Are in the bookstore. Their books are in the bookstore so, please, go to the bookstore, check out their books, brick em back here or get them signed out there or back here. The next panel coming up, again, a great, great panel. I know a couple people on the panel, shaping memories the odd city to manhood. Shaping memories the odd city to man odyssey to manhood. Panel coming up next. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible] adulthood. Adulthood. Theres some women on the panel. [laughter] im pushing so many programs around the country [inaudible conversations] and the National Black writers conference continues now with a panel on writings from youth to adulthood. This panel contains language that some may find offensive. All right. Good afternoon again. Good afternoon again. Good afternoon. All right. I hike that response. I like that response. Again, shaping memories the odd yssey to adulthood. Our moderator is going to be kathy wright lewis whos going to share the names of the panelists. [applause] thank you. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. [inaudible] okay. This afternoon we have the pleasure of the following panelists speaking on shaping memories the odd city to adulthood. First on my far left is mr. Watkins, hes a columnist for the salon. His work has been published in rolling stone, the guardian and other publications. Hes also professor of creative writing at the university of baltimore. Watkins grew up and will never leave baltimore. Come on, claim it. His collection of essays, the b side, is now available, and his memoir will be released in may. Nice, nice. Can we have a hand . [applause] next in line is mr. Michael [inaudible] hes an awardwinning poet and journalist, critic and poet. His book, raising fences. 9 this acclaimed historical novel and a collection of essays, the life and death of tupac shakur, and hes a professor of english at Loyola University in los angeles. [applause] seated right next to me is ms. [inaudible] and she was born and raised in the bronx, new york. A hand for the bronx. [laughter] [applause] she has a masters degree in psychology and has worked as a counselor for teenagers and families in crisis situations. She also has an msa in creative writing from the new school, okay in her first novel won the Los Angeles Times book prize for young adult literature, and her novel [inaudible] was selected by the American Library association as best books for young adults. Her first middle grade novel, kind of like brothers, was selected as an ala notable book for children and an npr best book of 2014. Lets have a hand for ms. Booth. [applause] all right. So what were going to do today, im going to pose a question, a couple of questions, and in between each question each author will read from their work. So the first question, well get started with the one, then the next, then next. 57 minutes for each, basically. Okay. So, first and well start at the other end of the table with mr. Watkins. Who was your intended audience, and what do you want them to understand about shaping memories and the odd city into adulthood . So my intended audience is what most of us would identify as being nontraditional readers. I write for young people who hate books because, you know, i think about how reading has transformed me. To be imperfect of the books are aimed at the wider public, as we know know us through lil wayne or the snoop dogg; the way we read a book, its a slow process. You spend time with a novel, and when people read a whole novel they get to know the characters in a way thats very full and complete, and they can remind them how beautiful and complex black folks are. At times we often times are not viewed as complex beings, which is why you can walk down the street with skittles and get shot the hell up. I agree with the panelists here. My book is written for teenagers. Its a young adult novel, and when i started writing it i wanted my novel to appeal to quoteunquote reluctant readers. I. A it to be something my brother would have read when he was a teenager issue dont think he read one book as a kid. I was thinking of in my mind, when i thought of writing it, that was my audience. As i now have four books and have done a lot of talking and stuff like that, and gone around the country, and now i kind of opened up my mind a little bit, and like mike was saying, i want my books to be read not just by those kid but by every kid. I was in the suburbs of illinois, and a teacher, english teacher, asked me. She said, in our School District we only have two ethnic kids, so im not making this up so, i couldnt so why should our kids read your book . And it was, wow. Like, this reminded men when i was a kid growing up the bronx, we never said there are no white kids in this school so why read the great gatsby. Now i think that all kids should read books before kids of color, and open up their minds to seeing that not just what they see on the news or what they see to get a Bigger Picture of what it means to be a black kid in this country, and a fuller and interior i think that you see on the news, you see the stories, but books can bring you inside of the childs head and inside of their lives, and just get a fuller picture. So, now i just save i write for everybody. A piece of writing from each author. Ill start. This book is america, my newest book. Identical swintons and one sons you know a skin disease, the Michael Jackson disease, makes people who are black and brown lose their skin tone. Not just blotches. If youre a kid at age ten youre a darker kind young black kid and you begin to fade away in spots. Imagine the stares you get and what will happen to you as a social subject. This book, charismatic young boy, goes from being a fun kid to growing up and becoming an angry and embittered and challenged son. In the book the father is concern about his kids, as all parents are, and tries to prepare them. Offering them strategy. One thing he decides to do at the age of five he stopped giving his kid gifts. The creates a map and buries their birthday present in the back yard, and cease here is your map. And if you dont find them you have to forfeit them to me. His trying to teach his kids a man works for everything he gets. The fathers name is tip, americas had been burying his sons birthday present since day were five years old. It allowed him to combine his love of mapmaking and manmaking. Inherited his own fathers skill with map us but was determine to break the childrearing approach and shake off its effect. A slow press. Tip skill had the selfconscious look of a critical fathers only child, bee anything seamless skin, puzzle face. Jeb learn from experience that tough love was playful rides and wasnt tough love, it was just tough. Thats why such a good father last week when the betweens tumble into the library and ask rambling ride he enjoyed more than his boys. He decides the birthdays would start the rites of passage into manhood. His own father had always told him that sin was a number of perfection, when his wife went into labor, he knew there was going to be Something Special about his child, but what he didnt know is that the specialness would come in twos. From the day that babyfaced daniel man drake handed the twins to the exhausted wife to the elatest father, kip began plotting how to turn his little boys into perfect men. [applause] my book has some language so expect something that might bother you. This is a good time to leave. Ill read a little bit from me book tyrell and its about a 15yearold boy whose dad is locked up, and he and his mom and little brother are homeless as a result, and theyre in the system in new york, being bounced around from one motel to the next, and i guess thats all you really need to know about that. The 15yearold boy is speaking. New was going to send to using ben it in hotel. Some niggers were talking about this place. One dude said his room had bullet holes in the walls and blood stains on the rug. This other guy said the roaches was getting paid to run bennett. The roaches signed you in and took you to your room and thatmen hired rotches that would come to your room to kill other roaches. That was funny but aint nothing fun in you more. The place looked like a bombed out building, like something you see in old war movie us. Inside it aint no better. Stinks like old sneakers because they aint got in fresher fresh air in here. The next thing, how busted the lobby look width old chairs and stuff hanging out. The floors is dirty and aint never been mopped. One quarter of the room, burger king bags bags bags and soda cae floor and plastic flowers on the table. Thats go to make you fuel right at home here. The second we get to our room my holm says, can you believe this shit . I got a 15yearold child. Dont say nothing. This whole situation got me mad i know i have to keep my mouth closed. I need to keep this shit. Theyre going to have children sleeping here for three nights . I dont get it. My mom went on and on. I stop listing. Im tired of the way she acts like everybody is supposed to do something for her all the time. She never did nothing for hers herself when my pops was home. He expected her to do things for her and buy her things. Troy starts crying and my mom does nothing to help him so i find some sweatpantses for him to sleep in then tell him to get ready for bed. Later he calls me because theres a roach in the sink. Kill the roach with toilet paper and kill to more on the wall. Then when i come out my mom is on my cell taking to a friend thats my phone, i said, she pushes me away. Got out of my face. I sit down on a bed mad. How come she can take misshit without asking. I hate that troy came out of the bathroom. Go to, be i said. Didnt want him to see how jacked up the room is. He so tired, he just laid on the other bed and pulled the blanket over him, which is good because theres a reach on the side of the bed. Dont kill it because it dont matter. Our room aint got no bullet holes or plod. The paint i dirty and peeling pg and the rug is worn out. Two double belt inside the room with blankets but no sheets and the mattresses is toe up. Bennett user the worst so far. My mom give uses up the last ten mints of the prepaid and then throw my cell on then bed and then turn on me. Whats your lazy asking do . Whats that supposed to mean. She followed her arms in front of me. It mean what you doing for his family . Why aint you doing something for your mother and brother dont got to live like this. For a second if try to hold it in because i want troy to sleep but im screaming back, what am i supposed to do. She say,ow dont go to school because youre to damn laziy ignorant and when youve get your black ass to school all you do is fight, and i have to talk to the god damn vice principle. Asked her, what you doing for this family . She dont hear me. He just keep on going, dont go to school and dont work, damn near 16. What kind of man you going to be, some lazy ass nigger . I said you want me out there selling weed . Woe wouldnt be at bennett if you was out there would we. Troy started moving away and my mom start Walking Around the room like she is an animal. Tyrell, you got to do something, this shit is sear you enough. She looked real mad and real scared. You spend all your time Walking Around the streets, screwing that little girl. That dont make you a man. A man got to take care of his family. Whats the man doing for his family, i ask her . You whatnot me to take care of you because my old man cant keep his ass out of rikers . Thats your problem. Not my problem. Grab my cell and jacket and leave. I want to punch something. Feel the blood pounding in my brain. Got to do something. Want to go somewhere. I dont go nowhere to go. Strong, girl. [applause] so im going to read a piece of the introduction from my book, an essay collection that coors range of topics from systemic racism to why schools exist, to street harassment to what they eat, food. I put all of these things in a Historical Context and use my own story as the backdrop. Im just going to read a piece of it. First time reading this aloud. One night i participate in a peaceful protest near downtown baltimore. My fellow protesters and i do have an immense amount of prepicket for protesters and organizers but after all the chanting and marching, darren will son, the cop who murdered brown, still went free, and cops in america still feel comfortable killing innocent black people. Every time a black body falls at the hands of a rouge cop the same protest on one side and the same naive voices on the other. Well, if they were innocent, why did they run . Why did they attack on officer . Why didnt they obey . I hear where these confused voices come from in a perfect world. Innocent people should not have to run or protect themselves from the people responsible for protecting them. However, america is far from person and africanamericans are about as safe as a chunk of stake steak in a den of lions. Doesnt mary if you stay or run, either way theyll burden now. Freddie gray in baltimore ran and when they caught hem he was murdered. Oscar grand, oakland, face down on the ground with the cuffs on and they murder him. John prophet in dayton was minding his own business, shopping at a walmart. Holding a store b. B. Gun and an officer opened fire within seconds. Mike brown in ferguson, who we we are rallying for that day in baltimore, put his hands up and the cop shot him. Sean in new york was trying to get married and Police Killed him. Eric garner pleading for his life. After he was in custody, on video in broad daylight and the still killed him. Partially deaf had his pants hanging low so the Police Tasered him. Jonathan in North Carolina wanted some help. Cops shot him to death. Tamir rice in cleveland was only 12. Being a kid cant save you because he was gunned down, too. Boyd in chicago was killed by officer who fired into a dark alley. Graham in new york trade to run into his home and they got him. Kasper johnson, 92yearold woman in there is in atlanta was relaxing in her home and cops burst in a drug raid. You can be from africa like new york or known as a nice guy around baltimore. Doesnt mary. No black person is safe. Kids, prom queens, junkize, whatever, theyll murder you, these killings happen every day in america and newspapers should print a daily death toll like wartime, because for black america this is wartime. And the officers are found innocent. Many arent even charged due to the various versions of the officers pill of rights in maryland where i live, Police Officers get ten days before they have to speak about the kill can theyre involved, in giving them ample time to assemble the lies. The guardian report it police will kill blacks at twice the rate of the whites and this is the norm. [applause] im just going to throw an extra question in there based on everything that we just heard you read. As students as young people read your work and how did they respond to that . Im from brooklyn, born and raised in brownsville and one of the places that has the most crime in the city, and we have more gangs, basically shelters, jails, and projects, and most of the prisons are for kids, and a lot of our kids are Walking Around with this mentality. If i have a gun im straight, and then i realize how theyre being used. So when they dish would think when they read your words, it would make them a little more knowledgeable about what is going on in the world, so can you just tell me how what kind of response you have gotten some. My biggest honor is that we raised money from our private donors foundations and different places and donate over 1500 copies of my book to the Baltimore City area. [applause] Baltimore CityPublic Schools making it required reading for tenth graders next year. [applause] thank you. Im in schools between baltimore and d. C. And virginia two or three times a week. So one thing that im extremely proud of is that young people young black students who, again, they dont identify as traditional rathers, are getting the b side and finishing it in two or three day. The run is because they see themselves in the book and its accessible. Not a language that needs to be decoded by someone with 37 degrees its a conversational tone and speaks directly to them. And, three, puts all of this issues some issues took 500 years to create. Talk about why . Why schools in the black neighborhoods so messed up . I dont just pose that question but i talk about how white students got a 2344 year head start, how schools attack faith and how things like the g. I. Bill and what how that money was allocated and basically the different policies that created these realities. So i use my own experience, but i also put a Historical Context and a language that is really easy to read, and explains things and gives you the option to figure out what you can do and what your place is. So, like i just read part of the production, and if i would have continued to the end, basically talked about how the best way 0 for me to make a difference is not to march up and down the street. For me, the best thing to do is to create content that gets people excited about reading and go around to different schools and encourage people to tell their own stories and help them understand how important their stories are. So its doing really well in schools. They react really well to it. I have a program for a writers project and teach hogue to be journalists, and were controlling the narrative. Were telling our stories and not letting them come to the neighborhood and create the narrative they want to create. Were in control of that and im proud of that. My first major book was a memoir called raising fences my own coming of age story. That book has seemed to hit younger black boys and young girls. I get letters and emails from students who read the book in high school in particular, who basically say that theyve seen themselves in the book, and thats really important. Many kids dont like to read. Rather be on instagram or twitter, online immediate yarning but when they see themselves in the book it makes reading exciting. You can document your own life in the book by reading your own life in the book, makes it more exciting to read. My book is written for teenagers, i get a lot of letters from kids, and the one is love the mose are to the ones that say its the first book they ever read, and i block to the American Library association, had prom where they fav 20, 30 books to kids in different well, a whole bunch of books at each setting and had a book club, book club for boys and nontraditiona