the resume: (things that make Mom and Pop proud)
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Beats Rhymes and Life: What We Love and Hate About Hip-Hop
Hip hop is a tree with many limbs, one whose breath spans wider than the rest of today's music forest. But as it has come under fire as a source of misogyny, racism, gratuitious violence and the posterchild for the criminal lifestyle, both fans and foes have found themselves at a crossroads when it comes to the state of one of the world's most popular cultures. Myself and my co-editor, Ytasha Womack, convinced 14 writers to come forward with their reflections on the house that hip hop made. Michael Eric Dyson introduces you to the world, but this crew of wordsmiths has a show all their own .
"Beat, Rhymes, and Life gives a glimpse into why folks still have such a lifelong tie with Hip-Hop without the aid of a microphone." - Allhiphop.com
"This is a fine collection for anyone invested in hip-hop and the pop culture landscape it transformed." - Publishers Weekly
Snow
When you live by the game, you have to play by it's rules. But sometimes the rules can change on you. The simplest job in the world becomes the one you don't make it back from. Snow has owned the streets of Shaw for as long as he can remember. But as new enemies arise a young man who lives by the gun finds himself thinking about the future of his wife, his daughter, and his soul on the one job that never seems to end.
"...it's Snow's voice—at once sardonic, tough, tender and full of a bravado that can't quite hide the cold fear underneath—that propels the novel forward." - Publishers Weekly
The House on Childress Street
Novelist Kenji Jasper only knew his maternal grandfather, Jesse Langley Sr., as a quiet man who smoked too many cigarettes, drank too much liquor and quoted the Bible like it was the only book he'd ever laid eyes on. His children rarely hugged him and he and his near 60s years of marriage seemed cold and complicated. But when the man passed away in late 2002, Jasper began a long and life-changing journey to learn more about the man he barely knew. From the streets of his native Washington, DC to locales nationwide, his journey to ask the unanswered leads him to both intimate friends, complete strangers, places he never thought of, and eventually towards the mirror to look back at himself. The House on Childress Street is a look at life, love and survival through the eyes of one little family, on one little block that somehow manages to speak for us all.
"Kenji learns as much about himself and the plight of black men in general as he does about his grandfather." - Booklist
d
Seeking Salamanca Mitchell
Benjamin
Baker knew love for the second time when his eyes met Salamanca Mitchell’s.
The first came at age eleven, when he sat down at a piano to play his first
original composition. But both of those loves are nearly destroyed when he
goes to work for Alfonse Mitchell, Salamanca’s father and a prominent
face amongst D.C.’s most powerful.
Seduced by the lure of easy money, Ben joins Alfonse’s den of thieves,
only to earn seven years in prison when the burglary ring falls apart. What
he is left with, while his singing group goes on to stardom, and while Salamanca
struggles to raise Ben’s daughter while on the run from her own father,
is his dream of a waiting family just beyond prison’s doors. But the
road to that reality is littered with obstacles. Ben and Salamanca must each
travel different roads to get back to each other, fighting against their own
fears and Alfonse Mitchell, their greatest enemy of all.
"Jasper unleashes a taut, visceral tale of desperation and desire." - Publishers Weekly
Dakota Grand
A young journalist, an aging rapper and the treacherous game that is the music industry. Dakota Grand moved from Atlanta to New York in search of literary stardom. Mirage, one half of the infamous duo, Arbor Day, just wants to keep his career alive. A single interview between them sets the stage for a conflict the business has never seen, where image and ego, love and ambition, push both men to the limits of their own sanity.
"Jasper's sophomore it should be commended for both its differences and similarities to works by forerunners Iceberg Slim and Walter Mosley." - Booklist
Dark
Thai Williams is walking a thin line between two worlds. On one side he has his job as a filing clerk for the Washington, D.C., Department of Public Works, his girlfriend Sierra, and his plans for going to college. But on the other, darker side there are his friends Snowflake and Ray Ray, men who run the neighborhood streets dodging the dangers of the criminal life and its after-effects. But that thin line disappears when Thai walks in on Sierra with another man, whom he eventually kills in a haze of jealousy and confusion. From there Thai finds himself on the run and away from the five-block stretch where he’s lived for all his life. He finds his way to Charlotte, where Enrique, his closest friend of all, has moved in search of a better life. In the course of the week that follows, Thai encounters a series of men and women who show him aspects of life he never dreamed of in his narrow ghetto existence. All of them are looking for answers, but it is Thai who must find his own path out of the dark and into the clear light of moral responsibility and repentance for his actions.
"Jasper's engrossing debut evades stereotype, zeroing in with style and substance on what it takes to not only survive but to thrive as a young black man in the killing streets of the inner city." - Publishers Weekly
Guest Appearances
Truth Be Told: Tales of Life,
Love and Drama (edited by Michael T. Owens)
Morning, Noon and Night: Can't Get Enough (edited by Nancey Flowers)
D.C. Noir (edited by George Pelecanos)
Brown Sugar 4 (edited by Carol Taylor)
Brooklyn Noir (edited by Tim McLoughlin)
What Makes a Man (edited by Rebecca Walker)
Intimacy (edited by Robert Fleming)
After Hours (edited by Robert Fleming)
Kenji on National Public Radio