I want to give a shout-out and a thank you to so many people who have
supported me by purchasing my latest collection of poetry, Growing Up Hip-Hop.
It has been a humbling experience to receive such a tremendous amount
of positive feedback. In less than one month, we sold more than 100
copies and Growing Up Hip-Hop was added to two college
curriculum. To meet this response, I am launching a new initiative
where you can bring a live poetry reading to your community direct to
your home - a Living Room Reading.
This
initiative takes word-of-mouth promotion to the next level. The Living
Room Reading is designed to engage in critical dialogue, provide
much-needed hope and inspiration and give your community an opportunity
to hear about Growing Up Hip-Hop.
I will come to your living room, share poetry and tell some of the
stories behind the poems, including how my students inspired me to
write the poem "That's Gay" and why I read 40 books in six months while
taking a semester off from college. For those who are interested, I can
also speak about the process of self-publishing.
We will tailor the reading to your community. We can invite your
friends to read in an open mic or write poems on the spot and share
them. I could pull from my arsenal and we could play a writing game or
I could expose your community to some of the best musicians and hip-hop
artists they will never get the opportunity to hear of mainstream
radio. You could organize the reading as part of a fundraiser or have a
poetry potluck where everyone brings a dish or a poem. More than
anything, the Living Room Reading is an opportunity for communities to
breathe, laugh and share together.
Who knows, maybe with the value of the dollar falling, the value of
people will finally go up.
Growing up is hard to do. When people say, “Yo, where you been!?” I simply reply, “Trying to grow up!”
The stresses and pressures of trying to balance it all: health, family, money, career, love . . . damn. In the midst of it all, I see signs in society which make me wonder if everything is falling apart or is it all coming together. Maybe it’s both.
Life is good though. I worked hard this year. And I worked even harder this summer. I partnered up with the endlessly creative business consulting firm Parallel MVMT. We collaborated on the publication of a collection of poems, “Growing Up Hip-Hop.”
This book includes poems I used to hide under my bed when I was 15 years-old. It has poems from some of my other publications, as well as some new work. I am honored to have a living legend, Nana Camille Yarbrough provide some lyrical libations as the foreword. It feels good to still be standing strong after the Def Poetry bomb that went off a couple years ago.
I also collaborated with a super-talented crew of artists and some of my poetry students to create an amazing music video for “Declaration of Hip-Hop Independence.” My ultimate artistic collaboration this summer is with my soon-to-be wife. The rest of this summer is for celebration.
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