THE EROTIC PROFESSIONALS with celebrity clients. Together with her business partner, Alton Willoughby, Toni has written a teleplay and screenplay about the trio's escapades as escorts. It would be her greatest wish to be the first African American Transgender to have her script made successfully into a feature film.

Product Details

• Paperback: 232 pages
• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform; LRG edition (April 14, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1461007097
• ISBN-13: 978-1461007098
• Product Dimensions: 0.6 x 5.9 x 8.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,060,083 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Toni Newman is a 1985 graduate of Wake Forest University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology. Studying law with plans of becoming a lawyer defending Transgenders (especiallly minorities)and their rights. For the last 25 years, Toni has been making Male-to-Female (MTF) transformation. For ten years, she worked as a professional mistress with a female mistress and male master. They were known as THE EROTIC PROFESSIONALS with celebrity clients. Together with her business partner, Alton Demore, and British Director Keith Holland, Toni has written a teleplay (The Erotic Professionals) and screenplay (Heart of a Woman) about the trio's escapades as escorts and life as a black transgender in America. Toni just recently produced comedy webisode, Douche Bros, with Executive Producers Alton Demore, David Veach and Laurent Hazout directed by British Director Keith Holland starring Chris Conrad and Jaime Zevallos. Her book I Rise-The Transformation of Toni Newman is available on Amazon.com now as hardcopy or kindle ebook.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars How can you justify $45.00? April 29, 2011

By Samuel Rafael

Format:Paperback

I'll go along with Sally Sapphire and give it four stars (though I haven't read it) not wanting to destroy the rating. But, there is no way I'm going to pay $45.00 for this book. Why doesn't the author "get real" and bring it out on Kindle for under $10? I'd really love to read it, but it would need to be the greatest story ever told for me to pay that much, and I think that's already been written. Good luck!

On 5/5/11 Samuel Rafael added "TO UPDATE INTERESTED READERS: Please note, the author just repriced this book and it is now $9.99. Just search for "I Rise" under books and you will see both are listed now."

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Alright but not worth $45.00 May 4, 2011

By Twinkle

Format:Paperback

This book was enlightening, entertaining and downright funny. I definitely did not know that all mentioned were playing for the other team (no issues be be true to yourself). The author made me feel so proud that although she had to go through trial, thribulation, etc she was still true to herself and out winning in end. This is a good read, but no way in the world i would pay $45.00 for it. A co-worker of mines had it (do not know where she bought it from but i know as cheap as she is she did not pay $45.00). Good book, but definitely not worth $45.00.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Repriced appropriately. Short, but good reading May 5, 2011

By Samuel Rafael

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

After being the first to write a review questioning the $45.00 price tag that originally accompanied this book, I felt almost compelled to purchase it the moment I noticed the author seemingly had heeded my advice (and that of all the "seconds" by other interested folks) and repriced it at my suggested purchase point of $9.99. For the most part, although it was rather short in length and sometimes a bit repetitious, I wasn't sorry I did so.

The author's account held my interest as she described her gradual, impactful and almost inexorable march toward gender transition. This autobiographical narrative was a very moving, graphical and seemingly honest presentation of the author's journey from a male gender role to a female one. Along with her transformation, the author vividly describes the struggles of being transsexual in the context of the enhanced hardships she endured, just by virtue of being an African American transsexual, an exceptionally rare bird indeed. Her viewpoint, as a person of color, provides the reader with a much different and very unique perspective.

I found the account of the author's transition to be quite a refreshing change from the more common, almost cookie-cutter narratives of the similar journeys of white, middle class types, not that those transitions weren't unique and fraught with their own particular issues, it's just that no other account I've read about previously was by a black transgender person, and very few memoirs or autobiographies reveal such intimate details of what many would consider to be a rather sordid side of life.... The author, who lived for many years on the "Wild Side," has obviously come through her experience in great emotional shape, keeping that part of her existence in complete prospective as being necessary for her survival at the time. Other memoirs, "I'm Not Myself These Days," by Josh Kilmer, or, "The Champagne Slipper" by Joann Layne, come to mind as being comparable in this sense.

Just a couple of concerns I wanted to express. First, in terms of the writing, which on the whole is excellent, I want to point out that being "transgender" or "transsexual" is described on several occasions as a "life style," when, in reality, it isn't that at all, but as much a part of a person as their arm. I know the author realizes this, but I think this idea is expressed incorrectly a few times, including in the forward, written by a learned individual.

In addition, I felt the author did quite a bit of gratuitous "name-dropping," particularly in the first half, that wasn't really necessary to the cause of the book. It seems that there wasn't much connection with the celebrities she encountered at that time, other than simply crossing paths with them. Later on, the author relates that she interacted, rather intimately it seems, with some other famous individuals, but doesn't mention their names, obviously not to embarrass them. However, one can determine who they were by doing a search of the author's name on Google, as the author apparently did eventually disclose their identities in interviews she did.

Lastly, this book is a very short and disappointing four-hour length, as a Kindle text-to-speech experience, but let me take the high road here and just say that I'm pleased the author repriced it and that, although short and sweet, I really enjoyed it. Read more ›

4.0 out of 5 stars Just the right read November 20, 2012

By bella1976

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Excellent just what I needed. Will purchase again. Knew it would be what I wanted. Recommend buyer! A must have!

5.0 out of 5 stars Toni Newman's I Rise May 7, 2012

By Bay

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I wish it were longer. I read this book over two days and it took me about 6 to 8 hours to read from cover to cover. This work is inspsiring and as an African American transsexual woman of color myself I must say I am absolutely estatic at this book. It is out for girls of color to read or any person to read to get a glimpse of what a transsexual woman of color endures in her daily life. She kept it positive and real, she covered pumping, hormones, discrimination. She started two businesses, developed and marked her own calendar, avoided drugs and alcohol. She finished school and was awarded a degree from one of the top universites in the nation. I wish her the best of luck with her law school aspirations. It was time for an African American transwoman to write a self biography. With all the bad press we get, she has shown a shinning light on how some of us "RISE" in the face of adversity. Even if some in society do not accept us, even if we are shunned by some, this work is an inspiration to keep your head up and tread on. I applaud you Toni. Keep up the good work.

Bianca Raigne Crown-Hazzard

4.0 out of 5 stars A Significant Book, But Not the First October 9, 2011

By Dallas Denny

Format:Paperback

Not to diminish Ms. Newman's groundbreaking book in any way, but it's not, as claimed in the book description, the first. In 1986 an African-American woman of transsexual experience named Sandra Davis published a memoir called A Finer Specimen of Womanhood: A TS Speaks Out. My copy now resides in the Labadie Collection at the University of Michigan Library System.

Davis, S. (1986). A finer specimen of womanhood: A TS speaks out. New York: Vantage Press.

Since both books were essentially self-published, I would have to consider Ms. Davis' book the first.

I've not yet read Ms. Newman's book,but I'm giving the book a four-star rating to maintain its current placing.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars I rise by Toni Newman June 13, 2011

By Pinkcotton

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

The book was very short and limited details. She dose not give good details on her sexual account with LL Cool J, could have been anyone. No distinct details. A lot of things are clearly not stated in the book. I enjoyed the story, very interesting just a little lack luster, and definitely over priced. Overall a good rough draft needs more content.