K Workshops

Besides writing books for and about hard to reach youth, and the parents and teachers/counselors who are trying to reach them, I also teach general life management skills and urban psychology. For those interested in having me come speak to their students or participants, the following is a list of workshops I've either done or are on-going--

Message to a Youngblood - Life Lessons and Advice for Our Sons
Before You Fly Off - Life Lessons and Advice for Our Daughters
English Can Be Fun -- Helping Students Fight Their Fear of Writing
Educating Urban Youth - When the Curriculum Doesn't Fit
Counseling the African American Male - The Audacity of Not Judging
Trouble Girls - Working With Female Teen Bullies
Single Parenting - Parent Stress/Peer Pressure
The Marginalized Student - From Identifying to Celebrating
Am I in the Right Major? - Learning and Developing College Skills
Prison Bizness - Why Are So Many Black Men in Jail?
Teaching the Young, Gifted and Incarcerated
You Talkin' to Me? - The 411 on Conflict Resolution
Gay Youth - Counseling Them, Counseling Us
Beyond the Bling - Black Male Self-Awareness
Black Masculinities - Hyper-Masculinity in the Black Community
Love and Happiness - Developing a Relationship With Yourself First!
Creating Your Job and Finding True Purpose
Learning How to Better Manage Your Time
Wholistic Wellness - Creating a Positive Environment For Success
Writing the Autobiography - Leaving Your Written Legacy
The University Male Center - Challenges, Tools, and Leadership
The New Academic Advisor - A Different, More Wholistic Approach
Despierta! - How Culture Can Affect Academic Performance
Toxic People - The Art of Recognizing and Avoiding
Doing It Your Way - How to Self-Publish Your Book
Doing It Another Way - How to Create, Market and Sell Your T-Shirts
No Rage, No Guilt - The Difficult Process of Addressing Race-ism

K Books
Message to a Youngblood - A Conversation with Our Sons
Before You Fly Off - A Father Offers Advice to His Teenage Daughter
Before You Fly Off - Volume Two (Released July, 2009)
The Dredlocks Tree - Prose and Poetry
Throw - Images and Words (tba)

Recent Essays
The pro-FATHERS Project: A Proposal
From Ground Zero With Love
50 Means Reset
The Color Complex
One Drop of Blood
How the Haitian Government System Works or, The Waiting Game
Dear Oprah
If I Interviewed Obama...
The Writing Process: On Writing For and About Young Black Males
When Doves Cry - The 2010 Haiti Earthquake
Dancehall Music is Not Reggae
When Dumb Wasn't Cool
Bang, Bang. I'm Dead!
Youth Participation in Neighborhood and Community Settings
Letter to My Prez - Wyclef Jean for President
The Other Writing Process
How'You Like Her Now?-- The Makings of An Irish Rasta

Youth Interviews
Naj
If Life is a Dance, Where's the Music?
Messengers of Lies: A Conversation with a Disillusioned Student
Akasan: Rap and Hip Hop in the Haitian American Community
Generation Entitlement: Where We Went Wrong With Our Youth
What Are You Doing Here? - A Conversation with a Former Inmate

Media Praise
NBC's David Ushery's Debriefing with David Ushery
The Daily News Harlem Week 2012 issue
Manhattan Network TV Show In the Black
Bronx Network TV Show Smiling Through Tears
http://www.dredlockstree.blogspot.com/2012/08/i-dont-know-how-these-things-work.html

My current project is on the overall development of young urban males of African descent; how parents can better relate to their troubled sons; their education and spiritual wellness; social identity concerns; hyper-masculinity and buffoonery; and how we can help them define and discover their purpose.

"Most books about us are about teaching us how to fit in. Your book helps us understand our rage and learn how to be ourselves in a world that has a problem with that."‎--22yrld Tariq

 

For more info on workshops and book orders,

feel free to contact me:

Lifejak@
aol.com

Thank you again for your support!

How To Write a Book For and About Young Black Males, and Have It Actually Reach Their Hands?

1. Write what they've been waiting to hear, not your doctoral dissertation or theoretical diarrhea. That may be easy formula to you but consequently boring to them;

2. Remember how it felt when you turned 14 and society no longer considered you cute and safe;

3. The ones you need to impress are the young males themselves, not your agent and not your ego;


4. Pitch to all publishers, not just African Americans. Because sometimes water is thicker than blood;

5. Consider the frustrations of a single mother with limited resources and funds;

6. Don't forget the fathers who do pay child support but are still not allowed to see their children;

7. Don't forget to bring up Africa because self-esteem begins at the Gold Coast, not at the American car show;

8. Always carry a few copies on you to give away;

9. Choose a cover design that speaks their language, not yours;

10. Use your personal copy when life coaching students, doing workshops and mediating;

(Artwork by student, Jacquie Torres)

Author & Educator Kahlil Koromantee

Andrew Glover Program Honors

If you've been following my work, you already know that I'm affiliated with a few youth programs throughout New York and D.C./Baltimore areas. This past Friday, the Andrew Glover Youth Program, an alternative to incarcerating convicted young males and young females, did something I hadn't seen before. As a way of thanking their advocates, both the staff and the youth themselves decided to place life-size photos of key individuals who help the Program's participants reach their personal and academic goals. I was blessed to have been named as one their trusted family members and I stay grateful not only for their visual shoutout, but also for the respect and love these kids showed me when I first met them two years ago. Young folk don't like bs. If they think you're just a messenger of lies, they let you know right off the bat and it's over. If you're a newby to urban realities but your intentions are good, they let you get it together. And if you've been doing this kinda' thing for decades because it's your calling and what you do best, they recognize it. Doesn't matter if they come from broken homes. Your presence and testimony to surviving obstacles gives them a blueprint to learning how to not define themselves according to their circumstances but rather to their passion for reinventing themselves. 

Avenue A and 9th Street

 

Left to right-- Divino Quinones, US Army; Dan Grisby, Volunteer; Tamara Sandy, Soup Kitchen Director; Chino Garcia, Community Activist

 

The backdrop of this community tribute is a street garden called La Plaza Cultural

 

Rosie Mendez, Councilwoman



Jan Hanik, Clemente Cultural Center
 

 

The artwork on top of the fences was an added surprise. If you look closer, they're trash items that local artists turned into valuables....(amazing!)

 

Left to right-- Jan Janik, Clemente Cultural Center, Carno Pabon, Community Organizer; Miriam Reverand, Involved Neighborhood Mom

 

J.K. Canepa, Ecologist; Chris Slow, Firefighter; Ray Turner, Personal Trainer

 

Right to left-- Tamara Sandy, Soup Kitchen Director; Chino Garcia, Community Activist; Orlando Rodriguez, Business Owner

 

 

 

Every community garden needs a wall to represent the neighborhood's values and aspirations. In this case, the residents are saying their heart is in it!

 

Makes you re-think of things you typically throw away, right?...

 

Left to right-- Miriam Reverand, Involved Neighborhood Mom; myself, and Anthony Feliciano, Community Organizer

 

Inside of the garden is a loud but quiet contrast to the city noise just outside the gate...

Left to right--Hayan Kasem, Neighborhood Deli Owner; Carmen, Neighborhood Grandmother; Frank Morales, Local Priest

 

 

Left to right-- Frank Morales, Local Priest; Marttha Mobly, Headstart; Denis Barton, Homeless Coalition

 

 

 

 

A passerby was taking photos of the fence and reading about each individual being honored. She was excited to see one of them still there, took a few of my biz cards then took my pic next to my pic which was a bit surreal to me, yet it felt great to be recognized when your haters refuse to even acknowledge you. It was a reminder for me to ig the haters and continue what I came here to do. And maybe that was the passersby's own role, to remind me of just that!  

 

 

 

 

Artwork on the side of a bodega on Avenue A and 11th Street

Founder and Director of The Andrew Glover Youth Program, Angel Rodriguez
Program Coordinator, Jessica Hall
Photographs by Pamela Crimmins
Photo Project by InsideOut

Black Men Matter

Thank You

A simple but most sincere thank you is the best prayer.

Images 18: Everybody Needs One -- A Garden

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A garden can be a small pot of basil on your window sill

or a botanical postcard right outside your door.

Be one with nature and be one with you!