Thank you!

I want to take this time to not only wish all my readers a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, but also to thank you for your continued support and admiration. My next book will be on male youth scheduled for release in Spring 2011. Because males tend to be more visual, I'm including illustrations this time around, along with exercises and interviews with young Black males who come from dire situations and yet have found productive ways in coping and ultimately finding their personal success. We've already come up with a book cover design that I think parents and educators, and the young men themselves will find quite appealing, if not bangin'! Palm cards and copies for select reviews will begin going out in March. Until then, enjoy your holidays and let's make this new year and even better one!

Peace and gratitude

In My Hood...

More photos to come. But in the meantime...

A middle school assistant principal wanted to purchase my books for her hotheads. As much as I like to make sales, I told her my books and subject matters may be too mature for middle school age. Even some grown folks aren't ready for prime time! But she said there're kids 11-12 having sex in the restrooms and sneaking guns into class. I consider myself a streetwise educator, but that there's not gangsta. That's just plain sad. So yea, here're your copies and let's do some parent/pre-teen workshops!!!

Louis Reyes Rivera

Pan African studies professor/poet/literary guru, Louis Reyes Rivera will be reviewing my upcoming book on young Black males; and I didn't have to come at him with letters behind my name or a suit n tie, for that matter, to get love. Just the same passion he has for waking up the dead and saving the marginalized.

For Colored Girls...

Is this you?

I don’t take constructive criticism well

I like to control people and situations

I’m a great talker, but not a good listener

I like to have the last word

I get defensive
when someone tries to call me on my mess

I spend more attention on my looks
and things I own than on what kind of person I am

I make friends with only those who tolerate my negative ways,
and avoid those who challenge me

I think the empowerment of females means disempowering males



Before You Fly Off--
Fatherly advice for young, urban
African American females

Take your power back!

When I Don't Write, I Teach; When I Don't Teach,...

My father was a photographer, but I never took it seriously; still don't. But sometimes I surprise myself and others with a few extra-ordinary shots!!!....

For World AIDS Day/For Marcus...

It's only now that I notice
how long and filthy his fingernails are
His brown skin is unusually gray
with sores covering past sores
The weight that once supported a handsome frame
is now rapidly deteriorating
He's losing his hair in the most gruesome fashion
and his face has been taken hostage by lizard wrinkles
The bottom of his T-shirt
full of dried-up food, blood and mucous stains
His eyes, dead and glassy
the feel of his hand, clammy
If not for his grubby tube socks,
they'd be fins for feet
Like a fading spirit,
remmebering nothing but a vacuum,
His mouth is a tunnel for spite
and vomit.